Vox Lumina

About the ensemble:
Theresa Wong (voice, cello, electric guitar)
Theresa Wong is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and intermedia artist active at the intersection of composition, improvisation, and the synergy of multiple disciplines. As a cellist and vocalist, Wong has forged a unique vocabulary on her instruments through extensive explorations in new playing techniques, alternative tunings, and the timbral merging of singing and playing together. Her works include Fluency of Trees for cello and voice which premiered at the Other Minds Festival, She Dances Naked Under Palm Trees, commissioned by pianist Sarah Cahill, and The Unlearning, a multi-media song cycle released on Tzadik and premiered at Roulette Intermedium. Her long-standing collaboration with Long String Instrument inventor Ellen Fullman includes Harbors, chosen as one of Wire’s top 50 releases of 2020, and Soundless, presented at the Volume Festival in Sidney and MOCA Los Angeles. Wong is a 2024 Guggenheim Fellow in Music Composition and her commissioned works include pieces for Del Sol Quartet, Splinter Reeds, Long Beach Opera, NakedEye Ensemble, and San Francisco Girls Chorus. She currently resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Roco Córdova (voice)
Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Roco Córdova is a vocalist, composer, producer, and improviser based in the San Francisco Bay Area. They possess a B.Mus. in Composition from the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and an M.A. in Composition from Mills College in Oakland, California. Their music has been described as “slow-boiling, apparently timeless” with “an odd momentum of its own” (The Washington Post). Cordova's work fuses diverse influences with electronic media, chance operations, gradual processes, noise, improvisation, and timbral techniques of composition. Voice is at the core of their music making: they incorporate extended techniques like throat singing, overtone singing, falsetto, and vocal percussion into live performances that emphasize the electronic processing of these sounds. As a touring vocalist and improviser with The Art Ensemble of Chicago, they have performed extensively around the world and have collaborated with numerous composers.

Melanie Dyer (viola)is a violist whose main practice is creative improvisation. She attended the University of Denver’s LaMont School of Music and studied with William Lincer, Lee Yeingst, John Jake Kella and Naomi Fellows. She has performed/recorded with the Sun Ra Arkestra under Marshall Allen, William Parker, Tomeka Reid, Heroes Are Gang Leaders, and other notable artists. She founded the WeFreeStrings ensemble in 2011. She co-produced Scientific Soul Session, a series of underground salon performances, dialogues, plays and film in her Harlem home from 2004-11. She is currently a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, and has received support from NYSCA Support for Artists, Herb Alpert Ragdale Prize, New Music USA, Chamber Music America, and Jazz Road South Arts. 

Giacomo Fiore (electric guitar)
Guitarist and musicologist Giacomo Fiore has premiered more than three dozen new works for justly-tuned, electric, and classical guitars, and released several recordings for Other Minds, Populist, Cold Blue, Pinna, Spectropol, Paper Garden Records, and his own impressum. As a scholar his research focuses on U.S. experimental music, intonation, and performance; he has published articles in Music Theory Spectrum, the Journal of the Society for the American Music, and TEMPO, and writes occasionally for Classical Guitar and SFCV. He teaches a wide range of historical and practical music courses at the University of San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz. Giacomo is a member of experimental doom trio Harjo, and of chamber music group Wild Rumpus; he also performs regularly with New Music Works, sfSound, and other Bay Area organizations.

Kanoko Nishi (bass koto, koto, keyboard)
Kanoko Nishi-Smith is a performer, currently based in SF/Bay Area. She holds a B.A. in Classical Piano Performance and M.A. in Early Childhood Special Education from Mills College, Oakland CA (now Northeastern University). She studied koto (Japanese zither) with Kazue Sawai of the Sawai Koto Academy and now integrates her foundational interest and background in Western/Japanese classical and avant-garde music with her interests in human development and social welfare, committing to a boundary-crossing inquiry into the nature of human behavior, the ever-changing ethical and aesthetical perceptions, expanding the possibilities and variations of sound and performing bodies, through a practice of attuned listening, observation, introspection, and responsiveness.

Haruka Fujii (percussion)
Multi-percussionist Haruka Fujii has become one of the most prominent solo percussionists and marimbists of her generation. She has won international acclaim for her interpretations of contemporary music, having performed numerous premieres of works from luminary composers. Since 2010 Ms. Fujii has performed as an artist of the Grammy Award winning Silkroad Ensemble, joining a group of international musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma and now serves as the Associate Artistic Director alongside with the artistic director Rhiannon Giddens.

Internationally acclaimed for her precision, artistry, and bold programming, Valérie Sainte-Agathe has emerged as one of today’s most compelling chorus masters and conductors. Celebrated for her interpretive depth and creative leadership across symphonic, operatic, and contemporary repertoire, she brings an exceptional blend of musicianship, vision, and collaborative expertise to every ensemble she leads. As Artistic Director of the San Francisco Girls Chorus since 2013, she has commissioned over thirty new works and led collaborations with the San Francisco Symphony, SF Opera, Chanticleer, and Opera Parallèle. In 2024, she was named Chevalière des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.

Since its founding in 1978, the San Francisco Girls Chorus (SFGC) has redefined what a youth chorus can be: a powerhouse of artistry, education, and innovation that amplifies the unique and compelling sound of young voices. Guided by a mission to create transformative performances while shaping the future of the art form, SFGC has become an international leader in treble choral music and a vital cultural force in the Bay Area and beyond. Under the visionary leadership of Artistic Director Valérie Sainte-Agathe, the Chorus has cultivated an incomparable sound—crystal-clear, dramatic, and deeply expressive. This vibrant artistry brings to life more than a millennium of music, from ancient plainchant to adventurous contemporary works written specifically for the ensemble. Each performance is not only meticulously crafted but also revelatory, offering audiences both intellectual engagement and emotional connection.

Vocalists from Peninsula Women's Chorus, conducted by Anne Hege
Dr. Anne K. Hege creates musical worlds that invite an awareness of an attention to the body and our present moment. In her work as a conductor, composer, vocalist, instrument builder, and scholar, she explores the roots of musicality in the intersection of ensemble interaction, technology, embodiment, and expression. In 2014, she completed her Ph.D. in Music Composition at Princeton University, where she studied the role of the body in the creation of meaning in musical performance. Working as a choral conductor since 1999, Hege studied conducting with Melvin Strauss, Marika Kuzma, Judit Hartyanyi, among others. She founded and directed Folk3000 (1999-2001), Albany Community Chorus (2000-2004), Cuatro Vientos (2004-2006), and Celestial Mechanics (2007-2010). She is currently the Artistic Director of the Peninsula Women's Chorus.

Since 1966, the Peninsula Women’s Chorus (PWC) has become synonymous with artistic excellence in choral music. Known for its adventurous programming and recognized as one of the leading women’s choruses in the U.S. and beyond, the PWC is dedicated to commissioning new works, discovering rarely performed works, and keeping classical choral masterpieces for treble voices alive. Comprised of a diverse group of auditioned singers who share an enthusiasm for challenging repertoire, the PWC has commissioned 48 new works and released seven CD recordings over the last ten years. Among the PWC honors are: third place winner of The American Prize in 2023 in Virtual Performance, first place winner in Choral Performance in 2015, and second place winner in 2011; third prize in the 2006 Béla Bartók 22nd International Choir Competition in Debrecen, Hungary; two Chorus America/ASCAP Awards for Choral Excellence; and second prize at the 1994 Tallinn International Choral Competition in Estonia. Other noted performances include four appearances (in 2016, 2001, 1993, and 1987) at American Choral Directors Association (ACDA) conferences and an appearance at the closing ceremony of the Chorus America Conference in 2023. In addition to extensive performances throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, the chorus has been heard on National Public Radio, has appeared on television both nationally and internationally, and has participated in international choral festivals in Spain in 2023 and Argentina in 2015.