Yan Pang (she/they) is a visiting assistant professor of music at Point Park University. She received her Ph.D. in Music with a minor in Theater Arts & Dance at the University of Minnesota. Her work focuses on inter-cultural music composition and performance, blending Chinese folk music elements with Western operatic traditions to build multicultural understandings of the complexity of social dynamics inherent in notions of resilience, race, solidarity, immigration, and settlement challenges. As part of this interest, she has been commissioned to compose and invited to perform at music festivals throughout the world. A selection of her varied publications includes the album Glory Times (as songwriter and music director) by the China Scientific & Cultural Audio-Video Publishing Company, the scores Nowhere Home and The Others by Contemporary Music Score Collection 2020, UCLA, the peer-reviewed paper Scene of Sichuan Opera (co-author with Mingzhu Song), and the textbooks Cool Math for Hot Music, All About Music, Basic Music Technology, and The Future of Music (co-authored Guerino Mazzola et al.) by Springer.
Qinqing Qian (she/her) is the Director of Instrumental Music and an Assistant Professor at Willamette University. Dr. Qian has extensive experience as a conductor, composer, performer, and educator throughout North America, Asia, and Europe. In previous assignments, she served as Artistic Director of the Minhua Chorus, developing the local Chinese community's cultural heritage and identity in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul.
As a conductor, Dr. Qian has led numerous performances of various instrumental music and operas; she also conducted and performed concerti from the keyboard. She has conducted professional orchestras, bands, opera productions, choruses, and music festivals in Minneapolis-St. Paul area, San Francisco, Boston, Washington, D.C.; Shanghai, Beijing, Xiamen in China, Japan, and Cyprus. She is awarded second place at the American Prize 2022 for Conducting for Opera and Musical Theatre Division. She has received DMA in Orchestral Conducting with a minor in Choral Conducting at the University of Minnesota.
David Walsh (he/him) graduated with Honors in Political Science and Economics before studying Theatre Science at the University of Toronto. He has staged operas across Europe, Britain, North America, and East Asia. From 1984 to 1987, Walsh served as Assistant Artistic Director to Brian McMaster with Vancouver Opera. Walsh held the post of Head of Production for Scottish Opera from 1987-1991. In September 2002, Walsh began an appointment as Director of Opera Theatre at the University of Minnesota, School of Music. While on sabbatical in 2018-19, he served as Interim Director of Opera Theatre at Rutgers University, Music Department.
Jason "J-Sun" Noer (he/him) is a practitioner of several street dance forms, which he teaches, choreographs, and performs. He is the artistic director of the MIXTAPE Collective, a group of Hip Hop choreographers, musical artists, and videographers that presents an annual performance at the Cowles Center (Mpls, MN). J-Sun is a Ph.D. student in the Theater Arts and Dance Department at the University of Minnesota and co-disciplinary head of the Urban and Street Dance track. His publication record includes The Future of Music: Towards a Computational Musical Theory of Everything (Springer 2020) and Creative Musicianship (Springer 2022). He believes in being accountable to community, challenging tradition, and that artistic collaboration is a key element of social change. His current choreographic work focuses on agency, vulnerability, and resistance through a mover's lens.
Like the part-human, part-machine allusions of his nickname, Stefon "Bionik" Taylor is in both acoustic and electronic realms. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and collaborator who brings out the best in those around him, Taylor has composed, arranged, and collaborated with classic and contemporary artists ranging from Phil Collins to Lizzo. He's been in the studio with legendary producers like George Martin (The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix) and Peter Mokran (Aaliyah, Mary J. Blige, The Flaming Lips). His compositions and productions have been synced in the Fast and Furious movie series, Power Rangers Movie, Empire, Insecure, vGrownish, The New Negroes, NBA 2K, Trials Rising video game series, and many more. He is a McKnight Composer Fellow, a COMPAS resident teaching artist, music director for the MIXTAPE Collective, and an instructor at Slam Academy. More at Stefon Bionik Taylor Music Productions.
Korean-American Pianist, Michael Min has been heard as a soloist, chamber musician, concerto soloist, and concert tenor. He maintains an active international career throughout Romania, Colombia, South Korea, and the United States by appearing in venues such as Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, the KEPCO Art Center (South Korea), Hinton Hall, Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall, Ted Mann Concert Hall, Dinu Lipatti Recital Hall (National College of Arts), Luis A. Calvo Hall, among others. Michael Min has also served as a music director and music coach for the global soloist's ensemble 'MUZIK' formed with singers who graduated from the University of Minnesota that are actively performing in the US as well as worldwide such as in China, Canada, and South Korea.
Dr. Yana (Zixuan) Yan is a passionate performer of baroque, contemporary, chamber, and orchestral flute music. She recently was a soloist with the Frost Repertory Orchestra (Melinda Wagner Flute Concerto) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Symphony Orchestra (Carl Nielsen Flute Concerto). In 2021, she played Emergent, for flute and electronics, by George Lewis. She regularly performs baroque chamber music with the Frost Baroque Ensemble and the UNLV Baroque Ensemble and is a guest performer at the Florida Flute Association with guitarist Fang Yuan.
Dr. Yan teaches flute and chamber music at Augustana College, Quad City Symphony Orchestra, and the University of Miami, and also gives master classes throughout the United States and China. She earned her Bachelor of Music with Double Major in Flute and Piano from Wuhan Conservatory of Music in China, and Master of Music from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Miami, Frost School of Music.
Dr. Fei Ma is an adjunct voice faculty at Graceland University and an active performer and stage manager for the University of Minnesota Opera Theatre and Opera company. Fei has received many awards and has sung in various concert halls and opera theaters. Fei won the third prize in the International Competition of Belcanto Vincenzo Bellini (Hong Kong, 2009) and the second prize in the Canada International Artist competition. As an active recital singer, Fei held a recital "Duet in Opera" at National Centre for the Performing Arts (China) and as a soloist in Gabriel Faure's "Requiem" at Carnegie Hall in 2016. As a choir conductor, Fei led the Jinfan Choir of Beijing in Song of Yimeng. She sang Jasmine (soloist) in the Wiener Musikverein in 2013. In 2023, Fei will manage the opera production "One-Log Bridge" by Yan Pang and Qinqing Qian.
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