Luke Villavicencio is a new music researcher, composer, performer, and teacher based out of Long Island, New York. He began studying guitar privately at the age of 7, studying with Long Island based folk musician, Courtney Gerard Fleming, and then eventually James Piorkowski of the Buffalo Guitar Quartet. Luke began composing in high school in his free time, later writing a short piece for his senior year concert band titled “Journey of the Sword.” He went on to study composition with Dr. Rob Deemer, Dr Andrew Martin Smith, and Dr. Caroline Mallonee at SUNY Fredonia. 

Luke has also gone on to research theories of microtonality in order to develop his own. His debut research paper on microtonal places was published in Salzburg, Austria at the 2023 Small is Beautiful Symposium held by the International Ekmelic Music Society.