"John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 - August 12, 1992) was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher, and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.

Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challenge to assumed definitions about musicianship and musical experience made it a popular and controversial topic both in musicology and the broader aesthetics of art and performance. Cage was also a pioneer of the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by objects placed between or on its strings or hammers), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces. The best known of these is Sonatas and Interludes (1946-48).

His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933-35), both known for their radical innovations in music, but Cage's major influences lay in various East and South Asian cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of aleatoric or chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life - not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living"."

"Joanna Becker began her violin studies at the age of three. She was fortunate to have as models her grandmother, a violinist and teacher, as well as parents who are professional musicians. Her early training included studies with Albert Markov at the Manhattan School of Music, and she received her Bachelor's Degree in Music with distinction in the major at Yale University, where she studied violin with Kyung Yu. She completed a year-long Suzuki teacher training course at the School for Strings in Manhattan, and also studied musicology at Hunter College of the City University of New York. Joanna recently completed her Master's Degree in Violin Performance at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University, where she was a student of Sergiu Luca and Ken Goldsmith and served as concertmaster of the Shepherd School Chamber Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra.

Joanna has been a member of the violin faculty at the Neighborhood Music School and of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra. In 2011-12 she was selected as a Young Artist by Da Camera of Houston. An avid chamber musician and recitalist, she has a particular interest in stylistic performances of Classic and Baroque repertoire as well as contemporary chamber music. Recent international performances include recitals at the International Holland Music Sessions, and a concerto appearance with the National Symphony of Quito, Ecuador. She currently resides in Houston."