WHICH SINFONIA
A community of rigorous experimental musicians who write.
In-depth conversations, research papers, creative pieces, and occasional reviews about (mostly) experimental music. Written by artists who have an active musical practice.
A 'Sinfonia' often marks a musical introduction and simply translates to 'sounding together'. If you're looking to be introduced to today's musical thought leaders by way of innovative writing, you've come to the right place. We welcome all music lovers with an acknowledgement that our readership base is primarily composed of musical professionals and aficionados. Members of Which Sinfonia receive exclusive content providing a look behind the curtain delivered directly and regularly to their inbox.
So, Which Sinfonia? Our name is inspired by Luciano Berio's 1968 Sinfonia, which remains a groundbreaking work to this day that is deeply rooted in history. And we're still talking about it.
ANNA HEFLIN, OWNER AND EDITOR
Anna Heflin is a composer and writer who constructs high-octane, humorous, and sensual worlds with non-linear narratives that thrive on musical and psychological fragmentation. Whether writing a symphony or a staged literature-inspired solo opera for an instrumentalist, she is drawn to the unexpected and channels her highly imaginative virtuosic visions into complex characters and unorthodox narrative arcs that often integrate text and staging.
She holds a B.M. from UC Santa Barbara and a M.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. After living in NYC and studying composition with Eric Wubbels for over five years, she moved to Los Angeles and is currently pursuing her Doctorate in Music Composition at USC’s Thornton School of Music where she is working with Ted Hearne, Nina C Young, and Camae Ayewa (Moor Mother). Her solo opera the INcomplete cosmicomics for vocalizing cellist Aaron Wolff will be produced by Experiments in Opera in NYC in March 2025.
If you are interested in being featured on Which Sinfonia or contributing your writings, reach out to Anna at anna.heflin@whichsinfonia.com
Please note that Which Sinfonia is an independent site run by working artists designed to connect and shine a spotlight on artists in a thoughtful and rigorous manner. It is not a traditional music review blog.
LISA ATKINSON, CONTRIBUTOR
Lisa Atkinson is a Chicago-based composer and writer avid in the pursuit and promotion of new music, whose work strives to encapsulate the visceral, tactile nature of sonic experience and the emotional context of gesture through music and prose.
Currently, Atkinson is pursuing her Ph.D. in composition at Northwestern University under the guidance of Alex Mincek, Jay Alan Yim, and Hans Thomalla. Atkinson holds an M.A. from Montclair State University and a B.Mus. in music composition from Arizona State University.
CHRISTOPHER CERRONE, CONTRIBUTOR
Christopher Cerrone is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations. Balancing lushness and austerity, immersive textures and telling details, dramatic impact, and interiority, Cerrone’s multi-GRAMMY-nominated music is utterly compelling and uniquely his own. He is on the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music and lives in Jersey City with his wife.
BELINDA CHEN, CONTRIBUTOR
Belinda Chen is a pianist and writer based in Seattle, Washington. She recently graduated with her DMA from the University of Miami, and her dissertation explored the relationship between music and literature. Belinda has performed at Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage in Washington D.C, the Teatro Massimio Vincenzo Bellini in Catania, Italy, the Savannah International Trade and Convention Center in Savannah, GA, and the Osaka International House in Osaka, Japan. She has performed as a soloist with the Bellini Symphony Orchestra in Catania, Italy, and the Frost Symphony Orchestra in Miami, FL.
ANDREW FRIEDMAN, CONTRIBUTOR
Andrew Friedman is a San Francisco-based clarinetist, composer, and educator devoted to performing music new and old, large and small. His freelance credits include symphony, ballet, and opera institutions around the Bay Area and beyond; he also tours nationally with the Oakland-based classical/hip-hop fusion group Ensemble Mik Nawooj. Recent projects include an ambitious commissioning project to create a new repertoire of work for unaccompanied E-flat clarinet and training a very small dog. Friedman graduated with honors from the University of Puget Sound with degrees in Music Performance and English and holds an MM in performance from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
JENNIFER GERSTEN, CONTRIBUTOR
Jennifer Gersten is a writer and violinist from Queens, NY. She is the winner of the 2018 Rubin Institute Prize in Music Criticism for "outstanding promise" in the field and has contributed essays, features, and reviews to The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Guernica, PBS NewsHour, and The Kenyon Review online. A DMA student at Stony Brook University, where she is a primary student of Arnaud Sussmann, Jennifer has been a recipient of fellowships from Tanglewood, Lucerne, and Kneisel Hall. With pianist Laura Davey, she is one half of the duo Double Standard.
MICHELLE HROMIN, CONTRIBUTOR
Michelle Hromin is a Croatian-American clarinetist, improviser, curator, and writer based in New York and London. Described as “inviting and melodic” by the International Clarinet Association, she uses mediums such as spoken word, electronics, and improvisation alongside her playing to explore her identity, heritage, and human relationships. Michelle is Artistic Director of standard issue, a new music collective that challenges the archetypal boundaries within music and its culture. As a writer, she has been featured on platforms such as New Music Box and 12th St Journal.
EMERY KEREKES, FOUNDING CO-EDITOR (EMERITUS)
Emery Kerekes is a vocalist, cellist, conductor, writer, and arts administrator based in NYC. Winner of the 2022 Rubin Prize in Music Criticism, his writings have also appeared or are forthcoming in Early Music America, Musical America, Opera News, and on his own site, Classical Music Geek. He works in The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Department of Live Arts. Emery graduated from Yale University in May 2021 with a B.A. in Music.
YAZ LANCASTER, CONTRIBUTOR
Yaz Lancaster (they/them) is a Black transdisciplinary artist most interested in relational aesthetics; fragments and collage; and liberatory politics. Their writing appears in the tiny, I CARE IF YOU LISTEN, and in Peach Mag, where they are the visual arts editor. Yaz holds degrees in violin performance and poetry from NYU. They have an Aquarius "big three," and they love chess, horror movies, and bubble tea.
CONNIE LI, CONTRIBUTOR
Connie Li (she/her) is a violinist, composer, and writer from Marietta, Georgia and currently based in Harlem. She has contributed writing and poetry to Studio Ouch! Magazine and Burnaway. A recent graduate of NYU Gallatin's MA program, she explores these questions in her work: how do we form heritages, musical and medicinal? How can and do frameworks of our bodies shape the art we make and how we make it?
TAK ENSEMBLE, CONTRIBUTOR
Founded on the principles of curiosity, change, and caring communication, TAK is dedicated to the commissioning of new works and direct collaboration with composers and other artists and they have premiered hundreds of works to date. TAK is Laura Cocks, flute; Madison Greenstone, clarinet; Charlotte Mundy, voice; Marina Kifferstein, violin; Ellery Trafford, percussion. Deeply committed to educational collaborations, TAK has conducted residencies at institutions such as Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, Oberlin Conservatory, Cornell University, Wesleyan University, New York University, The Delian Academy for New Music, and many others. The ensemble has also collaborated with the New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers Program and Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program. TAK served as the the Long-term Visiting Ensemble in Residence at University of Pennsylvania from 2022-23.
GABRIEL VICÉNS, CONTRIBUTOR
Gabriel Vicéns is a critically acclaimed guitarist, composer, and educator from Puerto Rico based in New York City. He has published multiple albums under his name and as a co-leader with the free improvisation group No Base Trio. His latest album, Mural (2024), is a collection of chamber works composed for various ensemble configurations and performed by some of New York's finest classical musicians. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts from Stony Brook University in 2022, and in 2023 he received the New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America. His work has been written about and reviewed in many national and international publications. He currently works with students at his NYC home studio and has an active performance schedule.
LUCIE VÍTKOVÁ, CONTRIBUTOR
Lucie Vítková is a Herb Alpert Award-nominated scholar, composer, improviser and performer from the Czech Republic, living in New York. During their studies of composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (CZ), they were a visiting scholar at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Cal Arts, Universität der Künste in Berlin, Columbia University and NYU. In their recent work, Vítková interested themselves in the social-political aspects of music as related to everyday life and in reusing trash to build sonic costumes. As a scholar, Vítková has published pieces on Wolff’s music in magazines such as Opus Musicum (CZ), Open Space Magazine (USA), Vs. Interpretation Book of Agosto Foundation (CZ/USA), and in Ditchmag (CZ). In 2019, Vítková became an editor for the KunstMusik (D) where they also published their own essay Composing Expectations.
