Yevgeny Yontov has established himself as one of the leading Israeli pianists of his generation. As finalist in the 2017 Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, he received the Prize for Best Performance of Chamber Music, and the Prize for the Best Israeli Pianist. Other international top prizes include gold medals at the Wideman International Piano Competition and Berliner International Music Competition, as well as additional prizes at the Boesendorfer International Piano Competition, the Olga Kern International Piano Competition, and the Pinerolo International Piano Competition, among others.

A founding member of icarus Quartet, an award-winning 2piano/2percussion group, from 2015 to 2022, Mr. Yontov holds chamber music close to heart. He has performed chamber music in Israel, Europe, Asia, and North and South America, in venues that include Carnegie Hall and the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in Washington D.C. Chamber colleagues include distinguished artists, such as David Shifrin, Roberto Diaz, Tara Helen O’Connor, Fred Sherry, and many others, including members of established string quartets like the Orion, Dover, Aviv, and Miro Quartets. Mr. Yontov has also performed in numerous chamber festivals, most notably returning visits to Chamber Music Northwest.

As a soloist, Mr. Yontov has performed on stages across Israel, the US, China, Hong Kong, Korea, Japan, and many European countries. Orchestral engagements include numerous orchestras in the US, including orchestras in New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas, and all major Israeli orchestras. He also performed on Israeli national TV, and recorded for Israeli, US, Portuguese and Spanish radios.

Mr. Yontov’s playing can be found on a number of commercial CDs, including his own debut CD, “Schubert: Piano Variations,” released on Naxos Records in 2017, “Big Things,” icarus Quartet’s debut album released on Furious Artisans in 2022, “Samuel Adler: A Celebration of Sam @ 95” released on Toccata Classics in 2022, and “Turning into Song” released on Musica Solis in 2023.

Mr. Yontov began his musical studies at the age of six with Adela Umansky, and later received his B.Mus degree summa cum laude from the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel-Aviv University, where he studied with Prof. Arie Vardi. He then moved to the US to study with Prof. Boris Berman at the Yale School of Music, from which he received his M.M. and D.M.A. degrees.

Mr. Yontov has given masterclasses across the US, Israel, and China. In 2018, he joined the faculty of Bowling Green State University, where he serves as Assistant Professor of Piano.

Katherine Balch

Described as “some kind of musical Thomas Edison – you can just hear her tinkering around in her workshop, putting together new sounds and textural ideas” (San Francisco Chronicle), composer Katherine Balch is interested in the intimacy of quotidian objects, textural lyricism, and natural processes. A collector of aural delights, found sounds are often at the heart of her work, which ranges from acoustic to mixed media and installation.

Katherine’s work has been commissioned and performed by leading ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, Ensemble Modern, Talea, and the symphony orchestras of Tokyo, Darmstadt, Minnesota, Oregon, Albany, Indianapolis, Pittsburg, and Dallas. She has been featured on IRCAM’s ManiFeste, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, and Festival MANCA in Europe, Suntory Summer Arts and Takefu Music Festival in Japan, and the Aspen, Norfolk, Santa Fe, and Tanglewood music festivals in the United States.  

Katherine is the recipient of the 2020/21 Elliott Carter Rome Prize Fellowship. She was the 2017-2020 composer-in-residence for the California Symphony, and held the 2017-2019 William B. Butz Composition Chair at Young Concert Artists, Inc. Other recognitions include awards and grants from Wigmore Hall, ASCAP, BMI, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Chamber Music America, the Barlow Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Civitella Ranieri, and Wigmore Hall. Her music is published exclusively worldwide by Schott Music.

Katherine is currently Assistant Professor of Composition at Yale School of Music. She holds a DMA from Columbia University and has served on the faculties of the Peabody Institute, The New School, and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. When not making or listening to music, she can be found hiking, cooking, building wind chimes, or taking cat naps with her feline sidekick, Zarathustra.

Hilary Purrington

Hilary Purrington is a living composer of chamber, vocal, and orchestral music. Her work has received recognition from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP); the International Alliance for Women in Music; and the National Federation of Music Clubs (NFMC), among others.  

Purrington’s orchestral and chamber works have been performed by many distinguished ensembles, including the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, and the Chicago Harp Quartet. Her orchestral work Likely Pictures in Haphazard Sky, premiered by the Yale Philharmonia, has been read by the Philadelphia and American Composers Orchestras and performed by the Minnesota Orchestra and the Phoenix Symphony, among many others. Recent commissions include new works for the Juilliard Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra. For the 2018–19 season, Purrington was named the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra's Composer of the Year and served as composer-in-residence for the Musical Chairs Chamber Ensemble. She is a 2020 recipient of an orchestral commission from the League of American Orchestra's Women Composers Readings and Commissions program, supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation.

Purrington has also composed several works for dance. In 2018, the Albany Symphony commissioned Patterns, a new work for chamber orchestra. Inspired by the life of fashion arbiter Ellen Louise Demorest, the piece featured the Albany Berkshire Ballet with choreography by Mary Talmi. Purrington also participated in Periapsis Music and Dance’s Emerging Artist Residencies and created a new work with choreographer Annalee Traylor, which premiered in May 2019. While attending The Juilliard School, Purrington collaborated with choreographer Stephanie Terasaki to create a new work for brass quartet and dance.   

Also an accomplished vocalist, Purrington has developed a reputation as a skilled composer of solo and choral music. Her song For your judicious and pious consideration was premiered by mezzo-soprano Adele Grabowsky on the 2016 NY Phil Biennial’s New Music New Haven concert. In 2015, the Eric Stokes Fund commissioned Purrington to compose a new song cycle about the devastating effects of climate change. The resulting work, A Clarion Call, was premiered at the 2017 Conference for Ecology and Religion hosted by the Yale Divinity School. Recent vocal commissions include new works for the Melodia Women’s Choir of NYC, Yale Glee Club, Young New Yorkers' Chorus, and C4: The Choral Composer/Conductor Collective. She recently completed a new opera for New Camerata Opera, created in collaboration with librettist Hannah McDermott and animation studio Catarata. In 2022, mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke's album how do i find you, which includes Purrington's art song That Night, received a GRAMMY nomination for Best Classical Solo Vocal Album. Most recently, Purrington's treble choir work Stars like goldfish won the Young New Yorkers' Chorus 2023 Competition for Young Composers.

A versatile collaborator, Purrington worked with children’s author Mo Willems to compose an original piece that appeared in the book Because (Hyperion Books for Children, 2019). Illustrated by artist Amber Ren, Because tells the story of a young girl who devotes herself to studying music and grows up to become a professional conductor and composer. The book reached The New York Times’ Best-Seller List and continues to charm and inspire young readers across the world.

Originally from western Massachusetts, Purrington lives and works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She holds degrees from the Yale School of Music, The Juilliard School, and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University.

Michael Laurello

Praised for its “intricate structure” with “hints of thrashing and angularity” (The Wall Street Journal), Michael Laurello’s compositional work reflects his fascination with temporal dissonance and emotional immediacy. It has been presented at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, MATA, PASIC, Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Carlsbad Music Festival, Music from Angel Fire, North American Saxophone Alliance, National Conference of the Society of Composers, Inc., and other venues and festivals. His music has been featured by ensembles such as icarus Quartet, Bluecoats, "The President's Own" United States Marine Band, The U.S. Army Band "Pershing's Own," Nashville Symphony, Sō Percussion, HOCKET, Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble, Yale Percussion Group, and Ensemble Repercussion featuring the Duisburger Philharmoniker and Deutschen Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz.  

His recording and mixing work is focused on contemporary classical music and can be heard on labels such as Furious Artisans, Albany, Equilibrium, New Focus, Red Piano Records, and MSR Classics featuring collaborative partners including Vic Firth/Zildjian, icarus Quartet, Quince Ensemble, Hypercube, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Bowling Green Philharmonia, Dan Piccolo, Yevgeny Yontov, Solungga Liu, Cole Burger, and many others. He believes deeply in the capacity of the production approach to accentuate the conceptual framework of a musical composition or interpretation.

Laurello studied composition at Yale School of Music and Tufts University, and music synthesis at Berklee College of Music. His mentors include David Lang, Christopher Theofanidis, Martin Bresnick, and John McDonald. Honors include a residency at Avaloch Farm Music Institute, a commission from the American Composers Forum, a Nashville Symphony Composer Lab Fellowship, selection for the EarShot Berkeley Symphony Readings, and a Baumgardner Fellowship and Commission from the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. He has attended the highSCORE and Etchings composition festivals, and was a fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival.

Laurello works as a freelance composer and engineer, and as Manager of Recording Services and Technical Engineer for the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University.

Christopher Dietz

Christopher Dietz composes music inspired by a wide variety of sources, both real and conceptual. Poetry, sound as sculpture and color, how toddlers play, deep time and the cosmos, rhythm as geometry, religion and politics, animal behavior, and the music of others are a few of the subjects that have informed his musical imagination. A similarly diverse approach to the creation of each new piece has resulted in a collection of works distinct in their surface features yet bound together by a common vitality, nuanced palette, and a commitment to engaging with others.

In recent years, Christopher’s works have been premiered in Bangkok, Ghent (Belgium), London, Auvillar (France), Montreal, Ottawa, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, Houston, Phoenix and Salt Lake City, among others. His music has been performed by numerous contemporary ensembles including Alarm Will Sound, Decoda, Ensemble Échappé, NODUS,  Arx Duo, The Orchestra of the League of Composers, Ogni Suono, Duo Scorpio, The McCormick Percussion Group, The Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble, The East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, The Chicago Ensemble, Trio Kavak, Palomar, TACTUS Ensemble, Dark in the Song, The Color Field Ensemble, as well as traditional ensembles such as L’Orchestre de la Francophonie, The San Jose Chamber Orchestra, The Beau Soir Trio, The Orange County Symphony, The Toledo Symphony, the University of Michigan Symphonic Band and additional university ensembles across the United States.  

His work has been featured at new music festivals such the Civic Orchestra of Chicago's New Music Workshop, NUNC!, soundSCAPE (Italy), The Etchings Festival of Contemporary Music (France), The Queens New Music Festival, New Music on the Point, Florida State's Biennial Festival, Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, Tutti Festival of New Music and the MusicX Festival, among others.

Residencies at MacDowell, Copland House, Canada’s Banff Centre, The Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France), the VCCA, and the Blue Mountain Center have been important milestones in the development of Christopher's compositional voice. Recognition of his work has come from honors and awards including ASCAP’s Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, The Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions and Composer Institute, The Riverside Symphony Composer Reading Project (NYC), The Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music, Random Access Music, The Utah Arts Festival’s Orchestral Commission Prize as well as several academic awards, grants and scholarships. Christopher's music has been released on New Focus, AMP, Navona, American Modern, and Cambria Records.  

Christopher holds a Ph.D. in composition and theory from the University of Michigan where he studied with William Bolcom, Bright Sheng, Michael Daugherty, Betsy Jolas, and Andrew Mead. In addition, he holds degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where he worked with Nils Vigeland and Giampaolo Bracali and the University of Wisconsin where his teachers included Stephen Dembski and Joel Naumann. He has been on the faculty at Hillsdale College and the Oberlin Conservatory. Christopher is an associate professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

Marilyn Shrude

The music of composer Marilyn Shrude is characterized by its warmth and lyricism, rich timbre, multi-layered constructions, and complex blend of tonality and atonality. The result is a bright, shimmering and delicately wrought sound world that is at once both powerful and fragile (Natvig – New Grove). Her concentration on color and the natural resonance of spaces, as well as her strong background in Pre-Vatican II liturgical music, give the music its linear, spiritual, and quasi-improvisational qualities.  

Shrude earned degrees from Alverno College and Northwestern University, and has served on the faculty of Bowling Green State University since 1977. Among her more prestigious honors are those from the Guggenheim Foundation, American Academy of Arts and Letters, Rockefeller Foundation, Chamber Music America/ASCAP, Meet the Composer, Sorel Foundation (Medallion Winner for Choral Music 2011), and the National Endowment for the Arts. She was the first woman to receive the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award for Orchestral Music and the Cleveland Arts Prize for Music. She was named a Distinguished Artist Professor in 2001 and received BGSU’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. Most recently, Shrude received an Honorary Doctorate from the West University of Timisoara, Romania (November 2024).  

Active as a composer, pianist, teacher, and contemporary music advocate, Shrude has consistently promoted American music through her many years as founder and director of the MidAmerican Center for Contemporary Music (1987-99), as chair of the Department of Musicology/Composition/Theory at BGSU (1998-2011) and as coordinator of the doctoral program in contemporary music (2006-2024). Together with saxophonist, John Sampen, she has premiered, recorded and presented hundreds of works by living composers both in the United States and abroad. Guest appearances as a pianist and composer include tours to the Soviet Union, China, Japan, Belgium, South America, the Netherlands, France, and Armenia, as well as numerous performances in the United States.