Founders/Directors

Clara Byom
Clara Byom is a versatile multi-instrumentalist, electronic musician, musicologist, arts administrator, and tunesmith who has been described as having “radiant energy” and “immense talent.” Clara has premiered over 40 new classical works as soloist, collaborator, or with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble, which she co-founded in 2016 with Dalton Harris. In 2020, Clara produced three solo albums of electronic/electroacoustic music and a collaborative album with lo-fi hip hop/experimental artist Dan Dan. Clara frequently plays for contra, English Country, and International Folk Dance with The Parson Sisters and performs with the indie folk rock band Dust City Opera. Clara serves as Development Director for the Klezmer Institute. She holds a Master of Music degree from the University of New Mexico in Clarinet Performance and Musicology (2017) and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Luther College (2012).

Dalton Harris
Dalton Harris is a Germany and New Mexico based trombonist that is comfortable performing on modern and historical instruments. Dalton regularly performs with a variety of modern and historical ensembles throughout Germany when he is not in New Mexico performing with the New Mexico Contemporary Ensemble. Dalton was most recently heard in a series of performances with the Dresden Chamber Choir and the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic. He is interested by the parallels between the music of modern composers and composers of the Renaissance and Baroque eras. Dalton is a graduate of the University of New Mexico where he completed his masters degree in Trombone Performance where he studied with Dr. Karl Hinterbichler, and he is currently working towards a masters in historical performance practice in Bremen with renowned trombonist Wim Becu. ​

NMCE Collective

Patrick Debonis
Patrick DeBonis is a composer, sound artist, and tuba player born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He plays tuba and creates music with numerous members of the community in addition to designing sounds as part of the audio-visual group RECEIVED.  During his time at the University of New Mexico, he studied under Dr. Peter Gilbert, Dr. Richard White, and was a member of New Music New Mexico.  ​

Rosie Hutchinson

Growing up in the North Valley, Rosie Hutchinson was raised in a family of artists and began playing fiddle at age eight. She spent much of her childhood traveling around the country with her family to art fairs, learning lots of French, Cajun, Irish, Northern NM and SW music and busking, even saving enough money from her performances to buy herself a horse at nine years old. After graduating with a degree in French from the University of Puget Sound in 2005 where she played in both the Chamber and Symphonic orchestras, Hutchinson came home to play and tour with many ABQ groups, including Mammal Eggs with collaborator and partner Drake Hardin. Hardin would later join her in Chambery, France in 2013 as she finished her masters in French from UNM and the two would start the duo Teetotum. During this time, she began writing the songs that would become her debut, self-titled release, and the project Hosie slowly started to take shape on a laptop and gifted guitar from a friend. Upon returning to NM and having her daughter Merle with Hardin, Hutchinson forged collaborations with many musicians, including John Dietrich (Deerhoof), Heather Trost and Jeremy Barnes (A Hawk and a Hacksaw) and joined the experimental performance group Milch de la Machina. Over the years she has played the festivals Gatas Y Vatas (Albuquerque) and Titwrench (Denver), even going to Stockholm in 2018 to perform as Hosie at Titwrench Sweden. ​

MArtin Ly
Martin Ly is a classically trained guitarist who recently graduated from Oklahoma City University with a Master of Music in guitar performance, studying with Lynn McGrath and Stephen Lochbaum.  During his master’s degree, Martin studied the music of Toru Takemitsu and Takemitsu’s relationship with Cuban Guitar composer, Leo Brouwer.  For his undergraduate degree, Martin studied with Michael Chapdelaine and Benjamin Silva to receive his Bachelor of Arts in 2016.  It is Martin’s mission to seek out and perform new works written for guitar, both solo and ensemble.    

Chris Ogden
Chris Ogden, an active solo and chamber musician, is a graduate of Michigan State University, where he studied with acclaimed saxophonist Joseph Lulloff. As a member of the Auteur saxophone quartet, he has been a winner of Coltman chamber music competition in Austin, Texas, as well as a quarterfinalist in the Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. As a soloist, Chris was a winner of the Honors Concerto Competition at the University of New Mexico, as well as a finalist in the Grand Junction Symphony Young Artist competition. An accomplished bassoonist as well, he has played with the Santa Fe Symphony and the New Mexico Philharmonic. He graduated summa cum laude with bachelor's degrees in music education and saxophone performance from the University of New Mexico, where he studied with Eric Lau. Currently, he teaches at the New Mexico School for the Arts in Santa Fe.

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Daniel Orban
Daniel Orban is a Hungarian-American musician/producer based out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Specializing in electronic beats, otherworldly atmospheres and lo-fi textures, he has been actively performing since 2016. His solo work includes short, sample based dusty beats sampled from bargain bin vinyl and Daniel, Patrick DeBonis and Solomon Leyba together form the audio/visual group RECEIVED, creating a refraction of club music through intricately designed microtextures, twisted melodies and field recordings from the New Mexican deserts and storm drains. From concert halls, contact microphones, warped vocal clips, ubiquitous sample banks, and ripped internet sound bites, RECEIVED is the over-inked imprint of a stamp you don’t remember getting.

Alan Zimmerman
Alan Zimmerman was born, reared and educated in Texas.  After extended stays in Japan and Jamaica, he spent over 3 decades in New York City and then migrated to Albuquerque in August of 2015.  He has made sounds with diverse people/ensembles ranging from Seiji Ozawa and the New Japan Philharmonic to the NM based Death Convention Singers.

Past Performers

Ian Brody, cello
Lisa Donald, cello
Yakima Fernandez, violin
Luke Gullickson, piano
William Kramer, percussion
Laurel Wyckoff, flute