LJ Pemberton is a writer, marketing, and arts professional whose career has ranged across a variety of sectors and organizations in academia, business, and theatre. Most recently she was the Marketing and Patron Relations Manager at Kirkland Fine Arts Center and an instructor in arts administration at Millikin University. 

She is also the author of Still Alive, which was longlisted for the 2025 Dublin Literary Award. Unique among literary prizes, this award honors a single work of international fiction, whether originally written in English or translated into it, from nominees selected by libraries from across the globe. It remains one of the largest awards for a single work of fiction, with a generous prize of €100,000. Still Alive was nominated by the D.C. Public Library System after being shortlisted alongside works by Michiko Aoyama, Colm Tóibín, Kelly Link, and others. 

Her essays, poetry, and award-winning stories have been featured in The Baffler, Exacting Clam, Northwest Review, the Brooklyn Rail, and elsewhere. Her story, Husbandry, was the 2018 winner of the Los Angeles Review Short Fiction Contest. She holds a BA from Reed College and an MFA from Columbia University, where she studied under Erroll McDonald, Jonathan Dee, Nicholas Christopher, Richard Howard, James Wood, Richard Locke, Alan Ziegler, and Bruce Robbins. Decatur, Illinois is her chosen home.

New York City-based soprano Hannah Madeleine Goodman is an emerging artist on the operatic stage, hailed for her “very adept coloratura” (Parterre) and her “exquisite dynamics” (Voce di Meche). Her 2022-2023 season includes her Portland Opera (The Woman in Beatrice, world premiere), Philadelphia Orchestra, and Lincoln Center debuts, and role debuts as Sophie in Werther (Barn Opera) and Papagena / Second Lady in The Magic Flute (Salt Marsh Opera). She has performed with the Los Angeles Opera, Portland Opera, Opera Saratoga, Hawaii Performing Arts Festival, Hollywood Fringe Festival, and on Glee. Ms. Goodman has toured opera outreach productions for the Los Angeles Opera, Portland Opera, Opera Saratoga, and Salt Marsh Opera, and has been a Young Artist at the iSING! International Young Artists Festival in China. She has sung with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Bangor Symphony Orchestra, and Suzhou Symphony Orchestra. Also commended for her earnest storytelling in musical theatre, Ms. Goodman specializes in the repertoire and history of the Great American Songbook, having arranged and performed cabarets in both Los Angeles and New York City. She is an alumna of LA's Next Great Stage Star, where BroadwayWorld praised her performance as “beautiful … [one] of the highlights.”

An in-demand educator, Ms. Goodman is a Master Teaching Artist for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, and a Teaching Artist for the Los Angeles Opera and the Little Orchestra Society. She has taught residencies in schools throughout New York City Public Schools and Los Angeles Unified School District, designed educational programming for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, Los Angeles Opera, and Opera Saratoga, and remotely instructed in classrooms across the country, as well as presenting at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies’ 2022 Mid-Atlantic Teaching Artist Virtual Retreat. She is a proud member of AGMA, Actors’ Equity, and SAG-AFTRA, and an alumna of the University of Southern California, receiving her Bachelor of Music in Vocal Arts from the Thornton School of Music and her Graduate Certificate in Entertainment Law & Industry from the Gould School of Law.

Benjamin Hawkinson is Director of Choral Activities and Assistant Professor of Music at Millikin University. There he conducts numerous ensembles including the University Choir Millikin’s flagship touring ensemble, and Millikin's premiere vocal jazz ensemble OneVoice. Additional teaching responsibilities includes courses in Conducting and Choral Techniques. Ensembles under his direction have toured throughout the region with OneVoice recently being invited to perform at the 2022 Jazz Educators Network in Dallas, TX and the Illinois Music Educator’s Convention in January of 2023.

Dr. Hawkinson is in demand as a conductor, clinician, and presenter with recent credits including Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms with the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra, numerous honor choirs in both traditional choir and vocal jazz areas and presenting lectures at conferences and universities that focus on music educator mental health entitled "Beating the Burnout: Time Management for Teachers". Dr. Hawkinson is Director of Music at Central Christian Church in Decatur, IL.

Dr. Hawkinson holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting from Texas Tech University, a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from Westminster Choir College, and a Bachelor in Vocal Music Education from Northern Arizona University. His mentors include Richard Bjella, Joe Miller, Edith Copley and Ryan Holder.

Brian Justison is Professor of Music and Director of the School of Music at Millikin University. His students include winners of the MTNA National Solo Percussion Competition, the Percussive Arts Society International Percussion Ensemble Competition and two Downbeat Awards. His performance credits include the Illinois Symphony and Chamber Orchestras, Canadian Brass, and the Brass of Illinois. He has also performed with a variety of leading jazz, Latin, and pop artists and is currently the drummer for the Millikin Faculty Jazz Ensemble. Mr. Justison is active as an adjudicator and clinician throughout the region with appearances at the United States Percussion Camp, the Midwest Percussion Camp, the IMEA/MENC All State Festival, and the Percussive Arts Society Illinois Day of Percussion. 

Conductor and violist William James McClain is Music Director and Conductor of the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra and the Millikin Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared in major venues across the United States and abroad including Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Hall, and the Sheremetev Palace in Saint Petersburg Russia. In the spring of 2006, he conducted Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite with the Macon Symphony Orchestra in Georgia as the 2005 winner of the International Conductors Workshop and Festival Competition. He has conducted professional, community, and talented youth orchestras for over twenty years and continues to be passionate about the education of the next generation of musicians.

As a violist he has recorded with the Augusta Symphony Orchestra and the Adriane String Quartet (faculty string quartet at Ithaca College), and maintains an active solo and chamber music recital schedule most recently presenting a solo recital for the 2021/22 Keiser Concert Series at the prestigious St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. He is currently a member of the Augusta Symphony Orchestra and the Savannah Philharmonic Orchestra in Georgia.

Dr. McClain has been a sought-after string teacher and adjudicator in Illinois, Georgia, Michigan, New York, Texas, Washington D.C., and California both as a guest conductor and serving as an adjudicator for numerous competitions, workshops, and festivals. He is the former Strings Coordinator and Director of Orchestras at Georgia College and State University and has taught viola and violin at Huston Tillotson College as an adjunct faculty member and at Mercer University as a guest artist.

A native of Washington D.C., he is currently an Associate Professor of Music at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. Dr. McClain received degrees in orchestral conducting and viola performance from The University of Maryland at College Park, Ithaca College, and The University of Texas at Austin.