New Beginnings

Hailing from Texas, Austin Ali (b. 1997) is a composer, trumpeter, and educator based in Los Angeles, California. An insatiably curious person, he strives to inspire wonder through his music. From complex-meter jazz to spacey orchestral scores, he seeks to compose infectiously fun and unforgettable music.

Austin graduated summa cum laude from the University of Texas at Austin, earning two undergraduate degrees in four years (Music Composition and Plan II Honors) and studying composition principally with Drs. Yevgeniy Sharlat and Donald Grantham. After completing his MA in Music Composition from UCLA, Austin is currently pursuing his PhD at UCLA, studying with Drs. Ian Krouse and Richard Danielpour.

His compositions have been premiered by world-class musicians including the Austin Symphony Orchestra in Austin, Texas, Spanish Brass in Valencia, Spain, and the Carpe Diem String Quartet in Siena, Italy. As a trumpeter, Austin was named “Promising Artist of the 21^st Century” on tour with Big Wy’s Brass Band, performing for the U.S. Ambassador and President of Costa Rica. Most recently, the Tampa Bay Symphony premiered his orchestral work Defiant Overture in February, April, and May 2023. Austin is looking forward to the premieres of The Beginner’s Guide to Space Travel with the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in June 2023 in Indiana and his Harp Concerto by the Los Angeles Chamber Music Company in July 2023.

Morgan Kelly Moss (B.M. Temple University, Composition and Piano Performance Double Major, M.A. UCLA, Composition) has a sound world that is described as neo-American with inspiration from nature, and always spirited with a twinge of optimism. Recently, Moss’s “Storks” for piano trio was selected in a call for scores by the Allentown Symphony Orchestra. She was also recently accorded Emerging Composer by Tribeca New Music Competition. Moss is also very active in scoring music for film, and in 2022 composed her first feature film score which was released in theaters in July, 2022. She is very proud to be the founder of Everywhere Music Company, a teacher of piano, composition, theory, and voice at the Music Studio of Patricia Keith, as well as a lab teacher at UCLA for Introduction to Musicianship. Moss plans to graduate from UCLA in 2024, and continue to grow her career as a composer and teacher.

Sergey Nesterov (b. 1997) is a composer of concert and film music, orchestrator, and songwriter who is currently completing his graduate degree at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

He began studying composition from a young age with professor Tatiana Chudova at the Moscow Conservatory. He later went on to study with professors Valery Kikta and Alexander Tchaikovsky. In 2020, he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory with honors. In 2022 he was accepted into UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music to continue his education with professors Richard Danielpour and Ian Krouse.

Among Sergey’s works are orchestral pieces, ensemble music, choral, and electro-acoustic music, jazz-influenced pop songs, as well as music for video games, live-action and animated films. Sergey eyes dramatic and melodic development in his music, choosing flavorful harmonies to accompany intricately crafted themes.

Thus far, his original pieces and orchestrations have been performed in North America, in various countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa, and films featuring his music have been shown at international festivals.

Andreas Foivos Apostolou is a pianist, composer and producer. He was born into an artistic family in Athens, Greece. Theater and storytelling are a vital source of inspiration in his music. As a concert pianist, he has toured in Europe, Asia and America performing a wide range of repertoire, including premières by Sebastian Currier, Bernard Rands, Anders Hillborg, John Luther Adams, and Apostolou’s own works. He is currently a PhD candidate in Composition for Visual Media at UCLA. He graduated with dual Masters degrees (Piano, Composition) from Indiana University, and a PhD in Piano Performance (University of Macedonia). As a PhD researcher he discovered and recorded new works by Leo Ornstein at the Yale University- Ornstein Papers Archive. His works have been recorded by Naxos, and he has won first prizes in international competitions, both as a pianist and as a composer (Cum Laude Music Awards- First Prize, IBLA Grand Prize- First Prize, Gina Bachauer for Young Artists- First Prize). He composed the soundtrack for the documentary Container by Daphne Matziarakis (Academy Award nominee), which was featured in the New York Times Op-Docs. He was featured in the Piano Spheres Masterwork Series with a solo concert (including premieres by Leo Ornstein, Nick Giannopoulos and Apostolou), in Jacaranda Music, where he performed Thomas Adès, and in Hear Now Festival, where he premiered works by Vera Ivanova and Ian Dicke. He is currently scoring the film “Ministry of Loneliness” by UCLA director Randa Ali (Thesis) and producing his second album Retroviral, which will be available on Spotify.

Carlos Durán is a composer and guitarist from Colombia who writes for both concert and media. His music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, The Royal Danish Academy, and by the most important Colombian ensembles such as Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá and Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia. His work includes the Amazon Prime Original Series Cochina Envidia, additional music for National Geographic Channel shows The 90’s and the Emmy nominated series Arrepentidos and the India Catalina Best Miniseries Winner Natalia: Crimen y Castigo.

Robby Good (b. July 2, 2000, Valencia, CA) is a current master’s student at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music for composition in visual media. He graduated from UCLA’s undergraduate music program in 2022 with a double degree in composition and percussion performance, with a minor in film. During high school, he was accepted into the Nancy and Barry Sanders Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program, where he studied under composers Andrew Norman and Sarah Gibson. Robby has also studied privately with Professor Ian Krouse and Derrick Skye, and has been a music production mentee under the guidance of visual media composer/performer Michael A. Levine and an intern of film and television composer Charles Fox.

Robby has scored over 40 films and animations from students at UCLA, CalArts, Chapman University, Pratt Institute, Sarah Lawrence College, and more. His score for the short film, In Your Own Blood, won the award for Best Original Score in the London International Monthly Film Festival. Robby has also provided the scores to a number of video games developed within game jams, and is currently working on the music for the visual novel Project: Eden’s Garden, a game heavily inspired by the Danganronpa series of video games. Outside of virtual mediums for visual media, Robby was also the primary composer and orchestrator for the musical theater production Dis-Topia, which premiered at Chapman University in November 2021, and will have a staged reading at UCLA in June 2023.

Robby’s concert works have been premiered by ensembles such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the National Children’s Chorus (NCC), the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet (LAPQ), the Calder String Quartet, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, Winsor Music, Ensemble TM+, Diotima Quartor, and the CSUN Wind Ensemble.

Madeline Barrett, based in Los Angeles, CA, is a contemporary composer of concert music striving to evoke imagery of nature and foster human connection. Raised in Phoenix, AZ, she often draws inspiration from the world around her, whether it be oceans of the North American coast, the deserts of Arizona, or the softly bustling streets of Boston. In her compositions, Madeline employs a unique language which derives from an eclectic group of influences, from Baroque counterpoint to French impressionism to 1980s popular music to American jazz.

softly speaks the wind, a collection of miniature tone poems which explores our relationship with death through Japanese death poetry, was recently premiered by prominent LA-based chamber group, Salastina Music Society. In addition to many US performances, Madeline’s works have been performed in Italy and Austria, by esteemed groups such as the Carpe Diem String Quartet, Quatuor Diotima, and PHACE ensemble, as well as pianist Stefano Greco and soprano Michelle Rice. She is a recent winner of the 7th Annual Boston New Music Initiative Young Composer Competition for her work The Flowers That Close at Night.

Madeline has a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Chapman University and a Master of Arts from UCLA, and past composition instructors include Jeffrey Holmes, Sean Heim, Vera Ivanova, and Ian Krouse. She is currently pursuing a PhD in composition, continuing her studies at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music in the studio of Richard Danielpour.

Composer Pedro Osuna became the first Berklee student to write music for an Academy Award-nominated film while a student and the youngest person to ever work as an orchestrator on a Bond film.
Composer/director Michael Giacchino and producer Victoria Alonso recommended him to write the music for the Golden Globe-winning film Argentina, 1985, nominated for Best Score at the Platino Awards.

Pedro studied with a student of Nadia Boulanger at Berklee in Boston and Leonard Bernstein’s disciple Richard Danielpour at UCLA. He lives in Los Angeles and writes scores and concert works.