SPLICE Institute 2026 Participant Concert 1 Program
Friday June 26, 2026 - a most auspicious day
1:00m EDT
Dalton Recital Hall, Western Michigan University
Livestream simulcast on SPLICE YouTube (unique link)
Teerath Majumder : Growing a Spine
Chris Harris, percussion
Ezra Simmons : LiDAR Studies
Lexie Aguilar, saxophone
Hamish Robb : Terræskhatos
Hamish Robb, Eurorack
Mark Evanstein : X's and O's
Chih-Yi (Joy) Chu, cello
Sarah Hertenstein : Dissipate
Lexie Aguilar, saxophone
Zhengcheng Momo He : Lumen
Lucy Croasdale, saxophone
Nate Krebs : To there, and then and back, again
Dan Galow, saxophone
Notes
Teerath Majumder : Growing a Spine
"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."
-Albert Camus
Ezra Simmons : LiDAR Studies
"Lidar, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth." - National Ocean Service
The purpose of LiDAR Studies is twofold. Considering "detection," when creating these 3D mappings, the pulsed laser functions almost pointillistically, creating these landscapes with somewhat of an artistic quality that I attempt to capture aurally. In terms of "ranging," the density or resolution of the pointillistic mapping is determined by how far the landscape is from the scanner; in other words, the greater the distance from the landscape, the more opaque the mapping becomes. I would encourage considering the same line of thinking by instead by questioning our own distance and relationship to the source material, which will be unveiled throughout the work's duration.
Hamish Robb : Terræskhatos
There exists an unspoken notion that our past interpretations of natural phenomena are childlike: thunder gods, flood myths, and accounts of blackened to blood red skies. There exists a physical imperative to respect the apparent forces the mind cannot account for. You do not think in units of moment magnitude when the wave pulverizes you. You do not think in Fujita classifications when the wind removes you. You do not think in minute-sustained wind velocities when the levees fail. You will not think in empirical measures of geomagnetic interference when the satellites fry. This composition is a meditation on the surreal power of natural forces against the fragility of life and our ability to package our powerlessness into tidy boxes beneath the sink, in the attic space, or past the webs in the cellar.
Mark Evanstein : X's and O's
When I was teaching my older son how to play Tic Tac Toe a few years ago, a thought occurred to me: how many different Tic Tac Toe game are there exactly? I mean, most of them are just rotations and reflections of other ones, and if you further limit yourself to moves that aren't obviously terrible, it whittles down to a pretty small number. This musing turned into a super popular YouTube video that thrust me into the spotlight as one of the foremost Tic Tac Tubers on the planet.
A couple years later, I was discussing this with music geometrist Dmitri Tymoczko, and he pointed out that there was a natural musical mapping of the Tic Tac Toe board, whereby rotating a game transposes its music, and flipping it horizontally or vertically inverts it. This composition is an exploration of that elegant mapping.
Sarah Hertenstein : Dissipate
Dissipate invokes an ethereal state of being with overlapping melodies as well as rhythmic and soothing electronic accompaniment.
Zhengcheng (Momo) He : Lumen
Lumen starts inside the saxophone. The melodic line stays at the center, but you also hear everything that holds it up: breath gathering at the reed, keys opening and closing, metal carrying pressure through a narrow body. The electronics don't add a new world to the instrument. They open small passages inside it, letting out sounds that usually stay close to the player: air, friction, resonance, memory. Sometimes the saxophone speaks outward, and sometimes it turns in on itself.
Nate Krebs : To there, and then and back, again
To there, and then, and back, again
awake and sow, begin therein
2 steps forward, 1 step left
Release yourself and submit;
or resist and unlock Its wish
As always, for now and when
To there, and then, and back, again
Bios
Alexis (Lexie) Aguilar is a saxophonist and educator based in the Twin Cities. She currently serves as Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at the University of St. Thomas in Saint Paul and as saxophone faculty at the MacPhail Center for Music, while also maintaining a vibrant private teaching studio within the community. Lexie is currently completing her Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Saxophone Performance at the University of Minnesota under the direction of Preston Duncan.
An engaged and versatile performer, Lexie has appeared with ensembles including the Minneapolis Orchestra and the Quad City Symphony Orchestra. She has presented and performed at the North American Saxophone Alliance (NASA) Regional Conferences and National Conferences, the International Saxophone Symposium (ISS), the Iowa Saxophone Unite Conferences, Electronic Music Midwest (EMM), and the Splice Institute—demonstrating her commitment to contemporary music and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Lexie earned her Master’s of Music from the New England Conservatory, where she studied with Ken Radnofsky, and holds a Bachelor of Arts in both French and saxophone performance from Augustana College, where she studied with Dr. Randall Hall.
Chih-Yi (Joy) Chu
Trained as a classical cellist from Taiwan and shaped by a background in molecular biology and improvisation, I am an artist existing at the intersection of science and the arts, and acoustic and electronic transformation.
Growing up in orchestras, orchestral music became essential to my life and later my most intuitive musical language. From high school and college, I began songwriting and string arranging and became involved in rock and indie music scenes, while serving as principal cellist of the National Taiwan University Symphony Orchestra. During my studies in the U.S., I have served as section cellist with the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra, associate principal cellist of the National Orchestral Institute Philharmonic under Marin Alsop, and principal cellist of the Prague Summer Nights Festival Orchestra. Meanwhile, I worked extensively in chamber music, new music, film music, theater sound design, musical theater, and pop music performances.
Recently, besides orchestra and chamber performances, my work has focused on electroacoustic music and improvisation. Aside from collaborating with singer-songwriters and composers, I compose and improvise for cello and electronics, using sound as narrative and interacting with theatrical elements. Studying composition with Professor John Mallia further shaped my interest in electronics, leading me to electroacoustic music as my primary language for storytelling. My works have appeared in NEC’s Chirp Music Technology Showcase, and I have performed at the International Computer Music Conference, composition–improvisation masterclass, and in NEC composers’ ensemble works.
My current compositional work explores acoustic and electroacoustic music focused on the cello, drawing inspiration from personal experience, scientific data, and Taiwanese cultural identity. I seek to reimagine classical music as a living, evolving art form through collaboration with technology, theater, and interdisciplinary practice.
Lucy Croasdale is a performer, composer, and educator originally from Madison, WI. She is a multi-instrumentalist who enjoys playing many different genres of music. While her main focus is saxophone performance (both jazz and classical), she also has a passion for pedagogy and composition/arranging. Lucy has created and led a beginner’s jazz workshop back in September 2021 – March 2022 and was commissioned to compose a jazz big band chart for the 2022 Fred Sturm Jazz Celebration Weekend at Lawrence University.
Also, while playing baritone saxophone with the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble (LUJE), the group won the 2023 Outstanding Performance award for Large Jazz Ensemble – Undergraduate College category. In March 2024, she premiered a saxophone quartet concerto, Second Nature by Viet Coung, with the University of Texas Wind Ensemble (UTWE) and also played in UTWE’s 50th anniversary Carnegie Hall performance in NYC. She now teaches private lessons in the Austin area.
Lucy Croasdale holds a Master’s in Music Performance at The University of Texas at Austin where she studied with Dr. Stephen Page and a Bachelor of Music Performance with a Jazz Emphasis from Lawrence University where she studied with Steven Jordheim and Jose Encarnacion.
Dr. Marc Evanstein is a composer and creative coder based in the Portland area. His music has been featured at festivals including the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the International Computer Music Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, where he won the 2015 Composition Contest. Marc is the also the creator of SCAMP (Suite for Computer-Assisted Music in Python), and runs the popular YouTube channel "music.py," exploring the intersections between music, math and creative coding.
Marc earned his BA in composition at Stanford, studying with Jarosław Kapuściński and piano with Thomas Schultz, followed by a master's in Music, Science and Technology. In 2019, he completed a PhD in composition and an MA in Media Arts and Technology at UC Santa Barbara, studying with Clarence Barlow, Joel Feigin, and Curtis Roads, and piano with Charles Asche.
Dan Galow's work as an artist and arts administrator stems from a lifelong curiosity and commitment to uplifting others. Exploring new frontiers of sound through chamber music, improvisation, and experiments with modular synthesizers, he is equally comfortable working with classically trained musicians as he is collaborating with noise artists or avant-metal bands. He primarily derives inspiration from literature, poetry, movies, and visual art.
Dan holds degrees from The College of New Jersey and Baruch College, and studied saxophone with Kathleen Mitchell and composition with Dr. Robert Young McMahan. When he is not involved with his work as an artist or arts administrator, he enjoys chess, no-limit Texas hold 'em, and wine.
Chris Harris is a percussionist, composer and educator from Fairfield, California. He currently lives in Bowling Green, Ohio where he is completing a Doctoral of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University. With contemporary music at the forefront of his degree, commissioning, performing, and composing new works are important to Chris.
As a performer Chris likes to focus on the intersection of inclusive cultural programming and electro-acoustic music. Many of his commissions are from composers with roots in Colombia, Germany, Japan, Italy, Iran and Taiwan. Often, his commissions include electronics, with works using concepts such as fixed media, live processing of sounds, and live looping. Chris has won awards as a soloist for his performances at the Regional Day of Percussion hosted at Fresno State University from 2021 - 2023 and was invited to perform at the National Conference on Percussion Pedagogy in May of 2023.
Outside of performing, he is an active composer mainly writing in the electroacoustic medium. Chris has won call for scores for both Kaitlyn Miller (harpist) and Flydlphn (chamber ensemble) as well as been a finalist in 2023 for the FENAM student composers’ competition. His current interests lie in larger works, intertwining other medium of art such as video projection to create experiences, alternatively to works.
Zhengcheng (Momo) He is a composer, producer, and interaction artist currently pursuing a DMA in Composition at Michigan State University. Her work explores the creative potential of sound through experimental electronic music and technology, bridging artistic complexity and audience accessibility. Alongside her experimental practice, she is also active in commercial music and sound design, working in film, media, and applied music contexts. She combines technical precision with emotional sensitivity to create immersive soundscapes shaped by texture, energy, and presence.
Sarah Hertenstein is an American composer whose works are inspired by current events and the exploration of sound. She is pursuing an undergrad at Bowling Green State University. Her achievements include performing in the 2024 Edeta Arts Festival and premiering her work Routine at the Bowling Green State University Spring 2026 Praecepta Mini-Fest.
Nate Krebs is a composer based in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota. His musical interests currently lie in relational music making - designing compositions that are informed by the decisions and autonomy of performers. This current practice intersects with his work in film scores, text/graphic compositions, and educational repertory. His works have been presented at several national and regional festivals, including SEAMUS, SCI, MOXSonic, and CLICK FEST. Meanwhile, he has recently enjoyed collaborations with various organizations, including Sing Me a Story, SPLICE Institute, and PBS.
Nate holds a Bachelor of Vocal Music Education from the University of Toledo, a Master of Music in Composition and Master of Arts Administration from Ohio University, and a PhD in Music Composition from the University of Minnesota. His primary composition instructors have been Lee Heritage, Robert McClure, and Sivan Cohen Elias. Nate currently serves as a Graduate Program Coordinator at the University of Minnesota.
Born in Bangladesh, Teerath Majumder is a composer, sound artist, and technologist based in Chicago. His critical practice probes the intersection of technology and politics to give rise to new social realities. His 2025 production "Do Not Feed the Robots" was a participatory installation-concert with interactive physical interfaces exploring our hopes and anxieties about modern artificial intelligence. "Space Within" (2022) marked the beginning of Majumder's journey with interface development and audience participation. His compositions paint new worlds by seamlessly joining acoustic elements with electronic manipulations. They have been performed by ensembles such as Transient Canvas, Hub New Music, and London Firebird Orchestra. Majumder regularly collaborates with movement and visual artists, his latest endeavor being "Entwined" (2026), a video for public projection at Art on the Mart, Chicago. His studio output has been described as "complex and impressive worlds on top of an unstable strata of contradictions.” (The Wire Magazine).
Hamish Robb is a Baltimore-based programmer, improviser, and composer of experimental and electronic music. They create sounds that explore contradictions: synthetic/organic, rigid/liquid, sprawling/confined. Using VCV Rack, they weave together glitchy and chaotic sound structures. They hold a degree in Computer Science and Musical Studies from Oberlin College and studied in the Computer Music program at the Peabody Institute under Sam Pluta, graduating with an M.M. in 2025. They have been involved in the Baltimore free improvisation scene and self-produce music across a wide range of styles, from ambient soundscapes to multi-channel sonic blasts. Outside of their electronic work, they are a semi-reformed guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, amateur graphic designer, and filmmaker.
Composer/producer/conductor Ezra Simmons is from Hamilton, Ohio. His works draw from a wide palate of ideas, from existential philosophy to electronic music. He has recently started producing IDM / drum & bass under the pseudonym, “son of sisyphus.” Ezra has collaborated with the Miami University Symphony Orchestra, Yarn//Wire Ensemble, Unheard-of Ensemble, ChatterPDX / ABQ, and TAK Ensemble. Ezra has studied composition with Christopher Dietz, John Eagle, Per Bloland, Susanna Hancock, Phillip Roberts, Aaron Perrine, and Laura Harrison. He has also presented in masterclasses with Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Scott Ordwary. Ezra is pursuing his Master’s of Music Composition under Christopher Dietz at BGSU, and while formerly a graduate teaching assistant for the orchestration classes, is now a graduate assistant for the electronic music studio and advanced tech courses. Ezra plans to continue his musical studies past his Master’s and into his Doctorate, and further pursue relationships between acoustic and electronic traditions.