Joseph Downing received his Doctor of Music degree in Composition from Northwestern University and did his undergraduate work at Brigham Young University. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Canadian College of Organists.

His compositions have received numerous awards, including the Ostwald Award of the American Bandmaster’s Association. He has received commissions from such organizations as the American Guild of Organists, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and the Barlow Foundation and has participated in several ‘Meet the Composer’ projects.

His specialty is the theory of tuning and temperament.

His works include the Symphony for Winds and Percussion, a series of 12 Partitas for various instrumentations, several works for wind ensemble, numerous choral anthems and organ works as well two operas.

Daniel S. Godfrey (b. 1949) received B.A. and M.M. degrees in composition from Yale University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. He is Composer-in-Residence at Syracuse University’s Setnor School of Music, and he has also held visiting faculty appointments at the Eastman School of Music, the Indiana University School of Music, and the University of Pittsburgh.

Godfrey has earned awards and commissions from the J. S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the Indiana State University/Louisville Orchestra Competition, the National Repertory Orchestra/US West Foundation Competition (First Prize), the Maine Arts Commission, the New York Foundation for the Arts (Met Life Fellowship) and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, among others. He is founder and co-director of the Seal Bay Festival of American Chamber Music (on the Maine coast) and is co-author of Music Since 1945, published by Schirmer Books.

The New Yorker recently listed Koch International Classic’s 2004 release of Godfrey’s String Quartets as one of 2004’s ten best classical CDs. Other Godfrey works are recorded on Albany, CRI, GM, Innova, Klavier, and Mark compact disks. Godfrey’s music is available through publishers Carl Fischer and G. Schirmer.

Born in Detroit in 1966, Sally Lamb was educated at the University of Toronto, California Institute of the Arts, and earned her DMA at Cornell University (1998), where she studied with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra. Her dissertation included a study of the music of Mel Powell, with whom she studied at Cal Arts. Awards and fellowships include the 2003 Whitaker New Music Reading Sessions Award from the American Composers Orchestra, the 2001 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and awards from ASCAP (2001-2005), New York Foundation for the Arts (1999), Meet-the-Composer (1998), the Society for New Music (1993), the Women’s Philharmonic (1997) and the International Alliance for Women in Music (1994). Lamb has received numerous commissions, including those from Ensemble X (2004), Ariadne String Quartet (2001), Cornell University Wind Ensemble (1999), Cayuga Chamber Orchestra (2002-03), and the Kitchen Theatre Company (1998, Ithaca, NY). She has taught at Ithaca College, Cornell University, and is currently on the faculty of Syracuse University as Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory. She has served as Guest Composer at various institutions including Pepperdine University and the University of Pittsburgh, Bradford and as Composer-In-Residence in regional elementary schools in Syracuse and Ithaca.

Nicolas Scherzinger (b.1968) currently lives in Syracuse, New York, and is chair of the Composition and Theory Department at the Setnor School of Music at Syracuse University where he teaches composition, theory, and digital music. In addition to his work as a professional composer and educator, he is active as a performer of improvisatory works for saxophone and interactive computer.

Scherzinger received a M.M. and D.M.A. in composition from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and a B.Mus. in saxophone performance from Western Washington University. He has studied composition with Roger Briggs, David Liptak, Augusta Read Thomas, Christopher Rouse, Allan Schindler, and Joseph Schwantner. Scherzinger has received grants and awards from ASCAP, SOCAN, the Canada Council, and the Eastman School of Music. He is a lucky recipient of a 2005 Barlow Endowment Commission for solo guitar that will be premiered and recorded by Kenneth Meyer in 2006.

Scherzinger's music has been performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Taiwan, China, and Europe. Recently, he has had works premiered or performed at such venues as the International Viola Conference, the World Saxophone Congress, the North American Saxophone Alliance Conference, the International Double Reed Conference, and the Aspen Music Festival, and broadcast on WCNY, WBFO and CBC RadioTwo. Scherzinger is a member of ASCAP, the American Music Center, and the Society of Composers Inc. In terms of his most recent activity, the Cassatt String Quartet premiered Whisper for string quartet in Blacksburg, VA. in early 2005. The Society for New Music commissioned and premiered Fractured Mirrors, for chamber ensemble in the spring of 2005. The Syracuse University Wind Ensemble will premiere a new work for wind ensemble this fall 2005. The Meridian Phase II ensemble has commissioned a Piano Quintet that will be premiered at Weill Hall in New York City in March 2006. Finally, Chris Marks, organ, recorded Five Pieces for Organ, now available on Raven Compact Disks.