Tamara Smolyar, born in Kiev, began her formal piano lessons at the age of four, gave her first public performance at seven and enjoyed a glittering early career in the Soviet Union. From 1994 to 2018 she was a Senior Lecturer in Music Performance, Coordinator of Piano, at the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University, Melbourne. She is currently a member of the piano staff at the Australian Guild of Music, Mentone Girls Grammar School and the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, University of Melbourne.

Livia Teodorescu-Ciocanea, born in Galati, eastern Romania, in 1959, studied piano at the Porumbescu Conservatoire (now the National University of Music) in Bucharest in 1977 and graduated in 1981 with a Bachelor degree in Composition. In 1995 she was appointed assistant professor at the National University of Music in Bucharest, teaching form and analysis and orchestration. In 1997 she became a lecturer, and between 2004 and 2015 she worked as an Associate Professor in composition, form and analysis. In 2015 she was appointed Professor of Composition at the same institution.