Orkun Akyol (b. 1992) is a PhD student in composition
and theory at UC Davis. Currently he studies with Laurie San
Martin. He holds a master’s degree in composition from Istanbul
Technical University, Center for Advanced Studies in Music
(MIAM), during which he studied with Jeremy Woodruff, Pieter
Snapper and Reuben de Lautour. Orkun’s latest interests are jazz
music and computational creativity. His music writing is
nourished from his diverse experiences as a jazz pianist and as
an industrial engineer with a bachelor’s degree from Bogazici
University.
Alejandro Arreola is a composer and guitarist
born and raised in the Bay Area. He has studied composition with
A.J. McCaffrey, Liviu Marinescu, Sean Friar, and is currently
studying with Laurie San Martin. His music explores evocation
through various subjects including poetry, sociopolitical
movements, and personal accounts. Alejandro is now pursuing a PhD
in theory and composition at UC Davis.
Dean Kervin Boursiquot, born in 1986, is a
first-generation Haitian-American, and New York native. The
guitar, film music, and music from the twentieth century sparked
his interest in music composition. While in New York, he received
his bachelor’s degree in composition at Mannes College the New
School for Music. Notable awards include: Vox Novus
Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame: Parhelion Trio 2012, Peter Gross grant
2010, Mannes Orchestra Competition 2009, CRICE
(composer-in-residence Chamber-Ensemble) commission and second
place Jean Schneider Goberman Prize 2009.
Berklee College of MusicCalifornia State University, Northridge, Master's in composition
Peter Chatterjee is a Bay Area-based composer,
arranger, and conductor. He began studying composition at Berklee
College of Music, where his primary mentors were Dr. Marti
Epstein, Dr. Panagiotis Liaropoulos, Bob Pilkington, Ayn Inserto,
and Greg Hopkins. At Berklee, he focused on jazz composition,
film scoring, and conducting. He holds a bachelor of music
in jazz composition and film scoring, and graduated summa cum
laude. Peter earned his master’s degree in composition with
distinction at California State University, Northridge, where he
studied with Dr.
Paul Engle has been struggling to tune a guitar to satiety since
the age of 13. He has completed music programs at Los Angeles
City College and CalArts (BFA Composition and Experimental Sound
Practices). He currently attends UC Davis as a graduate student,
studies shakuhachi with Kakizakai Kaoru, and writes his own bios
in third person.
Max Gibson is a British-Irish composer, sound artist, performer,
writer, and educator, splitting his time between Birmingham, UK,
and Northern California. His works have been performed and
presented internationally in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada,
France, Slovenia, Sweden, Turkey, the USA, and across the UK.
His teachers and mentors have included Rolf Hind, Antoine Beuger,
Ron Kuivila, Paula Matthusen, Howard Skempton, Michael Zev
Gordon, Scott Wilson, Daria Kwiatkowska, and Michael Finnissy,
among others.
Jacob Lane is a composer, pianist, and educator
who lives in Davis, California. He is the pianist for the chamber
group Sl(e)ight
Ensemble and has been a member of The Music Teachers’
Association of California since 2015. In addition to his private
studio, Jacob teaches piano performance and music theory at New
World Music Academy in Pleasanton, California. Jacob holds
degrees in music performance from Mills College (Oakland,
California), and Northern Vermont State University (Johnson,
Vermont).
James R. Larkins (b. 1999) is a composer and
cellist from North Carolina whose music explores the space
between structural precision and musical spontaneity. He holds a
bachelor’s degree in music and chemistry from the University
of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he studied composition
under Allen Anderson, Stephen Anderson, and Lee Weisert, and
studied cello under Brent Wissick.
Joseph Martin is a British composer, performer and teacher based
in Davis, California, currently studying in the PhD program in
composition at UC Davis. He holds degrees from Cardiff University
and the University of Cambridge, and his teachers and mentors
include Jeremy Thurlow, Richard Causton, Robert Fokkens, Pedro
Faria Gomes and Daniel Bickerton. He has also studied piano
performance with Hilary Osmond and Christopher Williams.
B.A. Music: Skidmore College M.M. Music Composition: Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Colin Minigan (b.1994) is a Massachusetts-born composer whose
recent music is concerned with natural phenomena, and the
relationship between static and fluid elements of musical
composition and performance. In addition to composition Colin
spent time studying ethnomusicology and uses this perspective to
inform his compositions. Colin has frequently collaborated on
dance projects with performances throughout the United States and
is an administrator and curator of the Xsection Film Festival, a
festival aimed at promoting interdisciplinary collaboration
between dance, science, and film.
M.A., University of California Santa CruzB.M., San Francisco State University
Bryndan Moondy is a composer and guitarist rooted in Northern
California. Bryndan’s creative practice seeks to engage the
substance and materiality of sound and is driven by a fascination
with the meanings we construct for ourselves through listening
and engagement with[in] sound spaces. His work frequently draws
influence from the natural world and other mediums within the
visual and literary arts. Bryndan has received degrees from
San Francisco State University and UC Santa Cruz. He is
currently pursuing a PhD in composition and theory at UC Davis.
Joseph Donald Peterson is a violist, composer,
and woodworker based in Northern California. He received his
bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, where he studied
viola with Samuel Rhodes and composition with Justin Dello Joio;
additional mentors include music theorist Steven Laitz and
violist Roger Tapping.
Zoë A. Wallace (b. 1994) is a composer and guitarist currently
based in Northern California. She has performed in concerts
throughout the country and has had pieces performed by such
groups as KAIA String Quartet, Fulcrum Point New Music Project,
and the Fifth Wave Collective, as well as having been featured in
festivals such as the Hot Air Music Festival and the 21st
Century Guitar Conference.
Guang Yang’s current focus is on the intersection of diverse art
forms, focusing on how they shape perceptions of time, motion,
and beauty. Trained in Chinese calligraphy from a young age, he
later pursued music and philosophy, integrating these influences
into his compositions. He has studied with Lera Auerbach, George
Tsontakis, and Joshua Fineberg, and is currently mentored by
Professor Mika Pelo.
Berklee College of MusicCalifornia State University, Northridge, Master's in composition
Peter Chatterjee is a Bay Area-based composer,
arranger, and conductor. He began studying composition at Berklee
College of Music, where his primary mentors were Dr. Marti
Epstein, Dr. Panagiotis Liaropoulos, Bob Pilkington, Ayn Inserto,
and Greg Hopkins. At Berklee, he focused on jazz composition,
film scoring, and conducting. He holds a bachelor of music
in jazz composition and film scoring, and graduated summa cum
laude. Peter earned his master’s degree in composition with
distinction at California State University, Northridge, where he
studied with Dr.
B.A. Music, Musicology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
Ana María Díaz-Pinto is a PhD student in
ethnomusicology. She is originally from Rancagua, Chile, and
received her bachelor’s degree in music, with a major in
musicology, from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in
2020. During her undergraduate experience, she developed a
particular interest in dance and movement, performance and
ethnography theory, and Latin American youth culture.
Mark Feng is a Ph.D. candidate in
ethnomusicology. He holds two MAs in ethnomusicology and
musicology from the University of California, Davis and the
Taipei National University of Arts. Mark is a trans-Pacific,
activist ethnomusicologist, and his study at UC Davis was
sponsored by the Taiwan Ministry of Education. Mark’s
dissertation examines the intertwinement of whiteness and Han
Taiwanese ethnic hegemony through the music and embodiment of
Taiwanese heavy metal. He conducts musical ethnographic fieldwork
in three major Taiwanese cities, Taipei, Taichung, and Takao.
Ko-Hua Hung is an ethnomusicology PhD student at the University
of California, Davis in her first year. She received her master’s
degree in Musicology from National Taiwan University in 2018
where she studied with Professor Yamauchi Fumitaka.
Julius “Vodzi” Torgboh is a PhD student in
Ethnomusicology. He was raised in an exceptionally rich culture
of music in the community of Dzogadze, Volta Region, Ghana, where
he plays a key role as an indigenous knowledge keeper, music
director, performer, ordained talking drum player
(Atsrima) in Avenor traditional chiefdom, and
Hunua (traditional spiritual leader).
B.M. Music Education, Arizona State UniversityM.A. Ethnomusicology, Arizona State University
Alex Rossi is a Ph.D. student in ethnomusicology at UC Davis. His
interdisciplinary research focuses on the intersection of music
cognition and ethnomusicology, while also drawing from his
background as a certified music educator. Alex’s prior and
current work include research on music-motor synchronization in
Afro-Brazilian capoeira and Indonesian gamelan, and song-mode
matching in historical recordings of capoeira mestres.
Jennifer Sherrill has been a musician and teacher in the Chicago
region for the past twenty years. She holds a bachelor’s and a
master’s in vocal performance and vocal pedagogy from Northern
Illinois University and North Park University. She has served as
cantor and youth choir director for Saint Gregory the Great on
the north side of Chicago and has introduced countless young
students to the joys of piano, ukulele, and singing.
Sun Ny Vang (Moob Leeg) [Blue HMong], born
and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota; parents are
from Sainyabuli Province, Laos.
M.A., Music (Ethnomusicology), University of
California, Davis, 2020. B.A., Music Education (K–12 Vocal and
General Music), The College of St. Scholastica, 2018.
BMus with Honours, MSt: Musicology (Master’s in Studies)
Mariana Da Silva Gabriel (She/Her) is a
musicology PhD student at the University of California, Davis.
Originally from Portugal, Mariana moved to the United Kingdom at
the age of six. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cardiff
University and her master’s from the University of Oxford. Her
research interests are in the interplay between music and
politics under authoritarian regimes, and music-making as a
societal response to those regimes.
Virginia Jansen is a PhD student
in Historical Musicology at the University
of California, Davis. She graduated from Boston University
with a Bachelor of Arts in Music concentrating in Historical
Musicology, with a minor in African American Studies, in 2024.
While there, she completed a research project on the influence of
enslaved African Spirituals on Florence Price’s chamber
music and earned the Alice M. Brennan Humanities Award and the
Provost Scholars award.
Anushka Kulkarni is a Ph.D. candidate in
musicology at the University of California, Davis. Her research
examines British-Indian colonial encounter as mediated through
the musical-dramatic stage and explores topics spanning from
eighteenth-century opera seria to Bengali gitinatya. Anushka has
presented her research at various conferences, including the
American Musicological Society, the North American British Music
Studies Association, and the American Handel Society.
Sarah Miller is a Ph.D. Candidate at the
University of California, Davis. She holds an M.A. in Musicology
and an M.M. in Vocal Performance from Butler University in
Indianapolis, Indiana. Her research interests in
eighteenth-century opera buffa, commedia
dell’arte, and Disability Studies culminated in her
dissertation “Disability in Flux: Performing Disability in Carlo
Goldoni’s Comic Operas,” which investigates the imprint of
commedia dell’arte that remains in Carlo Goldoni’s
libretti.
Tracy Monaghan (she/her) is a PhD student in
musicology whose work focuses on issues of race, gender, and
musical appropriation in 20th- and 21st-century opera. She is a
soprano and an avid performer of new music, favoring extended
vocal techniques. Tracy also works to dismantle food insecurity
in her communities. She is currently based in the Bay Area of
California.
Leanny Muñoz is a PhD candidate in
Musicology. She received her Master of Music from Louisiana State
University; there she completed her master’s thesis, “Homenajes:
Finding Spanish Identity in Falla’s Orchestral Suite.” She
completed a Bachelor of Arts in Liberal Arts with a concentration
in Fine and Performing Arts and a minor in Music Performance at
the Louisiana Scholars’ College at Northwestern State University
of Louisiana.
Ryan Nason is a PhD candidate in musicology whose dissertation is
on music and nostalgia in Disneyland. He holds two master’s
degrees from the University of Oregon, one in musicology (2018)
and the other in Jazz Studies: Trumpet Performance (2016). This
is Nason’s second time at UC Davis, as he completed his
undergraduate degree in music history, theory, and
ethnomusicology in 2014. When not in Disneyland or writing
about music, Nason is a competitive water-skier and coach.
