CAYA FELLOWSHIP COHORT 2026
The CAYA Fellowship offers a paid opportunity for three composers and three choreographers to develop and premiere micro performances in collaboration with Owen Cox Dance Group and The Coterie Theater. Fellows will work closely with professional mentors, producers, and musicians in an immersive, creative environment.
ósq Trujillo - Choreographer - any pronouns
Óscar Trujillo currently makes movement work in Kansas City, has been a Charlotte Street resident artist, and performs with Joe Goode Performance Group in San Francisco. ósq is an embodiment practitioner whose practice bridges somatic education, the expressive arts, bodywork and intuitive energy reading.
Jennifer Ortiz Valverde - Composer - she/they
Jennifer Ortiz Valverde is an Ecuadorian-American composer based in Boston. She writes music and stories inspired by her heritage, personal experiences, psychology, and imaginative worlds, utilizing a unique harmonic palette and a big imagination. Through these colorful narratives, she aspires to evoke profound emotions from the audience and performers and inspire others to tell stories through art.
Reina Inomata Gray - Choreographer - she/her
Reina Inomata Gray is a Japanese and American dancer and choreographer from Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance and a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies magna cum laude. She is currently based and working in Tokyo, Japan, as a contemporary dancer with Company Un Yamada.
As a choreographer, she approaches her work with curiosity and a light-hearted sensibility coupled with a desire for physical dynamism and creativity of movement. She has performed and presented choreography at Modern Night at the Folly/Gem as well as Art in the Loop.
Additionally, her choreography has been awarded at Solocoreografico US (Oklahoma) and Kyushu International Dance Competition (Fukuoka, Japan). Reina was also a recipient of the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation’s Reet Griffin Underwood Memorial Scholarship, supporting Kansas City youth studying art in university.
Ty Bloomfield - Composer- he/him
Ty Bloomfield (b. 2000) is a multimedia composer, educator, and curator originally from Chicago, IL. Recognized for his “unpredictable” (Third Coast Review) music, his work engages audiences in immersive experiences with intimate, yet electric soundscapes while exploring themes of memory, contemporary art, the inner and outer self, and group dynamics.
Past collaborators include artists such as the JACK Quartet, One Found Sound, The Rhythm Method, the KAIA String Quartet, Unheard-Of//Ensemble, PART, the Cincinnati Song Initiative, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, Inc, New Music Chicago, and clarinetist Berginald Rash, among many others. His works have been presented internationally at festivals and venues, including the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the Ear Taxi Composer Festival, Avaloch Farm Music Institute, the Dublin International Chamber Music Festival, and the the International Clarinet Association New Music Weekend.
He is the recipient of a Harvard University Fromm Foundation Fellowship, the Karen Slack Prize, a two-time ASCAP Morton Gould Award finalist, a 2024-2025 NATS Mentorship Program for Composers fellow, and a 2022-2023 JACK Studio fellow. Festival participations include CCI, the Composers Conference, Lake George Music Festival, and the Suncoast Composer Fellowship Program. Upcoming and recent engagements include new commissions by Matt Albert, the George Shirley Vocal Competition, and the Ear Taxi New Music Festival; performances with Hypercube, and Unheard-Of//Ensemble; and will participate in an American Composers Orchestra Earshot Reading in 2026.
Since August 2025, Bloomfield has served as a lecturer at Eastern Michigan University where he teaches undergraduate music theory and aural skills. He has also taught composition at the Ypsilanti Youth Orchestra, New Music New Communities, Music Creators Academic, and the Community School for the Arts. As a curator, he will produce numerous concerts in the southeastern Michigan area over the 2025-2026 season between his new music collective, Syntax, and as the coordinator for New Art//New Music, a yearly concert which draws attention to the work of the Prison Creative Arts Project. This year he will produce seven concerts which will include ten world premieres by composers across the USA to be premiered by Syntax, FLYDLPHN, and The Myriad Project.
He holds his M.M. from the University of Michigan as the recipient of the Dorothy Greenwald Fellowship where he studied with Bright Sheng and Michael Daugherty.
Haley Kostas - Choreographer - she/her
An American choreographer, dance artist, and future mental health counselor from Kansas City, Missouri. She attended the University of Missouri–Kansas City (UMKC) Conservatory of Music and Dance and trained abroad at The London Contemporary Dance School.
Kostas’ choreographic works have been commissioned and presented by Kansas City Ballet, UMKC Dance Conservatory, Charlotte Street Foundation, 21c Museum Hotel, Creative Intersections x Owen/Cox Dance Group, MashUp Dance Company, tbd Dance Collective, Laguna Dance Festival, and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art for Niki de Saint Phalle: Rebellion and Joy.
A past artist-in-residence at both Charlotte Street Foundation and Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Kostas was recently selected for UNCSA’s 2025 Choreographic Institute and Art Omi’s 2025 Dance Residency.
Her extensive training includes national programs such as Sidra Bell’s Module at the Center for Performance Research, Peter Chu’s Chuthis Movement Intensive, Springboard Danse Montréal, and the Gaga Intensive at USC Kaufman School of Dance. Internationally, she has trained with Punchdrunk, Hofesh Shechter Company at Sadler’s Wells, and Akram Khan at Orsolina 28 in Italy.
Kostas is a recipient of ArtsKC’s Inspiration Grant for her film Conversation Between Bodies, which premiered at MdW Fair at MANA Contemporary (Chicago, 2022). She also received a Rocket Grant, funded by the Andy Warhol Foundation, for RubiX—a collaborative performance merging music, movement, and visual art—which led to a 2019 residency at 21c Museum Hotel Kansas City. In 2024, she was awarded Charlotte Street Foundation’s Generative Performing Artist Award Fellowship and nominated for the United States Artist Fellowship.
She has collaborated with internationally recognized choreographers on large-scale productions, including works for The Juilliard School and the television series So You Think You Can Dance. As a performer, she has danced in works by Aszure Barton, Peter Chu, Justin Giles, Marguerite Derricks (Nip/Tuck), Jaci Royal (Royal Flux), Andrew Winghart, and Odyssey Dance Theater. Her collaborations span commercial and music projects with artists such as Quiet Takes, Katy Perry, Capital Cities, Flight of the Conchords, and Britney Spears. Kostas also choreographed for the feature film DanceOff and has been a conversation-starting contributor writing to {DIYdancer} Magazine, Dance/USA eJournal, and Dance Spirit Magazine.
As an educator, she has taught nationally and internationally for organizations such as Harbour Dance Centre, EDGE Performing Arts Center, SoulEscape, The Place (London), Youth America Grand Prix, University of Kansas, Wylliams/Henry Contemporary Dance Company, and SALT2 Contemporary Dance. She has served as an Adjunct Professor at UMKC’s Dance Conservatory, a Guest Lecturer at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, and an Instructor and Guest Choreographer with Kansas City Ballet since 2014.
Kostas also studied psychology at the University of Kansas, expanding her research into the intersection of movement and mental health. She continues to build KOSTAS, her movement creation company and dynamic organization that supports the evolving needs of artists and audiences. Most recently, Kostas performed at In The Lowest Ferns in collaboration with Infinite Frequencies.
Her latest choreographic work, Vignettes, was created during her 2025 residency at Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts and premiered with tbd Dance Collective’s Here/Then/Now at Joslyn Art Museum.
John Zhu - Composer - he/him
John Zhu is a dedicated composer, pianist. He has studied composition with several internationally renowned, award-winning composers, including Dr. Zhou Long (Pulitzer Prize winner), Dr. Chen Yi (Pulitzer and Grammy nominee), Dr. Paul Rudy (Rome Prize), and Dr. Yotam Haber (Rome Prize).
In addition to his composition studies, John has an extensive background in piano performance. He has trained with acclaimed pianists such as Dr. Thomas Rosenkranz, Dr. Jeffrey Savage, Dr. Sean Chen (Cliburn Third Prize), Dr. Paul Wirth (founder of the Wirth Center for Performing Arts), and Ms. Mary Moran (Taubman Approach specialist, co-founder of the Golandsky Institute). John has also studied voice under tenor Joseph Richard and percussion under Martin Mendez Higuera. One of the extensive experiences including organizing one concert figuring all UMKC composition faculties’ work.
John has collaborated with prestigious contemporary ensembles including Del Sol Quartet and F-PLUS Trio. As a performer, he has appeared with the UMKC Orchestra (under Dr. Kevin Noe), UMKC Wind Ensemble (under Dr. Joe Parisi), UMKC Chamber Singers, University of Northwestern Orchestra, and Con Brio Chorus. John has premiered a concerto with the Kansas City Sinfonietta, collaborating with conductor and composer Nicholas Perry Clark for his new work. He has performed in renown venue including The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
John has organized and led several major research and performance initiatives. He led the Nexus Collaboration Project, which brought together artists, jewelry, biologists, soundscape, electronics, and computer scientists in three interdisciplinary performances from 2024-2026. This project was supported by a UMKC Nexus Conservatory Grant. In addition, he directed the summer research program A Deep Research on Multicultural Percussion, Composition, and Music, supported by Professor Terry Sweeney from Sandbox Percussion, funded by the SUROP Summer Grant and the UMKC Conservatory’s Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging initiative and Dean’s Opportunity Fund. His work has also been recognized with numerous scholarships and awards. During his time at the University of Missouri–Kansas City, John organized and directed ensembles and performances, managing projects with budgets of more than $6,000.
John is also an annual recipient of the UMKC Conservatory Scholarship and has been named to the UMKC Conservatory Dean’s List for academic excellence, nominated Presser Award by UMKC Composition Board, selected to be Undergraduate Research Fellow transcript designation for advance in research. He won first prize in the 2025 UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competition and the 2017 Seventh Hong Kong International Piano Invitation Competition in Guangzhou.
During his time at UMKC, John worked closely with Professor Joseph Genualdi and his violin studio, composing new works specifically for violinists. He also gained extensive experience collaborating with the UMKC Dance Division, creating original music for interdisciplinary performances annually.