in^set is a flexible chamber ensemble dedicated to creation, improvisation and experimentation. Founded in 2018 by David Aguila (trumpet), Teresa Díaz de Cossio (flute), and Ilana Waniuk (violin), in^set is committed to commissioning and performing existing compositions which extends our respective instrumental practices beyond the confines of contemporary classical music. Collaboration is a foundational part of our creative practice. We seek to explore the sonic and visual possibilities of everyday objects, digital and analog visual components and hacked electronics. As advocates for music of the present, we aim to foster artistic partnerships and alternative modes of concert presentation. Our activities include outreach workshops and performances geared towards sharing our passion for expanded methods of sound production. In 2023, in^set were recipients of the University of California San Diego Arts and Community Engagement Fellowship in partnership with MOAASER a free non-profit online music academy that provides annual workshops and courses on contemporary music for Persian-speaking students, in^set performed a concert of MOAASER student works as part of Neofonía, Festival de Música Nueva, Ensenada. in^set has performed on concert stages across the U.S., Mexico and Iceland and were featured guest performers as part of Line Upon Line Percussion’s Winter Composer Festival (Austin TX Jan 2024) and the California Festival (Project [Blank], November 2023). Most recently, in^set were visiting guest artists at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (April, 2025) and collaborated with composer Nathan Haering and visual artist Mingyong Cheng as performers in Sonoluminescence, part of UC San Diego's IDEAS festival (May, 2025).

Photo credit: Robbie Bui

Photo Credit: Josue Castro

Teresa Díaz de Cossío is a flutist, improviser, and teacher. American born of Mexican descent, and as a young adult, she taught flute lessons in China. Teresa studied at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, San Diego State University, and Purchase College in New York. From the beginning of her musical endeavors, she was inclined to reach out for meaningful engagements with communities through her creative practice.

As a musician, Teresa has participated in concerts with Plácido Domingo, the Carnegie Hall-affiliated Decoda ensemble, and Los Tigres del Norte.  As a recipient of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México’s Resiliencia Sonora: Intérpretes fellowship, Teresa will be recording works of Mexican composers.

 

Among her current interests, Teresa is investigating the life and work of Mexican female composers from the 20th century, with a particular focus on Alida Vázquez Ayala. In addition to being a DMA student in performance at UC San Diego, Teresa is currently employed at Universidad Autónoma de Baja California, Ensenada. There she teaches flute in the pre-college and college programs and coordinates the Festival de Música Nueva, Ensenada. This festival seeks to foster relationships between audiences, musicians and other performers from various cultural spheres and communities across the border.

Ilana Waniuk is a versatile violinist with interests ranging from improvisation to visual arts. Along with pianist Cheryl Duvall, Ilana is a founding member and co-artistic director of Tkarón:to (Toronto) - based contemporary music ensemble Thin Edge New Music Collective,  and Balancing on the Edge (multidisciplinary production company merging contemporary music and circus arts).  TENMC is committed to expanding the boundaries of new music, while seeking to dismantle barriers facing equity-seeking populations within the contemporary music community in Canada.  Since its inception in 2011, TENMC has commissioned over 80 chamber works, and was recently awarded the 2020 Canadian League of Composers/Canadian Music Centre Friends of Canadian Music award. Ilana has toured Cape Breton and Ontario with the Bicycle Opera Project, and performed on concert stages across Canada, Italy, Argentina, Poland, Japan, Germany and Greece. She is also the curator/performer behind ‘Filaments’, an evolving concert program dedicated to collaboratively creating and commissioning works for violin, electronics and multimedia, made possible with generous support from the SOCAN Foundation, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Canadian Music Centre. Ilana divides her time between Tkarónto and La Jolla where she is a doctoral candidate in contemporary performance at the University of California San Diego.


David Aguila is a performer and composer currently based in San Diego, California where he is pursuing a Doctorate in Music in Trumpet Performance from the University of California San Diego. Aguila’s multifaceted practice focuses on trumpet, electronics and music production; working in the fields of contemporary, experimental, electro-acoustic and improvised music. His current research is focused on parametric and gestural notations, sound projection practices and alternative methods to trumpet pedagogy. Aguila’s primary trumpet teachers have been Ruth Still, James Thompson, Ed Carroll, and Stephanie Richards and has studied composition with Vinny Golia and Sara Roberts.

Aguila received his Bachelor’s degree (2013) in Trumpet Performance at the Eastman School of Music. In 2011 David was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, during the segment Aguila solved the Rubik's Cube with one hand while playing Haydn's Trumpet Concerto.He received an MFA from CalArts (2015), Aguila studies focused on contemporary trumpet and on spatial and electroacoustic composition. Aguila has been a participant at The Center for Advanced Music Studies at Chosen Vale (2014 & 2018), Stockhausen Courses and Concerts; Sound Projectionist (2017) and Trumpet (2019), Ensemble MusikFabrik Brass Academy (2019) and the Darmstadt Ferienkurse (2021). He has worked with Marco Blaauw, Clément Saunier, Christine Chapman, Bruce Collings, Melvyn Poore, Kathinka Pasveer, Isabel Mundry and George Lewis.