2024-2025 Review Panel

Fusing a punk/grunge background with spectral techniques and classical refinement, Miami composer Dorothy Hindman pushes the boundaries of the technically possible with unique, visceral elegance. Timbre is a structural element; form arises from the material and a fascination with entropy. Driving rhythms contribute surface impact, inviting discovery of the levels beneath on each successive hearing. 

Critics call the music “bright with energy and a lilting lyricism” (New York Classical Review), “dramatic, highly strung” (Fanfare), “varied, utterly rich with purpose and heart” (Huffington Post), and “highly recommended for rockers wishing to get their proverbial feet wet in post-20th century classical music” (ICON).

Hindman’s works have been performed globally in venues including Carnegie Hall, the United Nations, the American Academy in Rome, the Muziekgebouw, Berlin’s BKA-Theater, Havana Contemporary Music Festival, Australian Flute Festival, and Nuovi Spazi Musicali by contemporary luminaries including Ex-Sentia, [Switch~ Ensemble], Splinter Reeds, CAMP, Quince, Bent Frequency, and more.

Recent awards and recognition include Finalist in the 2023 "Città di Udine" International Composition Competition 14th Edition, NODUS 2022 Fundacio Caixa Castello, a 2019 Mellon Foundation CREATE grant, and ISCM/New Music Miami.  Her recordings appear on innova, Albany, and Capstone. Hindman is on the composition faculty at the University of Miami.

The Honourable Elizabeth A. Baker is a new renaissance artist whose work is best expressed as a constantly evolving practice that doesn’t fit neatly into definition or expectation boxes. It is an artistic body of work vast in scope and scale outside of the confines of a simple elevator pitch, unrestrained and unencapsulated.Elizabeth has received recognition from press as well as scholars, for her conceptual compositions and commitment to inclusive programming. In addition to studies of her work, Elizabeth has been awarded several fellowships, grants, and residencies, in addition to sponsorships from Schoenhut Piano Company and Source Audio LLC. As an experimental filmmaker, her work has been shown at festivals including Women of the Lens (United Kingdom), and the African Smartphone International Film Festival (Nigeria). As a solo recording artist, Elizabeth is represented by Aerocade Music, her first solo album on the California-based label Quadrivium released worldwide in May 2018 to rave reviews. She is the founder and former executive director of the Florida International Toy Piano Festival, The New Music Conflagration, Inc., author of three books, and the subject of a number of scholarly articles, thesis papers, and other academic research. Elizabeth is a recipient of a 2019-2020 Individual Artist Grant from the State of Florida as well as a commission for The Great Black Music Ensemble through the American Composers Forum (ACF) Connect programme in partnership with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM Chicago). Elizabeth is the 2021-2022 Rieman and Baketel Fellow for Music at Harvard Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Paula Matthusen is a composer who writes both electroacoustic and acoustic music and realizes sound installations. In addition to composing for a variety of different ensembles, she also collaborates with choreographers and theater companies. Her music has been performed by Dither, Mantra Percussion, the Bang On A Can All-Stars, Brooklyn Rider, the Knights, the American Composers Orchestra, Metropolis Ensemble, Loadbang, New York New Music Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, the Scharoun Ensemble, orchest de ereprijs, The Glass Farm Ensemble, the Estonian National Ballet, GAHLMM, James Moore, Terri Hron, Dana Jessen, Kathryn Woodard, Todd Reynolds, Kathleen Supové, Margaret Lancaster, Anna Svensdotter, Nina De Heney, and Jody Redhage. Her work has been performed at numerous venues and festivals in America and Europe, including the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, the Caramoor Festival, the MusicNOW Series of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Ecstatic Music Festival, Other Minds, the MATA Festival, Merkin Concert Hall, the Aspen Music Festival, Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music at MassMoCA, the Gaudeamus New Music Week, SEAMUS, International Computer Music Conference and Dither’s Invisible Dog Extravaganza. Matthusen performs frequently on live- electronics as well, and has been a featured composer and performer at Experimental Intermedia Festival (NYC), 9 Evenings +50 at Fridman Gallery (NYC), SPLICE Festival (Kalamazoo), BEASt FEaST (Birmingham, UK), Ultrasons (Montreal), and Salon Bruit (Berlin). She also performs frequently with Object Collection, and is involved in interdisciplinary collaborations such as the project between systems and grounds with visual artist Olivia Valentine for live-textile generation and live-electronics, and Kite Choir with artist Firat Erdim. Matthusen is currently Professor of Music at Wesleyan University, where she teaches experimental music, composition, and music technology, and founded the Toneburst Laptop and Electronic Arts Ensemble.