American Composers Forum (ACF) is pleased to announce the recipients of this year’s ACF McKnight Composer Fellowships and ACF McKnight Visiting Composer Residencies. These awards celebrate the vitality of Minnesota’s musical landscape, with the selected artists blending and transcending genre through composition, songwriting, modular synth improvisations, cross-cultural collaborations, and communal art-making.
Both programs are funded by the McKnight Foundation and provide meaningful support for artists to create music through engagement with Minnesota communities. In addition to funding, ACF cultivates long-term relationships with awardees and provides extended support through networking activities, career development mentorship from ACF staff, and opportunities to be featured and promoted on ACF’s platforms.
The ACF McKnight Composer Fellowships awardees are Kashimana Ahua, Ross Hutchens, Shruthi Rajasekar, and Christopher Rochester. The McKnight Visiting Composer Residency awardees are J. Clay Gonzalez and TJ Cole. More information on the artists and their work is below.
To acknowledge the strength of the applications beyond those receiving awards, the panel has named Phillip Blackburn and Jeffrey Brooks as alternates for the McKnight Composer Fellowship Program, and Katherine Bergman as an honorable mention. For the McKnight Visiting Composer Residency, ACF has named Kevin Ramsay as an alternate, and Anuj Bhutani and Charles J. Lumar II as honorable mentions.
The four ACF McKnight Composer Fellows were selected from a pool of 46 applicants. The fellowships are part of the McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program, created to increase the exploratory opportunity, economic stability, and productive capacity of artists by providing $25,000 in unrestricted support for mid-career artists living in Minnesota.
Music creators living outside of Minnesota were invited to propose a residency project that reflects or responds to the unique qualities of people and communities in the state. The two ACF McKnight Visiting Composers were selected from a pool of 36 applicants; each will receive $10,000 to spend time in Minnesota pursuing a self-designed residency project, in addition to $3,000 in travel support.
“This form of unrestricted support is incredibly meaningful for artists to have space and resources to be creative,” said ACF Executive Director Vanessa Rose. “We are grateful for the McKnight Foundation’s shared belief in the impact of artists and culture bearers who make Minnesota their home — as well as those who bring new perspectives to us.”
The panelists who selected this year’s awardees were Jess Rowland (innova artist), Troy Rogers (2024 McKnight Fellow), Carmina Escobar, and Mychal Fisher (2024 McKnight Fellow). Carolina Heredia, ACF’s Director of Programs, manages the panel selection process, which emphasizes thoughtful and nuanced decision-making by bringing together individuals with varied musical perspectives, experiences, and practices. Panelists are chosen for their ability to engage with a wide range of ideas, recognize their own biases, and evaluate submissions with clarity and integrity.
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT COMPOSER FELLOWS
Kashimana Ahua (she/they)
Kashimana Ahua — Photo by Roosevelt Mansfeld
Kashimana (she/they) is a mother, musician, singer, songwriter, composer, producer, guitarist, and performing teaching artist, with a rich, soulful blues voice that soars through their original compositions. The name Kashimana means “that’s their heart,” and you can hear their heart beating in the compelling sound of their music. Kashimana often draws inspiration from their experiences growing up in Nigeria and Kenya, traveling through Africa and Europe, and settling in the United States. Blending pop, soul, R&B, and folk, Kashimana’s distinctive voice and stage presence pull you in, leaving you in a warm and fuzzy thrall that’s hard to shake. Their work authentically expresses a vulnerability filled with joy and pain, seeking to heal, soothe, ignite connected creativity, and transmogrify each participant to a deeper level of life, love, understanding, and consciousness.
Ross Hutchens (he/him)
Ross Hutchens — Photo by Sharolyn B Hagen
Ross Hutchens, aka Lonefront, is a multi-instrumentalist originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. He began with the violin at an early age and earned a bachelor’s degree in music with a focus on Jazz Guitar. He eventually shifted toward audio engineering, transitioning into performing live sets using hardware and modular synthesizers as Lonefront. Lonefront’s music breaks the mold of idiomatic techno while refining the genre’s quintessential elements into performances that lean heavily on improvisation and hard-hitting grooves. His musicality shines through measured application of polyrhythm and command of the frequency spectrum, setting new standards for live set performances.
Shruthi Rajasekar (she/her)
Shruthi Rajasekar — Photo by Alia Rose
Composer-performer Shruthi Rajasekar is a 2023 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, Associate of the Royal Northern College of Music (ARNCM), winner of the Global Women in Music Award, and recipient of the Marshall Scholarship from the UK Government. Shruthi’s music draws from her deep roots in the Carnatic (South Indian classical) and Western classical traditions. Her work highlights identity, community, and joy. Globally, Shruthi’s compositions have been featured at the Royal Albert Hall (UK), Cannes Film Festival (France), National Centre for Performing Arts (India), and Victoria Hall (Singapore). She has been in residence at Britten Pears Arts and Tusen Takk Foundation. Shruthi serves on the boards of Minnesotan arts organizations Zeitgeist and the Anderson Center.
Christopher Rochester (he/him)
Christopher Rochester — Photo by Asha Belk
Christopher Rochester, PhD, is a dynamic composer whose music transcends genres and cultural boundaries. As the first African American to earn a PhD in Music Composition from the University of Minnesota, Christopher’s work explores the intersections of tradition, innovation, and identity. Drawing on influences from classical, jazz, and popular music, his compositions serve as a bridge between diverse communities, fostering connection and understanding. Christopher’s creative approach reflects his belief in music’s power to transcend differences and inspire collective transformation. Beyond composing, he is an advocate for reimagining music’s role in society, mentoring emerging artists and leading initiatives that integrate music with education and cultural equity. Through his artistry and leadership, Christopher continues to shape music as a tool for unity, healing, and change.
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT VISITING COMPOSERS
Clay Gonzalez (he/him)
Clay Gonzales — Photo by Colin McCall
Clay Gonzalez is a composer and music director based in Southeast Michigan. He founded and developed Regenerate!, a project dedicated to producing site-specific “regenerative immersions” that welcome people of varying backgrounds to participate in communal sound-making. Through this work, he has developed a new system of notating, composing, orchestrating, rehearsing, and presenting music in ways that enact and promote the ensemble’s humanist values. His immersions have been presented by the University Musical Society, The Third Place [MUSICFEST], and Strange Beautiful Music (New Music Detroit.) Alongside composing, he is an experienced educator and music copyist.
Proposed Residency: “Regenerative Orchestral Immersions” aims to create participatory, community-wide orchestral experiences where individuals of all skill levels — experts, selftaught, beginners, hobbyists, and non-musicians — come together in a shared sonic ecosystem. The project emphasizes collective sound-making as a way to heal communities and reimagine the orchestra as a civic, not just cultural, space. Clay will lead a site-specific “sonic immersion” on Minnesota’s North Shore, engaging 40-70 community participants through workshops, performances, and recordings. The project envisions a joyful, less-isolated world through music that celebrates place, community, and creativity.
TJ Cole (they/them)
TJ Cole — Photo by O’Neil Arnold
Composer and performer TJ Cole (they/them), based in Louisville, KY, has a diverse artistic portfolio encompassing classical composition, electronic pop, and experimental improvisation. In the Louisville Orchestra Creators Corps, they undertook a year-long residency composing for the orchestra and leading community engagement initiatives. Having received commissions from institutions like Carnegie Hall and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, TJ has showcased their work with orchestras worldwide, earning two ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards. Active in collaborations, they perform in Choir Siren, an electro-acoustic improvisation duo. Committed to community engagement, TJ facilitated songwriting workshops for Project HOME, combating chronic homelessness. Their ongoing project, ‘Those Moments,’ integrates LGBTQ+ choir members’ stories into musical performances. As a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, TJ loves visual art, swing sets, and taking care of their cat, Zucchini.
Proposed Residency: “Those Moments” is a project exploring gender through performances that blend original choral music with audio stories reflecting on gender identity. The work will emerge from Minnesota’s choral community, where tradition intersects with inclusivity, sparking conversations around gender dynamics. The project weaves individual and collective narratives from choir members into performances, using interviews, recordings, and tailored musical adaptations to authentically represent each choir’s identity. By integrating deeply with choirs — attending rehearsals, concerts, and community events — TJ hopes to offer “Those Moments” as a gift to MN music communities, amplifying their voices.
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT ARTIST AND CULTURE BEARERS FELLOWSHIPS
Founded on the belief that Minnesota thrives when its artists and culture bearers thrive, the McKnight Foundation’s arts and culture program is one of the oldest and largest of its kind in the country. Support for individual working Minnesota artists and culture bearers has been a cornerstone of the program since it began in 1982. The McKnight Artist & Culture Bearer Fellowships Program provides annual, unrestricted cash awards to outstanding mid-career Minnesota artists in 15 different creative disciplines. Program partner organizations administer the fellowships and structure them to respond to the unique challenges of different disciplines. Currently, the foundation contributes about $2.8 million per year to its statewide fellowships. For more information, visit mcknight.org/artistfellowships.
ABOUT THE MCKNIGHT FOUNDATION
The McKnight Foundation, a Minnesota-based family foundation, advances a more just, creative, and abundant future where people and planet thrive. Established in 1953, the McKnight Foundation is deeply committed to advancing climate solutions in the Midwest; building an equitable and inclusive Minnesota; and supporting the arts in Minnesota, neuroscience, and international crop research.
ABOUT AMERICAN COMPOSERS FORUM
ACF’s mission is to support and advocate for individuals and groups creating music today by demonstrating the vitality and relevance of their art. We do this by empowering composers with resources and support, modeling creative partnerships, and advocating for them through storytelling and connections. Working with an ecosystem of artists, programmers, presenters, teachers, funders, and audiences, we frame all of our work with a commitment to racial equity, believing that creating a fairer world for artists benefits all of us.
Founded in 1973 by composers Libby Larsen and Stephen Paulus as the Minnesota Composers Forum, the organization continues to invest in its Minnesota home while connecting artists and advocates across the United States, its territories, and beyond. ACF frames our work with a focus on racial equity and includes within that scope, but does not limit it to: diverse gender identities, musical approaches and perspectives, religions, ages, (dis)abilities, cultures, backgrounds, sexual orientations, and broad definitions of “American.” Visit www.composersforum.org for more information.
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