The Three Browning Songs, based on three poems by Robert Browning, were commissioned by the Browning Society of Boston for a celebration of the poet’s birthday. Each song lends itself to expressivity and numerous interpretive choices due to the musical connection to the text. As Beach herself stated, “it is the poem which gives the song its shape, its mood, its rhythm, its very being.” Stylistically, the Three Browning Songs reflect the romantic characteristics present in all of Beach’s works. Beach’s compositions are intensely emotional, with emotional expression as the overall goal. Beach’s key choices were informed by her synesthesia. Synesthesia is the “involuntary response of one sensory experience with another” – in Beach’s case, associating certain keys with certain colors. Beach was very particular about the key of each of her songs. Beach was also adamant about unauthorized transpositions, as she necessitated that they remain in a key associated with the correct color to match the song’s poetry. The Three Browning Songs were examples of these key/color associations – both “The Year’s at the Spring” and “I send my heart up to thee” were originally published in D-flat major, associated with purple or violet, while “Ah, Love, but a Day” was originally published in A-flat major, which is associated with the color blue. Consistent with her usual compositional process, Beach described that the song [“The Year’s at the Spring”] came to her “ready-made” after a long period of considering the poem. Beach composed the song on a train – as she sat and considered the text, the rhythm came to her inspired by the rhythm of the train’s wheels, before turning to melody. Of its composition, Beach explained: “I listened to the melody – it was the only melody, after that, for that burst of joy and faith. I wrote it down as soon as I got home.”
Traces are marks or remnants of something that has occurred or disappeared, like a lingering smell or a fading sound. These marks or residues often differ from their original source, acquiring new forms or meanings in new contexts.
This idea is explored musically in Traces, which builds on a theme from the first of Arthur Foote’s Four Characteristic Pieces after the Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. While the work uses Foote’s theme as its starting point, it reinterprets it through a different exploration of timbre and harmonic color, while preserving the cadential sensuality of the original melodic material.
In this way, Traces rereads and recontextualizes one of Boston’s Six musical voices for the twenty-first century. The piece was commissioned by the Boston New Music Initiative as part of the New England Legacies: The Boston Six Reimagined Commissioning Prize.
Written in 1918 and originally titled Nocturne and Scherzo for Flute and String Quartet, the “nocturne” section was published in 1922 as A Night Piece for flute and string orchestra and became Foote’s best-known work. A Night Piece begins with the flute playing a melody that is dream-like in character. This and other languid melodies are passed between flute and strings, occasionally being interrupted by darker, more dramatic passages, especially in the middle section. However, the tranquility of the opening flute melody returns at the end.
hold/release (2022) comes from the idea of holding and releasing one’s breath. This piece is full of fluttery harmonies and wisps of melodies that ebb and flow throughout the work. After a fairly stressful year, I initially imagined that this piece would be fast and aggressive—an outlet for the stress that I had felt. In the end, however, I turned to a sense of calm meditation, and hold/release emerged.
Yielding to Tranquility distills a summer-evening moment in the composer’s native New England. Melodic lines intertwine in counterpoint like an unhurried summer breeze among gently swaying trees. Colorful flourishes flutter between bright chords and gestures, evoking birds amid sunset’s vivid hues. String harmonics linger as their dusk chorus suspends the moment before yielding to night’s tranquility.
Yielding to Tranquility invites listeners to contemplate the fragile beauty of the natural world in hopes of inspiring support for environmental preservation.
The Boston New Music Initiative commissioned Yielding to Tranquility from composer Martin Hebel as a winner of the “New England Legacies: The Boston Six Reimagined” Commissioning Prize which commemorates the work of the Second New England School of composers by soliciting musical responses to their work. Yielding to Tranquility responds to Amy Beach’s Piano Trio, Op. 150, chosen from among the work of the Boston Six: Amy Beach, George Whitefield Chadwick, Arthur Foote, Edward MacDowell, John Knowles Paine, and Horatio Parker.
waiting to speak is a short collection of songs that draws upon memory and wisdom derived from the botanical world—from wild dandelions to tea time in the backyard—and celebrates what can be revealed to us through the more-than-human beings who surround us.
a representational advocacy for flow, relaxation, and adaptation
a work that is designed to encourage the performer to inject their individual expertise and personality into some of the music’s fine details while retaining my overall musical intent
Leaf was commissioned by and written for Roberta Michel with support for its creation and world premiere from nienteForte Contemporary Music.
Three Moods of a City (2026) by Lingbo Ma
for String Quartet
I. Turkey Trot
II. Rainy Lullaby
III. No Time to Pause
Three Moods of a City is commissioned by the Boston New Music Initiative. The piece explores three contrasting facets of urban life, each captured in a short movement. The opening movement, Turkey Trot, is a lively, jazz-inflected dance, full of quirky rhythms and playful harmonic turns. The middle movement, Rainy Lullaby, starts and ends with all instruments playing harmonics, offering a moment of calm. It evokes a quiet scene at bedtime, where warmth and soft lighting are mirrored in the movement’s gentle, soothing harmonies. The final movement, No Time to Pause, portrays the relentless pace of life. Its driving rhythms and restless sixteenth notes reflect a world of constant motion - schedules to keep, errands to run, and little time to stand still. Taken together, this piece reflects the rhythms of life in a city like Boston, where I live: bustling and demanding, yet punctuated by moments of stillness, warmth, and joy.
Piano Quintet “New England” II. Winter‡ by Keane Southard
IThe beginning idea for my Piano Quintet “New England” came about in late 2008 or early 2009 as an homage to the region I grew up in, where I lived from the age of one until I graduated from high school. When I was young, it seemed that every weekend my parents would drag us kids around to some new small town in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, or Vermont. But going to college in a different area of the country has made me realize how ingrained “New England-ness” is in me. When I left New England is also when I really fell in love with the music of Charles Ives, whose music resonates deeply with my childhood. Six years since experiencing a New England season other than summer led me to depict those seasons I have missed (and which I think are most distinctive and beautiful when in New England). Each movement is based on a hymn tune that I am particularly fond of and grew up singing in church. The main work on the piece was delayed, because of several other pressing projects, until the fall of 2010 and then was completed in February of 2011.
As a native of a small town in Westchester, New York, just down the road from New England lands, I am heavily influenced by the natural environment and greenery that has lived alongside me for generations. Titled “A Woodland Medley,” the music, slightly rhapsodic and tone-poemesque in nature, was influenced by my childhood surroundings, sounds, and earthy fragrances. As with the New England theme, It alludes to the “Boston Six” composers, in particular, Amy Beach and Edward MacDowell, as well as Transcendentalism and early 20th-Century music idioms, including the work of Charles Ives.
Commissioned by the Boston New Music Initiative, for “The Boston Six Reimagined” Concert.
Lonely American Shadows (2014) is a reflection on the change (or even loss) of traditional American culture, especially in regards to folksong. Most of the rising generation today is unfamiliar with classic American folk songs. Those songs have become “lonely” and almost forgotten. This work illustrates this concept by quoting what once were well-known American tunes (including, but not limited to: “Oh Susanna,” “Red River Valley,” “Clementine,” and “Oh Shenandoah,” etc.) in a way that they are altered even to the point of near-unrecognition – thus creating “shadows” of these songs that seem to be fading away into almost-forsaken history. It is a through-composed piece containing experimental elements, extended techniques, and freedom of emotional expression. The performer is given the choice of tempo and fingering – this is significant because the piece calls for a different scordatura: the G string lowered by a whole step. The performer is to play the notes in the most comfortable way, not altering their fingering pattern to hear the written pitch. This creates another possibility for the piece to be slightly different each time it is performed, also providing a way for it to be more personal to the performer.
"Dà Xì” "Dà Xì” (大戲), translated as “large scale spectacle” is the Chinese term for Cantonese opera. My piece explores the rich tropes and traditions found in art from through the lens of contemporary chamber music. Growing up in Hong Kong, I remember fondly many Cantonese Opera performances in local theatres featuring loud singing, percussive drumming, and colorful costumes. My piece is a playful reimagination of some tropes found in Cantonese 大戲 framed in two sections. It opens with a dramatic introduction in the de drama facto Cantonese style where repeated instrumental gestures speed up and build in momentum, ending with a gong or percussive hit.
The second section (B) is a fast scherzo exploring the heterophonic texture found in the instrumental music of Cantonese Opera – one characterized by multiple variations of the same melodic line intertwined with one another – in a busy dialogue between the instruments. The word 大戲, akin to another Chinese term 遊戲 meaning "games," sets the tone for the final section, where all instruments engage in playful imitation. Even with a limited pitch palette (traditional tunes revolve exclusively around pentatonic scales), richness in the art form is achieved through variations in texture, melodic portamenti, and rhythmic propulsion.
In the 3 ee cummings songs, childlike wonder mingles with veritable danger. “in Just-“ begins with music full of the vigor of spring: bouncy and cheerful. Yet, lurking is the balloonman, described with increasingly ominous words. Upon the mention of his goat feet, a reference to the debaucherous Greek god, Pan, the music takes a sinister turn and the song ends with an upsetting feeling.
“tumbling hair” follows a similar trajectory. A seemingly innocent scene depicts a girl picking flowers in a meadow, and “another” also coming to pick flowers. Yet, this is also a reference to Greek mythology. The girl is Persephone, and the other is Hades, who abducts her and brings her to the Underworld. To begin, a waltz in the piano creates a light-hearted scene. As Hades enters, dissonant descending lines in the piano portray Persephone’s abduction.
“hist whist” describes children dressed to go trick or treating. Ghosts, witches, goblins, mice, and toads take to the streets, careful to avoid their scary neighbor, who they think may actually be the devil. The vocal line is simple with wider inflections, mimicking cummings’ childlike text. Staccato eighth notes in the piano provide the song with plenty of energy.
At a Boston New Music Initiative (BNMI) salon in 2025, a group of composers decided to write a piece together wherein each composer passed only their final, tenth, measure to the next. Boston Rhapsody is the resulting composition. What holds the piece together as a single statement is the hints found in each final measure in which many of the composers embedded hints of ideas from their first 9 measures.
b. Henniker, NH, Sept. 5, 1867; d. New York, Dec. 27, 1944
Known as the first female composer to have a symphony performed by a major orchestra (her “Gaelic” Symphony, premiered by the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1896), Amy Beach was also one of the first U.S. composers to have her music be recognized in Europe, and THE first classical U.S. composer to achieve success without the benefit of European study.
A remarkable child prodigy, she made her public debut as a pianist in 1883, also the year of her first published compositions. In 1885 she performed with the Boston Symphony, but upon her marriage to the distinguished surgeon, Dr. H.H.A. Beach, she curtailed her performing in accordance with his wishes, and focused on composition. She made one performance per year, with the proceeds donated to charity, and one of these performances was of her own piano concerto with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1900. Following the death of her husband in 1910, she resumed performing, and toured Europe to great acclaim, performing her own music, until the onset of WWI.
from https://www.amybeach.org/about/biography
Eric Estrada’s music balances his artistic voice with his cultural roots and explores themes such as migration, nature, and the fusion of academic and popular music. He is also interested in narrative and storytelling, frequently drawing inspiration from poetry and literature.
His music has been performed in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, and has received several awards, including The Boston New Music Initiative's Commissioning Prize (2026) and the Arturo Márquez Composition Award (2019). In addition, he has won a number of competitions, including SOLI'S 30x30x30 Project (2024), MUSIQA’s Emergent Composer’s Competition (2023), The Composers Competition New Symphony Vienna (2020), the National Composition Competition for Percussion Quartet SAFA (2019), and the Joaquín Gutierrez Heras Composition Competition (2017).
He has received commissions from MUSIQA, the Texas New Music Festival, the Boston New Music Initiative, AURA Contemporary Ensemble, Safa Percussion Quartet, Loop 38, the Korea International Music Academy, the Blaffer Museum, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He has also been awarded grants from ARTZenter, Mexico’s National Endowment for the Arts, the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, the Arts Music Society, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico. His collaborations include ensembles and orchestras such as the Albany Symphony, Puebla State Symphony, Orquesta Mexicana de las Artes, the Moores Chamber Orchestra, Hub New Music, the Kazoku Saxophone Quartet, Project Fusion Quartet, SOLI Chamber Ensemble, and Vortice Ensemble. In addition, his music has been selected for performance at festivals including Tutti International Music Festival, CampGround 2024, New Music on the Bayou, Festival of New American Music, Foro Internacional de Música Nueva Manuel Enríquez, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Texas New Music Festival, Onix Marathon of New Music, among others.
He is an alumnus of the University of Houston’s Moores School of Music (DMA), and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (BM and MM).
Arthur Foote was born on March 5,1853 in Salem, MA. His father, Caleb Foote, was the owner and editor of the Salem Gazette. Foote’s mother, Mary Wilder Foote, was a devout Unitarian and a friend of the Emersons, Peabodys, Hoars, and Hawthornes; she passed away when Arthur was only four.
In 1867 Foote went to Boston to study harmony with Stephan Emery at the newly founded New England Conservatory of Music, where he first began composing. In 1870, Foote went to Harvard to pursue further studies in music. He became conductor of the Harvard Glee Club and began studying composition with John Knowles Paine. In the summer of 1874, after graduating from Harvard, Foote returned to Salem, where he took up organ studies with B. J. Lang. Lang encouraged Foote to pursue music as a full time career and thus Foote returned to Harvard, where he received the very first Master of Arts degree in Music awarded by an American university in 1875.
from NEC Archival Collections
Described as “movingly lyrical” (Avant Music News) and “quirky but attractive” (The Art Music Lounge), the music of Cara Haxo juxtaposes delicate, sparkly textures with the gritty and the grotesque. Haxo is the winner of the 2022 National Women’s Music Festival Emerging Women Composers Competition. She was also awarded the 2019 International Alliance for Women in Music Libby Larsen Prize, the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Award, and the 2013 IAWM Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize. She has received commissions from the May Festival Youth Chorus, Hub New Music, Quince Ensemble, and Splinter Reeds, amongst other ensembles. Recordings of her music have been released by New Focus Recordings.
A native of Haydenville, Massachusetts, Haxo earned her Ph.D. in Composition at the University of Oregon, where she worked as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Music Theory. She also holds degrees from Butler University and The College of Wooster (Ohio). She recently served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Music at The College of Wooster. Haxo is an Academic Dean and faculty member for The Walden School Young Musicians Program and the current Vice Chair and Treasurer of the Cleveland Composers Guild. Please visit www.chaxomusic.com.
Zemlinsky Prize winner and eight-time winner of The American Prize, composer Martin Hebel (b.1990) works at the intersection of music, advocacy, and interdisciplinary collaboration, responding to challenges of today’s global community with socially-conscious music to inspire conversation and spark positive change. Hebel was inducted as Honored Artist of The American Prize in 2025.
Hebel’s Uplifting Unheard Voices project, an international initiative pursuing humanitarian advocacy through music, amplifies words of refugees he interviewed with a series of new compositions to motivate listeners to end conflicts refugees flee. With support from the Presser Foundation’s Graduate Music Award, he interviewed refugees fleeing conflicts in Africa, Ukraine, and the Middle East, facilitated by refugee agencies, community advocates, and guidance from the Vatican’s Migrants and Refugees Section.
Martin Hebel earned his DMA in composition from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 2021 and his MM in 2018. He graduated with honors from the University of Connecticut in 2015 with degrees in composition and trumpet.
Martin Hebel currently serves as Lecturer of Composition and Music Theory at the University of North Alabama in Florence, AL, USA. During the summer, Hebel serves as Instructor of Music Theory in the Summer Arts Camp at Interlochen Center for the Arts in Interlochen, MI, USA.
Kirsten Johnson is a pianist, composer and recording artist of international acclaim. She has recorded 26 discs of solo piano music with Centaur, Nimbus, Delos and Guild. This includes the complete piano music of Benjamin Carr, Arthur Foote, James Hewitt and Amy Beach, and world premiere recordings of Albanian piano music and Dmitri Kabalevsky’s op. 1. Her release of two discs of piano pieces by Florence Price included 34 world-premiere CD recordings.
Johnson’s latest release is Pieces for String Orchestra by Kirsten Johnson on Centaur Records (2025, CRC 4169). The second disc of her own piano pieces, Journeys (2025, CRC 4133) follows the 2024 release of Expressions: Piano Music by Kirsten Johnson (CRC 4095).
Performances of Johnson’s works include: the London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra; Festival Osmose, Brussels; Vent Nouveau, NYC; the Boston New Music Initiative; and Fifteen Minutes of Fame, NYC.
In 2025, November Wind was premiered in NYC by pianist Max Lifchitz; The Four Elements, a chamber piece, premiered in Italy by Ear to the Earth Ensemble; I heard a baby, for soprano, premiered in Hong Kong; Prayer, for organ, at the Historical Organ Society National Convention, USA; and Do you bloom?, for baritone, in NYC. Johnson was the 2025 Sara Pennypacker Composer Fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
Kirsten Johnson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Fellow of the Incorporated Society of Musicians. Please see www.kirstenjohnsonpiano.com for further information on her music.
Nicole Knorr is a composer, improviser, and performer working across sound, visual art, and language. Nicole's music explores liminality, transformation, and improvisation/co-creation, treating sound as atmosphere and art as a shared, intimate experience.
Knorr works with performance, graphic scores, electroacoustic sound, and traditionally notated music. Notable collaborators include New Jersey Symphony, Albany Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Atlanta Philharmonic, FLYDLPHN, and Haven Trio.
Mendel Lee (he/him) (b. 1975) is a New Orleans-based composer whose career oscillates between composition and artistic entrepreneurship. Since exiting his long career as Assistant Director of Tulane Bands in 2022, Mendel spearheaded the merger of his founding organization nienteForte with Versipel New Music for which he now serves as Executive Director. Under his leadership, Versipel New Music has expanded its profile as a defining force of new music in Louisiana, including the launch of Batture Contemporary, a Louisiana-focused new music festival. Mendel is also the Board Vice President of Rhythm X where he oversees committees for their alumni relations, finance, fundraising, and overall operations. As a composer, Mendel’s music explores both the gradual evolution of singular ideas and layered syncopated rhythmic patterns over an underlying groove. His recent music also seeks to grant more equitable agency between the roles of composer, performer, and audience to create a more collaborative experience. Recognized as a VCCA Fellow and an NPN Take Notice Fund grantee, he is committed to using his creative practice and entrepreneurial spirit to show that while not all new music is for everyone, there exists new music for everyone.
Lingbo Ma is a Chinese-born, US-based composer and pianist whose work has been performed in the USA, China, and Europe. She strives for unique ways of reaching the ultimate simplicity and clarity while unfolding diverse narratives in her music. She has worked with Attacca Quartet, librettists Hannah McDermott and John de los Santos, Seattle's Lowbrow Opera Collective, and has received commissions from Boston's Collage New Music, New York's National Sawdust, Dutch National Opera, Cantilena Choir, saxophonist Kenneth Radnofsky, Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Music Festival, among others. In addition to composing, Lingbo enjoys arranging music of all genres and performs frequently as a collaborative pianist.
Lingbo obtained her Master of Music from the Juilliard School, and is now a doctoral candidate at New England Conservatory. Her composition mentors are Kati Agócs, Robert Beaser, Michael Gandolfi, and Chris Theofanidis.
Described as “a hugely prolific musician with a wide variety of skill sets” (newmusicbuff.com), Keane Southard (b. 1987) is a composer and pianist who believes deeply in the power of music to inspire positive change in the world. Compositions illustrating this belief include ones that advocate for nonviolence (Where Do We Go from Here?) environmental conservation (An Appalachian Trail Symphony: New England), and positive social change (Do You Hear How Many You Are?). Proclaimed as “a terrific discovery” (Bandworld Magazine) and “highly-professional and well-orchestrated” (Portland Press Herald), his music features a wide range of styles and approaches from traditional to experimental, systematic to free, and sacred to secular. He has been a recipient of many awards, most recently a residency at the Copland House and winner of the St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra Third International Composer Competition (Lithuania). He has been a fellow at the INK STILL WET composer/conductor workshop at the Grafenegg Festival (Austria), the Intimacy of Creativity (Hong Kong), and the Bennington Chamber Music Conference. As a Fulbright Scholar, he conducted research on music education in Brazil and has also taught at Bennington College and Nazareth College. Keane earned his Ph.D. in composition from the Eastman School of Music.
Ethan Resnik is a composer and pianist who evokes personal stories, memories, and meaningful experiences through music, while using his synesthetic associations to add depth and color to his sound. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree with high distinction from the Eastman School of Music and is currently pursuing his Master of Music Degree at Rice University, Shepherd School of Music.
His music has been performed and recorded by ensembles across the globe, including HYPERCUBE, Sandbox Percussion, Tacet(i) Ensemble, Four Corners Ensemble, American Modern Ensemble, Transient Canvas, Texas New Music Ensemble, Eastman Horn Choir, The Rhythm Method String Quartet, Quartetto Zuena, North/South Chamber Orchestra, Akron Symphonic Winds, Mostly Modern Ensemble, Penn State Horn Ensemble, Bermuda Piano Trio, and the Mettis Quartet. He has also written for artists including Jo-Ann-Sternberg, Dino Mulic, Zachary Feingold, Peter Dugan, and Thomas Kraines.
Besides music, Ethan is an avid roller coaster enthusiast, enjoys traveling, hiking, going to beaches, and world geography. His current goals include trying to memorize the location and capital city of every country and territory in the world, all of which he hopes to visit one day.
Emily R. Robison
Emily R. Robison (b. 1986) is a composer known for rhythmically driven works that explore texture, timbre, and performer agency. The music that she finds most interesting to compose incorporates extended techniques, improvisation, and unconventional notation – inviting performers into a collaborative and exploratory role. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in music performance and composition from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and a Master’s degree in composition from Brigham Young University. Her works have been performed across the United States and Canada. As a mother of six, Robison is an advocate for musicians who gave their time to raising families instead of careers who are trying to find a place in the arts world when they are ready to return. Living in this situation for the last 13 years (with more to go), she hopes to be able to create a supportive foundation that gives these parents a starting point to begin anew on their pursuit of a career in the arts after they have given a meaningful sacrifice to raise the future generation.
Dr. Roydon Tse Named one of CBC Music’s Top “30 under 30” Canadian classical musicians in 2017, composer Dr. Roydon Tse writes music that bridges cultures, drawing on shared human experience, climate, and our evolving cultural landscape.
His recent works have been performed by leading ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Macao Orchestra, Esprit Orchestra, and Tapestry Opera. His recent concerto Restless World Anew was co-commissioned by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra and the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. In 2025, the Asian Youth Orchestra toured his work Illuminate across nine cities in China, Taiwan, and Japan.
Tse’s music has also been presented by the Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Brussels, Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Brno Philharmonics, among others. His work has received numerous honors, including seven SOCAN Foundation Awards, Washington International Composition Prize, Johanna Metcalf Performing Arts Prize, Chalmers Arts Fellowship, and the Lori Davies Composition Award.
He studied piano in the UK and composition at the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto. He is Assistant Professor of Composition & Theory at the University of Saskatchewan.
With a focus on vocal writing, Gregory Zavracky has composed numerous art songs and song cycles, three operas, and several works for chorus and chamber ensemble. He endeavors to craft lyrical melodies that bring out the beauty of the voice, underscored by intriguing, evocative harmonies and textures that borrow from a range of classical and vernacular styles. A two-time finalist for the NATS Art Song Award for his song cycles Slabs of the Sunburnt West and Sea Garden, his music has been recently performed by the Cantata Singers, at the Music at Norway Pond and Calliope’s Call recital series, the Cotuit and Highland Centers for the Arts, Wellesley College, Virginia Tech, Smith College, and Boston University. An album of his art songs, “Chant in a Wail,” was released in May 2025 on the Grammy-winning Navona Records label. More of his compositions can be heard at soundcloud.com/greg-zavracky.
Gregory earned a DMA in voice performance from Boston University, where he also studied composition with Ketty Nez. He holds two Masters in Music degrees from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Arts from Emory University. He is an assistant professor of voice at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, a member of the voice faculty at Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and an actively performing tenor. For more information, please visit www.gregoryzavracky.com.
BNMI Salon Series
The Boston New Music Initiative Salon Series is a meeting where members will have the opportunity to present their works in a panel-style discussion to other composers and a general audience, with moderation by BNMI staff. Once a year, both presenters and audience are invited to participate in a "Exquisite Corpse" group composition project for instrumentation decided upon by the attendees.
In 2025, participants included Bill Taylor [measures 1-10], An Vedi [measures 11– 20], Melika M. Fitzhugh [measures 21-30], Deborah Yardley Beers [measures 31-40] , Stan Cohen [measures 41-50], and Chris Kolakowski [measures 51-60].
