Dr. Allison Ogden works as an Assistant Professor of Composition and Literature at the University of Louisville. She has a PhD from The University of Chicago, has taught many classes on a wide variety of subjects, enjoys working with her students, has written a number of pieces of music, climbed many mountains and hiked many trails, and brought two whole human beings into this world.

Claire Cope is a British Composer and Pianist who works across contemporary classical music and jazz. Claire studied piano performance at the Royal Northern College of Music. As a bandleader she has performed at various jazz festivals and as part of the BBC Proms Plus Series. In 2020, Claire released her debut album with contemporary jazz septet Ensemble C. Recent compositional successes have seen Claire win a Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award in 2022. In 2019, Claire composed and performed the solo piano score for Rob Cope’s film ‘Richard Turner: A Life in Music. In 2021, Claire was commissioned by the Apollo Saxophone Quartet to compose a new work, and this was premiered in Manchester in 2022.

Inna Onofrei always loved to draw and wanted to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps to become an artist, but then she fell in love with the music. She discovered a way to paint not on a canvas but with sound in the air. Her personal motto is hands are my
brushes, sound is my paint and air is my canvas.

Onofrei is an Armenian-American composer and educator living in the Cleveland area. Her catalogue includes music for piano, choir, chamber ensembles, orchestra, solo instruments, as well as electronic and electro-acoustic works. Onofrei's music has
been performed in Russia, the United States of America, and Greece.
 

Onofrei is currently working as a freelance composer and arranger, as well as an educator at Musicologie Cleveland Heights. One of her most recent projects includes an opera based on the Armenian legend "Ara the Beautiful", libretto by Tim Tibbitts.

Lauren Conklin is a composer from Nashville, TN. She began her career as a touring strings player and has performed venues from the Royal Albert Concert Hall to the Grand Ole Opry. In 2020 she shifted her full focus to composing and film scoring after landing her first feature length film with American Pantheon, “As Real As You Make It”. She has also scored feature film “Abigail” (2021) and the winning short from Nashville’s 48 Hour Film Project, “An Immersive Guide to Pruning”. Lauren's sound combines classical orchestration with world folk influences as she draws upon the musical cultures she visited and studied during her time touring internationally. In addition to scoring films, Lauren has arranged and recorded strings for artists like Lukas Graham, Kylie Morgan, Skylar Astin, and New Hope Club. Currently, Lauren lives in Nashville and works as a composer and producer.

Magdalena Gorwa is a graduate of composition with Cezary Duchnowski and Pawel Hendrich at the Lipinski Academy of Music in Wroclaw.  Since 2019, she has been a member of the Polish Society of Contemporary Music and the Youth Circle of the Polish Composers’ Union. She is a laureate of national and international composition competition. She has been composing music for theatre performances for seven years and since 2019 she has been the composer of the "Teatr Aczemu"  ["But why Theater"] founded by Malgorzata Pilczuk, which promotes children’s literature throughout Poland.

In cooperation with with the WELT.collective creates interdyscyplinary projects based on an unconventional combination of classical and electronic music, singing, performance and visualization. 

Taylor Zickefoose is a composer and vocalist whose music explores complex human experiences honestly through beautiful melodies and storytelling. She writes music to empower people to live with love for one's self and others. She composes art songs, dramatic songs, and operettas as well as songs in the genres of pop and jazz. In 2021, she was featured on the podcast JazzTalkSeattle, following the release of her EP, Love in A9. Taylor received her bachelor's in music composition and a minor in psychology from Central Washington University. She is currently teaching lessons in voice, piano, and songwriting at Kalamazoo Music School.