Formed in 2020, Newphonia is a mixed chamber quintet of former doctoral students in contemporary music at Bowling Green State University, dedicated to the performance and promotion of new music. Comprised of mezzo-soprano Katherine Pracht Phares, flutist Claudia Aizaga, oboist David Munro, pianist Sandy Coursey, and double bassist/composer Adam Har-zvi, Newphonia commissions music for their unique instrumentation, performs, and provides artistic residencies in the upper Midwest. Awardees of two MACCM grants and first-prize winners of the 2021 Douglas Wayland Chamber Music Competition, Newphonia has been featured at the 2021 BG Mid-American Center for Contemporary Music's New Music Festival, Festival Internacional de Música de Cámara, The International Music by Women Festival, ArtsX 2020, and the Toledo Museum of Art in a professional recording for WGTE Public Radio. In the 2021-22 season, with support from a MACCM grant and BGSU’s dean of the college of music, Newphonia collaborated in a two-part artistic residency with the composition department at Interlochen Arts Academy and an artistic residency at Western Illinois University.

In the 2023 season, Newphonia participated in a residency with Louisiana State University composers, culminating in the micro-opera performance Operability, conducted by Gabriela Gomez Estevez. In April 2024, Newphonia released their debut album A Crowd of Stars, and on November 15, the ensemble released Steven Naylor’s Weltlandschaft. 

Newphonia's album release show

Art by Cody Shank