Addison Struckman

Addison Struckman is a composer/ songwriter, lyricist, and vocalist based in St. Louis, MO. Her style includes pop, jazz, classical, and musical theater with emotional and reflective themes. She enjoys arranging and recording pop music individually and also in the new duo, Adventure Divisi. She is currently working on an album encompassing the grieving process and its unpredictable nature with a focus on losing a partner at a young age.

Struckman received a Bachelor of Music in Music Composition from Webster University in 2022. Throughout her life, she has always made a conscious effort to explore many different areas of music and the arts. One of the greatest joys she has found on this journey is in teaching music lessons. Her family owns a music school in Chesterfield, MO called 89th Key Music Studio, where she manages, teaches and is in the process of opening a small music-themed coffee shop inside the building. She also spends her time working alongside the Compose Like A Girl initiative team, counseling/ leading camps and the high ropes challenge course at Camp MoVal, painting murals, and many more things that all center around her values of community, creativity, and individuality.

Alexa Canales

Alexa Canales (b. 1992) is a composer, pianist, and educator who is deeply interested in explorations of color, rhythm, and texture in her work. Her compositions have been performed by musicians and ensembles across the United States and in Europe. This includes performances by the Brightwork Ensemble, the Helix! New Music Ensemble, the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra, and the Boston Percussion Group. She is the recipient of numerous grants and commissions in support of her work. Recent commissions include the Wellesley Symphony Orchestra and the Impulse New Music Festival, where she was a fellow. The Wellesley Symphony Orchestra commissioned her to write an orchestral work in honor of conductor Max Hobart’s retirement after 28 years of serving as Music Director. She has participated in various summer music festivals and programs including the New York New Music Intensive, highSCORE, and the Atlantic Music Festival. Canales holds degrees from Rutgers University (Ph.D. and M.A. in Music Composition) and Boston College (B.A.) where she studied composition with Robert Aldridge, Tarik O’Regan, Steven Kemper, and Thomas Oboe Lee.

Campbell Helton

Campbell Helton is a pianist, violinist, composer, and classical soprano from Des Moines, Iowa. She is currently pursuing a double degree in piano performance and composition with violin emphasis at Utah State University, studying composition with Drs. Stephen Mitton and Kevin Olson. Campbell has recently soloed with the Des Moines and Ottumwa Symphonies as a piano and violin concerto competition winner and has been concertmaster of four youth symphonies. Campbell has performed in masterclasses/workshops for Jeremy Denk, Alyssa Weinberg, and Gabriela Lena Frank; she has also collaborated with pianist Dina Kasman and USU quartets studying under the Fry Street Quartet. She’s been writing since she was a child, exploring transcending harmonies in choirs, symphonies, chamber ensembles, and solo piano. Campbell is also a songwriter and jazz singer, recently releasing her EP Bittersweet on all platforms.

Joanne Na

Joanne S. Na is composers originally from South Korea and now based in Vancouver, Canada. She creates music that reflects her diverse cultural background and explores evokes human emotions, personal experiences, and memorable places. 

She is the winner of the 2021 NAfME Student Composers Competition and the Seoul Grand Philharmonic Orchestra Composers Award. Her works have been selected for the VSO Jean Coulthard Readings, Victoria Symphony’s Hugh Davidson Composer Readings, Vancouver Chamber Choir’s Interplay Workshop, University of Michigan Annual Organ Conference, Pacific Chamber Orchestra Workshop, and Hwaum Project Academy Call for Scores.

Her works have been performed by Grammy-winning soprano Estelí Gomez, clarinetist Wonkak Kim, Delgani String Quartet, Kenari Quartet, Saxophilia Saxophone Quartet, UBC Contemporary Players Ensemble, Hwaum Chamber Orchestra, and University of Oregon Symphony Orchestra, among others. Her compositions have featured in the West Coast Student Composers Symposium, Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Vancouver Pro Musica Sonic Boom Festival, and Opus Chamber Music Series in Mendocino, California.

Currently, she is pursuing her doctorate at the University of British Columbia, studying with Dorothy Chang. She holds degrees from the University of Oregon and Rutgers University, where she studied with Robert Kyr, David Crumb, and Scott Ordway.

Justine Stern Leichtling

Justine Leichtling is a composer, violinist, and psychologist living in Brooklyn. Originally from San Francisco, she received her BA in Computing and the Arts from Yale University. She went on to obtain her doctorate in Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. In 2023, Justine began a Masters in Composition at Mannes School of Music, where she studies with Timo Andres. She maintains a small therapy practice on the side. Justine often explores psychological themes in her music and seeks to capture emotional truth through sound. In constant creative dialogue with her internal and external worlds, her music exists in the liminal space between these worlds where emotions not only make sense, but they give our lives meaning. Her recent work in this vein, Stand Clear of the Doors for piano trio and audio-visual media, which premiered in New York in February, depicts a physical and emotional journey from a situation of being trapped to one of freedom. In her spare time, you can find Justine playing chamber music with friends, attending live shows, reading poetry, running in Prospect Park, or swimming in the ocean.

Yunfei Li

Yunfei Li is a composer, and violinist based in Kansas City, MO. Yunfei writes music characterized by exploring new sounds on instruments and music software. She takes inspiration from the sounds of nature and has converted nature sounds into musical language as part of her original compositions. With a background that includes both Eastern and Western classical music, she is also inspired by a variety of modern music styles including pop music, electroacoustic music, and film music. As a composer, she has collaborated with film directors, writers, choreographers, and multimedia artists. 

Her music has been performed by many festivals, including ClarinetFest, Seal Bay Music Festival, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, Electronic Midwest Festival, Festival of Contemporary Art Music at Washington State University, Atlantic Music Festival, Sewanee WinterFest, Northwestern University New-Music Conference and Festival, The Walden School, Arts Letters & Numbers, Turn Up Festival, La Frontera International Piano Conference, SHE Festival, North Star Music Festival, New Music on the Bayou, SCI Region V Conference, CMS Southwest Conference, CMS Great Lakes Conference, CAMPGround 24. Her music has been featured by News & Record in North Carolina, KCUR 89.3, Classical WSMR and Johnson County Library(KS). She currently is a doctoral candidate at UMKC-Conservatory.