Episodes

  • 3.15 - Mary Bichner

    3.15 - Mary Bichner
    May 19 2026

    Mary Bichner (b. 1982) is an American orchestral composer of opera and ballet with sound-to-color synesthesia — a neurological condition that allows her to “see” splashes of specific colors when she hears their corresponding pitches sounded. Her work has appeared in publications such as National Geographic, BBC Music Magazine [UK], La Nouvelle Republique [France], and on NPR; and she has collaborated artistically with numerous organizations in the United States, France, and Greece. Noted commissions and projects include serving as composer-in-residence at The Vasilicos of Santorini, Greece (where she was commissioned to compose a new string quartet work inspired by the colors of the world-famous Santorini sunset); serving a two-year composer residency at the historic Mount Auburn Cemetery of Cambridge, MA, USA (where she was commissioned to compose two orchestral suites inspired by the cemetery's breathtaking landscape and landmarks); serving as composer-in-residence at The Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico and Marble House Project of Vermont; and more. She has recently finished her first full-length opera, "The Memoirs of Antonina", inspired by Marie Antoinette.

    https://www.marybichner.com
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    55 mins
  • 3.14. - Martin Hebel

    3.14. - Martin Hebel
    May 12 2026

    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 global challenges with socially-conscious music to spark positive change and strengthen communities. 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.

    Hebel’s music has been performed by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as a winner of the American Composers Orchestra EarShot program, and by Columbus Symphony in Ohio, Riverside Symphony in NYC, Filharmonie Brno in the Czech Republic, and the Lincoln Trio, among others, at renowned venues across the U.S. and Europe including NYC’s DiMenna Center for Classical Music, Cincinnati Music Hall, and the Ohio Theater in Columbus, Ohio.

    With discography published by Ablaze Records, Centaur Records, and the USAF Band of the Golden West, Hebel’s portfolio includes orchestral and wind ensemble works, instrumental and vocal chamber music, choral music, multimedia compositions, and collaborations with other artists.

    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.

    PRO Membership: ASCAP - American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers

    https://www.martinhebel.com
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    1 hr and 2 mins
  • 3.13 - Eric Lane Barnes

    3.13 - Eric Lane Barnes
    May 5 2026
    My name is Eric Lane Barnes. I am a composer, writer, lyricist, pianist, director, conductor, performer, teacher, and advocate for LGBTQ rights.I live to explore all the ways music can connect people with themselves, with one another, and with the world around them.

    https://store.bookbaby.com/book/the-museum-of-really-interesting-things1

    https://www.ericlanebarnes.com
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • 3.12 Evan VanDoren

    3.12 Evan VanDoren
    Apr 28 2026

    Evan VanDoren is an in-demand music composer regularly commissioned to create engaging & award-winning music for marching bands and concert ensembles at all skill levels. Evan’s music is regularly performed around the country, including premiere performances at the Texas Music Educators Association Convention and the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic. In 2025, Evan was recognized as a National Finalist for The American Prize in Composition for his works, Luminosities & Prophetic Dances.

    Evan serves as the brass composer & arranger for the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps, based in Santa Clara, California. Additionally, Evan is an active clinician and has presented for Drum Corps International, the Music Educators National Convention, the Texas Bandmasters Association, the Texas Music Educators Association, and Music for All. He regularly consults with music programs nationwide.

    Before devoting his life to creating music, Evan was a band director at Cedar Park High School in Cedar Park, Texas. During that time, the band was awarded multiple marching state championships and national recognition. He received a Bachelor's in Music Education with Honors from Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Currently, he lives in Cedar Park, Texas, with his wife, Katie, daughters Anna & Sara, and their dog, Cooper.

    https://www.evanvandoren.com
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    56 mins
  • 3.11 - Mark Simpson

    3.11 - Mark Simpson
    Apr 21 2026
    Mark Simpson (b. 1988) is a UK-based composer of an acclaimed body of work and an internationally-renowned clarinettist, whose programmes champion music new and old. His music for the stage, orchestra, voices, and chamber forces has been celebrated by leading conductors, instrumentalists, and ensembles ; across a myriad of forms, poetic intensity is matched by technical assurance and expressive generosity.Much of Simpson’s music takes place after dark. When Simpson finished his chamber opera Pleasure the clock read five am. Pleasure is set in the toilets of a gay nightclub. In that nocturnal space confessions are made and lives come into focus; it sees Simpson unleash music of mystery and abandon by turns. Night Music was the title of a taut and elusive disc of chamber works released in 2016 on NMC.The somnolent world of dream and hallucination has shaped numerous pieces: Israfel for orchestra comes from the candle-burning poetry of Edgar Allan Poe; two works under the title Darkness Moves - for clarinet (2016) and horn (2024) respectively - take their names from the hallucinogenic imagination of Henri Michaux. The Immortal , an oratorio, finds a creative wellspring in the induced trances of Victorian mediums and occultists, who drew the curtains, lit the candles, and tried to channel the spirit world. Simpson has long come alive at night - as a youngster in Liverpool attending concerts at the Philharmonic Hall he sneaked into the Royal Box with his friends after the house lights went down. Listening to his music is not far from taking his hand in a séance.As the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year prizes in 2006, Simpson’s career has always reflected the indivisibility of his composing and performing selves. This national acclaim led to a precocious Wigmore Hall debut, as well as his first major works as a composer, now published worldwide by Boosey & Hawkes. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Oxford, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Julian Anderson.A stint as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship Award-winner followed, succeeded in turn by a position as BBC Philharmonic Composer-in-Association. He composed sparks for the 2012 Last Night of the Proms. A debut chamber opera Pleasure (2016), to a libretto by Melanie Challenger, was commissioned by Opera North, Britten-Pears Arts, and the Royal Opera House.Israfel premiered with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Andrew Litton in 2014. The 12-minute piece evokes a Koranic angel imagined by Edgar Allan Poe, whose heart strings are a lute and who sings with the utmost sweetness. It captures Simpson’s fascination with the otherworldly, and, as its subject is a lyre, recalls Orpheus, the source of all music. “I wanted to write a piece that sang, floated, morphed, moved, moved us, lifted us, had power, had fragility, had hope, uncertainty, beauty”, Simpson writes. Its opening sets out the liquid transformations and elevated sensuality that preoccupy his work.Whilst his music searches out transcendental territories, Simpson’s demotic opera Pleasure turns back to the guts of the world. The touring debut production, directed by Tim Albery, saw Lesley Garrett play a toilet cleaner in a gay nightclub who sees, channels, and sings the largest of feelings, meeting a pair of lost souls and a ketchup-covered drag queen. “It turns out to be the perfect operatic subject”, Alfred Hickling wrote in The Guardian, “squalid and earthbound yet imbued with a radiant, almost mythic quality.” It received its German premiere in 2023 at Theater Erfurt.Simpson’s tone poem A mirror-fragment (2008), written for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, was his first exploration of Melanie Challenger’s writing, inspired by the opening poem of her collection Galatea. At 11 minutes, A mirror-fragment opens concerts rather than collections of poetry, and captures a style that is both nervily present and plugged into the depthless, mythic past. It was unfinished artistic business. Simpsons suggested the scenario for Pleasure the first night they met - another nocturnal mission.The Immortal arose in turn. Commissioned by the Manchester International Festival and premiered by the BBC Philharmonic, Manchester Chamber Choir, EXAUDI, and baritone Mark Stone, it is is an anguished forty minute span, drawing on texts from the Society of Psychical Research, showing the contortions of the spirit as it confronts the abyss of mortality; The Guardian called it an “anti-Gerontius”. Its ‘Lachrymosa’ sees strings and voices wrung out as exhausted tears flow, before a wounded baritone solo. It won the Southbank Sky Arts Award for classical music in 2016. The same searching quality belongs to his motet Ave Maria (2016), written for ORA Singers, and featured on their album Stella - fitful music of a sleepless ...
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    58 mins
  • 3.10 - Kira Zeeman Rugen

    3.10 - Kira Zeeman Rugen
    Apr 14 2026
    Dr. Kira Zeeman Rugen is a composer, conductor, academic professor, and professional soprano from Scottsdale, Arizona. Kira currently serves as the Director of Choral and Vocal Activities as a residential faculty member at Scottsdale Community College. Now in her twenty-eighth year as a music educator, she conducts Concert Choir and ArtieVox (Jazz Vocal Ensemble) at Scottsdale Community College and is the music director for Musical Theater. Previously, she worked as the Director of Choral Activities and Musical Director for Musical Theater at Arizona Christian University. Before that, she worked at Grand Canyon University, teaching Music History, Conducting, and Fundamentals of Music and Culture for Diverse Learners. As a Faculty Associate at Arizona State University, Kira conducted Choral Union, a 100+-member community choir, and Schola Cantorum, a SATB choir, predominantly for music majors. ​As a composer, Kira’s choral compositions (found at the Fred Bock Group/Gentry Publications and MusicSpoke.com, Sheet Music Plus, Direct Music Plus, and JW Pepper) have been performed worldwide. She is a 2022 winner in the HerVoice Music Composition Competition in Chicago and was mentored by Chen Yi as a part of that prize. She was recently named the 3rd Place Winner in The American Prize, professional choral composition division, an Honorary Mention for The American Prize pops division, and a multi-finalist for The American Prize and the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for Performance of American Music competition. Kira’s choral compositions have been featured and commissioned by ensembles such as Vancouver Youth Chorus under Carrie Tennant, AdVocem in Poland under Michael Malec, Resonance of Singapore conducted by Toh Ban Sheng, Phoenix Children’s Chorus under Troy Meeker, Phoenix Boys Chorus under Herbert Washington, Reveille Men’s Chorus under Keith Koster, Chandler Children’s Chorus under Aimee Stewart, Northwest Oklahoma State University Singers under Dr. Karsten Longhurst, CU Boulder Chamber Singers under Dr. Greg Gentry, THE CHORAL PROJECT under Daniel Hughes, Cor Cantiamo under Dr. Eric Johnson, Phoenix Chamber Choir under Dr. Nicholle Andrews, Kansas City Chorale under Charles Bruffy, Orpheus Men’s Choir under Dr. Brook Larson, Pinnacle Presbyterian’s Chancel Choir under Dr. Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler, Carolyn Eynon Singers, Phoenix Chorale under Christopher Gabbitas and the Master Chorale of Flagstaff under Dr. Tom Peterson. In November 2017, Kira traveled to France to conduct the premiere of her composition, Saint-Brieuc Magnificat, with the Saint-Brieuc Cathedral Children and Youth Choir. Under the direction of their conductor, Goulven Airault, the choir went on to perform the work for the Pueri Cantors in Congrès de Barcelone and on tour in the cathedrals Saint-Malo de Dinan, Sainte-Croix de Sant Malo, Saint-Martin de Janze, Saint Sauveur La Rochelle, Sanctuaire de Rocamadour, and Castell de Callonge. Kira truly enjoys her work as a film composer, and her film scores have won awards at over fifty worldwide film festivals. Kira is the Artistic Director and founder of Solis - Choir of the Sun, a professional choir. Initially composed of ASU students, Kira transformed the group from an amateur collegiate choir into a fully paid professional vocal ensemble in the Phoenix area. Now in their fifteenth season, Solis collaborations include high-profile performances with Andrea Bocelli in Live Concert, The Eagles Hotel California Tour, Zelda, Symphony of the Goddesses, Distant Worlds: Music from Final Fantasy, plus performing with composer Ramin Djawadi for the Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience. Additionally, they have performed with Irish band The Chieftains and were invited to perform at the American Choral Directors Association Conference in Pasadena, California. Solis continues to perform throughout the valley in local arts concert series, focusing primarily on early music and contemporary choral premieres. In addition to her work as a conductor and composer, Kira has amassed extensive experience as a soprano soloist. She is noted as having an “angelic and supple” and “haunting” sound. She has performed with Norvis Early Music in Durham, England; at Carnegie Hall’s Young Artist Concert Series under Ton Koopman; at Korea’s Incheon International Choral Festival; and she toured with Anúna (Ireland’s National Choir) under Michael McGlynn throughout Ireland, Japan and China. Kira is a soloist on the album, From Graceful Fields, released by Canyon Records, featuring the eleven-time Grammy Award nominee, R. Carlos Nakai, on Native American flute. She sang for several seasons with Arizona Opera and Utah Opera. Kira is in her 21st season as a soprano with the Phoenix Chorale, with whom she has won two Grammy Awards. Kira is a soloist on their Spotless Rose album, which won a Grammy for Best Small Ensemble in February 2009. Kira sang on the Phoenix Chorale’s albums Northern Lights ...
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • 3.9 - Dawn Sonntag

    3.9 - Dawn Sonntag
    Apr 7 2026
    Olympia, Washington based composer Dawn Sonntag’s music has been called “hauntingly lyrical,” “profound,” and “freshly relevant.” Her works have been performed by ensembles and soloists across the U.S. and in Europe, including Burning River Baroque, the Delgani Quartet, the Ensign Chorus and Orchestra in Seattle, the Cleveland Chamber Chorus, the Choral Arts Ensemble of Portland, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the Cleveland Opera Theater, and many more.Her art songs have been widely performed in recital and are included in recordings by sopranos Michelle Murray Viertek (Every Tiny Thing) and Megan Ihnen (Currents in Time) and by Burning River Baroque duo Malina Rauschenfels and Paula Most, who commissioned the cycle Loves Poems in the Time of Climate Change. Her music has been broadcast on public radio in Ohio and Oregon and is published by Carl Fischer, North Star Music, and Dagny Press.ased on the true story East Prussian refugees during World War II, Sonntag’s first opera, Verlorene Heimat (Lost Homeland), was awarded Honorable Mention in the 2021 American Prize for Opera, Musical Theater, Dance, and Film composition. Her opera For Life, with a libretto by Harvard-trained psychologist Kermit Cole, was commissioned for the Cleveland Opera’s Operas in Place Festival, which won the 2023 Opera America Award for Digital Excellence in Artistic Creation.Sonntag was selected as the Commissioned Composer of the Year for the Music Teachers National Association state chapters in both Ohio (2010) and Washington State (2021). She won the Inge Pitler Prize for lied performance in both piano (1998) and voice (1999). As winner of the Kenwood Symphony Masters Concerto and Aria competition in Minneapolis, she performed the orchestrated art songs of Edvard Grieg.Sonntag has been the recipient of an American-Scandinavian Foundation grant; a Foreign Language Area Studies fellowship to study advanced Norwegian in Oslo, Norway; and a Swedish government international cultural fellowship as a resident composer at the International Centre for Composers in Visby, Sweden.She has conducted college, university, community, and church choirs across the U.S. and in Germany and Norway, including the Heidelberg International Choir; the Chor des Collegium Artium in Heidelberg; the Oslo International Summer School Choir; the Leif Eriksson International Choir in Minneapolis; and the Hiram College Chamber Singers and Western Reserve Women’s Chorus, which she founded. Sonntag has also conducted orchestral works as a participant in European conducting master classes in Berlin and Bacau, Rumania.Sonntag holds a Doctor of Musical Arts Degree from the University of Minnesota, where she studied composition with Alex Lubet, voice with Wendy Zaro, and choral conducting with Kathy Salzman Romey. She received her Master of Music at Ohio State University under the tutelage of Hilary Apfelstadt, conducting, Eileen Davis, voice, and Seymour Fink, piano.A self-taught pianist until the age of eighteen, she began studying trumpet at age nine. She completed most of her undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, studying trumpet with Wayne Cook, piano with Armand Basile, voice performance with Yolanda Marculescu, and collaborative piano with Jeffrey Peterson, counterpoint with John Downey, and choral arranging with Yehuda Yanay while working as a pianist for the Milwaukee Ballet, conducting church choirs, and teaching privately. After relocating to San Antonio and then El Paso, Texas, she completed her Bachelor of Music in voice performance at the University of Texas at El Paso.Currently Sonntag is Director of Music at Westminster Presbyterian Church and a teaches music composition at Pacific Lutheran University. She has served on the faculties of Gonzaga University, where she taught music theory and composition; the University of St. Catherine in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she taught music theory and accompanied the choir; and Hiram College, where she served as Department Chair for several years and taught composition, theory, private lessons in voice, piano, and composition, music history, music entrepreneurship, study abroad courses, and conducted the choirs. She also held graduate teaching assistantships at the University of Minnesota and the Ohio State University. In Germany, she taught English as a Second Language at several language schools, including the Volkshochschule Heidelberg and the Heidelberg Institut für Fremdsprache. She also has extensive experience as a church musician.In addition to her activities as a composer and performer, Sonntag has been actively involved in environmental and human rights advocacy. Her successful battle to stop a Washington State commission from building a mega airport in rural Western Washington is described in her forthcoming book, Nothing but Trees. She is an avid hiker, cyclist, and kayaker.https://dawnsonntag.com
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    48 mins
  • April Fools - John Pasternak Takeover

    April Fools - John Pasternak Takeover
    Apr 1 2026

    Jason Nitsch’s music is equally at home on the concert stage, in outdoor venues, and streaming online, reaching the broadest audience of musicians, performers, and music enthusiasts possible. As a composer dedicated to the exploration of new ideas, his music has evolved over a 25-year career to incorporate more and more non-traditional elements, such as effect tracks, sound drops, and enveloping electroacoustic works combining live and pre-recorded elements. Much of his work is rooted in a large ensemble context; his wind ensemble works have received thousands of performances throughout the US including at Midwest, State Music Conferences including Texas, Colorado, and Kentucky Music Educators Associations, Colleges and Universities like Baylor University, the University of North Texas, and Syracuse University, and at other regional music festivals (ITEA).

    In recent years Jason has focused on more intimate chamber musical settings, including collaborations with solo musicians such as trumpeter Kate Amrine , Cellist Carolyn Regula (The Cello Doll) and vocalist Michaela Catapano, as well as chamber groups across the US (Chicago Brass Choir), while continuing expand his sizable catalog of works for larger instrumental forces.

    Jason is well known for his work as an educator, dedicated to providing young promising musicians with the foundational experiences on which a lifetime of music-making can be built, and is pursuing research into the ways that music students process their experiences as learners and performers.

    Combining his long career in music with a deep love of science fiction and a natural talent for storytelling, Jason recently launched his first podcast, “Beyond the Belt: Adventures from the Outer Rim.” “Beyond the Belt” is a collection of 8 original dramatic science fiction episodes for which he served as writer, producer, and composer. It tells the story of a scientific research experiment gone horribly wrong. With Zombies (of course!).

    Jason has released three digital albums in recent years, including the Season One Soundtrack from the Beyond the Belt podcast, “1000 Steps to Nowhere", a collection of chamber music compositions, and most recently “The Dead Teach the Living,” featuring nine vocal collaborations ranging from solo works to Orchestral compositions. The title track was named a finalist for the 2025 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, earning an Honorable Mention.

    Jason is a lover of dogs, video games, and all things Star Wars (yes, even the prequels). He is also a husband, father of two budding musicians, and a patron of art forms that stretch traditional boundaries.

    He currently lives in Waxhachie, TX with his family. He can occasionally be sighted lurking at select music conferences.

    www.jasonnitsch.com
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    1 hr and 33 mins