MONDRIANA VILLEGAS
Mondriana Villegas was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York. She took up playing the clarinet and composition at nine years old. Mondriana has played the clarinet through middle and high school in various ensembles, including her high school’s concert band and All City Concert Band. She was a part of the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composer’s program for three years, and interned in 2019. She’s also worked as a private clarinet instructor for two years. Mondriana has received commissions from music institutions, including a commission from Opera Italiana and from the Little Orchestra Society. She has a background in teaching and working with children, as well as a background in reading and writing music, performance, and foundational piano skills. She is currently a freshman at SUNY Purchase for her Bachelor’s in classical composition. Her flute solo piece was premiered in December.
VINCENT FARNSWORTH
My name is Vincent Farnsworth. I am an American musician and poet based in Prague, Czech Republic. The best way to introduce myself and my music would be in the context of outsider art. I am a self-taught musician and noisician, if you will. When I was a child, I experimented with the scant resources available to me as one of ten children in a military family, resources like an old reel-to-reel tape recorder. I remember when I discovered feedback, the wailing sound when one of those telephone pickup devices with a suction cup on it was placed on the speaker of the radio being used as an amplifier.
In college I focused on writing and literature, getting a multidisciplinary degree in Creative Arts. When I moved to Europe, I started a monstercore band called Blaq Mummy and an electronic music project called Pazvuky (“Unsound”) as composer, vocalist and thereminist, using analog synthesizers such as the EMS Synthi AKS. The band had many performances throughout Prague and the Czech Republic; we also played in Berlin, Germany, opened for the Native American band Blackfire, and were featured at the Ars Poetica festival in Slovakia. During that time I was also heavily involved in literature, participating in many literary festivals. A book of my poetry, Theremin, was published by Litteraria Pragensia.
It was very recently that I ventured into formal composition, during the pandemic. Using and adapting the concepts and techniques of found art, of randomness in source material, and of minimalism in structure, I started composing works ranging from electronica to classical ensemble pieces -- short, sparse pieces for piano; longer, more involved compositions for large ensembles; atmospheric, somewhat ambient creations for both electronics and classical instrumentation.
TIMUR BAYMUKHAMEDOV
My name is Baymukhamedov Timur. I was born on January 02, 1997 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. I studied at the 21st music school for 6 years. From 2012 till 2015 I studied saxophone at Academic lyceum under the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan. From 2015 till 2019 I studied composition at the State Conservatory of Uzbekistan.
From 2019 till the present I have been working at the State Philharmonic Society of Uzbekistan.
ANDERSEN VIANA
Andersen Viana is a composer and professor at Fundação Clóvis Salgado (www.fcs.mg.gov.br) in Belo Horizonte-Brazil. He began composing at the age of 13 and became a professor at the age of 19. Subsequently, he completed Ph.D. studies in composition at the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA) and furthered his studies at other institutions in Brazil, Italy, and Sweden such as the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, Reale Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, Arts Academy of Rome, Accademia Chigiana di Siena and the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. He has written 419 music works for almost the instrumental and vocal ensembles and received 34 composition awards in Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Ukraine, and the USA. Up to the present he has composed 419 pieces for chamber and full orchestra, choir, and various ensembles as well as music for electronic instruments. He has also organized and conducted/directed various vocal and instrumental ensembles such as: Orquestra Experimental (1983), Septheto Rio (1986), Coro Pedagógico da FEBEM (1991), Coro do Centro de Estudos da Embaixada do Brasil em Roma (1993), Coro da Cultura Inglesa BH (1994), Trio Barroco (1994), Orchestra Virtual (1995), Estocolmo Nonet (1996), The Duo (1997), Coro da SMRU, Camerata Primavera (2003), A Cigarra e a Orquestra (2006–2008), the Coral IOCHPE MAXION (2009) and the Coral Sebastião Vianna (2014).
DANIEL IBORRA
Daniel Iborra Pellín was born in Alicante (Spain) in 1981.
He obtained the title of Professor of Piano and Instrumentist from the Higher Conservatory of Music Óscar Esplá of that city (2000), and the diploma of Music Education Teacher at the University of Alicante (2003). He also has elementary studies of violin, jazz and conduction.
Now is studying in the Composition School of Ferrer Ferran, but he has received lessons of Óscar Navarro, José Alberto Pina or Saül Gómez.
With his first work as a composer, "The Moorish Expulsion” (2020), he has obtained the Audience Award in the “IV Composition Competition for dulzaina and piano of Ondara” (2020), where he was also a Finalist.
Currently he combines his teaching work in a primary school with composition and playing as a soloist with wind or string local bands.
In addition, he has several international publications on archaeoastronomy, a scientific field to which he also dedicates his free time.
Pan is his fifth composition, and it is dedicated to his daughter Aitana, a young flute player.
DANIEL ESTRADA
Daniel Estrada is a multi-instrumentalist and composer born and raised in El Salvador. He is currently studying music composition at International Florida University under the mentorship of Dr. Orlando Jacinto Garcia.
ETHAN GURWITZ
Ethan Gurwitz (b. 2000) is a composer from San Antonio, Texas, and currently lives in Dallas, Texas, attending SMU. His mother is a band director and teaches flute lessons, so he was exposed to music very early. He began piano lessons when he was six years old and started French horn in sixth grade. Ethan first became interested in composition when his mother bought Finale on a family computer to arrange pieces for her band in 2015. Years later, he decided he wanted to study composition full time. As a senior undergraduate student, he double-majors in Music Composition and Applied Mathematics. In the past few years, his music has been performed by collegiate and professional ensembles from Dallas to Scotland, and he has accepted commissions from the Dallas Metropolitan Winds, Horns United, and esteemed Bass Trombonist Ron Wilkins, among others. With his composition, Concerto for Bass Trombone, Three Scenes from Metropolis, he was selected for the 2021 International Trombone Festival Composers Workshop and was a finalist for the 2021 ASCAP Morton Gould Composition Contest. Additionally, he won the 2021 Alpha Chi Edwin W. Gaston, Jr. National Scholarship with his composition, When the Last Kaua’i O’o’ Sang. He also placed third in the 2019 MOMP International Composition Contest, and has received recognition in multiple other contests. Ethan currently studies composition under Dr. Lane Harder. As a college student, Ethan participates in Mustang Band, Meadows Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra, and the French horn studio of Mr. Alexander Kienle. Ethan practices veganism, and when he’s not in class, he enjoys playing chess and piano.
BRYAN ENGLISH
Dr. Bryan English is the conductor/arranger for Kraig Parker’s Symphonic Tribute to Elvis, the Studio B Orchestra, the Avant Chamber Ballet, the conductor of symphony shows featuring Brian Duprey (Symphonic Sinatra, Christmas with Sinatra, Symphony of Kings), Dave Alexander (The Spirit of the West), Elizabeth Montgomery, (Fill Your Heart with Christmas), and he has appeared as guest conductor/music director for the Detroit Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Phoenix Symphony, the Yakima Symphony, the Mississippi Symphony, the Missouri Symphony, the Toledo Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Northeast Orchestra, the DFW Pops, the Human Rights Campaign Orchestra, and the Fort Worth Symphony. He holds degrees from Texas Christian University and the University of North Texas, where he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree.
His performing credits include The Roots, QuestLove, Willie Nelson, Erykah Badu, Maria Schneider, Wyclef Jean, Tim Ries, Robert Glasper, Chaka Khan, Chris Brubeck, The Blues Brothers’ “Blue Lou” Marini & Tom “Bones” Malone, Clay Jenkins, Shelley Carrol, Brad Leali, Dave Alexander, Dallas Wind Symphony, Texas Wind Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Plano Symphony, San Angelo Symphony. He also composes & produces soundtracks for the Starz Television Network’s award-winning series How It Should Have Ended. Dr. English is also the music director of the Tarrant County Orchestra and American Family Concerts, a 501(c)(3) concert series which offers symphonic pops concerts to cities across the country each year. Several shows feature entertainers from Broadway, Las Vegas headliners, and performers from George Strait, Adele, Garth Brooks, Ray Price, Tracy Byrd, Willie Nelson, and many other talented artists.