Bianca d'Avila do Prado

Brazilian cellist and pedagogue Bianca d’Avila do Prado is cello faculty at the Music Institute of Chicago and online instructor for the University of Idaho Preparatory Division. As MIC she teaches Suzuki and Traditional cello and leads the Third Coast Suzuki outreach program for the Hispanic community.

Ms. Prado holds a Master of Music in Cello Performance and String Pedagogy degree from Illinois State University. She was principal cellist at the ISU Symphony and regularly plays as a guest cellist with the Peoria Symphony Orchestra. With Camerata Ontoarte, she recorded six CD’s and performed concerts in Brazil, Italy, and Russia. She was also part of Theatro São Pedro Chamber Orchestra and Quatricelli Cello Quartet. Bianca is a passionate music educator and has experience teaching music students in Brazil and in the US for more than 20 years.

Bianca has been working on making Brazilian music for strings more accessible to students in the US. She had her articles "Teaching Diversity: Four Brazilian Pieces for String Orchestra" published in the Scroll Magazine and "Viajando Pelo Brasil I, Suite for Strings: A Fun way to Explore the Richness of Brazilian Culture and Music” in the American String Teacher Magazine.

Her composition “Brazilian Habanera” was one of the five pieces selected to be part of the Beginning Level Volumes of the Celebrate Diversity in String Music Anthology. She is also one of the composers commissioned by the Cello Teaching Repertoire Consortium in 2023 and is writing a cello solo suite for intermediate students.

Rolando J. Gomez

Rolando J Gomez (b. 2001) is a composer and musician originally from Miami, Florida. He graduated from Oberlin Conservatory with a major in music composition, having studied under Stephen Hartke, Jihyun Kim, and Jesse Jones. Additionally, he pursued a minor in TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts). His music often infuses Cuban, American, Neo-classical, and European Modernist styles. His repertoire includes numerous solo and chamber works, humorous and sentimental art songs, as well as compositions involving electronics. Apart from composing, Rolando remains connected to his Cuban heritage by exploring the Cuban Tres, a traditional stringed instrument native to the island.

Dión (pronounced: dee-own) Morales was born, raised, and lives in Chicago, Illinois with his wife and two daughters. He began his orchestral studies as a high school student at Lane Tech College Prep High School in the Chicago Public School system. He received his undergraduate degree in music education from VanderCook College of Music and in 2021 he earned his Masters degree from VanderCook as well. He has taught elementary and middle school orchestra in Des Plaines District 62 since 2010. The arranging of music by minority composers for school orchestra programs is a project that he has been developing since 2020. Music from this project has been performed at the Midwest Band and Orchestra clinic and has won multiple awards.

Alongside his arrangements, Dión is also passionate about writing original works for student ensembles at all levels and for 2023 has volunteered to provide free commissions to 14 schools across the United States.

Dión is married to Devon Morales. She is the department chair and head orchestra director at Lane Tech, as well as a fellow composer and arranger.

Puerto Rican-American violinist, songwriter, and educator Skye Soto Steele has gone from busking in the NYC subways as a teenager, to playing concert stages around the world. He has released four albums of original music and toured as a solo artist throughout the US and Europe, as well as working as musical director and multi-instrumentalist for platinum-selling singer songwriter Vanessa Carlton for over a decade. As an improvising violinist Skye has worked with jazz legends like Henry Butler, Anthony Braxton, Steven Bernstein, and Matt Wilson, and with country and rock artists Willie Nelson, Jolie Holland, and Deer Tick. He has delved into string-playing traditions from Turkey to Brazil, learning from masters like Mestre Salustiano, Mestre Luiz Paixao, Najib Shaheen, and Selim Sesler. 

Teaching has been a passion throughout Skye’s career, informed by his mother’s work as a bilingual public school and Suzuki violin teacher. Whether introducing children to strings in NYC public schools, working with adult musicians living in incarceration, or fellow music teachers, Skye centers musical adventure, joy, and connection to inner-life in his teaching.

In 2017, Skye created A People’s History of Strings as a way to help young players and the general public have a more de-colonized encounter with his favorite instrument. Drawing on his travels, family history, and historical research, A People’s History of Strings is a narrative concert and playable curriculum that provides a framework for culturally sustaining pedagogy, while revealing and countervailing the eurocentrism and white-supremacy baked into so much conventional string pedagogy.

Traci Wilusz is a multi genre composer and songwriter residing in the DC area. One half of the music composition, songwriting and production team named, “Storied Windows”, she has released several albums and has written film scores for multiple indie films. In addition to writing to picture, she currently writes production music, released both independently and under a publisher. Her most common styles of writing include classical, new age, indie folk and indie rock, using a wide assortment of musical instruments and influences. Traci has a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Southwestern Adventist University and has studied piano, violin and bass guitar. She is married to her husband, Richard, the other half of Storied Windows. They enjoy spending their time together writing music, hiking and raising their beautiful 7 year old son, Jackson.