Soprano/vocalist Nina Dante is a soloist, chamber musician, improviser and composer based in New York City. Musical experimentation and the continual discovery of the voice's technical ability and emotive power are the inspiring forces behind her work.

Hailed for her "amazing performance of vocal versatility by a uniquely gifted young artist" (Chicago Classical Review), Dante has performed at Resonant Bodies Festival, BAM, Lampo, Issue Project Room, Roulette, the Kitchen, National Sawdust, the University of Chicago's Contempo, Performa, Indexical, Visiones Sonoras, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo, the Experimental Sound Studio, New Music Miami, the Latino Music Festival, the Frequency Festival, Festival Interfaz, the Poetry Foundation, and the Renaissance Society, among others.

Dante is co-founder, manager and soprano of the avant garde chamber ensemble Fonema Consort. With Fonema and as a soloist, Dante has given been in residence and given performances at Oberlin Conservatory, Harvard University, UC Berkeley, Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, Scripps College, UNAM, the 113 Composers Collective, and New England Conservatory, among others.

Dante's recent compositions have been featured on the Resonant Bodies Festival, Indexical, the Center for New Music, the 113 Twin Cities New Music Festival and the Essential Indexical recent release Early MMXVIII.

Chicago-based Costa Rican flutist Dalia Chin is a founding member of Fonema Consort and the Chicago Composers Orchestra, both of which are dedicated to performing music by living composers. She has been in residence and given performances at institutions including New England Conservatory, the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Oberlin Conversarory, Harvard University, the Universidad de Costa Rica, Scripps College, UNAM (Mexico City), the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, the 113 Composers Collective and North Central College. She has performed in festival and at venues including Visiones Sonoras (Morela), the Florida Flute Convention, Festival Interfaz (Monterrey), Omaha Under the Radar, the Ear Taxi Festival, the Festival Internacional de Chihuahua, the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporaneo ( Mexico City), the Teatro Sucre (Quito), the City of Chicago's Pritzker Pavilion, and National Sawdust. 

She has performed Pablo Chin's flute concerto Inside the Shell with the Chicago Composers Orchestra, the Costa Rica Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia, and the University of Wisconsin Whitewater Orchestra. She is the featured soloist on the recently released album Three Burials (New Focus Recordings) which compiles the flute works of composer Pablo Chin. She can also be heard on Fonema Consort's albums Pasos en otra calle (New Focus Recordings) and FIFTH TABLEAU (Parlour Tapes+).

Dalia works in close collaboration with composers as a soloist, with Fonema Consort and with the Chicago Composer's Orchestra. Recent commissions and premieres include works by Stratis Minakakis, Pablo Chin, Fernanda Aoki Navarro, Francisco Castillo Trigueros, Bethany Younge, Julio Estrada, Monte Weber, and Tiffany Skidmore.

Dalia earned Post-Masters degree from DePaul University, her Masters in Music Performance at Florida State University, and her Bachelors Degree in Music Performance at the University of Costa Rica. Dalia is currently the program director for the Chicago Metamorphosis Orchestra Program, Director for the New Horizons Flute Choir at the Depaul Community Division. She has a private, Suzuki-certified studio in Chicago.

Emily Rach Beisel is a Chicago-based improviser, composer, educator, curator, and woodwind specialist whose work is celebrated for its visceral intensity and innovative blend of techniques.  Beisel's debut solo album, Particle of Organs, released in 2023 on the Amalgam label, has been described as "heavy stuff, sounds retrieved from the deeper places - the underworlds, the lightless subterranea... a raw, abrasive, oppressive, and thrilling journey (A Jazz Noise)."   The album centers on the bass clarinet while incorporating voice, electronics, and extended techniques, creating a complex and nuanced soundscape where the origins of sounds are often obscured. This work reflects Beisel's commitment to embracing ambiguity, avoiding easy categorization, and drawing inspiration from diverse sources.

Beisel is an active participant in the improvised and experimental music communities, both in Chicago and beyond. She performs regularly in Chicago and has toured throughout the US and Canada.  Recent performances include Baltimore's High Zero Festival, Cleveland Uncommon Sound Festival, SIU's Outside the Box festival, Iowa City's Feed Me Weird Things, Chicago's Ear Taxi Festival, as well as a 2023 East Coast and 2024 Midwest tour together with drummer Bill Harris.  

As a curator, Beisel is deeply committed to increasing the visibility and involvement of femme, trans, and nonbinary artists within the creative performance community. They founded the Pleiades Series at Elastic Arts, which presents monthly performances and community-based free improvisation sessions. In 2024, Beisel organized and presented the inaugural PleiadesFest, a three-day festival that featured evening performances and improvisation workshops. This festival brought together a diverse array of improvisers, performance artists, dancers, and bands from Chicago's vibrant creative music scenes, including DIY, punk, noise, singer-songwriter, and electronic dance music communities.   PleiadesFest was supported by New Music USA and reflects a significant milestone in fostering inclusive and vibrant artistic exchange.

In addition to their work as a performer and curator, Beisel is a member of the contemporary ensemble Fonema Consort. With Fonema Consort, they have toured internationally, including recent performances in Brazil, Mexico, Minneapolis, and New York, premiering works by prominent living composers such as James Dillon, Richard Barrett, and Julio Estrada.  Beisel is also active as a woodwind doubler, working in theaters across the Chicago area, including Broadway in Chicago, Marriott, Paramount, Writers Theatre and Chicago's feminist Firebrand Theater Company.  As an educator, Beisel maintains a private studio and holds a faculty position at Harold Washington College, where they share their passion for music with aspiring musicians of all ages and backgrounds. They hold a Master of Music degree from Northwestern University and are a member of the American Federation of Musicians Local 10-208.

David Cubek is equally at home leading professional, youth, university, and community orchestras. He is a Professor of Music and the director of the Claremont Concert Orchestra of Claremont McKenna, Harvey Mudd, Pitzer, and Scripps Colleges. In addition, he is the music director and conductor of the Peninsula Symphony in Palos Verdes, California. Mr. Cubek served as assistant conductor of the Pasadena Symphony and conductor of the PYSO Philharmonic from 2016 until 2022.

In addition to being passionate about conducting and teaching, he is a firm believer in the power of music to foster social change. Mr. Cubek has conducted various ensembles from Venezuela's admired program known as El Sistema, including the internationally recognized Teresa Carreño and Simón Bolívar symphony orchestras. In the United States, he has collaborated with several El Sistema inspired programs and served as the conducting instructor of the MAT Program of the Longy School of Music of Bard College, which provided training for professional musicians aspiring to become agents of social change. 

Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Mr. Cubek began private piano and composition lessons at the age of 7 before entering the Simón Bolívar Conservatory. In 1999, he moved to Montreal to continue his music education at McGill University and the Conservatory of Montreal. At the latter institution, he was awarded First Prize with Great Distinction in orchestral conducting. Mr. Cubek completed his doctoral studies in orchestral conducting at Northwestern University, where he served as assistant and guest conductor of the opera program, and the Chamber and Symphony Orchestras. He was music director of the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra and a lecturer in music theory at both Northwestern and McGill. In addition, Mr. Cubek has led ensembles in Brazil, Canada, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, Italy, Mexico, and Ukraine. In California, previous engagements include appearances with the San Bernardino Symphony Orchestra, the Eastern Sierra Symphony, and the Claremont Young Musicians Orchestra.

A double recipient of Scripps College's Mary W. Johnson Award for excellence in teaching, Mr. Cubek is an enthusiastic advocate of new music. At the Claremont Colleges, he has taught classes based on 20th- and 21st-century repertoires. As conductor of Fonema Consort, he mantains an international concert schedule focused on premiering new compositions.

Praised for her "expressive and captivating performance" (GRAMMY.com), bassist Kathryn Schulmeister brings radiant energy to her creative musical practice ranging from classical to experimental. With a fearless curiosity for collaborative environments, Kathryn's enthusiasm for seeking opportunities to integrate improvisation, movement and theatre into her creative practice have led her to thrive as an active performer in festivals and venues around the world.  

Kathryn is a member of several contemporary music ensembles including the renowned Australian ELISION Ensemble, Fonema Consort (NYC), and the Echoi Ensemble (LA). She has performed as a guest artist with various adventurous international ensembles such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble MusikFabrik, Delirium Musicum, Ensemble Dal Niente, and Ensemble Vertixe Sonora.

Equally passionate and experienced as an orchestral musician, Kathryn served as a core member of the Hawaii Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive seasons from 2014-2017 and has performed with the Ojai Festival Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony, New West Symphony, California Chamber Orchestra, Lucerne Festival Alumni Orchestra, Pacific Lyric Opera, Maui Chamber Orchestra, and Hawaii Opera Theater.

 Kathryn received her Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Contemporary Music Performance from the University of California San Diego, Master of Music degree from McGill University, and Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music.

In Fall 2023, Kathryn joined the faculty of the University of the Pacific Conservatory of Music as Assistant Professor of Practice in String Bass. 

Daniel Walden (b. 1989 in Berkeley, California) is a pianist, harpsichordist, music theorist, and musicologist. He is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Music at Yale University. 

As a performer, I have earned praise for "extreme virtuosity" (Alex Ross, New Yorker) and "effortless elegance" (Mathew Guerrieri, NewMusicBox) in programs that blur the boundaries between historical and contemporary repertoire, as well as recital and improvisation. I am a graduate of Oberlin College and Conservatory, where I studied piano with Peter Takács and harpsichord with Webb Wiggins after completing private studies with Ann Schein, Sharon Mann, and Pierre-Laurent Aimard as a Cleveland Orchestra Artist-in-Residence Fellow in 20th- and 21st Century Music. I received early career support from the Leonore Annenberg Arts Fellowship for the Performing and Visual Arts for my projects aimed at broadening the keyboard repertory, and have appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at leading festivals and venues across the United States, Europe, and Asia. My first album, Dual Synthesis for harpsichord and electronics, was described as "one of the most outstanding recordings of new music in this century" (New York Classical Review) and profiled by the New York Times as one of "Five Harpsichord Works You Need to Know."  

Highlights from the past few years include the premiere performances of Clara Iannotta's Eclipse Plumage for prepared piano and ensemble (Gaudeamus Muziekweek, w/ Ensemble Oerknal; Arsenal de Metz w/ Ensemble Linea; London Contemporary Music Festival w/ Explore Ensemble); fortepiano recitals investigating Johanna Kinkel's microtonal theories of Frédéric Chopin's music, including on Lady John Scott's Pleyel at the Cobbe Collection; the world premiere of Evan Williams' Dead White Man Music for harpsichord and chamber orchestra with the Urban Playground Chamber Orchestra at St. Stephen's (NYC), followed by repeat performances with members of the Toledo Symphony at Festival 4(19); and Julio Estrada's complete yuuonhui' cycle at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington DC (with Fonema Consort). 

Samuel Rowe performs a wide range of music from the guitar's recent repertoire.  He studied at Oberlin Conservatory with Stephen Aron, and has performed in master classes with such luminaries as Lorenzo Micheli, Matteo Mela, Benjamin Verdery, and Seth Josel.  Recent projects have included the music of Helmut Lachenmann, Elliott Carter, Luciano Berio, Franco Donatoni, and Milton Babbitt. In addition to performing the guitar, Sam appears with Chicago's Javanese Gamelan ensemble. 

Sam is a graduate student in the English department at the University of Chicago where he is a Humanities Teaching Fellow and studies the relationship between narrative form and social and economic history during the long eighteenth century. His book manuscript, Imaginary Wants: Avarice, Luxury, and the Rise of the Eighteenth-century Villain, is about villain characters and political economy in British fiction. He maintains an interest in poetry, new and old, and has published essays on Charlotte Smith and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Hailed for her "floating, silky soprano" and a deemed "a standout in acting and voice" (Chicago Classical Review), Nathalie Colas was born and raised in Strasbourg, France. She is a current soloist and founder of Third Coast Baroque, Petite Musique Collective, Liederstube, and new music ensemble Fonema Consort. Nathalie was recently heard in Chicago's Haymarket Opera Company production of Cavalli's Calisto, in Handel's Messiah with the St Louis Bach Society, and in the title role of Rita by G. Donizetti in Switzerland. An avid recitalist, Nathalie studied art song with the late German baritone Udo Reinemann and regularly performs such repertoire (Symphony Center, Pianoforte Foundation, Omaha Under the Radar, Chicago Arts Club, Driehaus Museum). A graduate of DePaul University School of Music and of the Brussels Royal Conservatory, she completed her opera training at the Swiss Opera Studio/Hochschule der Kunst Bern. She was awarded 1st prize in the Music Institute of Chicago competition last winter. 

As executive and artistic director, Dalia Chin guides Fonema Consort's artistic vision while managing its operations and long-term planning.