Mark Hijleh

Global Musicianship team leader and author Mark Hijleh has taught music at the university level for nearly three decades. Currently Provost, Vice President for Academic Affairs, and Professor of Music at Montreat College in North Carolina, he holds the MA in World Music with distinction from the University of Sheffield; the DMA in Composition from Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University; the MM in Composition and Conducting from Ithaca College, and the BS in Music with Honors from William Jewell College. Hijleh has spoken and written about world music theory and history though the College Music Society, Analytical Approaches to World Music, the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, and the Society for Ethnomusicology. He also studied shakuhachi with Ronnie Nyogetsu Reishin Seldin and Black Music with Dominique Rene De Lerma. Hijleh is author of Towards a Global Music Theory: Practical Concepts and Methods for the Analysis of Music Across Human Cultures, and Towards a Global Music History: Intercultural Convergence, Fusion, and Transformation in the Human Musical Story, both from Routledge.

Hannah S.H. LeGrand

Hannah LeGrand is an actively performing classical violinist and educator, based in New York City. She received her Bachelor's Degree in Violin Performance from the Greatbatch School of Music.

Hannah has had the opportunity to perform at venues and festivals like Carnegie Hall, the Kodak Center for Performing Arts, the Music and Gaming Festival, and among others. In 2022, she was an artist-in-residence at ArtsDistrict Brooklyn for the Limitless AI installation. She has toured three times with The Sorrow Estate, now GIRL LOVE, as a violinist, vocalist, and bassist. She has also toured with the NYChillharmonic, and has recorded on two studio recordings with the 8-Bit Big Band.

In 2021, Hannah self-published a pedagogical text, “Understanding the Fingerboard: An Anthology of Exercises for the Beginner Violinist.”

She is currently the lead vocalist, co-writer, and co-composer for the project, "food court people," as well as the violinist for "Trio LeGrand," a non-traditional string trio consisting of violin, cello, and guitar.

Marc LeGrand

Nicaraguan-American Marc Anthony LeGrand is a New York City-based guitarist, composer, and producer whose work and collaborations blur the lines of composed and improvised music. His natural talent and quick comfort with the guitar led to studies in theory and harmony under classical guitarist Mark Aitkin as well as during his summer studies at Stanford University’s Jazz Institute program—fostering his improvisational and compositional skills. By 16, LeGrand made his recording debut as a sideman and contributing composer with the Latin Jazz Youth Ensemble of San Francisco.

As a teenager, he received soloist awards and attention at prestigious venues and festivals, exploring elements of Jazz, Latin, and Afro-Cuban music with his aunt, Patricia Thúmas, a Latin jazz composer-pianist prodigy; his mentor, Dr. John Calloway, a multi-GRAMMY nominated flautist-composer; and his uncle, Chepito Areas, a Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

He holds a Bachelor’s of Music in Guitar Performance from the Greatbatch School of Music, studying on scholarship with classical guitar master Dr. Anton Machleder.