American conductor Christopher James Ray has held positions with the Bayreuth Festival and with Opera San José, where he spent three seasons as resident conductor. In the 2023-24 season, he makes his debut conducting the San Francisco Symphony in a SoundBox program curated by Mazz Swift, conducts Le Nozze di Figaro at USC opera, and assists in performances with the San Francisco Symphony, San Diego Symphony, and Hamburg State Orchestra. Mr. Ray served as assistant to American composer Carlisle Floyd and has remained a sought-after interpreter of his late mentor’s works. He is a founding member of the Carlisle Floyd Centennial Project. Mr. Ray made his professional debut in his home state conducting the Mississippi Opera and has since been a part of productions with the Festival Napa Valley, Salzburg State Theater, Sarasota Opera, New York City Opera, and the Memphis, California, and Lima symphonies.

Mazz Swift is a composer, conductor, singer, bandleader, educator, and Juilliard-trained violinist. Improvisation is a throughline in their practice across genres and instrumental configurations and can be found in most of their works.
 
As violinist and singer, Mx. Swift is no stranger to most of the world’s greatest stages including Royal Albert Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, and, at Lincoln Center in New York City, David Geffen Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and Damrosch Park. As composer, Swift’s works include commissions by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Banff Centre for Arts & Creativity, and the Blaffer Foundation. As an educator, Swift has taught workshops in free improvisation and “conduction” (conducted improvisation) on six continents and is a performing member and teaching artist with the Grammy-award winning Silkroad Ensemble.
 
Mazz is a 2021 United States Artist and 2019 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, continually creating orchestral compositions that involve conduction, small ensemble works featuring improvisation, and solo works that are centered around protest and freedom songs, spirituals, and the Ghanaian concept of ‘Sankofa’: looking back to learn how to move forward.

Clara Lyon is an accomplished performer and curator who forges meaningful connections across sonic languages and societal contexts to foster investigation and imagination. A co-artistic director of Decoda, Carnegie Hall's only affiliate ensemble, she was also a violinist and the director of programs for the Chicago-based Spektral Quartet from 2014 to 2023, during which time they were nominated for three GRAMMY awards, were named 2017 ‘Chicagoans of the Year’ by the Chicago Tribune, and taught as resident artists at the music department of the University of Chicago. Her recordings can be heard on the Nimbus, New Amsterdam, New Focus, Starkland, Sideband, and Sono Luminus labels. 

Cellist Hannah Collins is a dynamic performer and collaborator devoted to diverse forms of musical expression. Winner of De Linkprijs for contemporary interpretation, she is committed to championing compelling new works with New Morse Code, her duo with percussionist Michael Compitello. She has recently performed with The Knights, Grossman Ensemble, Bach Aria Soloists, A Far Cry, and Trinity Baroque Orchestra. Ms. Collins holds degrees in biomedical engineering and music from Yale University, the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and City University of New York. She is currently Associate Professor of Cello at the University of Kansas.

Multi-percussionist Haruka Fujii has appeared as a soloist with the San Francisco Symphony, Munich Philharmonic, Netherlands Chamber Orchestra, Sydney Symphony, Orchestre Nationale de Lyon, and the NHK Symphony. She is a member of San Francisco Contemporary Players and the New York-based Line C3 Percussion Group, as well as the Utari Percussion Duo, a duet project with her sister Rika which actively commissions new compositions from young composers. Since 2010 Ms. Fujii has performed as an artist of the Grammy Award-winning Silkroad Ensemble, with whom she serves as part of the artistic leadership team alongside artistic director Rhiannon Giddens. Her world premiere recordings can be found on the SONY, Kosei, ALM Records, and Deutsche Grammophon labels. In addition to her career as a performing artist, Ms. Fujii recently joined the percussion faculty of San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Jacob Nissly percussion
Stan Muncy percussion
Carey Bell clarinet
Sébastien Gingras cello
Blair Francis Paponiu flute
David Henderson saxophone
Olivia Chen violin​
Leonid Plashinov-Johnson viola
Daniel G. Smith double bass
Edward Stephan timpani
Florin Parvulescu violin
Melissa Kleinbart violin