Meet the Composers

Brock Chart is a composer, piano studio owner, and entrepreneur based in Lawrence, Kansas, whose work sits at the intersection of creativity, pedagogy, and innovation in music education. Through his compositions, teaching, and publishing ventures, Brock has become a leading voice in reimagining how contemporary music can be made accessible, engaging, and—most of all—fun for both piano students and teachers alike.

In recognition of his creative and innovative contributions to music education, Brock was the 2026 recipient of the prestigious Stecher & Horowitz Power of Innovation Award. He has also been honored as the 2025 Commissioned Composer by the Kansas Music Teachers Association and 2022 Composer of the Year by the Kansas Federation of Music Clubs.

Founded in 2020, My-Melodies Publishing has grown from writing music for Brock’s own private students into an internationally known educational music publisher. Brock’s compositions can be heard around the world and are used in several international piano syllabuses, including the National Federation of Music Clubs Bulletin and Conservatory Canada’s Mosaics Piano Repertoire publication, among others. The company has released eight books, six of which feature original compositions in Brock’s educational Five-Finger piano series, including Five-Finger Jazz!, Five-Finger Pop!, and Five-Finger Rock! (Books 1 and 2 of each). The publications have received national praise in American Music Teacher, Piano Magazine, and a wide range of pedagogy blogs, podcasts, and educational platforms devoted to contemporary music teaching.

In addition to his work in music education, Brock maintains an active career as a composer for film and visual media. He recently composed the score for the feature-length dark comedy $POSITIONS by Chicago filmmaker Brandon Daley, which premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival. His earlier work includes a short film for the Museum of Modern Art that aired on the BBC, along with short comedies by Daley screened at the Slamdance Film Festival, the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, and the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival.

A proud alumnus of the University of Kansas, Brock holds a Master of Music in Composition. During his time at KU, he received two DownBeat Student Music Awards for jazz composition in both large-ensemble and small-group writing categories for his works Down to the Wire and Northern Lights.

Brock believes that when students enjoy the music they’re learning and have fun during lessons, it can lead to a lifelong passion for music. Outside of music, he enjoys cooking, eating tacos, and spending time with his wife, Dominique, and their two dogs, Howard and Martinelli.

Kai Ono is an unmoving idealist, romanticist, and bird lover. He commands a musical style that sways between the cathartic and the intimate, the academic and the intuitive, the traditional and the innovative. He also loves games of most kinds.

Kai commands a vast array of genres. As a jazz composer, he is a recipient of a Downbeat Magazine and ASCAP Herb Alpert award; as a classical composer he is a National Federation of Music Clubs award winner. Touring with indie rock band Melt in venues including Red Rocks Amphitheater, Hollywood Palladium, and the Greek Theater; performing with jazz greats including Shiela Jordan and Jay Clayton; classical recitals at Carnegie Hall and the Laeiszhalle of Hamburg — Kai has also performed at the international stage with multiple genres.

Kai’s pedagogical ethos primarily revolves around the idea that a musical education is a valuable investment into one’s culture and emotional intelligence. Heavily employing rote learning and ear training on top of reading sheet music, Kai’s students forge a deeper relationship with music through the development of associations between musical elements and emotional affect. He teaches composition, arrangement, theory, music appreciation, or whatever else interests his students. For some curious students, he may even be prepared for a couple of animal facts.

Kai graduated from the University of Kansas with a BM in Piano Performance and Composition with distinction, and as a Presser Scholar. He is eternally grateful for his amazing mentors he’s studied under so far - piano with Dr. Scott McBride Smith and Chizuko Asada, composition with James Barnes, Dr. Forrest Pierce, Dr. Kip Haaheim, and Dan Gailey, and jazz piano with TJ Martley.

Martha Hill Duncan began piano lessons at the age of eight and started experimenting with composing and improvising soon after. She was a member of the first graduating class of the Houston High School for Performing and Visual Arts, receiving a diploma in Vocal Music and earned a Degree in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin with piano as her principal instrument. Martha is grateful to have studied with several inspirational and generous teachers: composers Dr. Donald Grantham and Dr. Sam Dolin inspired and encouraged her to express her musical ideas, while influential piano teachers Danielle Martin, Gregory Allen, Dr. Errol Haun and Trudy Borden helped to hone her piano performance and teaching skills.

In 1982, Martha moved to Canada with her husband, astrophysicist Dr. Martin Duncan. In appreciation of her adopted country, many of Martha’s vocal and choral works are set to Canadian texts. Some of these songs have won awards in both American and Canadian choral and art song competitions.

Martha has enjoyed many collaborative projects within her community of Kingston, Ontario. She has worked with local songwriters, poets, artists, choirs and the Ban Righ Foundation of Queen’s University. Some of the works produced from these joint efforts include This Girl Danced Spring for SSAA & Piano with lyrics by Gary Rasberry, Robins for SSA, Tenor Solo and Piano with poetry by Peter Brassard, Limestone Etchings, a collection of piano pieces celebrating local Kingston landmarks with artist Spencer Hope and Who Is She?, written for both solo voice and treble choir as a fundraiser for the Ban Righ Foundation of Queen’s University, celebrating influential women.

Martha loves working with and writing for singers. Her opera, Searching the Painted Sky with poet/librettist, Janet Windeler Ryan, for the Youth Opera of El Paso, Texas was premiered with great success at the National Opera Association convention in NYC in January, 2014. Saskatchewan Songs (one woman’s dramatic and nostalgic musical journey of growing up in the prairie province) was composed for mezzo soprano and poet Bonnie Cutsforth Hubert. These had their US and Canadian premieres at the University of Pennsylvania, Altoona and the University of Saskatchewan. Other collaborative vocal works include Florals, written for soprano Elizabeth McDonald and Porch Songs for baritone Gregory Brookes as well as for tenor Darrell Bryan. Her most recent art song collections with Canadian poetry are Maple Dust and other delicacies and How Will the Rain Fall?

An ongoing interest and recognition of her adopted country, Canada, has culminated in several song cycles and collections for the developing voice, including Singing in the Northland: A Celebration of Canadian Poetry in Song. Another art song collection, Summer, is set to the poetry of Linda Jacques, inspired by her childhood on Georgian Bay. As composer and artistic director of She Sings!, a Kingston women’s choir, Martha has also produced several works for treble choir including many based on Canadian texts. These include Song of the Stars, Lady Icicle and Lullaby of the Iroquois. Her set Star Prayers for SSA and piano was a co-winner in the 2005 Ruth Watson Henderson Choral Composition Competition. Choirs that have commissioned her work include Aurora, Melos Chamber Choir, Pro Arte Singers, and the Limestone Children’s Choir. Other art song and choral commissions have come through Graphite Publishing of Minneapolis and their Consortium projects. One of these is a new song cycle for medium and high voice, A Season of Sensations, with the award-winning Kingston, Ontario poet, Meg Freer.

In addition to her vocal writing, Martha is known for her piano compositions. Many of these works were inspired, at least in part, by her long-time career as a piano teacher and by the memorable places she has lived or visited. Some of these piano solos, as well as some of her art songs, appear in the syllabi and/or publications of The Royal Conservatory of Music, Conservatory Canada and Contemporary Showcase. Several piano pieces also appear in the Northern Lights and Making Tracks series of The Canadian National Conservatory of Music. Notable piano collections are Cottage Days, Isla Vista Suite, Precipitations, Angular Measures, Zarzamora Suite, and The Sunken Garden, the latter commissioned by Mexican-Canadian pianist, Dr. Jorge Suarez.

A former piano examiner for the Royal Conservatory of Music, Martha is also a frequent adjudicator and clinician for music festivals and composition competitions across Canada. She is a member of SOCAN, an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre, and a member of the Association of Canadian Women Composers. She has served on the local executives of ORMTA (Ontario Registered Music Teachers Association) and the SAO (Suzuki Association of Ontario). Martha is also a founding member and ongoing administrator of Red Leaf Pianoworks a self-publishing composers’ collective, which now boasts an international array of award-winning composers.

She lives in Kingston, Ontario with her husband, Martin, and has two grown children, Alex, a math professor and Claire, a singer, actress and voice-over artist. She also has an adorable granddaughter.

Elizabeth Swift is a pianist, teacher, and composer based in the greater Cincinnati area. She holds a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance and Music Education from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where she studied with Eugene Pridonoff and Richard Fields. Her background includes extensive collaborative work, performing with instrumentalists and vocalists both locally and internationally.

Elizabeth runs a diverse private piano studio, teaching students from preschool through adult. While classically trained, she embraces a wide range of styles and is especially passionate about composition, improvisation, and creative expression at the piano.

An active leader in her local music community, Elizabeth serves on the boards of the Keyboard Teachers Association (KTA) and Ohio Music Teachers Association Southwest (OMTA-SW). She is a Nationally Certified Teacher of Music (NCTM) and was nominated for Ohio Certified Teacher of the Year in both 2024 and 2025.

Elizabeth began composing in 2016 after discovering a love for improvisation, and has since written over 150 pieces for pianists of all levels. Her music is widely available, has been featured in the NFMC Bulletin, and reflects a fresh, expressive voice. She composes for Alfred Music and has written for organizations such as Vibrant Music Teaching and Tim Topham.