Composers

Mario Oyanadel is a Chilean composer holding a B.A. in Composition from the University of Chile. His work is shaped by a diverse catalog that includes solo and ensemble chamber music, orchestral works, interdisciplinary pieces, scenic music, and performance. He has participated in various festivals including the Thailand Contemporary Music Festival, the Alba Rosa Viva! Festival, the University of Chili Contemporary Music Festival, among others. He has also received numerous international and national awards such as 1st place in the “Composition Contest Luis Advis 2017,” Chile.

Praised by The New York Times for having "traversed the palette of emotions" with "gorgeous tone and an edge of-seat intensity" and described by Diario de Menorca as an "ideal performer" that offers "elegance, displayed virtuosity, and great expressive power," Spanish-born cellist and composer Andrea Casarrubios has played as a soloist and chamber musician throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas. First Prize winner of numerous international competitions and awards, Casarrubios has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Piatigorsky, Ravinia, and Verbier Festivals.

Featured in the Los Angeles Times in 2021, Giovanni Piacentini is a composer, performer, educator, and advocate for the music of others. Recently praised as “paying homage to the important cultural heritage of music in the west” by Forbes magazine, his original music has been described as “able to encapsulate tiny, winsome worlds as if passing through a gallery of paintings” (Winnipeg Free Press), and as “stunningly beautiful with accessible compositional language”(The Clarinet Magazine). Piacentini has established himself as a significant voice in Latin American classical music.

Brian Latchem is an English composer who was born in Bath and started to learn the piano at the age of 5. He comes from a musical family with both parents, grandparents, and great grandparents playing a variety of musical instruments. He trained to be a music teacher and started his career in Felixstowe, where he taught Music and Drama to pupils aged 11 to 14. In 1972 he moved to a new school to become responsible for music, teaching children from 5 to 11.

James Shrader is a composer, conductor, author, and retired academic administrator. He holds degrees from Bradley University (Music Education), The Cleveland Institute of Music (Opera Direction), and Texas Tech University (Fine Arts/Conducting). He was Director of Music and Fine Arts at The First Baptist Church of Greater Cleveland, Associate Director of Choral Activities at Texas Tech and Oklahoma State Universities, Chair of the Music Department and Director of Choral and Opera Studies at Northwestern Oklahoma State University, and Head of the Department of Music at Valdosta State University. He was Chorus Master for Tulsa Opera where he prepared nine productions.

A great artist can manifest answers to otherwise perplexing aspects of our world through their craft and help us find understanding. Composer, author, and long-time PARMA artist Michael G. Cunningham (1937-2022) was the embodiment of this truth, a prolific artist whose timeless body of work will resonate for years to come. From symphonies and other orchestral works to piano pieces, art songs, opera, choral compositions, and works for jazz ensembles spanning 11 Navona Records releases, Cunningham showed an unwavering dedication to sharing his music with the world. Upon receiving his doctorate from Indiana University, Cunningham embarked on an artistic journey that would lead him to write over 250 musical compositions spanning multiple genres, pedagogical music books, and more.

Kim Diehnelt (b. 1963) is compelled to create beauty through her work as a conductor, composer, and artistic coach. Trained in the United States and Europe, Kim Diehnelt established her musical crafts in Finland and Switzerland, leading Baltic, Russian, and European ensembles. Trained in the United States and Europe, Kim Diehnelt established her musical crafts in Finland and Switzerland, leading Baltic, Russian, and European ensembles. She currently resides in Burlington VT. Diehnelt has been composing works for solo instruments, chamber, orchestral and choral ensembles since 2011 when, after decades on the conductor’s podium, she “suddenly had something to say.”

Born in Hollywood CA on April 26, 1941, American classical composer John Mitchell has written works for solo piano and organ, choral music, chamber music, operas, and more than 400 art songs over the course of his life. Mitchell comes from an artistic family, his father being pianist John Stewart Mitchell, and Canadian novelist W. O. Mitchell and Hungarian-born singer Teresa Hideg Mitchell, his cousins. Mitchell studied composition under the guidance of Dr. John Vincent, the successor of Arnold Schoenberg as professor of composition at the University of California, Los Angeles until 1965. From there, he went on to work as a church music director, organist, opera coach, and composer, all of which he continues.

Daniel (Dan) Powers found his way into music by way of an early love of newspaper comic strips. When he noticed that a character in a highly popular strip kept mentioning someone named Beethoven, he had to ask his parents who Beethoven was. After correcting his pronunciation, they explained who Beethoven was and what he did, and for some reason he decided he wanted to do that too.

David R. Peoples writes with a ginger ale in hand on a balcony surrounded by forest. It’s from Flowery Branch GA, surrounded by nature, that all his compositions begin before being released into and around the world. Peoples enjoys sharing his own and other composers’ new music in recitals. From April 2021 to May 2022, he presented recitals featuring over 100 composers in all 50 states through the National Association of Composers, Music Teachers National Association, Research on Contemporary Composition Conference, and Electrophonic Concerts.

Paul Kopetz is an award-winning composer and a multi-instrumentalist, arranger, conductor, and teacher. He is a graduate of The University of Melbourne, The Victorian College of the Arts, The Rotterdam Conservatorium, and Monash University. His works have been performed in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Australia. Kopetz’s music has been described as “a highly emotive and colorful mix of polystylistic soundscapes where Contemporary Classical forms provide a flexible springboard for personal journeys of reflection, social commentary, explorations of the natural world and above all artistic integrity.”

Gary Smart’s career has encompassed a wide range of activities as composer, classical and jazz pianist, and teacher. Always a musician with varied interests, he may be the only pianist to have studied with Yale scholar/keyboardist Ralph Kirkpatrick, the great Cuban virtuoso Jorge Bolet, and the master jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. A true American pluralist, Smart composes and improvises music that reflects an abiding interest in Americana, jazz, and world music, as well as the Western classical tradition.

Ahmed Alabaca is an African American composer, conductor, songwriter, pianist, and community facilitator creating power and possibility, through music, for himself and the diverse communities he is a part of. Raised in San Bernardino CA, in a low-income community, Alabaca knows the value of hard work and perseverance in the face of systemic and interpersonal challenges. Alabaca’s vision is “a new renaissance” for underrepresented composers, which centers on the works of people of color and creates opportunities for them to perform, record, and archive their work.

Randy Bauer's works have been performed across the United States and Europe by members of the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, the Brentano String Quartet, eighth blackbird, Nash Ensemble of London, Zeitgeist, and many others, and has been broadcast on WFMT Chicago and Minnesota Public Radio. He has been a McKnight Foundation Fellow, and a resident artist at Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and Princeton University, and is on the faculty of Macalester College in St. Paul MN.

William Toutant was born in Worcester MA. He received his B.A. and M.A. from George Washington University and his Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Michigan State University. He joined the music faculty of California State University, Northridge in 1975. During the next 38 years he not only taught in the Department of Music, but he also served in a variety of administrative positions including Dean of the Mike Curb College of Arts, Media, and Communication.

Michael M. Lee is a composer and teacher with a background in composition, theory, post-tonal analysis, and musicianship, and is a graduate of the U.S.C. Thornton School of Music (D.M.A.), Juilliard (M.M.), and Eastman (B.M.). Born in Atlanta GA, and raised in Maryland, he was first introduced to classical music through the trumpet. He can play the piano and took several private lessons in classical guitar at the Peabody Institute in Maryland before starting his bachelor's degree in composition. His music can be heard on Spotify and Apple Music and purchased on iTunes, Naxos, or Amazon. He is currently residing and teaching in Southern California.

Keith Kramer is a composer of over 40 works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments and electronic media. Keith Kramer's music is at times subtle and restrained, and other times ferocious and demanding. Always searching for new modes of expression, each piece that Keith composes represents another facet of a continuous journey of discovery. Keith’s music has also been performed and recorded by the Slovak National Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, David Taylor, Leonard Garrison and many others.

Timothy Kramer’s music reflects his fascination with motivic patterns, cyclical relationships, and musical gestures that unfold in a variety of changing speeds and textures. Originally from Washington State, Kramer (b. 1959) began playing the piano at an early age, and, although trained as a pianist, organist, and harpsichordist, he spent many years as a youth playing bass guitar in jazz and rock ensembles. His music reflects this influence, and he sometimes integrates various aspects of American popular music into his pieces.

Malcolm Dedman was born in London, England, on November 3, 1948. Fascinated at an early age by his mother’s piano playing, she taught him to play when he was around 5 years of age. Once Dedman had a basic understanding, he found himself improvising alongside his regular practice. By the age of 12, he realized that he wanted to write some of these ideas down, so this became the starting point to his career as a composer.

Robyn Jacob is a pianist, singer, composer and educator who lives and works on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Xʷməθkʷəy̓əm and Səl’il’wətaʔ Nations, also known as Vancouver. She has toured Canada and internationally with her avant-pop project Only A Visitor, who have released four albums to date, recently signing on with Mint Records. Her recent composition projects include commissions by Third Coast Percussion, So Percussion, Chor Leoni, Re:Naissance Opera, and Little Chamber Music. Her work often explores writing for unusual ensembles, as well as collaborations with visual artists and instrument makers.