Duncan McDougall is a 20-year-old violinist from Uxbridge, Ontario, Canada. Duncan is currently pursuing his undergraduate degree in violin performance with Martin Beaver at the Colburn Conservatory in Los Angeles, California. Previously, he attended The Phil and Eli Taylor Performance Academy for Young Artists, where he studied with Kelly Parkins-Lindstrom and Jonathan Crow.
As a soloist, Duncan has performed with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. He has held leadership roles in the Aspen Festival Orchestra, The Colburn Orchestra, Toronto Symphony Youth Orchestra, the Morningside Music Bridge String Orchestra, and the Taylor Academy’s conductorless ensemble, the Academy Chamber Orchestra.
A frequent award winner, Duncan was chosen by CBC Music as one of Canada’s top 30 classical musicians under the age of 30. Duncan has completed his ARCT in violin performance and violin pedagogy from the Royal Conservatory of Music, for which he was awarded the National Gold Medal. Duncan was a Grand Prize winner and the recipient of the Canimex Group Scholarship at the 2019 Canadian Music Competition.
A passionate chamber musician, Duncan is a founding member of Trio Azura. He has collaborated with acclaimed artists Tessa Lark, Demarre McGill, Andrew Bain, Clive Greensmith, Tatjana Masurenko, Teng Li, Jonathan Crow, and Yehonatan Berrick, among others. In July, he will be attending the Chigiana Festival in Sienna, Italy, with his piano trio.
Duncan has attended the Aspen Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Saline Royale Academy, Morningside Music Bridge, the Orford Music Academy, and the Domaine Forget International Music Academy. He has performed in master classes for Miriam Fried, Andres Cardenes, Ilya Kaler, Almita Vamos, and James Ehnes, among others. He plays on a 1900 Scarampella violin on generous loan from the Colburn Collection.
As an educator with a creative practice, Georgia Bell fosters curiosity and creative thinking in the classroom. She is a teacher, composer, performer, and artist. Bell holds a Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Bard College, where she studied composition with Kyle Gann. She went on to do a postgraduate composition apprenticeship with Bunita Marcus and was Artist-in-Residence at California Institute of the Arts in 2019. Bell hosts a quarterly salon for experimental artists and musicians in Los Angeles and regularly performs and presents work throughout the greater L.A. area and beyond. She has been teaching English and exploring the connections between language, music, and art since 2018. Bell currently teaches English to speakers of other languages at the Colburn Conservatory of Music and Music Academy.
Erin Young is a classical guitarist based in Los Angeles. She received both her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Classical Guitar Performance at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music where she studied with Scott Tennant, Brian Head, and Jason Yoshida. Erin has a passion for playing early plucked instruments and has performed with the early music ensemble, Ciaramella, and plays frequently with the Los Angeles based Delirium Musicum ensemble.
Erin is dedicated to her work as an educator. She worked in online music education as Head of Guitar at tonebase.co for over two years where she gained experience in production and curricular design, and has spearheaded the development of curriculum for the international guitar education nonprofit Kithara Project where she currently works as Operations and Program Director. In addition to teaching Suzuki Guitar, she serves as Co-Director of Elemental Guitar for nonprofit Elemental Music, as a Teaching Artist for Lead Guitar within the Los Angeles Unified School District, and as a Counselor for the annual Guitar Foundation of America Teen Academy The Bridge.
Adrian Dunn is an accomplished singer, composer, and conductor. Mr. Dunn holds a Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degree in Voice from the Music Conservatory at Roosevelt University with additional musical studies in opera at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Finland.
In 2021 Mr. Dunn won the American Prize in Composition for “Requiem” from The Mass for the Unarmed Child and was named in the Top 10 Classical Music and Jazz performances of 2021 by the Chicago Tribune. He made his conducting debut with the Chicago Philharmonic Orchestra in June 2021. His interview on his original composition The Black Messiah was published in Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. He and the Adrian Dunn Singers performed the film score for the 2022 Sundance film Honk for Jesus starring Sterling K. Brown (from the NBC show This Is Us) and Regina Hall.
Mr. Dunn is writing his first full length opera, The 42 Project, on the life of Black Major League Baseball star Jackie Robinson. Mr. Dunn’s trilogy cycle Emancipation received its world premiere at the Harris Theater in April 2022 featuring the Adrian Dunn Singers and Rize Orchestra. His composition Requiem was most recently performed by the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra and the Morehouse Glee Club in March 2022. He was also the chorus conductor for the Mozart Requiem with the Elgin Symphony Orchestra and was a guest artist in residence at California State University Fullerton.
Mr. Dunn is a MacArthur grant recipient for his original work Hopera: A Hip Hop Opera. He has opened for international hip hop recording artist The Roots at Indiana University. He served as principal vocal coach for Kanye West’s artist development program, Donda’s House. He was a featured artist and vocal coach for the live DVD recording of the Higher Ground Gospel Choir in Helsinki, Finland. He has toured throughout the US, South Africa, Italy, Germany, the UK, and Scandinavia.
Mr. Dunn has sung with the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Grant Park Symphony Chorus, and Blossom Festival Chorus. He was the chorus conductor for the Seven Last Words of the Unarmed by Joel Thompson with the Adrian Dunn Singers at Chicago’s Symphony Center and Wentz Hall in 2019. He was the chorus master for Chicago Opera Theater’s production of Freedom Ride in 2019 and sang in the 2018 production of Moby Dick with Chicago Opera Theater. He was tenor soloist for Handel’s Messiah at Rockefeller Chapel in 2018 and was the tenor soloist for Pucinni’s Messa de Gloria with the Northwestern University Orchestra. He was the tenor soloist for A Child of our Time with the University of Chicago Orchestra in 2019 and was guest artist in residence with the University of Chicago Chorus. In 2019 he was the composer for the Lyric Unlimited Opera education program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. He sung the lead role in the 2017 Chicago premiere of the Paul Laurence Dunbar opera The Poet and in 2016 served as the opera chorus master for the Midwest premiere of the opera Harriet Tubman – When I Crossed That Line to Freedom with the South Shore Opera Company of Chicago.
As an active professional singer, producer, and songwriter, Mr. Dunn has had the privilege of working with gospel greats such as Tremaine Hawkins, Myron Butler, Melonie Daniels, Troy Bright, Lamar Campbell, Damien Sneed, Walt Whitman and the Soul Children of Chicago, Smokie Norful, Jonathan Nelson, and many more. He was awarded Album Producer of the Year for AME Live featuring the AME International Mass Choir from the Rhythm of Gospel Awards. He is a voice faculty member in the Theater Conservatory at Roosevelt University and is the Advisor for Racial Equity and Minority Student Success. Mr. Dunn’s private voice students can be seen in Broadway national tours of Lion King, Ghost, the Color Purple, Hamilton, Kinky Boots, Rent, BET’s show Sunday Best, Drury Lane Theater, the Paramount Theater, Black Ensemble Theater, and as background vocalists for major record label artists on tour throughout the US and abroad.
A native of Los Angeles, Dr. Grace Huang completed her Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Southern California with James Bonn and Bernadene Blaha. She also received her Master of Music and Bachelor of Arts from USC. As a student at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, she studied piano with Dorothy Hwang.
Dr. Huang has been a soloist with several orchestras, including the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As a member of the Haydn Trio, she performed for First Lady Nancy Reagan at The Music Center and at the White House. A member of Music Teachers Association of California and Music Teachers National Association, she has adjudicated at their events, and has coached for Junior Chamber Music. Her students have been winners at Southwestern Youth Music Festival and the Southern California Junior Bach Festival.