Spring Festival

Francisco Corthey is an Argentine composer and performer. From an early age, he performed in numerous bands and orchestras as a percussionist and violinist. He studied composition with Mariano Etkin, Cecilia Villanueva, Martín Gendelman, Dániel Péter Biró, Tiffany Skidmore and Ming Tsao.

He holds degrees in composition from the Universidad Nacional de La Plata (BA), Georgia Southern University (MM), and an International Diploma from the University of Bergen. Since Fall 2022, he has been pursuing a PhD at University at Buffalo under the supervision of Ming Tsao.

His music has been performed by ensembles such as Court-circuit, Arditti Quartet, Talea, Slee Sinfonietta, Loadbang, Duo Gelland, EON, Ens3mblec and BIT20, and soloists including Sergej Tchirkov, Kyle Hutchins, Aida-Carmen Soanea, Giacomo Piermatti and Joni Gotlibovich.

He has participated in major festivals and academies including Darmstädter Ferienkurse, impuls Academy, ilSUONO Contemporary Music Week and June in Buffalo, where he worked closely with composers such as Chaya Czernowin, Mark Andre, Franck Bedrossian, and Pierluigi Billone, experiences that have deeply shaped his musical thinking.

Chi-Yen Huang, born in Taiwan, is a composer intrigued by exuberant imagination, sonic nuance, and shifting musical gestures in both acoustic and electronic music. He is drawn to the idea that human experience is rarely linear, unfolding across overlapping temporalities even as we remain bound to clock time. This understanding guides his exploration of how music can resonate spiritually and emotionally with those navigating fragmented or altered experiences of time.

His music has been selected for IRCAM ManiFeste 2026 (France), Luxembourg Rainy Days Festival (Composition Academy) CEME 2023 (Contemporary Encounters Meitar Ensemble, Israel), Banff Centre for Art and Creativity (2025, Canada), mdi New Music Week (Italy), New Music Miami ISCM Festival (USA), Internationale Tanzmesse nrw 2024 (Germany, Düsserdolf), Singapore Saxophone Symposium, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYCEMF), Seoul International Computer Music Festival (SICMF 2024), International Composition Institute of Thailand 2023 (ICIT, Tacet(i) Ensemble), Taipei International New Music Festival (ISCM, Taiwan), C-Lab (Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab) Diversonics Festival, among others. Additionally, he was selected for the 2026 Weiwuying International Music Festival Composition Workshop, where he will participate in masterclasses with Unsuk Chin and Dieter Ammann. He has also collaborated with renowned ensembles and musicians such as the Meitar Ensemble, mdi Ensemble, United Instruments of Lucilin, the Talea Ensemble, Tacet(i)Ensemble, National Symphony Orchestra (Taiwan Philharmonic), Jun Märkl, Alexandre Souillart, Duo Gelland and Kyle Hutchins.

In 2019, Huang was awarded a scholarship from DAAD (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) to participate in the course, Deutsche Literatur und Musik, (German literature and music) at Otto-Friedrich-University Bamberg for one month. In 2022, he was selected as artist-in-residence for C-Lab. In 2023, Huang was then selected as a visiting artist for a communication project with C-Lab and IRCAM.

Chi-Yen graduated with a master’s degree in Composition from the Taipei National University of the Arts (TNUA), where he studied with Mei-Fang Lin. He also received a B. M. in piano performance at TNUA and a M. M. in piano performance at National Taiwan Normal University, where he studied with Chun-Chieh Yen. He has participated in master classes with pianists Roman Zaslavsky, Boris Giltburg, Ning An, Ya-Fei Chuang and composers Lei Liang, Philippe Leroux, Thierry De Mey, Franck Bedrossian, Marco Stroppa, Annea Lockwood, Ed Bennett, Julio Estrada, Scott Wilson and Emily Koh.

In 2023, Huang was awarded an overseas Ph.D. Program Fellowship from the Taiwan Ministry of Education, and a full five-year Teaching Assistantship from the University at Buffalo to pursue a Ph. D. degree in Composition under the tutelage of Tiffany M. Skidmore, Nina C. Young and Ming Tsao.

María Lihuen Sirvent is an Argentinian composer, flutist, and researcher based in Buffalo, New York. Her work spans international festivals, collaborations with ensembles like Hypercube and the [Switch~Ensemble]. She also experiments with instrument design and engages in music theory research on Latin American composers and poetics.

Will Brobston is a composer and guitarist originally from Alabama and currently based in Buffalo, New York. He composes acoustic and electro-acoustic works that emphasize fragmentation as a means of shaping textural and temporal development. Materials are frequently recycled, recontextualized, and combined to form larger networks of sound. His work draws inspiration from a range of sources, including visual art, natural phenomena, and cognitive processes such as attention and memory. His music has been performed by Metropolis Ensemble, Switch~ Ensemble, the Atlantic Brass Quintet, and other groups and soloists throughout the United States and abroad.
Will holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Technology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and a Master of Music degree in Composition and Guitar Performance from the University of Denver. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at the University at Buffalo, where he has studied with Tiffany Skidmore, Nina Young, and Ming Tsao.

Based in Western New York, Jackson Roush is a composer in diverse media. Jackson's music, regardless of the medium, fosters a broad space, balancing composition and improvisation, metabolizing the quotidian, and drawing on mythological and linguistic principles. Holding an MM from Ball State University, Jackson is currently pursuing a PhD at SUNY Buffalo.