A native of Georgia, Josef Bardanashvili received his doctorate in composition from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire, where he studied under Aleksandr Shaverzashvili. After settling in Israel, Bardanashvili served as composer-in residence of the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra and was Musical Director of the International Biennial for Contemporary Music “Tempus Fugit” in Tel Aviv. He is currently a composer-in-residence with the Israel Camerata Jerusalem.

Bardanashvili is a sought-after teacher and mentor—he has taught at Camera Obscura School for the Arts, Bar-Ilan University and the Sapir Academic College. Currently, he is a faculty member of the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University, the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance and Rimon School of Music. Bardanashvili has served on the public council of Israel’s Ministry of Culture and Art, been a permanent jury member for various musical competitions and received many invitations to give master classes and lectures at various music academies.

He has composed more than 100 works, including five operas, five ballets and four symphonies. Other major works include concertos for piano, violin, viola, cello, mandolin, flute, bassoon and guitar. He has also written chamber music such as string quartets, quintets, piano trios and piano sonatas, as well as choral music and songs. He has composed music for 55 psalms and 65 theatre productions. Bardanashvili’s compositions have been performed across the globe and he has received many awards both domestically and internationally.

Yair Klartag is an Israeli composer currently living in Tel Aviv. He studied composition at Tel Aviv University, Die Hochschule für Musik Basel and Columbia University with Ruben Seroussi and Georg Friedrich Haas.

Klartag has been commissioned by diverse bodies such as the Donaueschinger Musiktage, Münchener Kammerorchester, MATA Festival, Münchener Biennale and ZeitRäume Festival. Many notable ensembles have performed his works, including the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Tokyo Sinfonietta, Wrocław Philharmonic Orchestra, ensemble recherche, Ensemble Musikfabrik, ensemble mosaik, JACK quartet and the MIVOS quartet. Klartag’s works have been featured in festivals such as Ultraschall Berlin, La Biennale di Venezia, Schwetzinger Festspiele, ECLAT Festival, Tage für Neue Musik Zürich and more.

His numerous awards and honours include the Ernst von Siemens Composers Prize, the 61st Kompositionspreis der Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, the Henri Lazarof Prize, 31st Irino Prize, “New Classics” prize and the Yvar Mikhasho Prize. Klartag won 1st place at the International Composition Competition Ireneu Segarra (Spain), 2nd place at 7ème Concour Dutilleux and the Concours de Genève, as well as the Audience Prize at the Isang Yun Composition Competition. He has also held artist residencies in Herrenhaus Edenkoben and the Berliner Künstlerprogramm of the DAAD.

Klartag currently teaches composition and analysis at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance.

JUNO award-winning composer Jordan Nobles is known for creating music filled with an “unearthly beauty” (Mondo Magazine) that makes listeners want to “close (their) eyes and transcend into a cloud of music” (Discorder Magazine).

At the 2022 Western Canadian Music Awards, Nobles received his fourth nomination for “Classical Composer of the Year.” Other notable honours include a JUNO Award for “Classical Composition of the Year” and the Jan V. Matejcek Award from SOCAN (2017), in recognition of his “overall success in ‘New Classical Music.’” He has also been prizewinner at international composition competitions including the Unbound Flute Festival, Sacra/Profana, Polyphonos and Darmstadt’s Soli fan tutti Kompositionswettbewerb.

Twice, his works have been chosen as official selections representing Canada on international stages: Nobles’ Aurora was selected by CBC for the UNESCO International Music Council’s International Rostrum of Composers in Lisbon, Portugal, and Still Life represented Canada at the International Society for Contemporary Music’s World Music Days in Wrocław, Poland. He has received commissions from diverse groups including Arizona State of Music, the Thunder Bay Symphony and Surrey Youth Symphony. His work A Sign in Space was a site-specific piece performed in the Royal Ontario Museum’s iconic Lee-Chin Crystal.

Nobles is particularly renowned for his works for choir and his spatial style of composition, which sometimes requires musicians to stand in unexpected places with stopwatches. He lives in Deep Cove, British Columbia with his wife Kelly and daughter Julian.

Juan Trigos is a Mexican-American composer and the innovator of a compositional approach he calls Abstract Folklore. His major works include six operas, four symphonies, three cantatas and concertos for various instruments; he has also composed diverse chamber music, works for solo instruments and a production for guitar. His Symphony No. 3 “Offering to the Dead”, written for the Houston Symphony, is among his most significant commissions. With performances across Europe, the Americas (North, Central and South) and Japan, Trigos’ music has been heard in many notable venues including Milan’s Teatro alla Scala, Amsterdam’s Bertus Van Berlage Hall, Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes and, in the United States, Jones Hall (Houston) and Alice Tully Hall (New York City).

In 2023, Trigos was appointed Assistant Professor of Music in Composition & Theory at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. He has been awarded a Miami Individual Artists Grant (2023) and the Fromm Commission from Harvard University’s Fromm Music Foundation. In 2017, he was the Howard Hanson Visiting Professor at the Eastman School of Music. He has also served as the Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Eminent Scholar in Latin American Studies (2022) at Columbus State University’s Schwob School of Music. Juan is a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (Mexico). His experience as a composition teacher includes serving as an assistant to Franco Donatoni.

As a conductor, Juan specializes in 20th century and contemporary music. He has commissioned, premiered, promoted and recorded an extensive catalogue of works with numerous choirs and orchestras around the world. Currently, he is Music Director and Principal Conductor of The Last Hundred Ensemble (Miami) and Sinfonietta MIQ (Guanajuato). He was also Music Director and Principal Conductor of the Oaxaca and Guanajuato Symphonies, Orquesta de Cámara de Bella Artes (Mexico City) and Principal Conductor of the Eastman BroadBand Ensemble (Rochester, NY).

His opera De Cachetito Raspado, his Symphony No. 4 “NezahualcoyotlIcuicahan”, an album of three Concertos (for clarinet, four guitars and piccolo) and the Ballet Sansón (suite) are among his most important recordings released by iTinerant (2015 and 2016).