Bouman composer Fellows

Dylan Trần (he/they) (born 1994) is a multi-media artist based out of New Orleans, LA. Praised for “an entirely refreshing and distinct compositional voice” (CAI), Dylan views music as a form of world-building, poignantly evoking nuanced atmospheres within an intimately expressive writing style.

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Unrestrained by genre, Dylan’s work explores many themes: mental health, generational trauma, inner child work, diasporas, identity, class, gender, family dynamics, redefining home, fostering joy, and more.

Outside of music, Dylan is passionate about building community, eating, languages, film and TV, DEI, education, travel, amateur skateboarding, recreational frisbee, photography, videography, new experiences, nature, and spending time with family and friends. 

Xenia St. Charles Iris Llyllyth (born 2000) is a composer, violinist, singer, and improviser who is obsessed with integrating love, social identity, politics, and the collaborative spirit with music to make the world a better place. Her personal identities and experiences as a trans woman are integral to her music, and she hopes that by being open and honest about her life, she can foster more love and acceptance of trans people and trans experiences.

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Xenia is frequently inspired by recklessness: the reckless beauty of nature, the reckless musical stunts of Rushad Eggleston, the reckless virtuosity of performers, the reckless fabulousness of Richard Bobo’s bizarre-instrument-making, the reckless desire to try new things, and the reckless kindness of her friends. When she’s not making music, Xenia can be found sleeping, spending time with loved ones, learning about linguistics or geography, or doing variant Sudoku puzzles with zero given digits. Her mentors have included Kristin Kuster, Ellen Harrison, Matt Albert, Stephen Rush, Roshanne Etezady, Lina Bahn, and William White.

Silen Wellington (they/them) is a sculptor of sound, artist of people, storyteller, witch, genderqueer shapeshifter, mercurial name collector, and lover, among other things. Avidly interdisciplinary, they like to combine music with other art mediums, be that spoken word, visual art, ritual performance, loud and fiery eye contact, otherworldly and melting trysts, or something else entirely. They have a BM in Music Composition and a BA in Psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder, and are the 2019 SEAMUS Allen Strange Award recipient. Internationally performed from Invercargill, Aotearoa New Zealand to Hyderabad, India, they have participated in festivals and residencies such as Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and Connecticut Summerfest, and won competitions from Denver’s Ars Nova, the Playground Ensemble, and others. Their work has been performed in gardens whispering delightful fae dances to the trans-ancestors that escape definition, featured boys in dresses next to saxophones, unveiled prescription label collages amid chaotic soundscapes of dysphoria, danced nonbinary shadow puppets behind sheets of rainbow light, and given permission to intramuscular hormone injections under expansive life-giving harmonics. Silen currently lives in Cheyenne, Arapaho & Ute lands where they work in peer support advocacy & suicide prevention for LGBTQIA+ youth. Besides writing music & hanging out with Gen Z gender aliens, they enjoy writing poetry, harvesting stories, unhinged-unfettered-unapologetic dance, and falling in love.

Theo Baer (a.k.a iT Boy) is a Brooklyn-based composer and performer. His work is the result of a diverse musical upbringing and journey towards emotional healing as a Black and trans artist. These compositions illustrate an intimate and vulnerable narrative channeled through the manipulation of tape loops, synthesizers, keyboards, and other analog electronic voices. His most recent release, Prehensile Tales (2010-2020) recounts and concludes the first decade of sounds from iT Boy through a new collection of live performances and unreleased recordings.

My name is Rebecca Bracewell, and I’m a composer based in Melbourne, Australia, originally from Canada. In my music, I like to explore the very personal ways that people perceive sound, and the complex histories that we bring to our listening. Though layering and collaging various sounds together, I endeavour to tangle and untangle these little histories.

My love for composing began at the age of seven, when I started to create miniature piano pieces. Later, I was lucky to come across the chromatic accordion and embarked on a classical education with renowned accordionist Jelena Milojevic. In 2016, I played as a soloist with the Victoria Symphony in Canada, as part of an annual event called the Symphony Splash. While I will forever be indebted to my classical performance education, I felt that I was happier behind the scenes when experimenting with sound.

This eventually inspired me to take up a composition degree at Monash University, where I have since been introduced to a wonderfully wide range of compositional methodologies. In 2018, my string quartet, Little Black Fish, won the Pizzicato Effect Competition, and was later performed by the Meadows Primary School youth ensemble. Currently, I am completing my first EP of experimental hearing aid music, a work made entirely from recordings of hearing aid feedback, which will be released in early February.

Hello, my name is Sheldon Thwaites and  I am a Caribbean-American percussionist, specializing in Drum Set and Steel Pan. The Drumset was my first love, but after pursuing music at the high school level, I transitioned into composition, arranging & production.

I  have  recorded and toured with Chris Daughtry, Lauryn Hill, Amel Larrieux, Cobi, Marina Satti, and U.S. steel bands PanLara. I have also played drums internationally for world-renowned steel bands Witco Desperadoes, Phase II Pan Groove, and Skiffle Bunch. I have been afforded the opportunity to study drum-set with Terri Lynn Carrington, John Blackwell, & Dave Dicenso at Berklee College of Music.

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www.th8aites.com

I am a composer-vocalist from Tokyo, Japan. Since an early age, I have always been involved in the performing arts through playing the piano, dancing modern ballet, and singing. When I was twelve, my family and I moved to live in Jakarta, Indonesia.

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While this transition was extremely tough for me to take on the language and cultural barriers, it became a pivotal experience to find music as a powerful vehicle to express myself and communicate with others. My breadth of work spans chamber ensemble, multimedia, electronic and vocal music. My works have been presented at the Composers Conference, Atlantic Music Festival, and soundSCAPE. I am currently pursuing M.M. in Composition at the University of Michigan.

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akarikomuramusic.com

Hello! My name is Mason Bynes and I am a composer and trained vocalist from Sugar Land, TX. In a post- modern tradition, I enjoy pulling from various stylistic sources, blurring the line between traditionalism and modernism. In my work, I also like to focus on what physical/sensory factors contribute to an audience’s shared listening experience. I received my undergraduate degree at the University of North Texas, with a Bachelor of Music in Composition.    

This fall, I will be studying at The Boston Conservatory as a master's student. During my undergraduate studies, I collaborated in projects for commercial music, concert music and media. As a film composer, I have written music for numerous short film projects under the mentorship of film composers Bruce Broughton and Drew Schnurr.    

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As a vocalist, I’ve composed work for a cappella group, The Green Tones, who performed my music in competition for the International Championship of Collegiate A Capella. In addition to a music video, my music for this project is to be released internationally on iTunes and Spotify in 2019. Recently, my concert music has been featured on WWFM- The Classical Network in Trenton, New Jersey and on Lumediaworks 24-hour broadcast. Myself and my other projects have also appeared in different interviews with The Denton Chronicle, The North Texan Magazine, CBS, NBC-DFW and  Fox 4 News.

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www.masonbynes.com

My interest in music began with stints as a guitarist for various metal/hardcore bands during my teenage years. This eventually led to recording three full-length albums as one of the main songwriters for the Texas hardcore/punk band Close Your Eyes on the Chicago-based label, Victory Records. My history as a performer in the hardcore scene sculpts the core of my musical identity.  

Having spent over three years touring the country, I developed a passion for the DIY scene which continues to guide my musical compass. The embedded experiences of performing intense and passionate music night after night have led to developing a musical language that I feel is both raw and dramatically expressive. Throughout my career as a composer, I have remained active in the indie music scene both as a songwriter and producer.  

These three avenues (composing, songwriting, and producing) often intersect at a junction where I tend to find my voice as an artist. Having built my career on writing and performing music with close friends and collaborators, I am eager to develop long-lasting relationships with artists and musicians that share the same vision of collaboration. 

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www.andrewmrodriguez.com

The goal of my music is to take roots of expression and find a new paths of communication through them. In that vein, I often draw from source materials that relate to the human voice, whether they be found text or conversational speech patterns, and try to replicate them through another medium in some form.

Experimenting with timbre and texture, specifically exploring intimate and fragile sounds, is also a large contributing factor to my work. I love taking sounds that are not usually related to a performative musical act, and repurposing them in a musical way. Removing a sound from its original environment and repurposing it into a musical one helps me achieve the “hand-made” sound I am often looking for: imperfect, but intentional. 

Through my music, I want to show that vulnerability and intimacy can be synonymous with strength and power. I aim to uncover a means of bringing people closer together, and of making people more aware of the world around them.    

I am currently working in Brooklyn as a freelance composer, a label assistant for Cantaloupe Music, and an audio apprentice for Roulette Intermedium. I hold a BM degree in Composition from Illinois State University and an MM degree in Composition from the University of Illinois.

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www.cassiewieland.com