CCI//SAN ANTONIO

AUGUST 8–16, 2025

OVERVIEW

Unheard-of//Ensemble is hosting  the Collaborative Composition Initiative workshop (CCI//Sessions) in San Antonio, Texas between August 8th and 16th, 2025. This CCI, we will be presenting concerts, installations, and creative workshops across the city, from the San Antonio Missions and Confluence Park to coffee shops and community spaces. This year marks a special partnership with German chamber ensemble PART. Both ensembles will workshop new compositions with participants to be recorded using Unheard-of’s cinema cameras and audio setup. After the workshop, Unheard-of and participants will work together to develop an album recording. Participants and the ensembles will collaborate in the development of a performance installation using sound samples and field recordings taken during the week in San Antonio.

In addition to our ensemble workshops, there will be a variety of lectures from the ensembles and guest composers. Topics range from instrumental writing for electroacoustic ensemble, working with digital electronics (streaming, live processing, and more), building large scale projects, and topics selected by our composition faculty.  Composers receive three composition lessons (one each with Juri, Carter Williams, and UTSA’s Miles Jefferson Friday) and take part in performances from invited guest artists throughout the week. We also feature local artists, poets, and guest lecturers throughout the workshop.

We are limiting the workshop to 12 composer participants to write full ensemble works for Unheard-of and PART. Ford and Matheus will work with participants to edit and mix the tracks for release as part of CCI//Sessions, vol. 7. 

Read a review of a preview CCI from Classical Voice North America!

Over the Course of the Week, Composers Will:

  • Have two works workshopped by the ensembles (one longer and one shorter work based on preference)

  • Three composition lessons

  • Recording and mixing released on CCI//Sessions Album

  • Hands-on installation developed in collaboration with ensembles

  • Lectures by local artists and guests

FACULTY

UNHEARD-OF

JURI SEO, COMPOSITION

PART ENSEMBLE

2025 CCI PARTICIPANTS

Yeonsuk Jung (b. 1998) is a Korean-born composer whose works explore harmonies through both analog and digital processes. His compositions span from chamber to electronic music, incorporating acoustic and digital sound production methods. Drawing inspiration from urban planning concepts, he melds eclectic sounds and innovative compositional structures to create immersive auditory experiences.

Beyond composition, Yeonsuk is deeply involved in the technical aspects of music production. As an experienced recording engineer and music technologist, he has contributed to numerous recording projects, including the production of his own concerto for harp and chamber orchestra. Proficient in Max/MSP, Ableton, and Pro Tools, he also excels in video editing and multimedia production, having independently filmed and edited the video for his piece Kinetic Dissipation. Currently serving as a Music Technology Teaching Assistant at Bowling Green State University, Yeonsuk is passionate about supporting fellow musicians through recording and tech support, aiming to bridge the gap between composition and technology in contemporary music.

Wookhyun Kwon, a Korean composer currently residing in Chicago, works between what is seen and what is fixed, between sensation and perception, and between sound and form. By delving into the potential of sonic parameters as perceptual variables and making decisions, she takes on the role as a mechanic.

She is pursuing a PhD in Composition and Music Technology at Northwestern University under the guidance of Alex Mincek, Hans Thomalla, and Jay Alan Yim. She holds an M.M. degree in composition from Manhattan School of Music and B.M. degree in composition from Kookmin University in Seoul.

Ty Bloomfield (b. 2000, Chicago) is a composer whose music is characterized by the unfolding of mysterious narratives, jazzy undertones, intimate and patient soundscapes, and improvised-like melodies. A 2025 Fromm Foundation Fellow, Ty’s music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles such as the Conference Ensemble, JACK Quartet, KAIA String Quartet, Unheard-Of//Ensemble, Ensemble PART, Cincinnati Song Initiative, Lati2de, National Association of Teachers of Singing, Inc., New Music Chicago, and clarinetist Berginald Rash and has been featured at the Avaloch Farm Music Institute, Lake George Music Festival, Dublin International Chamber Music Festival, International Clarinet Association New Music Weekend, and RED NOTE Music Festival. Ty is pursuing his M.M. in Composition at the University of Michigan.

Justine Leichtling is a composer, violinist, and psychologist living in Brooklyn. Informed by her background in psychology, she writes unabashedly emotional music that has earned her opportunities including a residency at Banff Centre for the Arts, a premiere at the Accordo Silent Film Festival in St. Paul, MN, participation in the LunART Music Festival in Madison, WI, and participation in the Lake George Music Festival in New York. Leichtling's work has been played by the JACK Quartet and the Rhythm Method Quartet, and she is currently working on her first opera. Originally from San Francisco, Leichtling earned her BA in Computing and the Arts from Yale University and her doctorate in Psychology from the Wright Institute in Berkeley, California. She is in her second year of a Master’s program in Composition at Mannes School of Music where she studies with Mary Kouyoumdjian. She maintains a small therapy practice on the side. In her free time, you can find her playing chamber music with friends, attending live shows, reading poetry, running in Prospect Park, or biking around the city.

David Acevedo is a Philadelphia-based composer, performer, and music educator. His wide-ranging work draws from many different traditions—including jazz, M-Base, Afro-Latin, electronica, metal, hip-hop, and early music—integrating linear and cyclic concepts to weave hypnotic musical narratives.

Acevedo’s music has been performed and recorded by loadbang, Orkest De Ereprijs, line upon line percussion, Daedalus Quartet, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, Erin Lesser, Sae Hashimoto, George Nickson, and more. His work has been featured by Score Follower and has been selected for a wide variety of new music festivals and concert series both across the US and around the world, including loadbang Premieres, the line upon line Winter Composer Festival, the Midwest Graduate Music Consortium Annual Conference, the Yarn/Wire International Institute, the Suncoast Composer Festival, the EDME New Music Festival, Longy’s Divergent Studio, CLICK FEST, the Lawrence University New Music Series, the Young Composers Meeting (Netherlands), and the Escuta Aqui! New Music Festival (Brazil).

Acevedo is currently a doctoral student in Music Composition at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studies composition with Tyshawn Sorey, Natacha Diels, and Anna Weesner and teaches undergraduate music theory. He holds an M.A. in Music Composition from Stony Brook University (2023), where he studied composition with Matthew Barnson, Perry Goldstein, and Daniel Weymouth, and a B.A. in Music from Columbia University (2019), where he studied composition with George Lewis, Georg Haas, and Zosha Di Castri.

As a composer, harpist, and artist, Gian Torrano Jacobs (@gian.tj | he/they | b. 1994) creates work bridging the organic and synthetic, exploring the cyclical nature of life, death, and rebirth through sound, sculpture, and improvisation. Informed by their Panamanian, German, and Indigenous heritage and their identity as a queer, animist Quaker, their process embodies synthesis and transformation. He often features handmade instruments and digitally assisted processes to mirror the evolving systems of nature and the human experience. Gian’s interests span contemporary and early musics, natural and synthetic sounds, spoken word, electronics, acoustics, visual media, and instrument/sound design.

Josíah Garza (Siah) is an intermedia artist hailing from the Mexican American border of South Texas. As a storyteller, his work aims to spark communication and collaboration amongst communities, and his primary from of creation is through music composition. As a witness to society, Siah hopes to capture our world’s shared history and draw understanding from the hazy moments between all of our lives. He was raised in the arts, and his experience studying contemporary dance and performing Mexican ballet folklorico evolved his practice into a dialogue across artistic mediums. He blurs the borders between his work and day-to-day life as composition, texture, and gradient inform everything he is and does. Whether through opera, living-art-installations, or spoken-word performance, Siah's art is an extension of the stories he seeks to tell. He has recently been awarded the first prize in classical composition by the American Pops Orchestra at the Ruth Wales du Pont Collegiate Composition Competition and is the youngest composer to earn a commission and residency with the Butler Opera Center for the first of his operas, MARIA. Learn more at www.thesilenceishazy.com

DiDi Shengying Gu is a Chinese-American composer based in New York. After graduating from New England Conservatory for her bachelor's degree, she is currently pursuing her master's degree at Manhattan School of Music. Didi has been fortunate to study with a distinguished group of private mentors who have shaped her musical voice. Her teachers include Reiko Füting, John Mallia, Kati Agocs, and Cynthia van Maanen. She prefers to let her music do the talking.

Chase Morrison (b. 2004) is an award-winning film and concert composer currently based in the DFW area. His concert music, written for a wide range of ensembles, is regularly performed/awarded by ensembles across the U.S., and in his works, Chase aims to convey the intertwined beauty of nature and philosophy. Additionally, Chase works as an avid media composer, having contributed music to a wide array of films and other media. Chase is currently pursuing a BM in Music Composition at TCU, where he serves as President for their local Society of Composers Inc. chapter. https://chasemorrisonmusic.com

Celebrated for her eclectic, vibrant and sometimes irreverent music, composer Mary Denney explores the relationship between sound, music, and memory. She draws inspiration from a wide range of influences, including everything from the pop music on the radio to experimental free improvisation. Active in the new music community, Mary’s music has been performed by ensembles such as Splinter Reeds, Chartreuse Trio, and loadbang; she has attended the Cortona Sessions for New Music, Longy’s Divergent Studio, and the Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival as a composition fellow. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she is a graduate student at the University of Michigan and holds a Bachelor of Music in composition from University of the Pacific.

Thomas A. Rodriguez is a composer, performer, and arts administrator based in Elgin, Illinois. His musical work can be characterized by its dynamicity and experimental tendencies, synergistically inspired by the natural world, the built environment, and by electronic music practices. 

Thomas’ compositions have been heard at festivals and institutions across the United States, including Electronic Music Midwest, New Music Mosaic, SPLICE Institute, and UT Landmarks. His solo improvised performances, utilizing found objects, clarinet, and live electronics have been featured most recently at the Elgin Fringe Festival. As an administrator, Thomas serves as the Orchestra Operations Coordinator with Elgin Youth Symphony Orchestras, where he supports the musical and personal growth of over 300 young musicians from across the Chicagoland area. 

Thomas received his Bachelor of Arts in Music and Minor in Arts Management and Administration from The University of Texas at Austin, studying composition with Omar Thomas and Russell Podgorsek, and clarinet with Jonathan Gunn and Tyler Webster. While not musicking, Thomas can be found outside somewhere, pedaling his bike, and/or peddling bad jokes.

Samuel Bang is a composer, educator, and percussionist based out of Kansas City, MO. He is a master's student currently working towards a degree in Music Composition at the University of Missouri - Kansas City. Bang is studying composition under Dr. Chen Yi, Dr. Rudy Paul, Dr. Zhou Long, and Dr. Yotam Haber. 

During his time at LSU, Bang studied under Dr. Brett Dietz, Dr. Mara Gibson, Dr. Brian Raphael Nabors, Shawn Galvin, and Troy Davis. He was an active member of student ensembles most recently playing in the LSU Symphony Orchestra. He has also performed with the Symphonic Band, Symphonic Winds, and Wind Ensemble groups during his time in school. He can be heard in several recordings performing with these ensembles online. He was also involved as a performer on Chad Heiny’s album Beacons of Light: The Percussion Music of Chad Heiny which was released in 2021. Bang was also a member of The Golden Band from Tigerland serving as a drumline member for two years. During his time with the marching band, Bang performed as a bass drummer in Sean Ardoin’s Grammy-nominated album “Full Circle”.

Ben Morris is a composer and jazz pianist whose work tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. His projects include music for chamber groups and large ensembles, operas, theater and film scores, and multimedia works. He recently lived in Oslo on a Fulbright Grant and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to study the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz. Ben’s 2022 debut album, Pocket Guides, takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz, and chamber music. The music on Pocket Guides garnered Ben two Downbeat Awards, two ASCAP Herb Alpert Awards and a Morton Gould Award, a commission from New York Youth Symphony’s First Music, and an invitation to perform at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Also a versatile film, theatre, and opera composer, Ben scored the documentary films American River, which premiered at Montclair Film, and Saving the Great Swamp. Ben is a frequent collaborator of librettist Laura Fuentes; his operas with Laura have been commissioned by the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, Boulder Opera, and Glimmerglass Festival. He has attended summer festivals at the Aspen Music Festival, American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute, and the International Gugak Workshop in South Korea, and artist residencies at Yaddo, Helene Wurlitzer Foundation, I-Park Foundation, and Brush Creek.

Ben is an Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University and studied composition at University of Colorado Boulder, Rice University, and University of Miami.

COST

 

$1100 Tuition

Tuition covers private lessons, recording session of your pieces with the ensembles, guest lectures, and a host of performances. It also covers select meals.

Limited scholarships are available based on need.

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$500 Single Room Housing
Accommodations are available from Aug 8th to morning of 17th and will be coordinated with participants by Unheard-of.

APPLY

 

Decisions for 2025 have been made. Check back in Fall 2025 for info on 2026.

MATERIALS NEEDED:

– Two work samples of chamber music/small ensemble composition. Video or audio and links to scores or other representation of work 
– Resume, short artist bio, or link to website

ALBUM

 

Each participant will have a work featured on our CCI Sessions, vol. 7.