Susan Gardner (b. 1957) received her degree in composition and piano from the University of Texas at Austin. Her arrangements have been performed by numerous university and high school choirs, by All-State choirs and churches nationwide and at the Interlochen Center for the Arts. She has collaborated in concerts with the 5th Avenue Presbyterian Gospel Singers in New York City.

Born 1969 in Pfaffenhofen-an-der-Ilm, Germany, Ralf Yusuf Gawlick holds composition degrees from the University of California in Santa Barbara (B.M. cum laude), the University of Texas at Austin (M.M.) and the New England Conservatory of Music (D.M.A). Through noteworthy festivals, recordings, and commissions, his work has received both national and international recognition, including grants, fellowships and awards from the American Composers Orchestra, American Music Center, ASCAP, SCI, the Moniuszko Musical Society, the Massachusetts Cultural Council and the Britten-on-the-Bay International Piano Composition Competition. Groups championing Mr. Gawlick’s works include the Slovak State Philharmonic, the Missouri Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the American Composers Orchestra, The Civic Symphony Orchestra of Boston, Sinfonietta Polonia, the New England Conservatory Classical Orchestra, the Knabenchor der Chorakademie Dortmund, the Treble Chorus of New England, Youth Pro Musica, New York’s Music at the Anthology (MATA), Composers in Red Sneakers, Majestic Brass, the Hawthorne and Atma String Quartets, as well as numerous new music ensembles and distinguished soloists.

In 2003, Mr. Gawlick was the American selection at the 1st Festival of Contemporary Art in Kosice, Slovakia. Zrodlo, for soprano solo, mixed chorus and full orchestra, was commissioned in 2004 for the 25th anniversary of the visit of Pope John Paul II to Boston and the United States. The following year, his work At the still point of the turning world for solo violoncello was selected bythe Miami ISCM Section as one of six works sent to the 2005 World Music Days in Zagreb, Croatia, representing the United States. His compostional oeuvre includes solo, chamber, orchestral and choral music as well as music for a film documentary commemorating the 20th anniversary (2009) of the fall of the Berlin Wall, music commissioned by the German Embassy (Washington D.C.) and Boston College. The recent premiere of his cantata Kinderkreuzzug (children’s choir, chamber ensemble and organ) in April 2010, written for the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of WWII, was supported by the German Consulate General Boston, the Newton Cultural Council, the Jesuit Institute, Boston College as well as the Goethe Institutes in Boston and Munich. Mr. Gawlick’s music, broadcast on National Public Radio, is available on the Capstone label and Musica Omnia.

Ralf Yusuf Gawlick teaches at Boston College and his music is available through EC Schirmer, Brazinmusikanta Publications and the American Music Center. He lives in Newton, MA, with his wife Basia and their two children.

California composer Paul Gibson (b. 1952) received degrees in composition from Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles, and California State University, Northridge. He has studied with Matt Doran, Frank Campo, Aurelio de la Vega, Ian Krouse, and John Harbison. In 1987 he was commissioned to arrange hymns for the Los Angeles papal visit. In 1993, G.I.A. released A Mass of Life, a critically acclaimed CD collection of his sacred music. In 1996, he took part in the Composers Symposium of the Oregon Bach Festival, where three of his works were performed. For its 15th anniversary in 2001, the Los Angeles Children’s Chorus commissioned him to compose Suite: Alice Through a Looking-Glass (Catalog No. 5870), which was included in Sing!, the Academy Award-nominated documentary about the group.

Gibson was twice selected in the Pacific Composers Forum Commissioning Circle Program and was a winner in the Fifth Annual PCF Competition for New Music. He has received the Owen Award from Oregon Catholic Press for outstanding achievement in the field of liturgical music, and CREATOR magazine named his Veni Sancte Spiritus (Catalog No. 5179) one of the ten best sacred works of 2001. Gibson’s choral works have been broadcast on hundreds of radio stations across North America. His music has been performed by Paul Salamunovich, the Debussy Trio, Richard Proulx, Zephyr, and the Los Angeles Chamber Singers, among others.

Gibson works in classical music marketing, sings with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and is cantor for Holy Family Cathedral, in Orange, California. He lives with his wife and dogs in Downey, California.
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A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Joseph Gregorio (b. 1979) began his study of composition as an undergraduate at Cornell University with composer Steven Stucky. Gregorio’s music has twice been featured on NPR's Performance Today and has been performed in the United States and abroad by numerous soloists and ensembles. He has twice participated in the Oregon Bach Festival’s Composers’ Symposium, and has presented his work in an art song master class with William Bolcom and Joan Morris. His Five Whitman Songs were selected for workshop presentation at the 2007 San Francisco Song Festival; his In the Presence of Redwoods won the San Francisco Conservatory's 2007 Jim Highsmith prize for orchestral composition; his Dona nobis pacem won top honors in the 2002 Waging Peace Through Singing Project; and his As Adam, Early in the Morning tied for first place in the San Francisco Conservatory’s 2005 Art Song Composition Competition and took third place in the 2006 Diana Barnhart American Song Competition. Gregorio was named the 2005-2006 composer-in-residence of the Sonoma County Chamber Singers. His choral music is published by E. C. Schirmer Music Company and Treble Clef Music Press, and has been recorded by the choirs of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Washington Men's Camerata, the Rutgers University Glee Club, and the Cornell University Glee Club.

Also active as a conductor, Gregorio has co-conducted the Yale Recital Chorus and the Yale Repertory Chorus, and has guest-conducted the Cornell University Glee Club. He served from 2004-2006 as the assistant conductor of the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus, and was assistant conductor of the San Francisco Bach Choir from September 2005-May 2007.

Gregorio holds a M.M. in composition from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he studied with David Conte. He also received a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University, and a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University, where he studied with Marguerite Brooks and Simon Carrington. While at Cornell, he was the recipient of the Ellen Gussman Adelson scholarship in music and the Thomas Sokol award; while at Yale, he received the Richard French and Hugh Giles prizes in choral conducting. In April 2006, the San Francisco Conservatory awarded him honors for outstanding achievement in composition. Gregorio was a professor of music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2008-2009. He maintains a private studio in Redwood City, CA.

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