Originally founded in 2022 by students of Valerie Coleman at The New School, Mosaic Composers Collective (MoCoCo) has expanded to feature a wide range of young composers at varying stages in their respective careers.
Members of MoCoCo are intent upon questioning traditional notions of “composerhood”, especially that of the “lone genius composer”, and that composer’s closeness to their surrounding community (or stereotypical lack thereof).
Music written by MoCoCo composers is deeply rooted in lived experiences that can be shared, and in the fundamental intimacy of enjoying music together. It is our hope that anyone engaging with a MoCoCo presentation feels as though they are meant to participate, and that the experiences they bring to the table as a listener, observer, and creator are valuable and worth processing alongside us!
WHAT IS MOCOCO?
MoCoCo’s founding lineup, from top to bottom: Alexa Letourneau, Athos Maelstrom, Naamia Rivera, Murphy Severtson, Kevin Arthur Jr., Aidan Arbona
Aidan ARBONA
(he/they)
Aidan Arbona is a composer, songwriter, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and educator from Brooklyn, New York.
Inspired by an eclectic range of musical styles including: Western Art Music, Jazz, Funk, Lo-fi, Postmodernism, Grunge, and EDM, Aidan’s concert music is characterized by dense harmony, syncopation, counterpoint, and unique timbral mixtures. Aidan’s catalog includes works for orchestra, chamber ensemble, voice, jazz combo, and film and video game soundtracks. A singer/songwriter as well, Aidan’s distinct, genre-bending sound could be described as progressive soul.
Aidan recently completed a Master of Music degree in composition from Mannes School of Music in New York and holds a Bachelor of Music in composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.
Alicia ERLANDSON
(she/they)
Alicia Erlandson is a visual artist and composer from Detroit, Michigan, currently based in New York City.
She started playing flute at age ten, spending much of her life performing in wind, marching, and pit bands before learning to write music during the early stages of the COVID-19 quarantine. Alicia finds most of her inspiration in brief research stints about phenomena in the natural world, wanting to use sound to illustrate them in a way that is fluid, engaging, and connects them to our emotional experiences. She hopes to find sounds that are sparse, yet also deeply textured, and that listening to her music feels like watching a bird fly past your window; fleeting, colorful, and grounding. Audiences have described her work as “intimate” and “refreshing, like a granny smith apple”.
Alicia was recently commissioned by Composers Now for their Second Stage Initiative (2024) and she was a recipient of the G. Schirmer Prize for Luna Lab (2022). Her work has also been featured in the MATA Jr., Wildflower, and Great Plains Composers festivals. She is currently pursuing a B.M. in Music Composition at The New School with Kamala Sankaram.
Valentine HUECKEL
(they/them)
Valentine Hueckel finds inspiration where mood and narrative intersect. Recent projects include composing music for the videogame Project G.R.A.B. (2024) and indie film Drifters (2024). Currently, Valentine is hard at work composing for the upcoming musical platformer Hop’n + Bop’n, slated to release in early 2025. When not composing, you’ll find Valentine playing bridge or jamming with their rock band Why I’m Afraid.
Valentine holds a Master’s degree in Music Composition from Mannes at The New School as well as a Bachelor’s from the University of Central Florida, where they studied under David T. Little and Alex Burtzos, respectively.
Charlie KREIDLER
(he/him)
Charlie Kreidler is a composer from Oak Park, Illinois, currently studying in New York City. Charlie’s work has been showcased at various venues such as the Cernan Space Center in Chicago, the cell theater in Chelsea, NYC, and the Centre National de la Danse in Paris. Charlie’s compositions are celebrated for their narrative depth, intricately weaving stories through dramatic and colorful soundscapes. Additionally, Charlie finds that composition profoundly enhances his mental health and self-acceptance. He strongly believes in the process of creating as a way to heal and grow.
Charlie has collaborated with ensembles such as Haven Trio, JACK Quartet, and the Kodak Quartet. He graduated from Triton College (AA), where he studied under Salvatore Siriano. Charlie is currently pursuing studies (BM) at the Mannes School of Music with David T. Little.
Alexa LETOURNEAU
(any pronouns)
Alexa Letourneau is a composer, flutist, and vocalist currently based out of New York City, who will try not to bore you with a bio that is essentially just a bona fide list. An Ohio native, Alexa began playing the flute at the age of 9 and within weeks was taping 5 pens together to draw a staff in order to write her own music. Since then, her love for music has only grown, and she holds a Master's of Music in Composition and a Professional Studies Diploma from the Mannes School of Music, studying under Missy Mazzoli and Valerie Coleman.
Alexa has also recently entered the world of music research; motivated by spite stemming from a particularly bad private lesson, she is conducting independent research on conceptions of the compositional voice and its use in compositional pedagogy. Her preliminary research gained her research honors in music at her undergraduate university, but she has no intention of leaving well enough alone, and she continues having complex discussions about authenticity, creativity, and psychology with anyone who will indulge her curiosity.
Athos MAELSTROM
(they/he)
Described by recent listeners as “a real badass” and “a shredder”, New York-based composer, cellist, and improviser Athos Maelstrom is a fierce advocate of creativity in the present. They believe that music is social in nature and deeply respect the personal tenets that have always thrived in human sound. Athos works to utilize narratives of place and identity as building blocks of community between composer, performer, and listener.
Athos’s compositional practice swings between “hyper-free” and “hyper-notated”, sometimes featuring elements of graphic notation, and sometimes requiring instruction pages for specific extended techniques. Athos enjoys sounds that could be described as disruptive or even abrasive, and is fascinated with the experience of sitting inside of unusual, uncomfortable sounds. They believe that silence and sound live peacefully and parallel to one another, that meditative spaces can be discovered or created in any noise-filled environment, and that no single category of sound is any more or less “beautiful” than another.
Athos is a current student of Alyssa Weinberg in Composition (BM) and Joel Noyes in Cello Performance (BM) at The New School’s Mannes School of Music.
Rain MICHAEL
(they/she)
Rain is a multi-instrumentalist and composer with a BMus in composition, BA in psychology, minors in linguistics and leadership, and a certificate in cognitive science from CU Boulder, all of which influence both their compositions and interest in the subjective experiences involved in music performance and perception. Rain is currently pursuing an MM in composition at NYU, where she is exploring what it means to compose for performers as holistic individuals—with their own bodies and experiences to bring to each performance—and the intersection between music cognition and group movement.
From Pierrot ensemble to spatialized open instrumentation, Rain’s music has been performed by the Colorado Wind Ensemble as well as HOCKET, ~Nois, Duo Cortona, and others at CU Boulder’s College of Music SoundWorks New Music concerts and has been featured on the KGNU Present Edge radio program. Their piece seeds to plant (in an unmarked grave) was selected for performance in the 2023 Nief-Norf International Call-For-Scores. Rain has also collaborated with filmmakers and audiovisual artists in creating multimedia projects. Outside of music, they work in childcare and enjoy social dancing, hanging out with friends, and collecting stickers.
Arjan SINGH DOGRA
(he/him)
Arjan Singh Dogra is a composer, performer, and conductor based in New York City who creates art to understand and contextualize his relationship with time, nature, and his culture. His music invites audiences to challenge their own perception of time, and reflect on their connection to the natural and unnatural environments that surround them.
Arjan specializes in creating multidisciplinary works of art and regularly collaborates with filmmakers, game developers, dancers, and more, including partnerships with Juggernaut Entertainment, Boston Conservatory Dance, and UNICEF.
Arjan graduated from the Berklee College of Music with a dual Bachelors Degree in Composition and Film Scoring, where he studied with Alla Cohen, Gregory Glancey, and Marti Epstein. Arjan received his Masters Degree in Composition at the Mannes School of Music, where he studied with Christopher Cerrone and was awarded the Martinu Composition Prize in recognition of “demonstrating a unique voice and originality in musical composition for orchestra”. Arjan is a recipient of the 2024 Fromm Foundation Fellowship, as well as a winner of the BMI Composer Award for Live Salmon. Other honors include awards and recognitions from the Society of New Music, Red Note Music Festival, the American Prize, the Society of Composers Inc., and MTNA.
Kyrese WASHINGTON
(they/them)
Kyrese Washington is a flutist and composer who enjoys creating meaningful connections with music lovers through performing, storytelling, and fostering inclusivity. As a performing composer, they enjoy making music in a variety of ways. In 2022, they performed Carl Nielsen’s Concerto for Flute and Orchestra with the UNC Greensboro Symphony Orchestra and the Raleigh Symphony Orchestra. Throughout their time in North Carolina, they performed as the principal flutist of Appalachia: A Southeastern Wind Symphony and the Greensboro College Wind Ensemble.
Also in 2022, Kyrese released two pieces for the flute community: meditation i for solo flute and electronics and bees? for flute duo. Kyrese is a recent alum of the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival as a performing and composing fellow, and they are looking forward to new collaborations and projects in the city as they continue to carve their unique path as a performing composer.
Kyrese is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, and a current student of Valerie Coleman at the Manhattan School of Music. They are immensely grateful to their past mentors as well, who include Dr. Erika Boysen, Dr. Timothy Hagen, Sonora Slocum, Dr. Catherine Ramirez, and Dr. Kelly Nivison.