Synthase and Its People

Huijuan (Susie) Ling, Ph.D.

Huijuan Ling is a composer and keyboardist currently based in Durham, NC. She draws inspiration outside the boundaries of Western art music and enjoys discovering and negotiating sound worlds that feel authentic to her and her collaborators.

Her music has been performed by ensembles and musicians including Ciompi Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Imani Winds, JACK Quartet, Line Upon Line Percussion, Patchwork Duo, Ashley Walters, Gloria Cheng, Kris Rucinski, and others.

In 2022, her woodwind quintet ‘Toward a Rediscovery’ won first prize in the fifth International ‘New Vision’ Composition Competition from New York Dance & Arts Innovations. She was awarded the William Klenz Prize in Composition from Duke University in 2021, was among recipients of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2020, and won third prize in the SIMM 2019 International Harpsichord Composition Competition with ‘Those Cold Winter Rains.’

Huijuan received her Ph.D. in Composition at Duke University, where she studied composition with Stephen Jaffe and harpsichord/organ with Robert Parkins. She received her MM at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and her BM at Shanghai Conservatory of Music.

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Joshua Weinfeld

Joshua Weinfeld holds a master’s degree in Music Technology and Digital Media from the University of Toronto and is a graduate of Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music, where he studied percussion performance under Ji Hye Jung, W. Lee Vinson, and Dr. Marc Widenhofer.

Born and raised in New York City, Joshua attended Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. At Vanderbilt, he was featured three times in the Blair School of Music Student Showcase, joined masterclasses with Robert Van Sice, Michael League, Michael Burritt, Alejandro Viñao, and Edgar Meyer, and performed alongside Jeff Coffin, Ji Hye Jung, Sandbox Percussion, and the Chatterbird Ensemble.

Joshua is the co-founder and managing member of Continuous Motion Productions, LLC, a multimedia company established in 2021 specializing in audio, video, and creative technology. Through Continuous Motion, he has led and contributed to hundreds of audiovisual projects across classical music, electronic music, research, and interactive media.

His work has been recognized with multiple honors, including a DownBeat Magazine Award for Best Collegiate Engineered Live Recording, the Wendy Carlos Award for Innovative Creative Work in Music Technology, and two first-place awards in the Audio Engineering Society Recording Competition.

In addition to production work, Joshua is an educator and product specialist, delivering courses and demonstrations throughout North America for IMSTA, and working with Music Marketing, Inc. as a product expert for Dreamtonics Synthesizer V and Celemony Melodyne.

Joshua’s practice bridges performance, composition, and technology. He is an avid composer and sound designer, collaborates in game audio development, and is a member of VXRIABLE, an emerging electronic music duo centered around original sound design.

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Nate May, DMA

Recognized by the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Yale School of Music, Nate May is a versatile American composer and improviser whose music has been heard across four continents: in jazz clubs and DIY spaces, on radio and television, in museums and modern dance venues, and on mainstage classical events at New York’s Sheen Center, the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, and others.

His music spans a wide array of genres, including orchestral, choral, chamber, electronic, and experimental works. He has also scored a full-length feature film, performed in a post-rock band, and given fully improvised performances on piano and Fender Rhodes.

An award-winning educator, he has served as a teaching artist with the American Composers Orchestra and taught at Yale University, Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, Montclair State University, the Walden School, and the Thurnauer school.

He holds degrees from the Yale School of Music (D.M.A., composition), Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music (M.M., Composition), and the University of Michigan (B.F.A., Jazz and Contemplative Studies). He grew up in Huntington, West Virginia and currently resides in the San Francisco Bay area.

Nate is no longer accepting students.