Dale Sakamoto

Composer and Software Developer, USA

Rain
for SSAA Choir Shakuhachi and Taiko Drum

Dale Sakamoto (b1989) is a composer and software developer originally from and currently residing in Southern California. He received his Master’s in Music from Baylor University and a Doctorate in Musical Arts from Arizona State University. As a Doctoral Candidate residing in Arizona, he wrote several original pieces for local ensembles, including the ASU Herberger Chorus, Musical Nova Orchestra, Red Mountain High School Women’s Chorus, Desert Ridge Junior High Boys’ Chorus, and many more. His piece Be Still recently won the 2024 Grace Congregational Choral Competition, premiered in Rutland, Vermont, and played on the radio during Christmas. The joy of his life was seeing his choral piece, Ubi Caritas, performed at Carnegie Hall. He now spends his days writing code alongside music and loves going to musicals or just sitting on the couch with his wife and dog. His music has been published by Walton, Zintzo Music, and Leading Tones Music.

Gerson De Sousa Batista

Music Educator and Composer, Portugal

The Sanctuary
for SSAA Choir and Duduk

Gerson de Sousa Batista (b1988) is a Portuguese composer, playwright, multi-instrumentalist, poet, painter, theater creator, and multimedia artist from Aveiro, Portugal. 

He started his academic path in civil engineering, but early on, he began composing. He studied composition, music theory, organ, and vocal techniques at the Calouste Gulbenkian Music Conservatory of Aveiro, and since, he has won more than 50 composition awards, published numerous books and works in both physical and digital formats, created and staged a wide variety of creations, and has been commissioned and played all around the globe in countries like China, Singapore, Japan, Russia, Norway, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Spain, France, UK, Italy, Denmark, Germany, South Korea, United States of America, being currently mainly involved in the creation and staging of multimedia theaters, operas, musicals, staged concerts, and various instrumental and choral music projects.

He is the founder of the publishing house DESOUSA EDITIONS, and of CONSERTO PRODUCTIONS, an Artistic Collective, with headquarters in Aveiro (Portugal), for the creation, production and agency of multimedia shows, composed by music and theater performers, technicians and producers. For more information visit: www.gersonbatista.com

Jonatan de Jesús Carrasco Hernández

Music Educator and Composer, Mexico

Cúrate Mijita
for SSAA Choir and Guzheng

Jonatan de Jesús Carrasco Hernández was born in Puebla, Mexico in 1981. He attended the BUAP´s School of Arts, studying composition, and received a Master’s degree in educational technology. His music has been played in different countries, such as Brazil, Argentina, France, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Nigeria, and Korea. He has participated in Festivals in Mexico as inother countries. His main interest in composition is to mix music with technology, such as fixed media, live coding, live electronics, etc.

His music has been played, recorded, or awarded by ensembles, players, and orchestras such as The Philharmonic Orchestra from Xalapa (ORFIX), The Philharmonic Orchestra from Puebla (ORFIP), The Symphonic Orchestra from BUAP (OSBUAP) -for symphonic music-, Youth Symphonic Orchestra from Jalisco (OJSJ) -concerto for piano and string orchestra-, Manuel Espinás and Nadia Borislova -solo guitar-, Guitar ensemble “Érase una vez,” Black Pencil Ensemble -solo accordion-, Guitar Duo “Aché,” Sunset Ensemble -wind and percussion ensemble-, Safa percussion quartet, a quintet of Puebla city -quintet for flute, two clarinets, horn, and cello-, Youth Guitar orchestra from Mexico city Ensemble NMK (Corea), an ensemble from Akojopo Organization (Nigeria).

Wen-Chi Li

Composer and Choir Director
Sacred Heart High School, Taiwan

The Soul Singer
for SSAA Choir and Glass Harp

Wen-Chi Li (b2000), born in Taiwan, started her choral life at age 12. At 16, she began to learn music theory and composition with Yu-Fang Hsu. In 2018, she attended National Tsing Hua University, where she first studied Tech Art, then transferred to Humanities and Social Sciences, and studied music composition as a minor program with Prof. Chiu-Yu Chou. From 2022 to 2023, she went to the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) as an exchange student and became a singer in KGBL Chamber Choir led by conductor Ambrož Čopi. In 2023, she started her master's program at National Taiwan Normal University, studying choral conducting with Dr. Chia-Fen Weng.

Wen Chi Li composed several works from new texts of young Taiwanese poets. She also did some arrangements of Taiwanese folk songs. In her works, she creates various sceneries and stories with warmhearted musical language. She has collaborated with KGBL Chamber Choir, Taipei Chamber Singers, Taipei Ladies Singers, etc. She is currently a conductor at Choir of Sacred Heart High School for Girls, and a singer in Taipei Chamber Singers.

Erick Ricardo Enciso Alva

Composer and String Instructor
La Caridad Youth Orchestra and Chorus, Mexico

Yancuicatl
for SSAA Choir and Kamancheh

Erick Ricardo Encio Alva was born on August 12th, 1997, in Pachuca de Soto, Hidalgo, Mexico. He earned his BFA in music from the UAEH in Mexico. He teaches viola and violin at La Caridad Youth Orchestra and Chorus in Nacozari de García, Sonora. Erick was a member of the ensembles The Royal Chapelle, UAEH’s string grupo “Raíces,” Mariachi Son-Orense, and María Teresa Rodríguez Chamber Orchestra and presented his works in concert in December of 2016. He was the concertmaster and later principal violist for de OSIJCA in Pachuca. He has been invited to play with the Abundio Martínez Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by maestro Héctor Bonilla, and with Antífona Ensemble, directed by the invited maestro Arturo Romero. He presented a lecture, “From Silent Film to Hans Zimmer,” as part of the Festival Vida, Música y Movimiento, in 2019. Recently, he has had four winning compositions: Rapsodia Onírica in a contest by the Julio César Oliva Philharmonic Orchestra in Mexico City, Penélope in a contest by the OSUAEH in Pachuca, Yancuicatl for Vox Musica in Sacramento, CA, and Warera no Michi in a contest by Vox Novs in New York, NY; as well as premiered The Silver Clock in the Mexican Consulate in Indianapolis, IN, Stummer Schrei in Casa Ganfer in Hermosillo, Sonora, and Nöxadoni as part of the FAOT, in Álamos, Sonora.

Dr. Sarah Wald

Lecturer of Composition
Sacramento State University School of Music, USA

Healing
for SSAA Choir, Duduk, Kamancheh, and Glass Harp

Dr. Sarah Wald (b1990)is a Lecturer in Music at the Sacramento State School of Music. She holds degrees from Columbia University (BA in music), the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (MM in composition), and the University of California, Davis (PhD in composition and theory). Sarah’s music has been featured at festivals in the US and Europe and on WFMT’s Relevant Tones. Over the last several years, her pieces were selected from calls for scores for New Music on the Bayou (2016), North/South Consonance (2018), the Sewanee Summer Music Festival (2020), and the EDME New Music Festival (2022). Sarah has also received a number of grants and commissions from organizations such as the Illinois Arts Council Agency, Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Saint Xavier University Flute Choir, the University of Tennessee Martin’s Contemporary Music Group, Keyed Kontraptions, Access Contemporary Music, Vox Musica, and the Camellia Symphony Orchestra.

Santiago Veros

International Collaborator and Composer, Argentina

Mantra
for SSAA Choir, Duduk, Guzheng, and Glass Harp

Composer, choral conductor, and creator of international collaborative projects, Santiago Veros (b1990) has become one of the most prominent Argentine composers in the world of contemporary choral music. His musical journey began at a very young age—by the age of four, he was already exploring drums and guitar. Later, between the ages of 12 and 15, a personal investigation into the vocal apparatus—sparked by speech difficulties—led him to singing and the choral world.

He studied Composition at the National University of La Plata and Choral Conducting at the National University of the Arts in Buenos Aires. His music has been premiered in over 20 countries, including 48 universities across the United States, and performed in concerts in Argentina, Chile, Cyprus, South Africa, Belgium, Bulgaria, Slovenia, the Philippines, Uruguay, and the UK, among others. His works have been featured in official repertoires of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) and the Europa Cantat festival, where he became the first Latin American composer to have a piece premiered.

A key moment in his development was his work with the Coro de Niños de Pilar (2013 to 2015), where he submitted weekly compositions specifically designed to educate and vocally challenge children between the ages of 8 and 15. This experience became his true training ground for writing for treble voices: there he refined his understanding of vocal ranges, chord construction, and melodic writing in both pedagogical and artistic contexts. Mantra, written for female voices, is in many ways a natural outcome of that foundational stage.

The work being premiered today—Mantra—is a choral meditation that explores the relationship between human beings and their environment, both physical and symbolic. Inspired by the interaction between sky and sea, the piece presents a dichotomy between the serene calm of the soloists (the sky) and the relentless force of the choir (the sea). As the piece unfolds, this duality dissolves, giving way to a moment of deep introspection that culminates in a symbolic dance: a gesture of unity, healing, and integration between the individual and the world around them.

Santiago currently leads a nomadic lifestyle, composing as he travels the world, sharing his music in workshops and international premieres. His next major milestone will be a concert at Carnegie Hall in April 2026, where Dear Earth will be premiered in celebration of friendship, family, and the transformative power of collective singing. For more information, visit: www.santiagoveros.site