kinds of kings COMPOSING FOR PERCUSSION SCHOLARS 2021
Jamey J Guzman
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Jamey J Guzman is a composer, librettist, and artist-activist from Sacramento, California. In her music, Jamey explores identity and interpersonal connection, philosophy and humanity, and the unashamed pursuit of wonder. A firm believer in the unmatched power of art to enact social change, she strives to illuminate themes such as female empowerment, racial equity, climate action, gender and sexuality, and mental health awareness in her work. Also a devoted performer on flute and piccolo, Jamey is in-demand as a specialist in contemporary chamber music, frequently premiering and championing new works; she finds this deep exposure to a myriad of musical styles a core inspiration in her own music.
Jamey is currently pursuing studies in composition and flute performance at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, where her main professors have been Dr. Don Freund, Dr. Tansy Davies, and Dr. P.Q. Phan. She is also a four-time alumna of Really Spicy Opera’s Aria Institute for Composers and Librettists, studying under Dr. Basil Considine. In the past year, Jamey has seen seven premieres from her arias and scenes, was a featured composer at the N.E.O. Voice Festival in Los Angeles, and received a commission from New Voices Opera for their 2022 mainstage.
Ky Nam Nguyen
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Ky Nam Nguyen (b. 1996) is passionate about creating music that bridges cultures and transcends boundaries. Since she started composing music during her college years, she has been combining her Vietnamese spirit with the strong influences of Western classical education that she received from early childhood.
In Ky Nam’s recent compositions, she explores larger forms with a variety of new musical languages and techniques while continuing to embrace the stories and voices of her homeland. She incorporates the music ofÄ‘àn tranh (Vietnamese zither) with the Western orchestra in The Nine Dragons. Her multi-movement choral work, Buddhist Poems from Vietnam, includes the English translation of poems written by respected Vietnamese monks of the Medieval era. In the 2020 Women Composers Festival of Hartford, she premiered the string quartet Fantasia on the Theme of “LÆ°u Thuá»·,” based on Vietnamese traditional chamber music and inspired by the democratic movements in the modern East and Southeast Asia. In April 2021, her work for chamber orchestra Through the Daughter Eyes was premiered at North Park University as a dedication to Gianna Floyd, her father George Floyd, and victims of gun and racial violence in the United States.
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She is one of the founders of Germer Team, a non-profit organization aimed at introducing Western classical music to Vietnamese youth. Since 2019, Ky Nam has been pursuing her MM in Composition and Piano Performance at Texas Tech University under the tutelage of Dr. Jennifer Jolley and Dr. Tatiana Mann.
Max Gibson
Max Gibson is a composer, sound artist, poet, improvisor, and educator currently in New Haven, CT. A graduate of Wesleyan University, USA, and the University of Birmingham, UK, his work is informed by transatlantic experimentalism and focuses on exploring concepts and approaches to musicking, expanded time, sound massing, drones, the act of listening, and an engagement with configuring the space of performance and spectatorship through multimodal approaches to composition. He has worked with many musicians, from amateur to professional, with performances in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Turkey, the USA, and across the UK.
Sophie Mathieu
Composer-performer Sophie Mathieu has won numerous awards for her work writing music for diverse mediums. Her music explores concepts of vastness, timelessness, and ethereality. Collaboration is a key facet of her artistic practice. Sophie is a first year masters student at the University of Texas at Austin, studying with Yevgeniy Sharlat and Russell Podgorsek. She completed her undergraduate at the University of Southern California, studying with Ted Hearne, Andrew Norman, and Donald Crockett, and earning the distinction of “Outstanding Graduate in Composition” when she finished her studies. Recently, Sophie earned an honorable mention in ASCAP’s Morton Gould Awards for her orchestra piece, moons. In addition to composing, Sophie plays cello, frequently performing her own works and those of her colleagues. Outside of music, she loves to cook, watch psychological horror films, and play Sid Meier’s Civilization V.