The Hot Air Music Festival is a student-led celebration of contemporary and expansive classical music from the last 50 years that provides young composers and performers the opportunity to present new works. We strengthen the new music community in the Bay Area with an emphasis on premiering new works and multimedia collaborations.

There will be discussion panels occurring in Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall on the ground level of the Bowes center with primary concerts happening on the 11th floor of the Bowes center in Barbro Osher Recital Hall.

Event Schedule

12pm: Welcome event and coffee hour in Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall 

2pm: Concert 1: "Connect" in Barbro Osher Recital Hall

4pm: New Music Discussion Panel with industry professionals and students in Cha Chi Ming Recital Hall

7pm: Concert 2: "Create" in Barbro Osher Recital Hall

8pm: Reception

Concert 1: "Connect" Program 

Adam Schoenberg: Olive Orchard
Taylor Chan, piano

Darioush Mackani: It Disappears
Marie Johnson, soprano
Darioush Mackani, piano

Brayden Meng: Urbanite Odyssey
Diego Carillo, piano

Benjamin Beckman: towards the lonely tree
Addy Geenen, soprano
Lena Goldstein, soprano
Taylor Chan, piano

Benjamin Beckman: Dance Forms
     III. Lullaby
    IV. Fantasy
Francis Fedora, cello

Meli Everson: Hiraeth
Meli Everson, clarinet

Pavle Cajic: Extinction and Rebellion
Pavle Cajic, piano
Patrick Galvin, violin

Jacob Katz: Simpler Times
Hannah Schafer, violin 
Aleksi Zaretsky, violin
Ruisi Doris Du, viola
Elmer Carter, cello

Noah Sanchez: Decorating Time
Hannah Schafer, violin
Armando Atanda, viola
Elmer Carter the III, cello

Concert 2: "Create" Program

Ian Rictor: Cloudburst
John Freeman, trumpet

River Sawchyn: Chasing Sculptures
Natalie Boberg, violin

Sam Mason: Of an Old Garden
Sam Mason, piano

Jonny Incipido: Romance No.3
Alex Rotundo, piano

Peyton Dexter: Bealtaine
Zeke Sokoloff and Aria Shum, violin
Julian Leon, viola
Jin Kim, cello

River Sawchyn: Haydnspirations
Natalie Boberg and Yoon-Bin Park, violin
Doris Du, viola
Julian Sommer, cello

Jose Vargas: Daisy
Freddy Renaud and Joshua Gordon, cello

Composer Bios: 

Benjamin Beckman is a composer seeking to create intellectually stimulating and emotionally charged works of art for a 21st century landscape. His orchestral music has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra; other collaborations include those with the Long Beach Opera, Opera Elect, Frost School of Music Ensemble Ibis, the Lyris Quartet, the Thornton Edge, and New York Youth Symphony Jazz. Beckman is a recent graduate of Yale College, where his Passage, an evening-length chamber opera, won Yale’s 2023 Beekman Cannon Friends Prize for most outstanding thesis submitted in the music major. Also experienced as a collaborative pianist and vocal coach, this spring he is working on music staff at the Sarasota Opera. 

Pavle Cajic 
Extinction & Rebellion is a work for violin and piano, the name of which alludes to the recent protest movement raising awareness of the existential threat of climate change. The music explores the psychological states that the composer experienced associated with the realisation of this threat: from despair, to determined action. It is in two sections, corresponding to the title of the piece - the first, intensely lyrical, and the second, a rebellious double fugue. As the fugue dies down in energy, music from the first half reappears, momentarily giving in to despair as the fight appears fruitless. However, determination returns, and the piece ends with an emphatic statement of rebellion. Each section is built on independent thematic material which is continuously developed throughout the work, and also recurs cyclically at key dramatic moments. 

Peyton Dexter is an American composer and pianist. Recently, he was a featured artist at the Wintergreen Music Festival where his work Prayer was conducted by Erin Freeman with the Wintergreen Symphony Orchestra and Vocalist Virginia Douglas. Members of the WSO also premiered his chamber work Suburbiana, his solo cello piece Aria was premiered by Sara Kappa, and he was commissioned by Jon Lee to write a work for solo piano. Dexter studied privately with composer Daron Hagen before studying with Mason Bates at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 

Mexican-American clarinetist Meli Everson is committed to her mission of providing equal opportunities to underrepresented backgrounds in music. An alumni of the Chicago Musical Pathways Initiative, she has appeared in ensembles such as Honor Band of America, and as principal in Interlochen’s World Youth Symphony Orchestra. She also actively participates in the Quinteto Latino Fellowship. 
With a passion for live and recording arts, Meli engages in multiple genres: classical, modern, and electronic. Using her knowledge of classical music and audio production, Meli Everson is driven to contribute innovative ideas for the future of music for everyone. 

Jonny Incipido is a dynamic producer and composer, specializing in crafting immersive artistic experiences for digital media and concert music, as well as being a choreographer for dance. After graduating with a Bachelor of Arts w/ Applied Emphasis in music from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities- College of Liberal Arts- School of Music, where he developed his technique in the cello and viola, he further honed his musical skills with a Master of Music in Technology and Applied Composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. During this period, he honed his secondary artistic pursuit—exploring Hip Hop and traditional Filipino dance. 
Blending musical artistry, a background in dance, and cutting-edge audio technology, Jonny's career is a canvas of possibilities. He thrives on working on projects that involve the collaboration of different art forms, evident in past projects blending music with other artistic mediums such as poetry, dance, and visual art. As he continues to develop programmatic concert music, he hopes to one day channel his passion into scoring animated short films, musicals and creating impactful soundtracks for commercial ads. 

Jacob Katz is a dedicated LA-based composer for film, television, video games, and concert venues. He has composed for numerous short films and written and recorded scores for live orchestras and chamber ensembles. Jacob started his composing endeavors in electronic music. His goal to compose for film, drove him to connect his knowledge about electronic music and incorporate orchestral scoring. 

Samuel Mason (b. 2003) is a composer, songwriter, and pianist whose work fuses elements of classical, jazz, and popular music. He has performed original music at venues all over Westchester County, NY and New York City, from coffee houses to 54 Below. As a musician living with cerebral palsy, Mason performed in Central Park representing Young Adults Institute: Seeing Beyond Disability. He is earning a Bachelor of Music Degree in Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music – where he regularly collaborates with instrumentalists who publicly perform his music - under the instruction of Dr. David Conte. 

Dâryuš Makâni is a composer and pianist based in San Francisco, California. He composes both concert and media music and has worked with youth orchestras, documentarians, filmmakers, playwrights, and video game developers. He describes his style as a sort of "neo-romantic minimalism," contrasting emotive melodies over undulating textures. Makâni studies under the tutelage of Elinor Armer at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and teaches piano at the Mid Peninsula Music Academy in Redwood City. Outside of composing, he enjoys hiking, photography, cycling, and playing keys and singing in several rock bands. 

Composer Brayden Meng is a powerhouse of raw, intuitive artistry dedicated to bringing elaborate yet thrilling sound worlds to life. He has premiered his own violin concerto at the Palladium Center for the Arts, scored award-winning films, and amassed honors from Hollywood’s Monthly Film Festival, Montreal Festival Du Nouveau Cinéma, and the VIFF. Meng is also the founder and president of the WHAM (We Have All Music) organization, which has presented over 30 concerts at venues such as the Indianapolis Museum of Art and the Eiteljorg Museum. He is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Music degree in composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Mason Bates. 

Ian Rictor is a composer, producer, and sound designer based in San Francisco, California. He has crafted original works for the Climate Music Project, the Sleep Music Project, and his editions and arrangements have been performed by the NATO Jazz Orchestra, the NATO Jazz Combo, and the Latvian Armed Forces Band. Ian's most recent work, Cloudburst for trumpet and electronics premiered at the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players concert, Re:visitations. Ian is completing a Master of Music in Technology and Applied Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. 

Featured in CBC Music’s 2023 top 30 hot classical musicians under 30, River Sawchyn is a violinist and composer from Winnipeg, Canada. He attends the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia, where he studies violin with Amy Schwartz- Moretti and composition with Christopher Schmitz. River is a passionate student of chamber and orchestral music and enjoys playing with the Macon-Mercer Symphony, as well as recording and performing original works regularly. Recent projects include his debut EP Cycles and Stars and a commission from the MusicaNova Orchestra in Phoenix, Arizona. As well as an accomplished classical musician, River is a frequent collaborator with a variety of folk ensembles, choral and instrumental groups and is a skilled fiddle player. River appreciates music in all forms and enjoys performing in/writing music for a wide range of venues. 

José Daniel Vargas is a 4th-year bachelor's student in Music Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music studying with Dr. David Conte. Growing up in Tucson, Arizona, José has an eclectic musical background. Throughout highschool performed everything from James Brown to Beethoven. Almost entirely self-taught, he began writing music as soon as he learned how to read it. Having world premieres by the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and the Cape Cod Pops Orchestra, this year José worked with Insight Chamber Players and the San Francisco Choral Artists. Outside of school José teaches private music lessons on voice and several instruments. 

Noah N. Zubia-Sanchez, an emerging Latin-American artist in the composition landscape, captivates global audiences through his music, streamed prolifically on Spotify and Apple Music. His performances grace stages across the vibrant expanse of the west coast. Driven by a deep- rooted passion for music composition, Sanchez defies Eurocentric norms, infusing his distinctive style with the diverse and captivating flavors of Latin music. His journey in composition began in late high school, where self-teaching, fueled by the boundless resources of the internet, laid the foundation for his musical aspirations. Further honing his craft, Sanchez immersed himself in a three-year program at the Coil School for the Arts, Riverside City College, studying under the tutelage of Dr. Steven Schmidt. Currently on the brink of completing his undergraduate studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under the mentorship of Dr. Mason Bates, Noah is poised to leave an indelible mark on the world of music.