Hearing the Future 2026
Premieres by Young Composers Project Students
Sunday, April 19 at 4:30 PM (PART 3)
Eliot Chapel, Reed College
Fear No Music's Young Composers Project (YCP) provides groundbreaking composition training and mentorship for youth interested in composing as a professional career or life passion. Students grades 5 - 12 train with the region's top professional musicians and composers, developing their new works through a series of workshops and public concerts.
PROGRAM
Shea Noll — Gathering Storm
A’shariá Pendergrass — A Collection of Unfinished Thoughts
Vivian Taylor — Self-Reflection
Alejandro Belgique — Miniature Palindrome
Raiden Ray — Innominatus
Isaac Pendergrass III — The Age of Small Discoveries
Skye Neal — Two Sides of Dawn
Eva Feldman — Life of the Ocean
Khoi Campbell — Aufhören
Josh Choe — Climate Change
Amelie Akiko Wright — in the caves
Jacobi Esparza — Vidriera
Young Composers Project Musicians:
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Bio coming soon.
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Cellist Heather Blackburn has been lauded for her “burnished tone” (The Oregonian) and for “her gorgeous tone and playing unerringly in tune” (Seattle Post Intelligencer). Heather was appointed to 4 one-year positions with the Oregon Symphony and has performed as guest principal cello for Portland Opera, Symphony Tacoma and Tulsa Symphony. She has given Oregon premieres of works by Joan Tower and Esa -Pekka Salonen, has been a featured soloist with Portland Symphonic Choir, and has performed and recorded with Pink Martini, Portland Cello Project, soul singer Ron Artis and indie band Other Lives. Heather currently teaches cello and chamber music at George Fox University and University of Portland. Heather was invited to perform a solo recital featuring music by Amy Beach as part of the “Women in Music” series at Chadron State College, NE in March. Upcoming concerts include a livestream with cellist Diane Chaplin of works by Giovanni Sollima, a recital in her home state of New York and a solo performance with the University of Portland Orchestra.
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Dr. Stephen Lewis is a composer, pianist, and conductor living in Portland, Oregon, whose music inhabits the terrain between sound as physical sensation and sound as signifier of culture. Hailed as “delectable,” with a “constantly shifting sonic world [that] proved fascinating and effective,” Stephen’s chamber opera, Noon at Dusk, was premiered at UC San Diego in 2016. He has been commissioned by or written works for the Delgani String Quartet, Cascadia Composers, the Wellesley Composers Conference, red fish blue fish, UC San Diego's Palimpsest ensemble, the Diagenesis Duo, Gnarwhallaby, Trio Kobayashi, Aurora Borealis, and a number of individuals. Stephen has performed in solo and ensemble concerts at Miller Theater in New York, Severance Hall in Cleveland, the Walt Disney and Zipper Halls in Los Angeles, and at smaller venues throughout the United States. Stephen maintains a private studio of piano, composition, and music theory students. He completed the PhD in Composition at UC-San Diego in 2015, where he studied with Rand Steiger. Subsequently, he completed the DMA in Contemporary Piano Performance in 2017, where he studied with Aleck Karis. Stephen is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he majored in piano and composition.
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For his work with young composers, pianist and conductor Jeff Payne was awarded the 2022 Musical Hero Award by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. He founded Fear No Music with percussionist Joel Bluestone in 1992, and has performed hundreds of concerts with the group across the United States. During his tenure as Artistic Director for the group he was responsible for presentation of twenty World Premiere or American Premiere performances of works by Pacific Northwest composers. In 1997 he founded the Young Composers Workshop, and continues as its Director, overseeing the development of aspiring young creative minds around the region. The 25tth anniversary of the Young Composers Project was featured in articles in the Oregonian and Oregon Arts Watch.
Payne’s complete performance of Messiaen’s “Vingt Regards sur l’Enfant Jesus” was named one of the Ten Best Concerts of the year by the Oregonian. Heralded by the Boston Globe as “a pianist of chameleon abilities,” Payne has performed on WGBH National Public Radio in Boston, KING radio in Seattle, All-Classical and KOPB radio in Portland, at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and the Norton Gallery in Palm Beach, at the Seattle Spring Festival, at Eugene's Music Today Festival, the Ernest Bloch Festival, and the Oregon Bach Festival. He has performed as soloist with the Vancouver Symphony, and the Yaquina Chamber Symphony. Payne holds a law degree from Lewis & Clark Law School and is a Senior Assistant Attorney General with the Oregon Department of Justice.
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Bio coming soon.
Biographies & Program Notes
Shea Noll
Gathering Storm
BIOGRAPHY
Shea Noll began studying piano at the age of four and has since developed a deep passion for music. He is currently the pianist in their school’s jazz band and enjoys playing guitar, ukulele, and singing as well. In fifth grade, he won the OMEA Student Composition Contest, and his musical achievements also include participating in OMEA honor choir for both fifth and eighth grade. He continues to participate in choir at Lake Oswego Middle School. Outside of music, Shea enjoys playing soccer, mathematics, competing in chess, and playing tennis. He lives with his parents, Laila and Galen and his younger brother, Kian.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece, titled “Gathering Storm,” depicts a proud vessel’s crew against a violent tempest. The opening minute begins a sudden crescendo to symbolize the spotting of fast approaching thunderclouds. The piano then quiets down and as other instruments start to join in, the situation gets increasingly more dire as the crew scrambles to prepare. As the storm gets closer and the crew finishes their tasks, the suspense lowers, and the melody becomes less open, and more minor. As the storm is about to break, all instruments suddenly stop with a small piano interlude. Finally the storm breaks with a beautiful yet intense remake of the original chorus. I’ve decided to leave the grand ending up to interpretation, as it could resemble either the crew’s courage even in the face of certain death, or the storm's last thunderstrike. Regardless, I hope you enjoy “Gathering Storm.”
A’shariá Pendergrass
A Collection of Unfinished Thoughts
BIOGRAPHY
A’shariá René Pendergrass is a violinist and composer in her fifth year with the Young Composers Project. She studies composition with Andrew Todd, and her musical journey is deeply personal, shared with her younger brother, Isaac A. Pendergrass III, who is also a violinist and composer. In 2023 she was chosen to create a piece, Evenings End, in the YCP-MYS collaboration, written for the Camerata String Orchestra. She later presented this piece in a masterclass to composer and Dean of Julliard, David Ludwig. A’shariá also composed a two pieces for two separate years of the Music for an Imaginary Cartoon Program, with five other composers for the Sinfonietta MYS Orchestra in 2023, which was performed by the Oregon Symphony in 2024; and for the Camerata MYS Orchestra in 2026.
A senior at St. Mary’s Academy, A’shariá balances her artistic pursuits with leadership and athletics. She serves as President of both the Black Student Union and Chess Club, is a former mechanical lead for the robotics team, and competes in varsity soccer and track. A dedicated violinist for over twelve years, she has also spent the past seven studying Latin independently and through college classes. On the field, A’shariá is a Most Valuable Player award recipient and plays as a wing and striker for the 2008/2007 GA team with Westside Metros Soccer Club. She will continue her athletic career at Chicago State University, where she has committed to play Division I soccer in the NEC Conference.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
For my final work in the program, I wrote for flute, violin, cello, and piano, all centered in C major, and titled the piece “A Collection of Unfinished Thoughts”. The piece is inspired by the way thoughts rarely arrive complete. Ones that drift, interrupt, and return when least expected.
It begins with scattered musical fragments, each one unresolved, almost searching. As the piece progresses, these fragments overlap and evolve, gradually shaping one another into something a little less unfinished.
By the end, earlier ideas return transformed into clear, recognizable themes, as if the music has been quietly searching for itself all along. Nothing is ever truly unfinished, it’s only waiting for the right moment to be understood. In that way, the piece reflects the belief that nothing we think or create is ever wasted, it simply takes time to come together.
Vivian Taylor
Self-Reflection
BIOGRAPHY
Vivian Taylor is in ninth grade at Alliance Charter Academy in Oregon City for music, art and drama classes, she homeschools her other courses. She is the 6th child of 7 in a blended family. Vivian is grateful to Jeff Payne and the Youth Composers Project for the opportunity to grow her skills and work with live musicians as she intends to perform as much as possible and grow her abilities as a musician/actress/composer. Vivian is in her second year as a soprano with the Pacific Youth Choir and is a second purple belt in Ki-Aikido at the West Linn Dojo. Vivian would like to thank her music teachers at ACA, Mr. Edson and Mrs. Zoeller, for their help on her musical journey along with Angela Niederloh with Vox Studio.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece is titled "Self-Reflection." It has five movements, each with a theme that relates to the journey we as individuals go on as we self-reflect. The piece was inspired by the "Self-Portrait" of Mel Bochner, which depicts a foggy mirror with words that show your inner self. Because the art depicts a mirror, my goal was to write the process of how the mirror got foggy and what drove the thoughts to be written. My imagination placed the Self in the shower, writing the five stages of showering to evoke a feeling you would get when you self-spiral in the quiet moments away from normal life. The first movement is Self-Enjoyment. It reflects on recent joyful memories and the happiness of getting into warm water. The second movement is Self-Calming, when muscles begin to relax and the mind drifts aimlessly. The third, Self-Routine, is when the reason for taking a shower is remembered and the body and hair get washed. The fourth movement, Self-Doubt, is when insecurities about how the Self is seen creep in. The fifth movement is, Self-Convincing, when the Self knows it should exit and leave the escape of the warm shower but doesn't want to. The piece ends when the reality of life starts, exiting into the humid cold, which is a bit of a shock to the system.
Alejandro Belgique
Miniature Palindrome
BIOGRAPHY
Alejandro Belgique is a 9th grader at Lincoln High School. In addition to composing, he plays oboe in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, as well as piano. He has won several composition competitions, including the 2020 OM/NI competition and the Oregon Federation of Music Clubs’ Junior Composers Contest, Class 2 in 2021 and 2023, and Class 3 in 2026. His piece Ostinato, written in collaboration with Fear No Music and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, was recently performed by the Oregon Symphony
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
A palindrome is a word or phrase that is the same even if it is spelled backwards. A palindrome in music is basically the same thing; the music is the same played beginning-to-end as it would be end-to-beginning. My piece, Miniature Palindrome, is exactly what the title suggests. It started with an idea for the beginning to a piece that, reversed, could also serve as an ending. I never intended the whole piece to be a palindrome, but after not getting very far with my original ideas on how to continue the piece (and my time to finish the piece running out), I decided to scale back the piece significantly. Now, all I had to write was a short middle section in between the beginning and the end that I had already written, which would also make the whole piece a palindrome. Thus, I was able to finish the piece very quickly, in about a couple of hours.
Raiden Ray
Innominatus
BIOGRAPHY
Raiden Ray is a freshman in West Linn High school. He has had extensive experience in musical theatre, with his most recent roles being The Trunchbull in Matilda and Gad in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He is currently rehearsing for a semi-professional production of Spongebob The Musical at the Portland Playhouse, in which he will play Patchy the Pirate. He has been studying piano for 9 years and has picked up accordion, electric bass, guitar, and saxophone along the way.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
Innominatus, which is played on violin, cello and piano, is originally based on the idea of creating a piano riff in an undefined scale and working from there. The riff ended up becoming very chromatic, and the song unfolded into variations of it.
Raiden Ray is currently a freshman in West Linn High school. He has had extensive experience in musical theatre, with his most recent roles being The Trunchbull in Matilda and Gad in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. He is currently rehearsing for a semi-professional production of Spongebob The Musical at the Portland Playhouse, in which he will play Patchy the Pirate. He has been studying piano for 9 years and has picked up accordion, electric bass, guitar, and saxophone along the way.
Isaac Pendergrass III
The Age of Small Discoveries
BIOGRAPHY
Isaac Alexander Pendergrass III is a composer, violinist, soccer player, and lifelong problem‑solver. He attends St. Francis of Assisi in Sherwood, Oregon, and this year he qualified for the National Geography Bee in Florida. He discovered my love for video game music in 2023 while playing Minecraft. Its peaceful, tranquil soundtrack made him wonder if I could create something that carried the same emotional weight. That curiosity grew into a passion for composing. Isaac has studies composition with Andrew Poole Todd for three years, including a college‑level video game music course they took together last summer. This is my Isaac’s fourth piece for the Young Composers Project.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My composition, “The Age of Small Discoveries,” is a musical reflection on the love, sorrow, and coming‑of‑age moments shared between me and my sister, Asharia Rene Pendergrass. As she prepares to leave for college, our childhood memories feel both distant and precious. This piece is my way of holding onto those moments—of keeping alive the feeling of the small discoveries we made together.
Skye Neal
Two Sides of Dawn
BIOGRAPHY
Skye Neal is a 16-year-old composer and musician from Portland who is inspired by the rich landscapes and abundant wildlife of the Pacific Northwest. This is her 8th year in YCP, and her pieces have been performed by Orlando Philharmonic, Juilliard SummerComp Ensemble, Chamber Project St. Louis, and Jacobs Composition Academy. Skye's awards include National Young Composers Challenge, Tribeca New Music, Webster University's Young Composers Competition, and International Young Women's Composition Competition. When she's not making music, you may find her rowing on the Willamette River, birdwatching, or singing with her high school's choir.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
Two Sides of Dawn is about the contrast between the eerie darkness of the night and the exhilaration of running through empty streets just before the first light. The piece begins with a slow theme passed around the whole ensemble to depict the stillness of the waning night. With a metronomic texture in the piano, the pace quickens into a more invigorating section as I start to experience the rush of wonder in the wide open spaces. The piano has a pulsing beat that follows a repetitive chord progression throughout, slightly changing over the course of the piece as I explore different parts of my neighborhood. This texture is meant to evoke the freedom of being alone in a place that’s normally bustling with activity. In the final section we hear sparkling arpeggios in the piano as I arrive at my destination, the beautiful Willamette river.
Eva Feldman
Life of the Ocean
BIOGRAPHY
Eva Feldman is in seventh grade at Northwest Academy in Portland, Oregon. She has studied cello for eight years with Jonathan Cheskin at the Community Music Center and plays with the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. She also plays flute in her school band, directed by Bryan Smith. She was mentored for this project by Tanya Stojanovic. Outside of music, Eva enjoys photography, digital animation, robotics, and swimming. She lives in SE Portland with her dad, Caleb.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
Life of the Ocean explores the sea's dynamic ecosystem through a through-composed structure, with each section representing different forms of marine life. Its evolving textures, sometimes tense, sometimes unified, mirror the ocean's restless, unpredictable movement.
Khôi Campbell
Aufhören
BIOGRAPHY
Khôi Campbell is fourteen and in eighth grade at Chief Umtuch Middle School. His wonderful family members are Alysse (Mother), Dan (Father), and Mai Ly (Sister). He has participated in his school’s advanced jazz band for three years, and he gets to play upright bass and sing the jazz standard ‘All of Me’ for our end of the year concert. Khôi was also invited at the beginning of this year to play upright bass at our nearby high school. He played at his school’s equivalent of a talent show and won the soloist award picked among the audience. He has plahed in the plays Newsies and Oliver, and got to be one of the solo singers for Oliver this year playing Mr. Bumble. He participated in the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble this year, and this is his second year in the Young Composers Project. He plays the alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, baritone saxophone, guitar, ukulele, drumset, electric bass, double bass, sings, and is learning piano for a compositional tool. Khôi would like to thank everyone who has supported him, and him parents, who somehow put up with paying for all those instruments that he has, as well as the activities they pay for him to participate in. And if you couldn't tell, they are pretty darn awesome parents. Thank you mother and father!
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
Aufhören portrays a train passing through 20th century Europe. The 1st movement takes you on a polka through the plain fields of Europe, a trip where you can just enjoy the view of simplicity right outside of the window. The 2nd movement takes you somewhere darker within the country. Somewhere where you get a slight unsettling feeling. You feel the train bounce and shake back and forth, the melody sways between voices. The 3rd movement takes you somewhere much more peaceful than the last. A place where you briefly feel the warm sun hit your face through the glass. The 4th movement is constant intense chaos, the train has lost control and almost has a mind of its own. Bar phrasings of 6 in the first part, and phrases of 3 2 3 to emphasize that this train has practically run off the tracks by now, almost entirely derailed at this point. The 5th and final movement brings commanding order to the train, not asking it to stop, but forcing it to stop, to stop and listen. While to stop and listen, is where the German word ‘Aufhören’ derived from. Similar to the English expression “Listen up!” The original meaning was a command, telling you to stop what you’re doing and listen, and this piece commands you to stop, and to listen.
Josh Choe
Climate Change
BIOGRAPHY
Josh Choe is an 11-year-old composer and pianist. He has been playing piano under the instruction of Dr. Renato Fabbro, and began composing music two years ago. A sixth-grader at Willamette Valley Academy, Josh enjoys music, mathematics, bowling, Scrabble, and traveling. He lives in Portland, Oregon with his parents, James and Mindy Choe.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
My piece, Climate Change, frequently shifts moods from a lively, playful theme to a darker, more intense action. The piece begins in G-sharp minor, modulates to E major, returns to G-sharp minor, then resolves in E major. Overall, this piece represents the threat of climate change to Earth while also conveying a sense of hope for the future.
Amelie Akiko Wright
in the caves
BIOGRAPHY
Amelie Wright (age 17) is a composer, violinist, and singer from Portland, Oregon. She grew up surrounded by music and consequently fell in love with it. Amelie loves to explore various possible textures, extended techniques, and the intersections between music and culture. Amelie has participated in various composition opportunities around the United States, including the Walden School of Music, the Portland Young Jazz Composers mentorship, the Oregon Composers Symposium, and the Young Composers Program. Her works have been awarded an OMEA 2024 State Composition Honorable Mention, the 2025 ASCAP Irving Berlin Award, and an honorable mention for a Luna Composition Lab Mentorship.
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
in the caves tells the story of a lush, forgotten cave network. As we descend, the rich ecosystem reveals itself, and we soon find ourselves surrounded by a dreamy and fantastical menagerie of animals and vegetation. While writing this piece, I was very inspired by French impressionism and wanted to explore writing a more conventional classical piece.
Jacobi Esparza
Vidriera
BIOGRAPHY
PROGRAM NOTES FROM THE COMPOSER
A special THANK YOU to our donors who make YCP possible.
Fear No Music is supported by funding from: Ronni LaCroute, Reed College, New Music USA, Oregon Arts Commission, Multnomah County Cultural Coalition, and Regional Arts and Culture Council.