Meet the composers

From 15 to 20 November 2025, eight composers will take part in an intensive week of co-creation, collaborating closely with our musicians as well as guest composers Laura Bowler and Jessie Marino in a series of masterclasses and workshops.

Their brand-new works will be premiered at the Closing Concert of the Academy, as part of the rainy days festival.

Save the date:

Thursday 20 November 2025 // 12:30 // Philharmonie Luxembourg

✨Get to know the composers:✨

Raphaëlle Aoun (LBN, *2004)

is a Lebanese composer based in Berlin. Through her music, Raphaëlle seeks to build a connection with listeners, inviting reflection and dialogue on the role of contemporary music in today’s society. Her works have been performed by renowned ensembles and soloists including Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble LUX:NM, MotoContrario Ensemble, Art Percussion Ensemble, Duo Tocar, Matthias Bauer, and Michael Vogt, among others. She has been selected to participate in festivals and residencies such as the Akademie Kontemporär Hamburg, Mixtur Festival, and the residency program Precept.Concept.Percept. XIII. Raphaëlle has received awards from the II. Randspiele International Competition in Zepernick and Jugend Komponiert Germany. Since October 2024, she has been pursuing a Bachelor’s degree in Composition with Prof. Hanspeter Kyburz at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin, following earlier studies with composer Helmut Zapf. She expanded her knowledge and skills with renowned composers, including Marc Sabat, Milica Djordjević, Gordon Kampe, Oscar Bianchi, Arnulf Herrmann and others.

Özkan Umutcan Bapbaci (TUR, *1996)

is a composer, sound designer, and engineer. Upon graduating from the Middle East Technical University with a degree in Industrial Engineering, he pursued Composition studies at Bilkent University, studying with Onur Türkmen and Tolga Yayalar. In 2022, he worked as an orchestra intern at the Berlin Opera Academy during the OpernFest, with conductors Peter Leonard, Matthew Toogood, Lutz de Veer, and Carlos Sperier. He has participated in composition masterclasses led by renowned composers such as Beat Furrer, Chaya Czernowin, Pierre Jodlowski, Clara Iannotta, Franck Bedrossian, Francesca Verunelli, Oscar Bianchi, Marcos Balter, Isabel Mundry, and Klaus Lang at new music festivals in Germany, Austria, Spain, and Switzerland. His music was recently performed by SWR Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Trio Accanto, and performers such as Nina Janssen-Deinzer, Peyee Chen, and Krassimir Sterev, in festivals such as Impuls Academy, Darmstadt Summer Courses, and MIXTUR. Currently, the composer is focused on creating drama-driven musical expressions as well as acoustic and electronic elements, along with multimedia materials, the field of sound-movement interaction, and sound spatialization techniques in his compositions. Upon graduating from Bilkent University with a Summa Cum Laude, he was accepted to Sarah Nemtsov’s class for a Master’s of Composition degree and continues his studies at Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Nien Chin Chai(MYS, *1999)

is a Malaysian composer who recently completed her postgraduate studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London with Stephen Montague, Deirdre Gribbin and Paul Newland, supported by the GREAT Scholarship and the Trinity College London Scholarship. Her composition highlights include a duo for Sarah Nicolls and Carl Raven at the Dartington Music Summer School and Festival, a cross-disciplinary collaborative work on Alzheimer’s Disease: ’Unfamiliar Reflections’, with musicians and dancers from Trinity Laban, USC Glorya Kaufman School of Dance and University of Melbourne, and a piano – percussion duo for Thomas Kelly and Bei Bei Wang at JAM on the Marsh Festival. Her recent premieres also include a new song at the Composers and Poets Forum Showcase: ‘A Leeds Songbook’ as a part of the Leeds Song Festival 2025, a 38-minute mixed ensemble piece for 11 players at the Blackheath Halls, a sinfonietta piece at the Queen’s House and a trio by the Rosalie Ensemble.

Ignacio Escobar Gutiérrez (CHL, *1994)

is a composer, performer, and field recorder. A graduate of the Faculty of Arts at the University of Chile, his work explores the intersection of timbral experimentation, the expressive depth of the theatrical, and the search for new sonic poetics. Throughout his career, his compositions have been performed at national and international festivals, resonating on stages in Chile, Peru, Austria, and Germany, in formats ranging from solo instrumental works to symphonic repertoire. He has participated in masterclasses with renowned composers such as Manos Tsangaris, Johannes Schöllhorn, José López López, Luis Naón, Helga Arias, Juan Carlos Tolosa, and Silvio Ferraz, among others. Simultaneously, he has developed interdisciplinary stage work, directing his own productions and composing music for theater and dance companies. His work reveals a sensitivity that intertwines sound, body, and word.

Nolan Hildebrand (CAN, *1992)

is a composer and noise artist based in Toronto, Canada. He composes electroacoustic, instrumental, and acousmatic music, and performs in his solo noise project, BLACK GALAXIE. He synthesizes noise music with his contemporary classical composition practice to create work that is intense, colorful, and viscerally engaging. This synthesis manifests sonically through noise, excess, physicality, and a touch of humor and absurdity. His creative output integrates computer-assisted composition, open graphic scores, oversaturated timbres, extended techniques, spatialized sound, chaotic feedback systems, interactive computer systems and more.

James Alexander Preller (GB, *2004)

is a London-based composer, visual artist, and performer. Their work focuses on patterns, repairing, family, rituals, and yarn, often blending video, textiles, and sound into interdisciplinary and immersive pieces.

Edward Robson (JPN/GB, *2000)

is a Japanese-British composer and performer, currently based and active between London and Tokyo. He studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music with David Sawer, before completing a Master’s degree at the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP) in the composition class of Gérard Pesson. At the Conservatoire, he also studied and practiced electroacoustic composition with Yan Maresz, Luis Naón, and Grégoire Lorieux. Originally trained in traditional Japanese music, he studied the koto with Curtis Patterson and is a member of the Sawai Koto Institute. He has performed and collaborated internationally, has had his performances broadcast on national radio, contributed to CD recordings, and been sampled for software instruments. The instrument still remains a core part in his work – he has written numerous pieces involving the koto and other Japanese instruments.

Gloria Xia (CHN, *2004)

Gloria (Xinyue) is a Manchester-based composer originally from Shanghai, China. She writes music on what she sees, feels, and remembers, often drawing from lived experience and personal history. With a strong interest in cross-disciplinary and intercultural exploration, her music is shaped by influences from visual art, installation, and movement. She is particularly drawn to gestures — both musical and physical — as well as textures and sonic fragments that explore identity and emotional nuance. Much of her work reflects on intimacy, transformation, and connection — exploring relationships between human and animals, nature, or other humans. Writing music has become a way for her to process, respond to, and transform these moments. Rather than telling a direct story, her music often searches for space — for honesty, vulnerability, and small moments of change.

Photos: © Valentin Schaff / Wendy Carrig / Francisco Palacios Reyes / Mike Skelton / Tantbury Photography / Po Hang Yuen