Creative Teams

Mitchell, M. Mus., is a composer, illustrator and producer. He studied design and art history at the University of Minnesota Duluth where he was awarded a B.F.A. in graphic design (2013). He studied Music at the University of Aberdeen under the supervision of Professor Paul Mealor, where he was awarded a master’s in music (2018). His work has been supported by the MN State Arts Board (2012) and The Arrowhead Regional Arts Council (2014). He has presented his research in music and sonic arts at international conferences including the 6th International Conference on New Music Concepts (Treviso, Italy) and Convergence 2019 (De Montfort University, Leicester).

His first exposure to algorithmic dance music was during a workshop with Tidal Cycles creator Alex Mclean and he has been producing electronic and algorithmic dance music since under the artist name GHOSTCHAMB3R. He also works with electroacoustics and Avant Cello under the artist name Not In Flight. He is a resident of Minnesota and a member of the Turtle Mountain Chippewa Tribe.

Christian Bardin (she/her and they/them) is an interdisciplinary artist and teacher originally from Houston, Texas who lives and works in Minneapolis. Their favorite work in any discipline tends to come at the intersection of great risk, great craft, and great love. As a composer, collaborators include Eric Mayson, Peter Morrow, and Toby Ramaswamy. Her first full-length album of original music, Shorts, explores themes of rebirth using principles of musique concrète and imaginative versus real sonic space. Their primary instruments are piano and voice.

A professional actor since 2009, she has had a long relationship with CornerHouse, a Children’s Advocacy Center, assisting in forensic interview trainings to help prevent the re-traumatization of children who have seen or experienced abuse. Other performance work has criss crossed genres with the Guthrie Theater, Minnesota Opera, and Jungle Theater, among others. She co-directed the devised work The Nature Crown (Guthrie) and is assisting on the regional premiere of Redwood (Jungle). She has taught for the University of Minnesota, Augsburg University, Abiitan Mill City assisted living, and is currently using the arts to amplify the voice and choice of individuals with disabilities as a teaching artist with Upstream Arts. BFA Acting, University of Minnesota.

Mo Holmes (she/her) is a black queer Southern playwright, dramaturg and all-around theatermaker, currently working in the Twin Cities. She is a 2021 Everwood Farmstead Retreat Artist, the 2019-2020 Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Mentee, and 2019 New Works Artist-in-Residence at Minneapolis’ Center for Performing Arts. In her writing she is most interested in identity, ritual, intimacy, and internet culture, as reflected in her first chapbook DEAR, DEAR and her plays 10 HOURS OF RAIN SOUNDS (CFPA), WE SO SHORT (Playwrights’ Center), and STRANGER, produced by Holmes’ company Perspectives Theater for the 2017 MN Fringe. As a dramaturg, she has supported development of several new works, including Lynn Nottage’s FLOYD’S at the Guthrie, Brittany K. Allen’s REDWOOD at the Jungle, Brian Grandison’s DIESEL HEART at the History Theatre. BFA English, Carleton College.

Leyna Marika Papach is a composer, director, and interdisciplinary artist from Japan and the United States. Her compositions house the languages of dance, theater, sound, and image. Leyna’s performative work has been presented internationally in Europe, Japan, and the US. She has written and directed four evening-length dance-theater pieces alongside her work as a composer and violinist. She was recently awarded the Emerging Composer Award from American Composer’s forum (2020). As a composer and violinist, she has worked with a wide range of artists, both as a collaborator and instrumentalist (Taylor Mac, J.G.Thirwell, Geraldine Fibbers, Dada Tapan Kanti Baidya and many others), performing in venues/festivals such as; Unlimited Festival (Austria), HAU (Berlin), International House (Japan), Dance Afrique Dance (Paris/Tunisia) All Tomorrow’s Parties (US), BAM, MoMA, UNESCO, and many others. Her research in music has been supported by residencies and grant programs such as HARP (HERE Arts Center), Arts International, and Frank Huntington Beebe Fund (music+dance research in the Czech Republic and West Africa), Japan/US Friendship Commission, amongst others.

She was a recent space grant artist at the Brooklyn Arts Exchange. Leyna holds an MFA in interdisciplinary studies from Bard College, MA in Theater and Dance Studies from DAS Theater, Amsterdam. She studied dance with Germaine Acogny at L’ecole des Sables, Senegal, and violin at thePrague A cademy of Music. She currently resides and works in Saint Paul, Minnesota. www.leynamarikapapach.com

Stephanie Henry is a classically trained pianist and composer from Minneapolis, MN. She has performed with classical and theatrical ensembles, as well as with rock bands. She composed original works for film, musical theater, orchestras, quartets, and solo piano. Her music has been applauded for its originality and charismatic charm. She studied music at St. Olaf College and received her Master’s from Hamline University. In 2015, Stephanie participated in the Nautilus Music Theater’s Composer-Librettist Studio as a composer and performed a variety of music including her original works at the New Griots Festival. Most recently Stephanie was selected to compose a piece for White Snake Projects’ Sing Out Strong: Decolonized Voices. Outside of composing and performing Stephanie has maintained a piano studio where she teaches music to people of all ages.