Members
The people behind First Flush and Stone Chamber Collective.
Warren Wang
Co-Founder
Warren Wang (Weilun Wang) is a jazz guitar student at the Peabody Institute and co-founder of First Flush, an ongoing artistic initiative that uses ambient electronic music and traditional Chinese tea practice as a framework for meditation and contemplative listening.
He is the founder of Mang Rope, an avant-garde project now in its third year that inherits the tradition of No Wave music, shaped by Baltimore's free-improvisation scene, his jazz studies at Peabody, and lyrics written mostly in Mandarin. Mang Rope has released two albums, an EP, and a single, performing widely across Baltimore and DC, from art events and live houses to Peabody concerts and JHU programs.
Through First Flush, Warren explores how music can support mental well-being, emotional restoration, and community connection.
Joyce Liang
Co-Founder
Joyce Liang (b. 1997) is a curator based in Baltimore, MD. A graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art with a BFA in Art History, she currently serves as Creative Programs Director at AREA 405, a program of the nonprofit Central Baltimore Partnership.
She co-founded two artist collectives, Cliff Banquet and Stone Chamber, and brings five years of experience in arts nonprofits and startup operations. Her curatorial practice is rooted in her care for the Chinese queer diasporic community and its presence in rave culture — the throughline that connects her programming at AREA 405 to First Flush.
Steven Cheng
Manager
Steven Cheng is First Flush's production manager and a music technology engineer specializing in recording, audio production, and digital signal processing, completing a Bachelor of Music in Recording Arts & Sciences with a double major in Computer Music at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
As an Audio Production & Venue Operations intern with the Central Baltimore Partnership, he designed and operated PA systems and live sound for AREA 405, and coordinated First Flush's event planning, artist logistics, and production. He is also a recording and mixing engineer for the band Rope, and has worked as a student lead recording engineer at Peabody across classical, jazz, and rock sessions on analog consoles including the Neve 88RS and Lawo.
Melody Long
Administrator
Melody Long is a Chinese composer, pianist, and music scholar pursuing a double major in Composition and Music Education, with a minor in Musicology, at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University.
Her artistic practice centers on contemporary classical composition informed by Chinese musical traditions and aesthetics, alongside musicological research into cross-cultural music education and the ways cultural context shapes musical understanding.
An original member of First Flush, Melody explores how artistic practice can foster attention, connection, and well-being, and is a dedicated practitioner of Chinese tea culture — treating tea as both a cultural tradition and an artistic medium for listening and reflection.
Freesia Zhuang
Graphic Designer
Freesia Zhuang is a Baltimore-based visual artist and freelance illustrator, characterized by a meticulous approach to spatial composition and dreamy, surreal narratives rendered in a vintage aesthetic.
Working primarily in digital mediums, she develops cohesive illustration series that balance structural rigor with imaginative storytelling. Her commercial practice spans editorial illustration, book publishing, premium brand packaging, and visual concept development, alongside self-publishing and independent art festivals.
Joy Li
Graphic Designer
Joy Li (b. 1999, Gansu, China) received her BFA in Interdisciplinary Sculpture with a minor in Theater from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2021, and her MFA in Sculpture from the Yale School of Art in 2026.
Her practice spans sculpture, installation, performance, and video, reinterpreting the relationship between objects and the body to reveal how the material world manifests human desire — inviting viewers to re-experience familiar things in unfamiliar ways.
Li is the recipient of the Schickle-Collingwood Prize from the Yale School of Art and the 2024–2025 Porsche Young Chinese Artist of the Year Award.
Thomas Gao
Artist — KLIX
Thomas Gao is a composer, sound designer, and interdisciplinary artist who creates music using Eurorack and analog synthesizers. Beyond his studio practice, he performs as a DJ under the alias KLIX, a self-dubbed unscripted, wild selector.
He is passionate about weaving DJ culture with broader artistic and cultural narratives, spinning a wide spectrum of sounds rooted primarily in electronic music. His work explores the space between East Asian culture, nature, and immersive soundscapes, drawing on the Daoist philosophy of wu wei — a dynamic balance between stillness and motion — to craft meditative, deep-listening experiences.
Zoe Lyu
Artist
Zoe Lyu (Yizhen Lyu) is a composer, sound artist, and performer born in China and currently based in Baltimore. Her creative practice spans instrumental composition, electronic music, and sound art, exploring the relationships between sound, space, religion, and bodily movement.
With a background in contemporary chamber composition, Yizhen actively explores new possibilities in multimedia art and performance through interdisciplinary and cross-regional collaborations. Her practice draws on Max/MSP, Jitter, TouchDesigner, and field recording to build immersive, interactive sound environments. Her work has been premiered and performed in Sansepolcro, London, New York, and Baltimore, and she recently completed a free-improvisation tour across several cities in China.
Blending Eastern aesthetics with contemporary sonic expression, Yizhen's music is marked by both delicacy and intensity — balancing structural clarity with rich texture to construct emotional and spatial resonance through sound and performance.