Ever-intrigued by unexpected sounds, textures and their effects, Rolfe Kent is a creator of live musical encounters and a well-known composer for film and theater. One of the first to create work for the Sonic Sphere, Kent’s curiosity leads him to curate experiences that enchant, question, and delight. His film work includes 70 scores including Sideways (Golden Globe–nominated score), Dexter, Legally Blonde, Mean Girls, Up in the Air, and Stan & Ollie, and in theater Forest Fables, Crimson Cabaret, and The Many Deaths of Michael Malloy.

Amanda Lind is an acoustic engineer and product developer, applying physics and engineering principles to simulate and develop purpose-built multichannel acoustic devices. Her systems are primarily found on autonomous cars, improving safety, and providing directional audio communication for human-machine interaction. Prior to her current role, Lind was immersed in architectural acoustics, simulated sonic booms, and worked to document the process of tuning of steel drums by their inventor. What unites this body of work is a dedication to the study of the physics of wave propagation and consideration for the human experience.

Physicist and saxophonist, Stephon Alexander is a theoretical and computational physicist of international repute, and author whose work is at the interface between cosmology, particle physics, AI, quantum gravity, and music technology. Alexander is a specialist in the field of string theory and cosmology, where the physics of superstrings are applied to address longstanding questions in cosmology. In 2001, he co-invented the model of cosmic inflation based on string theory. In his critically acclaimed book, The Jazz of Physics, Alexander discusses ways that innovations in physics have been and can be inspired from “improvisational logic” exemplified in jazz performance and practice.

J. Stone has been performing for over two decades as a beatbox artist, percussionist, and handpan player. He first gained notoriety as an American Idol finalist (season nine) and has continued evolving his craft to now infuse Mongolian throat singing with vocal percussion and live looping. He delights in dazzling audiences around the world from the United States to Israel and has performed with artists including Snow Raven, Run DMC, and Buffalo Springfield. Stone loves discovering infinite possibilities of the world’s most versatile instrument: the human voice.

Serena Grace is a genre-bending, multidimensional artist. A true Siren of Soul. Her vocal range traverses a depth and breadth that is rare: from medicinal melodies inspired by her work with Indigenous elders to the sensuality and groove of R&B legends, from fire-and-brimstone grit to cosmic, ethereal highs, Grace is an undeniable force of frequency. Infusing an electric energy and palpable warmth, her performances are a sonic playground. Grace leaves audiences feeling wildly inspired through a renewed sense of awe and wonder for the transformational, healing power music.

Ivy Fu is a sound artist, curator, and a researcher of surveillance, eavesdropping, and sensory spaces currently studying under Ash Fure and Cesar Alvarez. Using improvisational movements, generative visuals, anti-communicative technology, and homemade circuits in conjunction, she creates intelligent systems, sentient machines, and self-regenerative ecospheres that provide fugitive spaces for identity in crisis, territories that are sonically transgressed, and complex historic and personal narratives that desires to be further examined. She’s curious as to how sound oscillates in between mediums and has collaborated with museum professionals, visual artists, poets, filmmakers, and winemakers to explore the potentiality of transdisciplinary vibrations.

Music producer, composer, engineer, musician and singer, Joe Mardin is excited to be presenting music and sound design from Noises In My Head in Sonic Sphere’s Lab Sessions and to be among its illustrious participants. Some of the artists Mardin has worked with include Chaka Khan, Jewel, Raul Midon, Aretha Franklin, Elliott Sharp’s Terraplane, and Canzoniere Grecanico Salentino. Recent releases include co-producing and mixing An Exquisite Moment for Emmy Award–winning composer Joel Goodman and orchestral arrangements for A-ha’s latest album and film True North. Mardin also released Fairytales Interrupted, an album of his electronic compositions and plans to release his second album under his own name this year.

Named by the Washington Post as a “classical composer and performer to watch in 2022,” conductor, vocalist, instrumentalist, and visual artist Raquel Acevedo Klein has been described as a “force to be reckoned with” (Washington Post). Her career has taken her onstage at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Radio City Music Hall, and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Conducting credits include the New York Philharmonic, Roomful of Teeth, and New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Vocal performance and recording highlights include engagements with Caroline Shaw, Glen Hansard, Alicia Keys, John Legend, Bon Iver, The National, Philip Glass, Nico Muhly, and Bryce Dessner.

Adam Partridge a.k.a. Atropolis from Sound MANA, has been producing, performing, and mixing with Ableton Live for over 15 years. With releases on various international labels, licensed commercials, and scored art installations featured in the Queens Museum and The Shed, Atropolis has also taught Ableton Live for 10 years, with extensive experience teaching novice to Grammy Award–winning artists.

Kyle Studstill is a Brooklyn-based performance poet and word artist. His work is about finding deep humility, about reckoning with our own vivid and terrifying self-awareness, and about being better humans in a more-than-human world. His story-driven writing has been appeared in Monocle Magazine, CreativeMornings, and Fast Company. His word art has been featured by NYC street art pillars Up Magazine, Sour Mouse, and 188 Allen. His performance poetry has been featured by the Poetry Brothel, Inspired Word NYC, and the New York City Poetry Festival.

Constantine Jones is a Greek American thingmaker raised in Tennessee and housed in Brooklyn. They are the coordinator of the Visual AIDS Oral History Project, THE BODY AS AN ARCHIVE, as well as a member of the collective, What Would An HIV Doula Do?. They are the author of the novella IN STILL ROOMS (The Operating System, 2020) and a collaborative chapbook with Portuguese visual artist Vicente Sampaio, BALEEN: A POEM IN TWELVE DAYS (Ursus Americanus, 2022). Their work has been performed or exhibited across NYC and Tennessee. You can find them at StoriesAndNoise.com.

Spencer Handley is a musician, ethnomusicologist, educator, and technologist. As a fully nomadic ethnomusicologist, his studies have brought him all over the world and steeped him in the folk music traditions of Brazil, Argentina, Ireland, Spain, Nepal, Appalachia, and the Indigenous music of the Northern Amazon. With a background as an engineer and product leader, he helped build the artist funding platform Patreon.com and currently runs a music education company called Sonora, which builds mastery paths for musicians.

Dr. Adam Falkner (he/him) is a poet and musician, educator, and race and equity strategist. His work focuses on intersectional themes of race, gender, queer life, and social justice education. He is the author of The Willies (winner of the 2021 Midwestern Independent Book Award and a 2021 Foreword Reviews Gold Medal) and Adoption (winner of the Diode Editions Chapbook Award), and his writing has been featured on programming for HBO, in the Guardian, the New York Times, and elsewhere. He has toured the United States as a guest artist, lecturer, and trainer, and was the featured performer at President Obama’s Grassroots Ball at the 2009 Presidential Inauguration.

Lauren Ducrey is a poet, student of mindfulness, and senior UX content strategist at Google. When she’s not designing more emotionally supportive chatbots, she’s on a mission to break poetry out of its ivory tower as an accessible means to support everyone’s wellbeing. She published her first book of poetry Tongues Tied in November 2021 and released Cordes sensibles, an EP of poetry and music, in May 2022. Her words are also featured in mindfulness apps Minderful and Rogalife to massage your brain into heightened states of aliveness.

Danielle Bero was born in Queens to hippie parents, and given a dose of Shel Silverstein, Tupac, jazz, and classic rock. Bero is a Posse scholar, taught in Indonesia on a Fulbright scholarship, and co-founded a school for students in foster care. She holds a master’s in English education, educational leadership and completed her MFA at the University of San Francisco. She’s won slam competitions including Nuyorican Poets Café, Bowery Poetry Club, Ubud Writers festival. Bero is a Jack Straw Fellow, SAS festival poetry winner, and is published in the Divine Feminist anthology as well as lit mags. She recently began working on films and wrote and directed a short film Fruit Loops.

Merijn Royaards is a sound architect, researcher, and performer guided by convoluted movements through music, art, and spatial studies. The interaction between space and sound in cities with a history/present of conflict has been a recurring theme in his multimedia works to date. His 2020 awarded doctoral thesis explores the state-altering effects of sound, space, and movement from the Russian avant-garde to today’s clubs and raves. He is one part of a critical-essay film practice with artist-researcher Henrietta Williams and teaches sound design for film and installation art at the Bartlett School of Architecture.

With an alert and critical mind, he places his art in the context of social events and understands it as inseparably linked to them. The New York Times describes Igor Levit as one of the “most important artists of his generation”. Igor Levit is Musical America’s “Recording Artist of the Year 2020” and the 2018 Gilmore Artist. In June 2022 his Album “On DSCH” has been awarded the “Recording of the Year” Award as well as the Instrumental Award of the BBC Music Magazine.

The Jersey Club movement is being hailed by music authorities such as Pitchfork and Billboard, as the next big wave in dance music. The 135-bpm genre is the heartbeat of the city of Newark, New Jersey. Thankfully, this movement has found its first lady to pave the way into the future. UNIIQU3, born Cherise Gary began her music career as a sought-after vocalist in the club scene, and has recently solidified herself as one of the most electrifying producers in the game. From throwing some of the East Coat’s hottest DIY events, like her signature event, #PBNJ, that unifies club music in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and New Jersey, to now spreading the vibes across the globe from Australia to South America leaving her impact wherever she goes. In the past years she’s worked with Versace, VICE, Red Bull Sound Select, MTV, Boiler Room, and more to provide a unique experience to a variety of diverse audiences worldwide. Her records have been obliterating festival and club sound systems through the hands of some of the most influential people in dance music such as Skrillex, A-Trak, Anna Lunoe, Michael Brun, and MikeQ. She’s also shared the stage with notable artists and DJs such as Rae Sremmurd, Skrillex, Baby Tate, Leikeli 47, and MIA, to name a few. As a performer, UNIIQU3 is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser who moves effortlessly from hard-hitting bass music to hip hop and R&B along with her own live cuts. She also had the opportunity to perform at Coachella, Afropunk, and Primaver Sound and continues to hit festival and tour stages internationally. She has a Splice Kit (Clubhead Kit Vol.1) and hosts the radio shows #ClubQueenRadio on Sirius XM BPM and Club Chronicles on NTS. UNIIQU3 is the future of dance music, continuing to raise the bar by pushing the genre forward. Her mission as a creative artist is to unify people from all walks of life through the power of music, spread love, and give opportunities to talent in her hometown. She does this by curating events and holding her annual seminar “beUNIIQU3,” which serves to teach young minorities about the music industry. She believes that you can do whatever you want as long as you work hard and stay true to yourself. Make sure to check out her latest Heartbeats EP, out now.

Steve Reich has been called “the most original musical thinker of our time” (The New Yorker) and “among the great composers of the century” (The New York Times). Starting in the 1960s, his pieces It’s Gonna Rain, Drumming, Music for 18 Musicians, Tehillim, Different Trains, and many others helped shift the aesthetic center of musical composition worldwide away from extreme complexity and towards rethinking pulsation and tonal attraction in new ways. He continues to influence younger generations of composers and mainstream musicians and artists all over the world.

With her alluring, bilingual mixture of hip-hop, house, and pop, Korean-American producer, songwriter, and DJ Yaeji instantly gained an adoring fan base and widespread critical acclaim when her first two EPs appeared in 2017. She quickly became a mainstay at music festivals and clubs throughout the world, and following collaborations with Charli XCX and Robyn, she reached a new level of pop sophistication with her 2020 mixtape What We Drew. Collaborations with DiAN and OHHYUK followed in 2021. With a Hammer, Yaeji's nostalgic yet progressive debut album, arrived in 2023.

Madame Gandhi is an award-winning artist and activist known for her uplifting, percussive electronic music and positive message about gender liberation and personal power. She began producing music in 2015, after her story running the London Marathon free-bleeding to combat menstrual stigma went viral around the world. She has been listed as Forbes 30 Under 30 in Music, and her 2020 TED Talk about conscious music consumption has been viewed over a million times. “Waiting For Me,” shot in Mumbai, India, won the Music Video Jury Award at SXSW Film Festival in 2021 and her 100% Organically Sourced x Sound MANA nature sound pack won the New Wav award at the 2021 Splice Awards. Her third studio album, Vibrations, was released in 2022, following the release of her previous albums Voices (2016) and Visions (2019). In June of 2022, Gandhi completed a Masters in Music Science & Technology at Stanford University's CCRMA where she spent time in Antarctica sampling the sounds of glaciers melting to create empathy and awareness around climate change.

The xx are an English indie rock band from Wandsworth, London, formed in 2005. The band consists of Romy Madley Croft (guitar, vocals), Oliver Sim (bass guitar, vocals), Jamie Smith, also known as Jamie xx (beats, MPC, record production), and formerly Baria Qureshi (keyboard, guitar). They are known for their distinct and minimalist sound that blends indie rock, indie electronic, indie pop, dream pop and electro-rock and the dual vocalist setup of both Croft and Sim. Their music employs soft, echoed guitar, prominent bass, light electronic beats and ambient soundscape backgrounds

Carl Craig (born May 22, 1969) is an American electronic music producer, DJ, and founder of the record label Planet E Communications. He is known as a leading figure and pioneer in the second wave of Detroit techno artists during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He has recorded under his given name in addition to a variety of aliases, including Psyche, BFC, and Innerzone Orchestra.

Polina Zakharova is a multimedia artist and a founder of the Hard Feelings Studio. A creative visionary, her expertise includes CGI, 3-D mapping, laser programming, lighting, interactive installations, and set design. She works mostly in music and fashion where she created CGI worlds for The Weeknd, Drake, Post Malone, Cardi B, Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo, Ian Schrager, etc. for their tours and installations. An innate artist, Zakharova brings forth an eye for the spectacular, an instinct for originality, and a diverse range of experience and knowledge that is deeply embedded in all of her creative conquests.

This accomplished and ever-ambitious duo of A/V architects and toolmakers cook up mind-altering experiences in generative art that require expertise in math, coding, and the science of sound. By creating mesmerizing digital matter of frighteningly porous frontiers exclusively through coding and modular gear, they push back the limits of footage and sample-free language that is opulent and breathtakingly singular. Taking as starting points their most irrepressible fascinations with death, the unknown and the cosmos, they craft thrilling, precise, painterly code-art that broaches big philosophical questions and provides mesmerizing though highly speculative answers. Together, Kristina and Aleksandr create modern generative art and innovative tools that raise the bar on the synergistic possibilities of visuals and sound. Since meeting at Moscow’s Mars Contemporary Art Centre in 2016, they’ve collaborated on a slew of immersive affairs, always up for the challenge of conjuring new things—modular music, generative visuals, and media production tools. They participated in many international festivals and exhibitions in Russia, Germany, Indonesia, the US, and Peru, including Dark Mofo, MUTEK festival, GAMMA Festival, Electric Castle Festival, LACMA, Moscow Planetarium, and Orpheum Theatre LA, etc. 404’s works were selected by Japan Media Arts Festival and awarded by Genius Loci Weimar Festival, IMAP festival.

Born in Buenos Aires, the Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija is widely recognized as one of the most influential artists of his generation. His work defies media-based description, as his practice combines traditional object making, public and private performances, teaching, and other forms of public service and social action. Winner of the 2005 Hugo Boss Prize awarded by the Guggenheim Museum, Tiravanija was also awarded the Benesse by the Naoshima Contemporary Art Museum in Japan and the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Lucelia Artist Award. He has had exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Guggenheim Museum of New York, the Reina Sofia museum in Madrid, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Hirschhorn Smithsonian, Glenstone Museum, Luma Foundation in Arles, and at the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam that then was presented in Paris and London. Tiravanija is on the faculty of the School of the Arts at Columbia University, and is a founding member and curator of Utopia Station, a collective project of artists, art historians, and curators. Tiravanija is also president of an educational-ecological project known as The Land Foundation, located in Chiang Mai, Thailand, where he maintains his primary residence and studio.

Mark C. Slee's visual art is built around structured systems of addressable LED lights. Drawing on a background in computer programming, he develops algorithmic patterns inspired by both organic and mathematical process, employing procedural motion, subtle variation, and evolving shifts in form and hue. The work deliberately avoids tropes of dystopian futures or mechanistic expressions of technical function. Rather, Slee explores the nuanced boundary where light exudes a vibrant personality, transforming perception into meaning. The meeting of the natural and synthetic worlds is a space of imaginative exchange — a vivid experience that tickles both mind and soul. These artworks are powered by a software framework Mark has developed called LX Studio.