Artists

John Biggs was born in Los Angeles in 1932. His father was organist/composer Richard Keys Biggs, and his mother was singer Lucienne Gourdon. During his youth he received training in acting, singing, piano, bassoon, and violin, and was a member of his father’s church choir.

John G. Bilotta was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but has spent most his life in the San Francisco Bay Area having attended the University of California at Berkeley and, later, the San Francisco Music and Arts Institute where he studied composition with Frederick Saunders.

Praised for her “beautifully full and lyrically strong tone” by Gramophone Magazine, Meredith Blecha-Wells is a sought-after performer and instructor. She has played throughout much of the United States, as well as Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia. Currently based in Oklahoma City, Blecha-Wells performs regularly with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble.

Karl Blench is a composer and conductor who holds bachelor’s degrees in education and music theory from the University of New Hampshire, and a Master’s degree and DMA in composition from Rice University. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Cuba. Recent engagements include performances of his works by the Shepherd School Chamber Symphony, the h2 Saxophone Quartet, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the University of New Hampshire and University of Houston Wind Ensembles.

Iowa-born composer Marilyn Bliss has written many widely performed orchestral, chamber, and solo works. She received her B.M. degree in composition, flute, and voice at Coe College in Cedar Rapids IA, and did her graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the City University of New York. Her composition teachers included such distinguished composers as George Crumb, George Rochberg, Jacob Druckman, Jerry Owen, and Harvey Sollberger. 

Steven D. Block was born in New York City on November 5, 1952. He is currently Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley after having served as Chair of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico for 17 years.

Raymond Bokhour is a composer, actor, and playwright. He has composed for over 70 theatrical productions over 30 years, with 10 years as Resident Composer for Albany's Actors Shakespeare Company. He composed for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Company's productions of Winter's Tale, Much Ado, and Twelfth Night.

A native of Manitowoc, WI - distinguished composer and pianist Allen Bonde is Professor Emeritus of Music at Mount Holyoke College. A graduate of Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, he has both the Master of Music and (the first) Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Catholic University of America. He has received many awards, honors, and commissions, notably a Festival Casals Scholarship, a Yale Graduate Fellowship, an American Composers Project, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and was recognized for his outstanding contributions in music with Alumni Achievement Awards from Lawrence University and Catholic University.

Corrina Bonshek (b. 1977) is an Australian composer who is inspired by sounds and patterns in nature and our cosmic existence. Her music has been described as “beautifully shaped and contemplative” (Clare MacClean, 2013), “deeply spiritual in intent” (Anne Boyd, 2002), and “connected to the essence of South-East Asian music – timelessness” (Chinary Ung, 2014).

Roger Bourland (b. December 13, 1952, Evanston IL) received his education from the University of Wisconsin/Madison (B.Mus.),the New England Conservatory of Music (M.M.), and Harvard University (A.M., Ph.D.). His teachers have included Leon Kirchner, Gunther Schuller, Donald Martino, John Harbison, and Randall Thompson. He received the Koussevitzky Prize in Composition at Tanglewood, the John Knowles Paine Fellowship at Harvard, two ASCAP Grants to Young Composers, numerous Meet the Composers grants, and was a co-founder of the Boston-based consortium Composers in Red Sneakers.

Greg Bowers is active as a composer, performer, and director in a variety of genres. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the College of William and Mary. His creative work includes concert music, musical theater, multimedia, and performance art and he is currently pursuing research in film music cognition and other forms of interdisciplinary art.

Thomas Bowes is one of the United Kingdom’s finest violinists. He is very active in the realm of cinema, and millions have heard him on the soundtracks of his 200+ film credits. Most recently he was featured as the solo violinist in Alexandre Desplat’s score for Guillermo del Toro’s award-winning stop-motion film Pinocchio.

Since retiring from a full-time career in higher education in July 2021, Don Bowyer (b. 1958) continues to be active internationally, currently as a Visiting Professor in the College of Music at the University of the Philippines. Bowyer's pursuits include composing and performing, presenting master classes and recitals, and serving as a consultant on matters from accreditation to curricular development to higher ed administration. His last full-time position was as Professor of Music and Dean of the School of Arts at Sunway University (Malaysia), having previously served as Dean of the College of Fine Arts at Arkansas State University and Chair of the Department of Music at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Bowyer has taught at every level from pre-kindergarten through doctoral programmes in the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Sweden, Malaysia, and the Philippines.

GRAMMY-nominated composer Hayg Boyadjian was born in 1938 in Paris, France. At an early age he immigrated with his family to Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he started his musical studies at the Liszt Conservatory. In 1958 he immigrated to the United States, and presently lives in Lexington MA. He continued his musical studies as a special student first at the New England Conservatory and later at Brandeis University. Among his teachers were Beatriz Balzi (student of Alberto Ginastera, with whom Boyadjian had several consulting meetings), Seymour Shifrin, Alvin Lucier, and Edward Cohen.

An active soloist and chamber musician, American pianist Kate Boyd has performed solo recitals at Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Schubert’s birth house in Vienna, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Musikhalle Hamburg, in addition to many places throughout the US, Greece, Ireland and Canada. As a faculty member at Butler University, she has appeared as a soloist with each of the University’s large ensembles in performances ranging from Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy to Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

Michael Boyd (b. 1978, Montgomery County MD) is a composer, scholar and experimental improviser who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. His music, performed throughout the United States, attempts to (re)integrate performers into the creative process of music making through graphic notation and embraces experimental practices such as live electronics, improvisation, installation, multimedia and performance art.

Benjamin C.S. Boyle is an American composer, pianist, and theorist. His works have been commissioned and premiered by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Lyric Opera, Montreal Chamber Orchestra, the Kobe City Orchestra, the Crossing Choir, Lyric Fest, and many others. The Crossing Choir’s recording of his Cantata No. 2: Voyages was nominated for a GRAMMY in 2020 for Best Choral Performance. In 2008, at the piano, he gave the U.S. premiere of his Sonata-Fantasy with violinist Tim Fain at the Kennedy Center in Washington and Merkin Hall in New York. In 2005, Bacchanalia Orchestra premiered the Cantata No.1: To One in Paradise for string orchestra and four vocal soloists in New York. He was composer-in-residence with Young Concert Artists from 2005-2007 and received representation from them for many years.

Shudong Braamse has appeared on stages in Canada, Italy, Austria, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Latvia, Singapore, Taiwan, and China. She has premiered a number of vocal works, including Gary Nash’s cycle Peace, Love and Prosperity premiered in Nashville in 2010, and Michael Bulychev-Okser’s Spanish art song Romance de la Luna premiered in 2014 in Tallinn, Estonia.

Lee Bradshaw is a Melbourne-born Australian composer, who’s music reveals an explicit and emotionally-charged truth. His works exhibit a profound intimacy with the craft of composition, compelling the performer to delve deeply into their own artistic and creative reservoirs. His sensuous yet muscular writing redefines the possibilities of expression for the modern musician, whilst the music — rare, uncompromising and arresting in its beauty — offers solace to the listener.

Called “enchanting” by the Boston Globe, flutist Sarah Brady is sought after across the country as a soloist, chamber musician, and master teacher. An avid promoter of new music, she has premiered and recorded new music from many of today’s top composers. Recent projects have included premieres of new solo flute and electronic music from Elena Ruehr, Andy Vores, Marti Epstein, Reinaldo Moya and John Mallia, and Curtis Hughes, as well as music for flute and strings from Marcos Balter, Nicholas Vines, and Johnathan Bailey Holland. Her solo, chamber, and over 50 orchestral recordings can be heard on the Albany, Naxos, Oxingale, Cantaloupe and BMOP/Sound music labels. As a leading interpreter of contemporary music, she was invited to read and record new music commissioned by Yo Yo Ma for his Silk Road Project at Tanglewood.