Mendel Lee
Founding Executive Director
Mendel Lee (he/him) (b. 1975) is a New Orleans-based composer whose career oscillates between composition, artistic entrepreneurship, and music education in the pageantry arts. Since exiting his long career as Assistant Director of Tulane Bands in 2022, his creative practice has been split between his work as a composer and his roles with nienteForte Contemporary Music as its Founding Executive Director, Versipel New Music as a composer, performer, and administrator, and Rhythm X, Inc. where he serves on the Board of Directors.
Since his career shift, Mendel’s artistic vision has rapidly earned him recognition, most notably as a VCCA Fellow and a National Performance Network (NPN) Take Notice Fund grantee. His music explores both the evolution of singular ideas over a long period of time and layered syncopated rhythmic patterns and hemiolas over an underlying groove, earning praise as “finding the right balance between minimalist… [static] space and forward motion and trajectory.” He is committed to using his creative practice and entrepreneurial spirit to strengthen collaboration between composers, performers, and audience to show that new music can be for everyone.
Stephen Montalvo
Operations and Outreach Director
Stephen Montalvo (b.1984) is an active composer and performer of acoustic and electronic music, as well as audiovisual installation artist based in New Orleans, LA where he lives with his wife and their two dogs, Snoop and Rose. He works to make new music accessible to wider audiences, creates playful and interactive installations, and occasionally jumps on stage with a punk rock percussion ensemble. Through his music, he explores concepts related to resonance and rhythmic interplay, works to promote equity in artistic experiences by creating agency for performers and audiences, and draws inspiration from social, ecological, and political concerns.
His works have been performed throughout the United States, and internationally at the Osaka University of Arts Electronic Music Festival, by artists and ensembles including the Portland Percussion Group, Megan Ihnen, Rhythm Method String Quartet, Bent Duo, Talea Ensemble, and the Omaha Percussion Ensemble. Additional collaborations include audiovisual installation projects for LUNA (Light Up NOLA Arts) Fête and SALON Gallery, hosted by the New Orleans Arts Council, as well as with the Virtual Krewe of Vaporwave.
As a percussionist, Stephen has participated in performances with the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra, Midland Odessa Symphony and Chorale, Texas Medical Center Orchestra, and the Louis Moreau Institute for New Music Performance. He currently performs nationally with Mike Dillon’s New Orleans Punk Rock Percussion Consortium as well as in New Orleans with various local performers.
Stephen holds a Master of Arts in Music Composition from Tulane University where he studied with Maxwell Dulaney and Rick Snow and a Bachelor of Music from West Texas A&M University, where he studied percussion with Susan Martin Tariq and composition with Joseph Nelson and Robert Denham. Current affiliations include the Society of Composers, the National Association of Composers/USA, and the Vic Firth Education Team as a Scholastic Educator and Marching Percussion Specialist.
Maxwell Dulaney
Artistic Director
Currently Associate Professor of Composition & Theory at Tulane University, Maxwell Dulaney received his Ph.D. in Composition & Theory from Brandeis University, where he studied with David Rakowski, Marty Boykan, Eric Chasalow, and Yu-Hui Chang. As an acoustic and electro-acoustic composer, his compositional philosophy is rooted in the study of multitudinous elements of sounds and finding new and informed ways of developing compositional structures out of them. Dr. Dulaney has been commissioned by, and collaborated closely with, soloists and ensembles including Orlando Cela, Chris Finkel, New York New Music Ensemble, the Xanthos Ensemble, and Grammy Award-winning harmonica virtuoso Howard Levy. Recent projects include a commission by ECCE Ensemble, In Ricordo di una Anima Antica for cello and clarinet in B-flat, and the commission of The Old Harp for the Ningbo University Orchestra.
Recent concerts include a performance of The Old Harp by the Randall College Orchestra in Lynchburg, VA. Future projects include a new piece for solo flute for Orlando Cela, which will be performed at DePauw University in Greencastle, IL and at Coup d’oeil Art Consortium in New Orleans, LA, and a new work for ECCE Ensemble to be performed during their 2015-16 season. Dr. Dulaney has been published in the SCI Journal of Musical Scores, Vol. 45 and his music has been recorded on Rainbow Classical label by the ensemble Mikrokosmos.
Kevin Mah
Communications Manager
Kevin Mah (b. 1992) is a composer and violinist from New Orleans. He earned his BM in Music Composition from Loyola University New Orleans and his MA in Music Composition from Tulane University.
Some of his compositions have been described as maximalist and eclectic, as he derives aesthetic philosophies from his younger post-hardcore emo days. In his acoustic music, he focuses on textural soundscapes using a post-tonal backdrop with filmic undertones. His electronica, meanwhile, explores sound design and synthesis using a pseudo-pop backdrop, citing a mix of genres as influences, such as Cyberpunk, Post-humanism, Hyperpop, and Emo. Occasionally, he loves using voice synthesizers, such as Hatsune Miku, to write lyrical material touching on personal feelings of nostalgia and longing. He has had his works performed at New Music On the Bayou, LA-Tex Festival, and Ecce Festival. His eclectic-ness has garnered words from peers and colleagues, such as, “That was really weird, man,” and “Kevin, are you ok?”
Using his experience as an award-winning indie filmmaker, Kevin has also cultivated his own visual aesthetic. This has opened up opportunities to collaborate with artists to augment his music with visual works, in addition to finding interest in TouchDesigner and Pure Data to create audio-reactive and movement-reactive graphics.