Originally from Nottingham, UK, DAVID IBBETT studied at Cambridge University (BA) with Giles Swayne, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (MMUS) with Julian Anderson and the University of Birmingham (Ph.D.) with Scott Wilson. As a composer, David has written works spanning many forms: from traditional ensembles to inter-arts collaborations, installations, digital releases and works with electronics. He has several long running partnerships with dance choreographers, notably Jacob Hobbs and Letizia Mazzeo based in London. Much of his music reflects a fascination for electronics - a passion that began in 2008 when he undertook a residency at the Aldeburgh Music Festival with Jonathan Harvey - a key pioneer in the field. David's current projects aim to combine the depth and expression of classical instruments with the power, control and rhythmic energy of electronic music. His works have been performed in concert series and international festivals including the Aspen Festival, London's Barbican Centre, Huddersfield Festival, Banff Centre and UK National Portrait Gallery. His music has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3 by the BBC Symphony Octet.

Throughout his work, David is passionate about discovering new sounds and combinations - and constantly seeks to pass this enthusiasm on to his students by introducing them to a wide world of musical possibilities. He has taught composition at Jesus College Cambridge, the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Birmingham University. The piano is a very important instrument for David - indeed, he is the son of the piano teacher - and he has held a private piano studio since 2007, also teaching for music schools in London including Camden Music Service and Borough Music School. Mr. Ibbett is currently on the faculty at Yamaha Music School of Boston and has been very enthusiastic about his involvement to the JOC program.

DENNIS KAM, Professor Emeritus - University of Miami, was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Currently he is Music Director/Conductor of the Old Cutler Community Orchestra at the Old Cutler Presbyterian Church in Palmetto Bay, Florida and also Composer-in- Residence/ Conductor for the South Florida Youth Symphony. He was music director of the Greater Miami Youth Symphony during 1982-1987.

Retired from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida since 2013, Dr. Kam was Chair of the Music Theory and Composition Department from 1976 until 2012. He also directed and conducted the Other Music Ensemble (group for the performance of new music) at the University of Miami. As professor, he was a teacher and mentor to many active composers today in the United States. He continues to teach composition to young students.

Dr. Kam was educated at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria, the East-West Center at the University of Hawaii, Toho Gakuen in Japan, and the University of Illinois. His teachers have included Joseph Wood, Cesar Bresgen, Armand Russell, Yoshiro Irino, Ernst Krenek, and Salvatore Martirano. He received many commissions, grants, and awards, including important ones from BMI and the Ford Foundation as Professional (Composer) -in-Residence for Honolulu and the State of Hawaii under the auspices of the Ford Foundation/ MENC Contemporary Music Project during 1970-1972. In addition, he was President of Southern Chapter and National Board Member for Composition in the College Music Society, and has also served as a member of both Executive and National Councils for the Society of Composers, Inc.

Dr. Kam's works since the 80's have represented a number and variety of interests: new tonal or post-atonal possibilities; contextual novelty; varieties of focus and perceptibility; time and continuity; meaning, implication, and representation in music. Many recordings include Miami Mix II performed by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, released on the TNC label, and two works performed by the Ibis Camerata, Trio and Sonata Ibis, one of five versions of single work (Albany). A recent interest has been composing works that can be performed separately or together with another 'companion' work. Latest projects have included arrangements of selections from operatic literature for 10 grand pianos.

JOHN GIRVIN is a pianist, organist, arranger and composer from Bridgewater, NJ. He has worked with Yamaha students as a Music Education Specialist since 1998, assisting students especially in the area of Junior Original Concert (JOC) and International JOC preparation. John has also presented seminars on improvisation and composition, as well as directed Yamaha ensembles at Yamaha Music Camps and JOC weekends throughout the years.

A graduate of the Thornton School of Music at University of Southern California, where he was voted Outstanding Graduate by the faculty, Dr. Girvin also holds degrees from Montclair University and New York University. John studied primarily with pianist Kevin Fitz-Gerald and art song with Alan Smith.

As a pianist, Dr. Girvin has collaborated with artists from Los Angeles Music Center Opera, The Metropolitan Opera, and Opera Pacific, to name a few. John has led jazz ensembles featuring such musicians as trombonists Wycliffe Gordon and Steve Turre, and saxophonist Tim Ries.

An accomplished organist, John is Director of Music at Faith Lutheran Church ELCA, in New Providence, NJ, where he presides over the new Sebastian Gluck Opus 13. He recently released a CD of organ repertoire on that instrument entitled "Dances and Dialogues", featuring the music of Bach, Handel and Franck.

He is married to soprano Christina Girvin of the Metropolitan Opera, and is the proud father of daughter Seromi, age 11.

A native of San Francisco, LOIS JENSEN first studied piano with Bethel Melvin, a private piano teacher and composer. She began studying organ in 6th grade and was the church organist when she was 12 years old. She directed her first choir at 15 years old and has been a church musician for most of her life.

Ms. Jensen began teaching Yamaha in 1969. Yamaha Music Education System (YMES) recently presented an award to Lois in appreciation of 35 years of dedicated teaching. She has owned her own school in San Antonio, Texas since 1976 where she pilots new curriculum for YMES. In addition, Ms. Jensen currently trains teachers all over the US and is a Key Teacher for the Yamaha Corp. of America.

Her students have performed their original compositions in Yamaha Junior Original Concerts in Boston, San Diego, Phoenix, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Several students have been admitted to NESA (North East School of the Arts), a magnet school for gifted students of the arts. Graduates of her classes are music majors or graduates of the schools of music at the University of Texas at Austin, Rice University, Texas State University-San Marcos, Southern Methodist University, and University of Houston.

In addition to working with Yamaha, she was the organist, and director of the youth and adult choirs at University Presbyterian Church for 23 years. Some of the major works she conducted were: Christ lag in Todesbanden by J.S. Bach, Faure's Requiem, Resphigi's Laud to the Nativity, Durufle's Requiem, Shubert's Mass in G, and Gospel Mass by Robert Ray. The UPC youth choir toured with a musical each year in which Ms. Jensen directed and choreographed the shows. Some of the shows were: Godspell, Children of Eden, Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Cotton Patch Gospel. She has also written several musical scripts.

Ms. Jensen participated in musical theatre throughout high school and college. In San Antonio she performed with Music Theatre, SALT, Offstage INC. She sang Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, Dolly Heart in Grass Harp, Laura in the vampire opera Carmilla, and performed in productions of Cole - The Musical, Promenade, Gallantry and Gertrude Stein's First Reader. In California she performed Marian the Librarian in Music Man, and was also cast in South Pacific, Camelot, Brigadoon. She also sang with the San Antonio Mastersingers performing in the operas: Hansel and Gretel and The Daughter of the Regiment with Beverly Sills.

M.B. GORDY received his Bachelor's Degree from Glassboro State College and his Master's Degree from California Institute of the Arts with extensive study of ethnic percussion. He has performed with the LA Philharmonic, The National Symphony, The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, The Long Beach Opera, The Pasadena Pops and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Pageant of the Masters.

From 2001 until April of 2005, M.B. was the percussionist/drummer for the Doobie Brothers. He has played with the likes of Frank Zappa, John Tesh, Three Dog Night, and Josh Groben along with many others. M.B. is currently playing drums for Rita Coolidge. He has recorded with Green Day, REO Speedwagon, Neil Diamond, My Chemical Romance, and Bill Withers to name a few. M.B. has also had the fortune of working with noted producers such as Peter Asher, Don Was, Mat Wallace, Rob Cavallo, and Scotty Morris.

M.B. has been incredibly successful performing for films, telelvision and theatre. Some of his credits for film are: Red Dragon, Transformers, We Are Marshall, Get Him to the Greek, and 3:10 to Yuma. He has played drums for television shows such as Mad Men, The Mentalist, The Tonight Show, Battlestar Galactica, Good Morning America, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel and many more. M.B. has also performed in the theatre productions of The Lion King, The Color Purple West Side Story, Camelot, and Bring It On to name a few.

M.B. is a Yamaha Artist. For the past 20 years he has also been involved with the Yamaha Education Division as a clinician and education consultant.

M.B. currently lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children where he works as a freelance musician and producer.

A Native of Palos Verdes, SARA NAOMI SUMITANI began her musical studies at the age of four when she enrolled in the Yamaha Music School. She began taking private lessons with the late Yhosuke Suga at the age of seven, before continuing her studies with Konstantin Sirounian in 1993. She has won numerous awards , including top prizes in the Southern Youth Music Festival (SYMF), MTAC Scholarship Competition, MTAC Solo Competition and Concerto Competition divisions, Carmel Music Festival, MTNA Young Artist Competition and the Los Angeles Liszt Competition. In addition, she has won several competitions in France and Italy, and participated in the Takamatsu International Piano Competition and the Hamamatsu International Piano Competition. Her orchestra debut was with the Asia America Symphony in 1995 directed by Heiichiro Ohyama. She has also performed with the Culver City-Marina-Westchester Symphony in 2002. While pursuing her Bachelor's degree in Piano Performance at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, she won the USC Concerto Competition with Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No.3, and was given an opportunity to perform with the USC Thornton Symphony conducted by Yehuda Gilad. After receiving her Master's degree in Piano Performance in 2007, she began her Doctoral studies in Keyboard Collaborative Arts at the University of Southern California with Professor Kevin Fitz-Gerald. In 2013, she was awarded the "Outstanding Graduate" award at the Doctoral level in Keyboard Collaborative Arts. She has been a studio pianist for world renowned professors including Elizabeth Hynes, Cynthia Munzer, Shigemi Matsumoto, Rod Gilfry, Donald McInnes, Hagai Shaham, Kathleen Winkler, Boyde Hood, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Donald Brinegar and Cristian Grases.

In addition to her solo and chamber performances, Dr. Sumitani has also studied composition with Ms. Kae Matsumoto, writing numerous pieces for piano and orchestra, as well as solo piano and jazz ensemble. She has given performances of her compositions throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan. While involved in the Junior Original Concert, her compositions were selected to represent the United States in 1993, 1997, and 1998 in the International Junior Original Concert. Her composition "Watching the Sun Rise" was featured in her orchestra debut concert with the Asia America Symphony. She was also the winner of the 1st Composition Competition hosted by Asia America Symphony with "Monuments of Earth," which she performed with their youth symphony conducted by internationally renowned jazz pianist, David Benoit. Her most recent composition is a piece for voice and piano dedicated to the Japanese-Americans detained in the internment camp during World War II. Hidden Voices uses several haikus written by the detainees that attempt to capture some of the hidden emotions.

Dr. Sumitani has studied with teachers including Bernadene Blaha, Richard Grayson, Hiromi Akatsuka, Daniel Pollack, Sergei Dorensky, Oxana Yablonskaya, Earl Wild and Lev Vlassenko. Currently, she is a music teacher for Peninsula Montessori School incorporating the Orff Schulwerk as well as maintaining an active piano studio in Palos Verdes. She is also actively performing chamber music, and accompany piano concertos for piano students in the Los Angeles area. She has recently "returned to the fold" as a valued specialist coaching JOC students for Yamaha Music Education System in the United States.

TOMOKO YONEMARU began her musical life in a Yamaha family and was a JOC student from ages 10 - 16 playing in many Regional JOC Concerts. In Kagoshima, Japan, she graduated from college with a diploma in composition and piano performance. As a result of a composition competition, she was awarded a scholarship to study abroad and came to the University of North Texas where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Composition and a Master of Arts with a Concentration in Composition. During this time she became a JOC Coach for Yamaha in the US. Through her travels, she met Heidi Grimes, at East Valley Yamaha Music School, who invited her to join their team full-time following graduation. Happily she did and now Ms. Yonemaru enjoys helping children to express themselves through writing their own music, and continues to work on her own composing as well. Many of her students have performed on domestic and overseas JOCs including several on the International JOC in Tokyo, Japan. When not teaching or composing, you will find Tomoko enjoying her 9 beloved cats!

VANJA NIKOLOVSKI-GJUMAR graduated with majors in conducting and composition from the Saints Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje Faculty of Music, Macedonia, having studied with Fimcho Muratovski, Ilija Musin, Mikhail Kukushkin, Goce Kolarovski, Vlastimir Nikolovski, Tomislav Zografski and Dragan Shuplevski. He gained a specialization in orchestral and symphonic conducting at the Rimski-Korsakov State Conservatory in 1995/96. Maestro Nikolovski was principal conductor of the Macedonian Opera and Ballet, and has collaborated with the Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, the Macedonian Radio Choir, and guest conducted in cities as diverse as St. Petersburg, Belgrade, Serbia, Zadar and Split, Croatia to Porto, Portugal to Washington, DC and San Diego, CA and his hometown of Phoenix, AZ. His compositions have won Macedonian national awards, with his symphonic Kartchner Caverns Magic winning first prize in the national contest in the Republic of Macedonia in 2014 and his Zigurati which won the Panche Peshev prize in 2000. His works have been performed in several European countries including Switzerland, Austria, Turkey, Poland, Great Britain, Italy, Ukraine and the United States of America; they have been featured annually on "Days of Macedonian Music", "Skopje Summer Music Festival", "Ohrid Summer Music Festival" and "Annual Meetings of the Yugoslavian Music Academies".

Vanja currently lives in Arizona where he is on the faculty of East Valley Yamaha Music, together with his lovely wife, Frosina and their beloved children Daria Dasha, 8 and Damian, 5.