In this week’s playlist, we feature Mexican Compoers, Juan Pablo Contreras! He is a Latin GRAMMY®-nominated composer who combines Western classical and Mexican folk music in a single soundscape. He is the winner of the 2023 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Music and is celebrated as the first Mexican-born composer to sign a record deal with Universal Music, serve as Sound Investment Composer with Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, and win the BMI William Schuman Prize.

Clarinetist Elizabeth Crawford, a faculty member at Ball State University’s School of Music and CMI Streaming’s featured artist for this week, is originally from Louisville, Kentucky, and later studied at Furman University, the University of Michigan, and Florida State University. A longtime member of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Crawford spent the early 2000’s living in London, where she had the opportunity to perform with nearly all the major orchestras in England.

Grammy Award-winning composer and conductor, Eric Whitacre, is among today’s most popular musicians. His works are programmed worldwide and his ground-breaking Virtual Choirs have united 100,000 singers from more than 145 countries.

In this week’s playlist, we feature the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra in honor of their upcoming performance at The Palladium on Friday, February 23rd, at 8 PM. The orchestra has won praise from audiences throughout Europe, Asia, and North America. Since 2017, Nayden Todorov has served as its general director.