Fall Undergraduate Composers - Children of Enlightenment

Naveed Perkins is a twenty-two year old self taught Pianist and Composer from San Diego.
He has attended Summer Programs such as the Indiana University Piano Academy as well as the Summerfest at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has been a student of Richard Danielpour for three years and is currently studying composition with Ian Krouse. Among being a composer, he is an avid poet and artist. Recently, he has been appointed as the Assistant Conductor of the Iranshahr Orchestra, an Iranian Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Shahab Paranj. This gives him the continued opportunity to learn and incorporate all of the heritage and culture Persian Music has to offer into his own music. While he is continually growing, he seeks to inspire those around him by sharing a music experience that incorporates his music, his poetry, and his art.

Mia Ruhman, b.2003, is a Los Angeles based composer, soprano, and actress. A fourth year music composition undergraduate at UCLA, Ruhman also studies classical voice with Professor Vladimir Chernov. Ruhman works for the National Children’s Chorus as a vocal mentor and for the Palisades Methodist Church as soprano section leader. Ruhman was a 2019-21 fellow in the LA Phil’s composer fellowship program, the LA Phil YOLA Sue Tsao composer fellow in 2020, the winner of a global music award (2024), and served on the speaking panel of the 77th National League of American Orchestra conference. Her compositions have been conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and Grant Gershon, and performed by the LA Phil, the National Children’s Chorus, Seraphour, Hub New Music and the Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles. Ruhman is grateful to the composition faculty for their endless support, and to her peers for sharing their boundless friendship and talent.

Celina Anna Kintscher is a German-Austrian composer whose artistry is shaped by her life on three continents, having lived in Germany, South Africa, and the U.S. Her compositions have been performed by Orchestra Arturo Toscanini, Orchestra Senzaspine, Los Angeles Brass Alliances, Salastina, Carpe Diem String Quartet, soprano singers Hila Plitmann and Tony Arnold, among others. She is a 2022 and 2023 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award Finalist. As a composer and concert host who organizes players and venues for new works frequently, Kintscher maintains a dual responsibility to the integrity of past works and the innovation of new music. She is faculty at the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program and lectures at the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Upbeat Live Pre-Concert talks.

Aidan Vass (b. 2003) is an American composer. He is a three-time YoungArts winner for classical composition, a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and a first place winner in the MTAC Composers Today competition. He was a Nancy and Barry Sanders’ Composer Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic from 2018-2021. His composition mentors include Andrew Norman, Ted Hearne, Sir James MacMillan, Brett Banducci, David Lefkowitz, and Kay Rhie. Vass has written music for ensembles including the American Youth Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Seraphour, Nu Deco Ensemble, Sandbox Percussion, and Tallgrass Chamber Choir, and he has independently released a catalog of music including a debut solo piano album (8 Sketches for Piano, 2021). He is currently published with Hal Leonard and Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and his music has been featured on publications such as The Violin Channel, LA Opus, Planet Hugill, and others.

“Sydney Wang (b. 2002) is a Los-Angeles based composer and pianist whose work draws upon her extensive experience as a collaborative performer. From 2017-2021, Wang was a composer fellow in the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Nancy and Barry Sanders Composer Fellowship Program. Her music has been played by acclaimed artists and ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Pasadena Symphony, Salastina, and New Thread Quartet. Wang is the recipient of accolades including the 2017 BMI Student Composer Award and the 2020 Marvin Hamlisch International Music Award.

A versatile solo and collaborative pianist, Wang is passionate about recording and performing both classical and new music. Since 2023, she has been a staff pianist at UCLA, working primarily with the voice department. In June 2024, she performed in the West Coast premiere of William Averitt’s oratorio Easter, 1906 alongside pianist James Lent and the UCLA Chamber Singers.”

Ariel Rbibo was born in LA in 2005. At the age of 7, he began to play guitar, and at 10 play, piano and compose. Throughout his piano education with his teacher he wrote music for solo piano, and Later on began writing larger-scale music, chamber music, orchestral, and concerti. In 2022, he won the MTAC California Composers Today competition, and was admitted to the MTAC Young Composer’s Guild which he is still in today. In 2023 he performed in a recital at Carnegie Hall, and had one of his orchestral works performed and recorded in Bulgaria. Today, piano remains his primary instrument and passion, and he studies at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music for composition.

J.P. Hicks (b. 2003) is currently a third-year undergraduate at UCLA, pursuing a BA in Music Composition with a minor in Philosophy. Born and raised in San Francisco, he is a longtime member of the SF Art and Film community, where he grew up immersed in various new music, cinema, theater, and performance art. His influences draw equally from philosophers and other art forms as they do music, including George Bataille, Agnes Varda, and Cy Twombly, alongside Elliott Carter, Nancarrow, and Bach. This is all he cared to share for this bio, but he insists that there is more to his music than the 109 words seen here.