Composer Bios
Mari Takano
After graduating from the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo, Mari Takano studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, earning her Master’s degree, and with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg Encouraged by Ligeti to move beyond avant-garde influences, she developed a highly individual compositional voice and has received numerous awards since the 1980s.
In 2002, BIS Records released a CD devoted to her works (Women’s Paradise, BIS 1238) to international acclaim, with broadcasts in Europe, the USA, and Australia That same year, she was a guest composer at Northwestern University on a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education. Takano has received commissions from the City of Hamburg, Music from Japan, and the American Embassy in Tokyo, among others Her Double Violin Concerto, written for Sarah Plum and Michi Sugiura, was premiered in 2024 with the Chicago Composers Orchestra Her recordings include LigAlien (BIS, 2011) and In a Different Way (Fontec, 2022). She is now a lecturer at the Toho Gakuen College of Music and Bunkyo University.
Ben Fuhrman
Ben Fuhrman is a composer, musician, and programmer whose work centers on the creative use of technology, including acousmatic, interactive, and improvisatory music. He holds a D.M.A. and M.M. in composition from Michigan State University and a B Mus in violin performance from Hope College, and has studied with Ricardo Lorenz, Mark Sullivan, Steve Talaga, Rob Lunn, and Mihai Craioveanu
Fuhrman has received commissions from a wide range of performers and institutions, including Keith Kirchoff, the H2 Quartet, REACH Studio Art, and the MSU National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Facility for Rare Isotope Beams He was awarded a billboard dedicated to his music by the Arts Council of Greater Lansing possibly the first composer in the U S to receive one His solo albums Concrete Oasis and Synthesizer and Computer Works are available online, with additional releases on Albany, Argali, Blue Griffin, Elmstreet, and SEAMUS. He is Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Montana State University.
Jeffrey Mumford
Born in Washington, D.C. in 1955, composer Jeffrey Mumford has received numerous fellowships, awards, and commissions. His honors include an Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an ASCAP Aaron Copland Scholarship, and first prize in the inaugural National Black Arts Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition
Mumford has received major commissions from organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Parker Quartet, Chamber Music America, and the Fromm Music Foundation His music has been featured at festivals including June in Buffalo, Kneisel
Hall, Tanglewood, the Cheltenham Festival (Manchester, UK), the Aava Festival in Finland, and the HIMA Festival (USA), and performed widely throughout Europe and North America
His recent recording echoing depths (Albany Records) features concerti written for leading soloists and ensembles Mumford is currently Distinguished Professor at Lorain County Community College and is published by Theodore Presser Company and Quicklight Music
Sidney Corbett
"Music is for me a central source of spiritual nourishment," says Sidney Corbett, an artist whose independent voice occupies a distinct space in contemporary music His work spanning six operas, orchestral, and chamber music is defined by lyrical sensuality and complex rhythmic pulsations. Drawing from literature, visual arts, and theology, Corbett views composition as a way of deciphering the world.
Born in Chicago in 1960, Corbett studied at UCSD and Yale before refining his craft under György Ligeti in Hamburg Since 2006, he has served as Professor of Composition at the University of the Performing Arts Mannheim, and in 2022, he was inducted into the Academy of the Arts in Berlin. A restless explorer of his own aesthetics, Corbett’s music is published worldwide by Edition Peters.
Tonia Ko
Tonia Ko’s work spans instrumental solos, large ensemble pieces, and sound installations, revealing a core that is at once whimsical and lyrical A 2018 Guggenheim Fellow, Ko has received grants and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chamber Music America, and the Fromm and Barlow Foundations She has recently collaborated with the Riot Ensemble, Tangram Collective, and Spektral Quartet, with performances at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, and the Kennedy Center.
Born in Hong Kong and raised in Hawaii, Ko earned her B M from the Eastman School of Music and an M M from Indiana University before completing a D M A at Cornell under Steven Stucky and Kevin Ernste Following a postdoctoral residency at the University of Chicago, she relocated to the United Kingdom. She currently serves as Senior Lecturer in Composition at Royal Holloway, University of London.
Osnat Netzer
Osnat Netzer is an Israeli-American composer, performer and educator. Her kinetic, visceral compositions take inspiration from Embodied Cognition and Composed Theatre Her music has been commissioned and performed by Ensemble Dal Niente, Mivos Quartet, ~Nois, soprano Lucy Dhegrae, Patchwork, Spektral Quartet and Winsor Music, published by Edition Peters and earthsongs, and recorded on Bridge Records and New Focus Recordings. Her opera, The Wondrous Woman Within, was described as “riotously funny” in The New York Times Her recent album Dot: Line: Sigh was described by George Lewis as "Ebullient, pensive, whimsical, and mysterious by turns " She is currently Associate Professor of Composition and Musicianship at DePaul University, and long-time faculty at The Walden School