Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Composer Carlos R. Carrillo holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Yale University (MM) and the University of Pennsylvania (PhD). His teachers have included Tania León, Joseph Schwantner, Christopher Rouse, Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Roberto Sierra, George Crumb, James Primosch, Jay Reise and Steve Mackey. Mr. Carrillo is the recipient of numerous awards including the Bearns Prize, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, BMI and ASCAP awards. He has been commissioned by Music and the Anthology for the Da Capo Chamber Players, the New York Youth Symphony, Concert Artists Guild and the Pennsylvania Music Teachers Association. In 2004 he received a commission from the American Composers Orchestra, the second such work commissioned for ACO by the BMI Foundation, Inc./ Carlos Surinach Fund. Dr. Carrillo’s music has been performed at the American Composers Orchestra's Sonido de las Americas Festival and the Casals Festival, and by Young Musician Foundation's Debut Orchestra, Sequitur, Network for New Music, Prism Quartet, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, New York Youth Symphony, and members of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In 2002, his symphonic work Cantares was featured at the inaugural "Synergy: Composer and Conductor" program presented by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and American Symphony Orchestra League. In 1998 he received one of the first Aaron Copland Awards from the Copland Heritage Association and he was the 2001-2003 Van Lier Emerging Composer Fellow with the ACO. In the spring of 2005 Dr. Carrillo was invited to the inaugural John Duffy Composers Institute as part of the 9th Annual Virginia Arts Festival. In 2007 he received a fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation. From 2007 to 2009 Dr. Carrillo was musical director of the Wabash Valley Youth Symphony. He has taught composition at DePauw University, Reed College, and the Conservatory of Music in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  

In the Spring of 2013 Dr. Carrillo was appointed Assistant Professor of Composition-Theory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

JOHN GREER  is an active accompanist, vocal coach, arranger,  composer and conductor and is heard in these capacities throughout Canada and abroad, in recital and on various CBC broadcasts.  

Mr. Greer has served as Music Director, coach or conductor for prominent performing and educational institutions such as: the University of Toronto opera division, Victoria’s Opera Piccola,  Ottawa’s Opera Lyra, The Banff School of Fine Arts, the Toronto Gilbert &  Sullivan Society, Mirvish Productions (Canada), Opera (Hamilton) Ontario, the Canadian Opera Company, Eastman Opera Theatre, the Opera Studio at the University of Maryland, the New England Conservatory, the Janiec Opera Workshop at the Brevard Music Center, Glimmerglass Opera, Chautauqua Opera and the University of Kentucky.  He currently works at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, Canada. 
 

Mr. Greer’s compositions include ten song cycles written for Canadian singers such as Catherine Robbin, Kevin McMillan, Mark Dubois, Tracy Dahl, Monica Whicher, and Adrianne Pieczonka and numerous works based on Canadian folk song.  He has written two operas for the Canadian Children’s Opera Chorus, The Snow Queen based on the Hans Christian Anderson tale with a libretto by Jeremy James Taylor of Britain’s National Youth Music Theatre, and an adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s fairy tale The Star-Child  with librettist Ned Dickens and a revision and orchestration of the 1889 Canadian operetta Leo the Royal Cadet  by O. F. Telgmann, commissioned by Toronto Operetta Theatre.  

Eva Kendrick is a Boston-area composer, vocalist, music director and vocal/music theory instructor. Awards include the Judith Lang Zaimont Prize from the International Alliance of Women in Music, ASCAPLU$ awards, The American Prize for Opera/Theatre and grants from the American Composers Forum and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Dramatic works include Emily, a one act opera, five short operas and two musicals. Other opera collaborators include the Thompson St. Opera Company (Louisville, KY), Gateway Opera (St. Louis, MO), and One Ounce Opera (Austin, TX). She holds a Masters of Music in Composition with Distinction from the Longy School of Music. www.evakendrick.com.

Beth Ratay has been composing for over 25 years. She has had works performed around the world by many different types of ensembles including Earplay, West Edge Opera, Hartford Opera Theater, Coalescence Percussion Duo, and the Cambridge Chamber Singers. Her works have been featured at the April in Santa Cruz Contemporary Music Festival and the Society of Composers National Conference. Dr. Ratay received her Doctor of Musical Arts in World Music Composition from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is currently an Adjunct Instructor at Bunker Hill Community College and lives with her amazing family including one husband, two sons, and one cat in Somerville.

Jonathan Shin  performs extensively as a soloist and chamber musician -- and he composes across multiple genres. Studying under the tutelage of Professor Thomas Hecht and Professor Ho Chee Kong, he graduated with honors from the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music. Shin received his Master of Music Degree in Composition (Classical) at the Longy School of Music of Bard College.  

Shin has won numerous prizes in Singaporean and international piano competitions, including being awarded top prizes in all four age categories of the National Piano and Violin Competition. In 2008, he clinched 3rd prize in the Young Pianists Division of the 18th Ibiza International Piano Competition in Spain. In 2009, he was awarded the Special Prize in the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music’s Concerto Competition for his performance of Franck’s Symphonic Variations. Shin was a soloist in the same work when he won the coveted President’s Young Performers Concert, as part of the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Shin won 1st prize in the Conservatory’s 2010 Piano Concerto Competition - its youngest winner ever at the age of 18. He performed the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor as soloist with the YSTCM Orchestra in the Gala Winner’s Concert.

Tony Solitro is an active composer of concert and stage music. Commissions include works for Utah Opera (Burial, Golden Spike Commission), Boston Opera Collaborative (She’s Fabulous, Triangle, A Case of Anxiety), MIFA Victory Players (Canción Exaltada), and Network for New Music (Automata). Triangle was named a finalist in NOA’s Argento Chamber Opera Competition and was featured on Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers Showcase. Tony is currently a 2019-21 Composer Fellow with The American Opera Project and serves on faculty at Longy School of Music of Bard College, where he leads an opera creation workshop and facilitates collaboration between composers and performers. www.tonysolitro.com.

Omar Surillo, a native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, is an award-winning composer, producer/engineer, and multi-instrumentalist from Orlando, FL. His music has been performed nationally and internationally in various ensembles ranging from classical to rock. Surillo received his Master of Music degree in Music Composition from Yale School of Music in May of 2011. Earlier studies include a Bachelor of Music (Music Theory and Composition) from Stetson University (2008), and an Associate of Arts degree from Valencia College (2006). After graduating from Yale University, Surillo went on to teach audio production, post-AP music theory, and composition classes at ACES Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT. In 2013, he went on to teach Digital Audio and Music Theory 1 at Stetson University, along with History of Jazz and Rock, Ear Training, and Composition courses at Valencia College.

Currently, Surillo serves as music faculty at Richland College, where he teaches Audio Recording, Live Sound, Composition, American Music (History of Jazz and Rock), and leads all Music Theory courses. Aside from his teaching duties, Prof. Surillo remains an active composer and is often called upon to write, collaborate, and record with artists in Venezuela, Poland, New York, and Florida. He currently resides in Richardson where he enjoys spending time with his wife, Heather, and chasing after his English bulldog, Dexter.