Chris Castro is a composer and double bassist from Brooklyn, New York. His music has been described as “on par with Varèse,” giving him the nickname “The New Colossus of Sound.” He is a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2021 Classical Commissioning Award. His new work, Canções dos Desassossego (Songs of Disquiet), will be written for the Lyris Quartet and soprano Sharon Harms and premiered in 2023. His music has been performed by Sharon Harms and the Composers Conference Ensemble under James Baker (Two Songs from Brooklyn Narcissus), the St. Louis Symphony under David Robertson (Choruses III), pianists Sarah Cahill and Eric Zivian (IV-I), piano duo HereNowHear (Beethausenstro - Castockhoven) and the Lydian String Quartet (Choruses IV). He is the 2022 Guest Composer for the James Tenney Memorial Symposium, composing and collaborating with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. He has lectured at UC Davis and Sacramento State University and is currently faculty at Chapman University in California. He has a Ph.D. in composition and theory from UC Davis and a bachelor’s in music from the Juilliard School in both double bass and composition. 

Phil Acimovic is a composer and gamelan musician in Easthampton, MA. He writes quiet, austere music for solo and chamber ensembles. In 2018 he served as Artist-In-Residence at the Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in VT. Acimovic’s music taps into abstract emotional states, the quiet corners of the mind that are obstructed in our hyperactive world. His most recent project is a set of solo instrumental works inspired by abstract visual artists and complementing the disquietude of the Covid pandemic. His works have been performed by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, the Empyrean Ensemble, the St.