A prolific and creative composer, Emma Berkowitz wields a sound that is both intimate and boundless.
Emma grew up in midcoast Maine amidst the seals and the pine trees. She danced to accordion-playing buskers on the uneven cobblestone streets of Portland and listened to the music of crashing waves and peeping frogs. Though she now calls Pittsburgh home, the music of her childhood continues to weave its way into her work. She loves writing programmatic music that exudes whimsy, feminine strength, and a touch of the sea.
In 2023, Emma completed her Masters of Music Composition at Carnegie Mellon University, where she saw her first orchestral premiere. Emma has been inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa and Pi Kappa Lambda honor societies.
When Emma is not writing music, one can find her knitting, bouldering, reading, or singing with the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh.
Victoria Fraser is an Alaska-born soprano and composer. As a soloist and choral soprano, she has sung under the direction of Masaaki Suzuki, Matthew Halls, John Nelson, JoAnn Falletta, Jeffrey Thomas, and Craig Hella Johnson. Victoria was recently a featured vocal soloist with the San Francisco Ballet’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. Favorite performance projects are those collaborating with artists in other disciplines including Path of Miracles with ODC Dance Company (video production released in 2025) and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with Jessica Lang Dance. She is a founding member of Turas Ensemble, a symphonic-folk duo weaving together classical, folk, trad, and pop on both acoustic and electric instruments.
As a creator, Victoria’s work has been influenced by her multi-disciplinary mentor at the University of Limerick in Ireland, Óscar Mascareñas and by the late visionary artist, Carmen Helena-Téllez at the University of Notre Dame. Often striving to bring together visual arts, dance, Victoria has enjoyed close collaborations with a dancers, architects, physicists, visual artists, projection designers. Her compositions are rooted in a passion for early and sacred music that seeks to re-contextualize and re-imagine early styles and forms. Her music often explores the commonality between the sacred and the scientific, looking to bring these two often disparate but integrally linked worlds into dialogue.
Victoria attended Smith College and went on to complete a Master of Music in vocal performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and a Masters in Sacred Music at the University of Notre Dame. She also completed an MA in Ritual Chant and Song at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Passionate about the outdoors, and born to a mountaineer father, Victoria loves to row, ski, rock climb, hike, and is a certified PADI SCUBA divemaster.
Jordan Berlin Speranzo (They/He) is a composer, conductor and singer from Pittsburgh PA. They studied at CMU, where they received a BFA in music composition, and an AMSC in music entrepreneurship. They received several student awards while at CMU: For 'The Splintered lens', premiered by the CMU Philharmonic, 'string quartet no. 1', recorded by the Carpe Diem String Quartet, and 'Lights Out', a song after the Edward Thomas poem, written for SAI's Unusual ensemble challenge. They also composed The Women on the Wall, an opera with a libretto by Jess Honovich, for 2017's Co Opera program. Current projects include a flute sonata for Trē Abalos, a second string quartet and a first symphony. They are a founder and artistic director of Suspension Theatrical Arts, and the Millvale Festival orchestra, both of which are dedicated to bringing even more art and music to Millvale. When they aren't writing or learning music, they can be found working at Mr. Smalls Theater; making drinks, constructing, helping in the recording studio, or doing whatever else needs doing. Their heartfelt thanks go out to Nat 28 for this incredible opportunity, Nancy Galbraith, Daniel Nesta Curtis, and Dan Teadt, for their unfailing mentorship, and to Kate Manuel, for being the constant inspiration that she is.