Katie is an active private lesson teacher and performer in the Dallas area. She is Third Horn of Dallas Opera, Principal Horn of the Dallas Chamber Symphony, and plays substitute and extra horn with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony, and the Dallas Wind Symphony on a regular basis.

In the summer of 2013, Katie was the Third Horn for the Music in the Mountains Festival, in Durango, Colorado. In March of 2013, she went on the European Tour with the Dallas Symphony, performing Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.

Katie obtained her Master of Music degree from Northwestern University, where she attended on a full scholarship and graduated with a 4.0 GPA. While there, she studied with Gail Williams, the former Associate Principal of the Chicago Symphony. Katie also had the option of attending Yale and Juilliard on full scholarships for graduate school.

Dallas is where Katie spent her college years, studying at Southern Methodist University with Gregory Hustis, the Principal Horn of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. During her senior year there, Katie auditioned and won a coveted spot in the Carnegie Hall Professional Workshop for Winds and Brass. She traveled to New York City and stayed there for a week performing, taking masterclasses with well-known musicians, and having a blast – with all expenses paid. She graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2009 from SMU with a Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance.

During her summers, Katie went to a handful of different music festivals. She attended Chautauqua Music Festival in 2006, Texas Music Festival in 2007, the National Repertory Orchestra in Breckenridge, Colorado in 2008, and then went to the Pacific Music Festival in Japan in 2010. In 2012, she attended the Sarasota Music Festival and the Youth Orchestra of the Americas summer festival, which entailed a six-week tour of the country of Chile. All of these festivals were either free or low-cost, due to the caliber of her playing.

Alain is composer laureate with the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra after holding the composer-in-residence position for the past 3 years.

Ken Hsieh, the VMO’s music director, says of the composer, “Alain is one of the most truly gifted composers of this generation who composes music that incorporates lots of contemporary elements and yet manages to attract both the musicians and audiences, which is very rare today.”

Alain’s music combines elements of funk, jazz and rock along with his love of contemporary music to create a forceful and vivid style. This comes from years playing guitar in rock and jazz bands before he plunged body and soul into contemporary music, earning his Master’s degree in composition and bachelor’s in piano. He has also studied flute, cello, classical guitar and percussion.

Alain’s music has been performed and recorded by The Ramat-Gan Orchestra (Israel), The Russian State Symphony Orchestra, The Evergreen Orchestra (Taiwan), the SMG Festival Orchestra (Ireland), The Troy University Concert Band (Alabama) and many others.
Also working in film, following a childhood passion, Alain’s orchestral score for the “The Legend of Silk Boy” starring Jackie Chan was one of the best reviewed score of that year, surpassing most Hollywood blockbusters. Recently he was orchestrator and conductor for the major motion picture “Elysium” starring Matt Damon and Jodie Foster coming out in August 2013.

Alain resides in Burnaby BC with his wife and two young boys.
To learn more about Maestro Ken Hsieh, please visit: AlainMayrand.com

Film & game composer of “exquisite talent” (Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands game co-composed with Steve Jablonsky), Penka has worked for 15 years in Los Angeles on titles grossing $15 billion world-wide. Her own music is a blend of her Eastern-European upbringing, classical training, modern film & game music, and influences ranging from rock, electronica, Medieval chant to non-Western music. She has made Hollywood history (first woman Lead Orchestrator on films with budget over $100M – Ender’s Game and Elysium). And just like the great Shirley Walker, Penka is a mentor who has nurtured the careers of many.

Notable collaborations: with the celebrity composers Hans Zimmer (orchestrator: Pirates 3, Angels and Demons), Steve Jablonsky (Transformers franchise, Gears of War 2, 3), with Neal Acree for Blizzard Entertainment (orchestrator: World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Diablo III franchises), and for SCEA (Lead orchestrator on Bloodborne). A Sundance Institute Composer Fellow, Penka has scored dozens of independent features (Midnight Movie, Primrose Lane), television shows (Forensic Files, Modern Marvels) and video games (H-Hour: World’s Elite, Rollers of the Realm, Hades, IronKill, additional music on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen game). Penka has composed two concept albums in cinematic orchestral-electronica style, A Warrior’s Odyssey (2012, available from Howlin’ Wolf) and The Woman Astronaut (released on Varése Sarabande in 2015). Like a great musical storyteller, her music carries the listener forth on an emotional wave, with soaring themes, innovative orchestral and digital textures, and primal percussion.

Penka was born and raised in Sofia, Bulgaria, received classical training in piano and theory, and began composing incidental music for kids’ theater at the age of 12. In 1990 she ventured out of Bulgaria with a Duke University composition fellowship and $130 in her pocket. In 1997, she made history at Duke by receiving the first-ever Doctorate in Composition from this distinguished institution. At Duke, she studied with the celebrated orchestral composers Stephen Jaffe, Scott Lindroth and with the Dutch postmodern minimalist Louis Andriessen. During the 90’s Penka enjoyed success as a concert composer. In 1999, she began her career in Los Angeles as the orchestrator for Emmy-winning composer Patrick Williams. Later that year, Cliff Eidelman gave Kouneva her first scoring break, the AFI thesis short Shadows directed by Mitch Levine.

Penka has since been honored with the Aaron Copland Award, SUNDANCE Composer Fellowship; Hollywood Music In Media Awards, Square Enix Music Online nomination, Independent Music Award; two Ovation Awards, The Visionary Award from Women’s International Film & TV Showcase, GRAND PRIX at the Tokyo Young Composers Competition, Meet the Composer Award, and numerous Artist Fellowships.

Penka is on the Advisory Boards for Game Developers Conference (GDC), Sundance Institute, and Mentor for NARAS (Grammy®). As an industry leader and groundbreaking artist, she is a frequent speaker at GDC, Game Sound Con, CalArts, Berklee, Musicians Institute, Duke, Columbia College, Society of Composers and Lyricists and numerous schools, game conferences and events. As a role model and passionate advocate for artists’ growth, advancement of women composers and gender parity, Penka is featured on MPR, film and video game press.

In 2000 while eking out a meager living as a freelancer, Penka brought her family over to Los Angeles, put her two sisters through school (including a Pepperdine MBA program for her younger sister) and gave them a chance at the American Dream. Currently she lives with her husband music editor and daughter in Los Angeles and enjoys hiking, swimming and time with her family and friends.

Brian Satterwhite is a professional film composer based in Austin, Texas. He earned a Bachelor of Music with dual majors in Film Scoring and Composition from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Brian’s music has been featured in over one hundred and thirty short and feature films including The Lone Ranger (2013), Sushi: The Global Catch (2012), Switch (2012), Man On A Mission (2012), Artois The Goat (2009), Quarter to Noon (2008), The Children’s War (2008), Cowboy Smoke (2008), Mr. Hell (2006), and the award-winning IMAX™ film Ride Around The World (2006). Brian’s many accolades include twelve gold medals and four silver medals from the Park City Film Music Festival.

Brian has composed a handful of scores for silent films performed by the Dallas Chamber Symphony including The Cabinet of Dr. Calgari (1920), the Buster Keaton short film The Scarecrow (1920), and the Harold Lloyd feature A Sailor-Made Man (1921) which was a finalist for a Jerry Goldsmith Award in 2013.

In addition to composing, Brian is on faculty at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches a course on film music for the Radio-Television-Film Department. He’s also the producer and host of the film music radio program “Film Score Focus” on 89.5 KMFA in Austin, and is a highly regarded film music journalist who writes for several popular web sites and pens soundtrack album linter notes for several major labels.