Ryan Suleiman was born to Lebanese and Mid-Western parents in California. His music engages with dreaming, the natural world, and the understated beauty of everyday life. His one-act chamber opera, Moon, Bride, Dogs, was described by the San Francisco Chronicle as “a gem” with “an aesthetic that is at once so strange and so accessible.” While his artistic interests vary, he seeks ways of conveying the simultaneity of beauty and dread that characterizes our times.

Matilda Hofman has a varied and busy conducting schedule. Reviewers have described her conducting as “taut and finely controlled” and giving “a striking sense of purpose.” She is Music Director of the Diablo Symphony Orchestra, conductor-in-residence for the Empyrean Ensemble at UC Davis and Artistic Director of the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. Matilda also serves as a cover conductor for the San Francisco Symphony.