Newphonia Ensemble

About Newphonia

Formed in 2020, Newphonia is a mixed chamber quintet of doctoral students in Contemporary Music at Bowling Green State University dedicated to the performance and promotion of new music. Comprised of mezzo-soprano Katherine Pracht Phares, flutist Claudia Aizaga, oboist David Munro, pianist Sandy Coursey, and double bassist/composer Adam Har-zvi, Newphonia commissions music for their unique instrumentation, performs, and provides artistic residencies in the upper Midwest. Awardees of two MACCM grants and first-prize winners of the 2021 Douglas Wayland Chamber Music Competition, Newphonia has been featured on the 2021 BG Mid-American Center for Contemporary Music's New Music Festival; El Festival Internacional de Música de Cámara in Quito, Ecuador; The International Music by Women Festival; ArtsX 2020; and the Toledo Museum of Art in professional recording for WGTE Public Radio. In the 2021-22 season, with support from a MACCM grant and BGSU’s dean of the college of music, Newphonia collaborated in a two-part artistic residency with the composition department at Interlochen Arts Academy; in 2022-23, Newphonia proudly returned in residency to support the creation of Interlochen’s inaugural New Music Festival. Additional projects include new commissions and recording of their first album, artistic residency at Western Illinois University, presentation of Hong-Da Chin’s Spread of an Ink Drop on the 43rd Annual New Music Festival for BG Mid-American Center for Contemporary Music, and Newphonia’s first international performance at the New Music Festival in Quito, Ecuador.