02/10/2021
The New Music Consortium at USF is proud to present the winners of our 2021 International Call for Scores!
Acoustic category winner: Juhi Bansal
Winning composition: "Wings" for violin, cello, and piano
Electroacoustic category winner: Julia Mermelstein
Winning composition: "threaded to be bound/unbound" for double bass and live electronics
Be sure to tune in to our concert on April 9th, which will feature both winning compositions. Keep an eye on our social media for updates on upcoming events!
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“Radiant and transcendent”, the music of Juhi Bansal weaves together themes celebrating musical and cultural diversity, nature and the environment, and strong female role models. Her music draws upon elements as disparate as progressive metal, Hindustani music, spectralism, musical theatre and choral traditions to create deeply expressive, evocative sound-worlds. As an Indian composer brought up in Hong Kong, her work draws subtly upon both those traditions, entwining them closely and intricately with the gestures of western classical music.
Current projects include Waves of Change, a digital experience on womanhood, identity and clash of cultures inspired by the story of the Bangladesh Girls Surf Club; and Edge of a Dream, an opera about Ada Lovelace, daughter of infamous poet Lord Byron and a 19th Century pioneer in computing commissioned by Los Angeles Opera. Recent seasons have included commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Beth Morrison Projects, New York Virtuoso Singers, Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, the Oakland East Bay Symphony, AIDS Quilt Songbook 20th Anniversary project and more. Her music is regularly performed throughout the U.S., Europe and Asia and available on the Naxos, Albany and Roven Records labels. Awards received for her work include prizes from the Five Colleges New Music Festival Competition, ASCAP Lotte Lehman Foundation Art song Competition, Boston Metro Opera International Composers Competition, and multiple ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards.
She is a staunch proponent of bringing new audiences into contemporary music and of helping musicians of all ages take ownership of music creation. She was co-founder of the New Lens Concert series, engaging audiences into contemporary music by highlighting thematic connections between repertoire new and old, and using redacted programs to create a sense of surprise around expectations of “new music”. Her teaching work focuses heavily on demystifying composition and helping musicians of all ages build ownership of the fact that they too can improvise, experiment, create and write music, no matter their prior training or background.
A conductor as well as composer, she has been awarded fellowships by the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, the Atlantic Music Center, Seasons Music Festival, Oregon Bach Festival Composer’s Symposium, and the Pacific Music Festival. She frequently premieres the work of other composers and accompanies singers at the piano. She is currently on the music faculties of the Hartt School at the University of Hartford and Pasadena City College.
Website: www.juhibansal.com
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Composer Julia Mermelstein blends electronic soundscapes and choreography into performances that create a space for introspection and the surreal.
Her music has been performed across Canada and in the USA by distinguished ensembles such as Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, North/South Chamber Ensemble, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Array Ensemble, Blue Rider Ensemble, Ensemble Arkea, Bozzini String Quartet, and Windermere String Quartet.
Recent projects include commissions from Ilana Waniuk, La Fiammata Piano Duo, Barbara Pritchard and interdisciplinary collaborations with Leslie Ting, Din of Shadows, and Angela Blumberg Dance.
Julia has also been featured in festivals such as Open Waters Experimental Music Festival (Halifax), CEMIcircles Intermedia Festival (Texas), OUA Electronic Music Festival (Osaka, Japan), Festival of Original Theatre (Toronto), and Open Ears Festival (Waterloo). Her music has been included in NAISA's Deep Wireless Compilation and was awarded third-place in Musicworks' 2018 International Electronic Music Competition.
Originally from Halifax, Julia currently lives and works in Toronto as a freelance composer and designer at Human Collective. She studied with Georges Dimitrov earning her BFA from Concordia University and independent post-graduate studies with Linda Catlin Smith, Brian Harman, and Juliet Palmer.
Webstie: https://juliamermelstein.com/
