Akropolis is excited to be in residence with Princeton Sound Kitchen (PSK) this year for the creation of 5 world premiere works from 5 graduate student in the renowned composition program at The Department of Music at Princeton University. These 5 world premiere works will be performed by Akropolis on Tuesday, October 13th at 8 pm.
Meet the 5 Composers
Isaac Santos
As a composer I am deeply inspired by nature, narrative, the visual arts, and everyday existence: themes which permeate my music in different ways. At the core of what I create is a desire to communicate how I experience the world, in hopes that the music I have written is able to communicate something relatable and sometimes profound. My teachers have included Stephen Hartke, Elizabeth Ogonek, Jesse Jones, Michael Frazier, Jihyun Kim, Juri Seo, Dmitri Tymoczko, Nathalie Joachim, and more, all of whom I love dearly, as they have continued to support me and advocate for my music. I completed my Bachelor’s Degree in Music Composition at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, in the spring of 2023. I currently reside in Princeton, New Jersey, where I am pursuing my PhD in Music Composition. — Isaac Santos
View Isaac Santos’s website here.
Devin Greenwood
Devin Greenwood is a New York-based composer and audio-visual artist whose work explores the intersection of wave phenomena and collective behavior. His music is grounded in antenati—a practice developed with Gideon Crevoshay that treats music as a living system, where spontaneous structures emerge from an evolving language of tension-resolution patterns. In his writing, such as Antenati: A New Phenomenology of Meaning in Music, Greenwood highlights the oscillatory nature of thought and subjective experience, linking the arrival of musical structure to the rhythmic surfacing of meaning in the human mind. His visual practice mirrors these interests, utilizing “obsolete” technologies—including oscilloscopes, vintage video synthesizers, and 1980s game consoles—to give form to hidden frequencies. Greenwood’s music has been performed by leading ensembles such as Alarm Will Sound, Sō Percussion, and Ekmeles, while his visual work has been featured at Finland’s Turku Animated Film Festival, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and National Sawdust. He is the co-founder of the Brooklyn recording studio The Honey Jar and is currently a doctoral fellow at Princeton University pursuing a PhD in Music Composition.
View Devin Greenwood’s website here.
Dorothy Lu
Tianci’s (Dorothy) musical journey began as a classical pianist, then as a composer. Her forays into the music profession truly began upon her graduation from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 2020, where she had double major in both composition and composition for screen. Seeking to learn more about developing a stronger understanding of jazz to supplement her own works, Tianci then earned a Master’s in Jazz piano at the California Institute of the Arts. Tianci currently is pursuing her doctoral degree in music composition at Princeton University. Tianci has immense versatility in genres, and utilizes her skillsets in a wide variety of styles to creatively construct creative scores and melodies from the stories and feelings that she wishes to sonically portray. She loves to combine multiple genres of music in synchronous ways, fusing ideas from separate parts to yield cohesive results.
Sophie Cash
Sophie Cash is a violinist and composer from West Virginia. Her current interests include electronics, sound design and soundtracks, noise, improvisation in various genres, and Americana. She has written and produced electroacoustic songs featuring her own vocals and lyrics, and she has made multimedia work with archival footage. Sophie attended Colburn Conservatory of Music for violin performance and University of Michigan and Yale School of Music for composition studies. Past artist residencies have included MacDowell, Yaddo, and Ucross.
Will Healy
Will Healy is a composer, pianist, and improviser whose work engages with many of the musical worlds in New York City, from classical concert halls to jazz clubs and hip-hop shows. A recipient of the 2023 Leonard Bernstein Prize from the ASCAP Foundation, he is passionate about both tradition and innovation. He has performed at Jazz at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and National Sawdust, with his compositions featured by ensembles such as the Minnesota Orchestra, Contemporaneous, and Mivos Quartet. His arranging credits include the New York Philharmonic, Donda, the Albany Symphony, and others.