decketh joy, water destroy

Born to Lebanese and American parents in Sacramento, Ryan Suleiman’s music engages with daydreams, the natural world, and the understated beauty of everyday life through resonant sonorities, lively shifting rhythmic structures, and “impressionistic textures” (SF Classical Voice). While his interests vary, much of his music attempts to make sense of humanity’s place in a world increasingly threatened by ecological collapse, and foster a sense of awe and reverence for it.

Suleiman was three times a Finalist in the ASCAP Young Composer Awards, has received two first prizes from the FeNAM Student Composers Competition, and his music has been performed at several festivals, including SICPP at New England Conservatory, June in Buffalo and the North American New Opera Workshop (Atlanta). He has collaborated on performances and commissions with numerous ensembles, including West Edge Opera, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Calder Quartet, Rogue Music Project, Ensemble Mise-en, Ensemble Dal Niente, Symphony d’Oro, West Edge Opera, Camerata Capistrano, and the Sacramento State Symphony-Orchestra, among many others.

Recent project include two short “sister” operas, an orchestra piece called Burning, and a set of miniatures for string quartet called Thought Bubbles, and a piano concerto (in progress). He is a Ph.D. candidate in Composition/Theory at University of California, Davis.

Of Place and PRESENCE

K. R. Palka (b. 2001) is an LA-based composer and performer (violin/viola/voice) originally from Portland, Oregon, known for being “an eloquent thinker and creator” (PSU Vanguard) whose work is “inquisitive and creative in an unapologetic way” (Oregon ArtsWatch). Palka’s works have been performed throughout the United States and Europe by the Fear No Music Ensemble, Luna Composition Lab, Eugene Symphony, Hillsboro Symphony, Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Opera Omaha’s Holland Community Opera Fellows, members of the Mivos Quartet, pianist David Friend, the Great Noise Ensemble, and fellow students at the Kinhaven Music School and the USC Thornton School of Music. Additionally, Palka has collaborated with poets, visual artists, and dancers. Palka’s composition mentors have included Ryan Francis, Kenji Bunch, Nicolas Scherzinger, and 2019 Pulitzer Prize-winner Ellen Reid. Palka has participated in masterclasses with David Lang, Du Yun, George Lewis, and Gabrielle Herbst. Palka received an Honorable Mention in the 2019 BMI Student Composer Awards.

Palka currently studies with Andrew Norman at the USC Thornton School of Music. This fall, Palka was commissioned by Portland-based string quartet Mousai Remix to write a piece dialoguing with Ethel Smyth’s “March of the Women” in honor of the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th amendment. Currently Palka is working on a piece that will be choreographed by dancers at the USC Kaufman School of Dance for a series of performances in March 2020.

On the Wing

Andrew List composes music in many different genres, including orchestral works, string quartet, vocal, choral music, opera, music for children, solo works, and a variety of chamber ensembles. He is a graduate of New England Conservatory of Music, with B.A. and M.A. degrees in music composition. He received his doctorate in music composition from Boston University, where he studied with Bernard Rands, Samuel Headrick, and Nicholas Maw.

Selected premieres and performances for the 2018-20 seasons include: The Emerald Necklace commissioned by The Boston Symphony Orchestra, A Walt Whitman Triptych commissioned by The Poulenc Trio, The Devil’s Last Challenge commissioned by Zodiac Trio as a sequel to Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat during their 100th anniversary tour of this monumental work, The Signs of Our Time a musical satire on political corruption in our world premiered by loadbang From The Heart of Ra for viola and piano commissioned by violist Leslie Perna, Fantasy for Tenor Saxophone and Bass Clarinet commissioned by Duo Hevans, Fantasy Variations commissioned by Concordia String Trio, Night Wanderings for Clarinet and Percussion Ensemble performed by clarinetist Kliment Krylovskiy and String Quartet no 6 “Song of The Angel “commissioned by Esterhazy Quartet in celebration of their 50th anniversary.

Amazônia

Brazilian pianist and composer Catarina Domenici is recognized as a leading performer of new music in Brazil. For over two decades she has collaborated with several composers in recordings and premieres at contemporary music festivals and concerts in Brazil, Europe, the USA, and Central America. Her recordings have received prizes from the São Paulo Art Critics Association and she was twice the recipient of the Açorianos Prize for best instrumentalist.

As a composer, she was recently featured in the Donne: Women in Music project. The first recordings of her songs in the CD Homage: Women composers from Brazil and Italy were enthusiastically received by one of the most prominent music critics in Brazil who wrote “both [the songs] are impactful”, and “[Catarina’s music] has the courage to commit to social change and demonstrates that contemporary music is able to speak to broader audiences”. She holds a Master and a Doctoral degree in Music Performance from the Eastman School of Music, where she was awarded the prestigious Performer’s Certificate and the Lizzie Teege Mason Award.

She was twice the recipient of a full scholarship from the Brazilian Government Agency CNPq, and was a post-doctoral fellow at the University at Buffalo. Domenici is a Full Professor at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil. In the US she has served on the faculty of the Chautauqua Music Festival, Eastman Community Music School, University at Buffalo, Nazareth College, and the Finger Lakes Community College.