Helen Hwaya Kim is a highly accomplished violinist and faculty member at Kennesaw State University. She has performed with numerous orchestras, including the Boston Pops and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Ms. Kim received her Bachelor's and Master's degrees from the Juilliard School, where she won multiple awards and served as Concertmaster of the Juilliard Orchestra. She has toured extensively throughout Canada and the United States, performing at renowned music festivals and appearing on national and international television. As a performer of new music, she can be heard on recent CD releases and has premiered works commissioned especially for her. Ms. Kim is currently the Assistant Concertmaster of the Atlanta Opera Orchestra and a member of the Atlanta Chamber Players.

Zuill Bailey is a Grammy Award-winning, internationally renowned cellist, teacher, and artistic director. He has performed with symphony orchestras worldwide and collaborated with esteemed conductors and musicians, including Leon Fleisher and the Juilliard String Quartet. Bailey has appeared at numerous prestigious venues, such as Carnegie Hall, and presented the US premiere of the Nico Muhly Cello Concerto with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. He has produced over 30 chart-topping albums, including the Best Solo Performance Grammy Award-winning Live Recording of “Tales of Hemingway,” and his Bach Cello Suites and Schumann/Brahms Concertos recordings reached the number one spot on the Classical Billboard Charts. Bailey has performed in notable festivals, including the Ravinia Festival, and made international appearances in countries such as South Africa, Australia, and South Korea.

Matt Haimovitz, a multi-Grammy-nominated cellist, is a renowned musical pioneer praised by The New York Times and The New Yorker for his uncommon expressive gifts and remarkable virtuosity. With a career spanning over 30 years, Haimovitz has performed on the world's most esteemed stages, collaborating with a diverse range of musicians and orchestras. He also mentors an award-winning studio of young cellists at the Schulich School of Music of McGill University in Montreal and is the first-ever John Cage Fellow at The New School's Mannes School of Music in New York City. Haimovitz's latest endeavor, THE PRIMAVERA PROJECT, includes 81 new commissions from a diverse intersection of North American communities and was featured in the 59th Venice Biennale Arte.

Dr. Damani Phillips is a native of Pontiac, MI, and currently serves as Director of Jazz Studies and Associate Professor of African-American Studies at the University of Iowa. Phillips has earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from DePaul University and The University of Kentucky in classical saxophone, a second Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Wayne State University and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder. An active performer, pedagogue and lecturer, Phillips has taught and performed throughout the world. He has previously served on the faculty of Grinnell College and Oakland University, and is actively sought as a guest artist, clinician, adjudicator and presenter throughout the country. He has performed with artists/groups such as Lewis Nash, Christian McBride, Wycliffe Gordon, Bobby McFerrin, Marcus Belgrave, Terrell Stafford, Hank Jones, Red Holloway and Pat Bianchi among many others. He has released 5 albums as a leader, and published his first book “What Is This Thing Called Soul: Conversations on Black Culture and Jazz Education” in 2017.

The Ivalas Quartet, consisting of Reuben Kebede, Tiani Butts, Aimée McAnulty, and Pedro Sánchez, was founded in 2017 at the University of Michigan. They aim to celebrate BIPOC voices and disrupt the classical music industry by spotlighting BIPOC composers such as Eleanor Alberga and Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. The quartet has worked with various esteemed musicians and composers and has performed in numerous concert series, including the Crested Butte Music Festival and the WDAV Young Artist Chamber Music Competition. In addition to their musical endeavors, the quartet is dedicated to education and community engagement. They have presented educational programming with the Sphinx Organization and partnered with El Sistema Colorado. The quartet has received support from various organizations and individuals, including the Takács Society and the University of Colorado-Boulder.