"Tenor and soprano saxophonist, improviser and composer Catherine Sikora was first electrified by the sound of air vibrating in a metal tube when, as a child, she heard the wind playing tones and overtones in a metal gate. She has devoted her life to researching the magic of that sound with her saxophones, particularly in her solo work, which forms the main backbone of her creative output.

Catherine's first solo album 'Jersey' was released on Relative Pitch Records in July 2016. She followed this with 'Warrior', an all-soprano saxophone solo recording in 2019. Her next solo tenor recording, 'Sanctuary', recorded live in Paris in summer of 2020, was released in fall 2020.

In addition to her solo work, Sikora works frequently in duo and larger settings, with Eric Mingus, Brian Chase, Ursel Schlicht, Ethan Winogrand, Ross Hammond, Christopher Culpo and Matteo Liberatore. She is proud to be one third of the joyful rowdiness that is Eris 136199.

Sikora is active as an educator and writes extensively on the subject of practice."

"Finola Merivale is a composer of acoustic and electro-acoustic music, based between France and Ireland. She is currently a 2025-26 Fellow at Columbia University's Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris. Themes that run across her music include socio-political issues, the climate crisis, nature and a sense of place - both real and imagined. Finola completed her DMA in Composition at Columbia University in 2023, where she studied with George Lewis, Georg Friedrich Haas, Zosha Di Castri and Marcos Balter.

Recent accolades include fellowships from MacDowell (2025) and the Civitella Ranieri Foundation (2024), a 2025 Music Bursary from the Arts Council of Ireland and an award from the New York Council on the Arts. Her compositions have been performed internationally - in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia - and featured at festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival and the Contemporary Music Festival of Buenos Aires. Her music has been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, musicians of the Chicago and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Talea Ensemble, Desdemona Ensemble, Crash Ensemble, ~Nois Quartet, PRISM Saxophone Quartet and Bearthoven, amongst others. In 2022, Finola's debut portrait album, Tús - a collaboration with Desdemona - was released on New Focus Recordings. In 2021, Finola and her creative team were the winners of the 2021 Fedora Digital Prize for As an nGnách/Out of the Ordinary, a community opera in virtual reality which was commissioned by Irish National Opera.

Current and upcoming projects include a double percussion concerto for Ian Antonio, Doug Perkins and the University of Michigan Concert Band, a score for a film by Irina Patkanian, a collaboration with choreographer Jakari Sherman and an album with Catherine Sikora."