Avian Music - Composers


Avian Music:New American Music
Home Ensemble Info Upcoming Events Past Events Music Samples Video Clips Avian Store Contact Info Links EMAIL: info at avianmusic dot com Last updated 3/25/08 © 2002-2008 by Avian Music LLC	Upcoming Composer Info: Bret Battey Senior Lecturer Music Technology and Innovation Research Centre De Montfort University Leicester, UK EDUCATION Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA), Music Composition University of Washington School of Music, 2001. Masters of Music, Music Composition University of Washington School of Music, 1997. Bachelors of Music, Electronic and Computer Music Oberlin Conservatory, 1990. SELECTED ENCOURAGEMENTS "Breaking Out of the Frame" Special Jury Prize, Amsterdam Film eXperience, Mercurius, 2007 First Prize, Abstracta Cinema, Rome, Mercurius, 2007 First Prize, Punto y Raya Festival, Madrid, Mercurius, 2007 Mention, Bourges Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique, France, Writing on the Surface, 2003 MacDowell Colony Residency, Jun-Aug, 2003 Fulbright Fellowship to India, 2001-2002 Studied Hindustani classical music and creating software for modeling of ornaments and pitch curves in the melodic tradition. The Bat Report: A Fulbrighted Bat in India provides journal excerpts, sounds, and images from this year-long adventure. Selected Work (finalist), Bourges Concours International de Musique Electroacoustique, France, On the Presence of Water, 2000 Finalist, SEAMUS/ASCAP Student Commission Award, 1998 and 2000 Chester William Fritz Scholarship, University of Washington, 1999-2000 Honorable Mention, Prix Ars Electronica, Austria, On the Presence of Water, 1998 Bronze Award, Wilmer Shields Rich Award for Excellence in Non-Profit Communications, for The Casey Family Program web site, 1998 Davis and Brechemin Fellowships, University of Washington, 1996-97 & 1997-98 Project Grant, 911 Media Arts Center, Seattle, 1993 SOME AREAS OF INTEREST Image and sound integration Real-time, interactive, algorithmic music systems Computer-assisted algorithmic music composition (non real-time) Complexity arising out of simplicity: feedback and chaos "Synthesis" as a technological, artistic, and spiritual paradigm Vipassana meditation World musics, esp. Indian classical music EMPLOYMENT HIGHLIGHTS 2004-current: Senior Lecturer with the Music, Technology, and Innovation Research Centre, De Montfort University, Leicester, UK. 2002-2004: Research Associate with the Center for Digital Arts and Experimental Media, University of Washington 1999-2001: Teaching Assistant in computer music at the University of Washington School of Music 1995-1999: Web Master at the Headquarters of The Casey Family Program, a private, non-profit, long-term foster care agency. Primarily responsible for development of internal and external web-based communications systems -- Seattle, Washington] 1993-1995: Information Analyst for The Casey Family Program 1991-1993: Administrative Assistant for The Casey Family Program 1985-1989: Graphic Designer for Oberlin College Graphics Services [Oberlin, Ohio] 1990: Computer Aided Designer for Oberlin College Department of Ground and Land Planning 1989: Assistant Recording Engineer for Euphorbia Productions/The Living Room (the Philip Glass production studio) [New York, New York] 1989: Assistant Recording Engineer & Arts Administration Assistant for Harvestworks/Public Access Synthesizer Studio (a.k.a. Studio P.A.S.S., a non-profit studio for sound artists) [New York, New York] http://www.mti.dmu.ac.uk/~bbattey/ Ben Dorfan Ben Dorfan (b. 1987), a native of Santa Cruz, California, began studying music theory, composition and mathematics at UC Santa Cruz while still in high school. After a brief stint at Cornell University, he transferred to Oberlin Conservatory, where he is pursuing a double major in composition and TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts). At Oberlin he has studied with Lewis Nielson, Tom Lopez, Peter Swendsen, Gary Lee Nelson, Derek Keller, Amelia Kaplan and Ross Feller. In addition to his music studies, he is a T.A. for music technology classes and classical director of WOBC 91.5 FM (Oberlin College and Community Radio). Ben has worked extensively with multi-channel audio; he has composed several 8-channel fixed media works, and created an instrument for improvisation in an 8-channel environment that interfaces with a JazzMutant Lemur control surface. Ben’s work has become increasingly focused on exploring the relationship between natural spaces and humans; he is currently working on a series of multimedia compositions drawing inspiration and source material from natural environments in northern Ohio. In 2008, Ben is presenting his work at the Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts in Minneapolis, MN and the SEAMUS National Conference in Salt Lake City, UT. Previously, he has attended California Summer Music, the Workshop in Algorithmic Computer Music at UC Santa Cruz and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute. In his spare time, Ben enjoys bicycling, cooking, hiking, and cloud watching. www.bendorfan.com Peter Flint Peter Flint was born in Delaware and currently resides in New York City, composing music for all sizes and shapes of ensembles. He received a B.A./B.Mus. in History and Electronic Music from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music where he studied with Conrad Cummings, and his M.Mus. from New England Conservatory where he studied with Michael Gandolfi, Lee Hyla, and Scott Wheeler. Recent works include The International Lover, songs of love, lust, sex, and jealousy; Migratory Routes for mixed chamber ensemble, Dance Dance Dance, a string quartet which won the New England Conservatory Honors Quartet Composition Prize and was premiered in March 2001 by the Delaware Symphony String Quartet; as well as a short orchestra piece, entitled Eroding the Helix, which was premiered by the Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble in New York in February 2003. In the past he has written music for numerous theatrical productions in New York City and the mid-Atlantic region. Notable among them are Twelfth Night, As You Like It, Macbeth, Sylvia, A Moon for the Misbegotten, The Baltimore Waltz, The Skin of our Teeth, Molly Sweeny, The Winters Tale, Taking Steps, and One Flea Spare at such venues as the 78th Street Theater Lab, the Jean Cocteau Repertory Theater, the Juilliard School Drama Division, and the Delaware and Philadelphia Theatre Companies. In addition he has worked with Hyperspace Cowgirls, a now-defunct multimedia company creating software edutainment for children. Notable projects with them included Magic Wardrobe and Paint N’Play Pony which were published by IBM/Crayola and received numerous accolades. He founded Avian Music with the goal of providing opportunities for emerging composers side by side with more established composers in a series of themed concerts in New York and beyond. Avian Music is dedicated to building bridges between audiences, performers, and various musical styles and media. Upcoming projects include performances in November 2003 of Migratory Routes by Dinosaur Annex, Boston's acclaimed new music group with choreography by Nicola Hawkins Dancers; the release of his Migratory Routes CD; and a performance of Dance Dance Dance by the Serafin String Quartet in March 2004 at Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. www.peterflint.com Michael Gandolfi Michael Gandolfi’s earliest musical involvement was in rock and jazz improvisation beginning at age eight as a self-taught guitarist. As his improvisational skills developed he became increasingly interested in music composition and began formal study in his early teens. He received the B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music, as well as fellowships for study at the Yale Summer School of Music and Art, the Composers Conference, and the Tanglewood Music Center. Mr. Gandolfi is the recipient of numerous awards including grants from the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Massachusetts Cultural Council. His music has been performed by many leading ensembles including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. Recent highlights include 'Impressions from "The Garden of Cosmic Speculation",' which was premiered in August 2004 by Robert Spano and the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra and was subsequently performed by the Boston Symphony Orchestra under the direction of David Zinman. This season it will be performed by the Oberlin Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Bridget-Michaele Reischl. In the 2006/2007 season, it will be performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra and the New World Symphony under the direction of Robert Spano. Selections from the piece were used in Nigel Wattis' documentary film on Charles Jencks' Garden. Last summer Mr. Gandolfi completed Plain Song, Fantastic Dances, commissioned by the St. Botolph Club, which was premiered on October 23, 2005 by the Boston Symphony Chamber Players. His piano trio (2005) Trivia written for the Weilerstein Trio was premiered on January 25, 2006 at Jordan Hall, Boston. In early 2005 Mr. Gandolfi completed his third new work for young audiences, 'the Piper's Tale,' an adaptation of 'The Pied Piper,' words by Dana Bonstrom, which was premiered by the Boston Musica Viva and Marimba Magic with Bob McGrath, narrator. In April 1999 Mr. Gandolfi’s Pinocchio’s Adventures in Funland, written for young audiences, was premiered by the New Millennium Ensemble with David Margulies, narrator at New York’s Merkin Concert Hall. It was commissioned by the Elaine Kaufman Cultural Center on a text by Dana Bonstrom. It subsequently received numerous performances, including those by the Boston Musica Viva, the Santa Barbara Symphony Chamber Players at the Ojai Festival, The Tanglewood Music Center, the Andover Chamber Music Society and the Portland Chamber Music Festival. It received its European premiere in 2000 in Portugal by the Remix Ensemble. The Concord Symphony Orchestra funded a full orchestration of the score and premiered the piece in that form, under the direction of Richard Pittman, during their 2000/2001 season. Mr. Gandolfi again worked with Dana Bonstrom for a project commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Education Division. The resulting work Gwendolyn Gets Her Wish was premiered in April 2002, and will be performed in the Los Angeles public schools as the cornerstone of a five year arts-in-education initiative. Mr. Gandolfi's Vientos y Tangos (2003) for wind ensemble, co-commissioned by a consortium of fifteen wind ensembles, in celebration of Frank Battisti’s seventieth birthday, is now published by Boosey and Hawkes as part of their Windependence Series. It has been performed worldwide and has received five recordings to date. In the summer of 2001, Mr. Gandolfi wrote music for the Shakespeare and Company's production of a Midsummer Night's Dream, under the direction of Tina Packer. A concert adaptation of that score, Themes from a Midsummer Night, was premiered at Jordan Hall in the fall of 2001. He presently holds commissions from the Michael Vyner Trust (a piano concerto), the Fromm Foundation (a saxophone concerto for Kenneth Radnovsky and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, 2007), the Weilerstein Trio, and Boston-based pianist Duncan Cumming. His music has been recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon, CRI and Innova labels. He is a faculty member of the New England Conservatory of Music and the Tanglewood Music Center. He was a visiting lecturer on music at Harvard University in 2002, and held a similar position there from 1996-1999. He is listed in the New Groves Dictionary of Music and Musicians. www.michaelgandolfi.com Tom Lopez Tom Lopez teaches at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music; Chair of the TIMARA (Technology in Music and Related Arts) Department and Associate Professor of Computer Music & Digital Arts. He is also the Director of the Computer Music Program at The Walden School. Tom has received awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Betty Freeman Foundation, the Knight Foundation, the Disney Foundation, Meet the Composer, ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers), and a Fulbright Fellowship as composer-in-residence at CIRM (Centre International de Recherche Musical) in Nice, France. He has appeared at festivals and conferences around the world as a guest lecturer and composer. Tom is on the board of directors of the Living Music Foundation; has served on the executive committee of SCI (Society of Composers, Inc.), and was president of TCMN (Texas Computer Musicians Network). He has been a resident artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Copland House, Villa Montalvo, and Djerassi. Tom's compositions have received critical acclaim and peer recognition; including a Grant for Young Composers from ASCAP for Vocal Sketch #2, and releases on CD by SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States) for Curvatures and Hollow Ground II, and by Vox Novus for Moth, and by SCI for Hollow Ground II. His music has been performed around the world and throughout the United States including The Kennedy Center. http://www.firstwavemusic.com/tml/ John Mallia John Mallia was born in Stamford, CT in 1968. He spent his childhood there, as well as in Syracuse, NY. Since 1990, excluding temporary residencies in Bourges, France and Denton, TX, he has lived and worked in Boston, MA. He is currently on the Composition Faculty at the New England Conservatory of Music where he also directs the Electronic Music Studio. He has written for diverse instrumental, vocal, and electronic focres. Much of his recent work is electro-acoustic and has been performed internationally by organizations and artists such as L.A. Freewaves (California), Gaudeamus (The Netherlands), International Computer Music Association, society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the Firebird Ensemble (Boston), flutist Sarah Brady, Seppelin Festival of Sound Art (Barcelona, Spain), Festival Synthèse (Bourges, France), Interensemble's Computer Arts Festival (Padova, Italy), Spark Festival (Minnesota), Society for New Music (New York), CyberArts, and Medi@terra's Travelling Mikromuseum (Greece, Bulgaria, Germany, Yugoslavia, Slovenia). He has collaborated with visual artists and poets on several multimedia installations, and these works ahve been exhibited at teh EyeDrum Art and Music Gallery in Atlanta, the Merrill Ellis INtermedia Theater at the University of North Texas' Center for Experimental Muisc and Intermedia (CEMI), the Boston Center for the ARts' Mill's Gallery, the Fuller Museum, the Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCIARC), Clark University, the Boston CyberARts Festival, and the San Jose Museum of Art. His interactive environment "Transcriptions" was included in the 2006 International Society of Electronic Arts ZeroOne Festival in San Jose, CA where over 3000 visitors interacted with the work. In addition to his teaching at NEC, Mallia was recently a Visiting Assitant Professor at teh Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI) at the University of North Texas and has taught electro-acoustic music and sound art at Franklin Pierce College, Northeastern University, the School of the Museum of FIne Arts, Boston, College of the Holy Cross, Clark University and Brandeis University. http://homepage.mac.com/jmallia/ Andreia Pinto Correia Born in Lisbon, Portugal, Andreia Pinto Correia is currently pursuing a composition doctoral degree at the New England Conservatory, in Boston, studying with Michael Gandolfi. She received her Master of Music degree with Academic Honors in Jazz Composition as a student of Bob Brookmeyer from NEC, and a double degree in Film Scoring and Jazz Composition from Berklee College of Music, receiving numerous awards and scholarships. Miss Pinto Correia started her career by performing extensively with her Jazz Orchestra which has featured guests such as Eli Degibri, Perico Sambeat, and Marc Miralta among others. She has also collaborated with Cape Verdean artists Vasco Martins, Nacia Gomi and Mário Lúcio as Musical Director of the Commemorations of the 30 years of Independence of that country. She founded the ARMAT Chamber Ensemble, a collaboration project with Armenian pianist/composer Vardan Ovsepian, and she recently finished her concerto for guitar and Jazz Orchestra to be premiered in July by Andre Fernandes and the OJM. She is currently writing an extended work for contemporary orchestra and Brazilian percussionist Peu Meurray from Salvador, Bahia. Miss Pinto Correia holds commissions from Antena 2/RTP, 2tUBAS&friends (Sergio Carolino/Anne Jelle Visser/Michael Lauren), Orquestra de Jazz de Matosinhos, the European Movement Jazz Orchestra (EMJO), the AR Ensemble, and the 2008 Lisboa Mistura Festival, and she is a scholarship and grant recipient of several institutions including the New England Conservatory, Luso-American Foundation for the Development, BMI Composers Workshop in NY, Beneficent Society, the Berklee College of Music Alumni Grant, and the Sacatar Foundation in Brazil among others. She is very dedicated to her orchestral works, which combine both the influences of her native country and the techniques of contemporary music. www.andreiapintocorreia.com Neil Rolnick Since he moved to New York City in 2002, Neil Rolnick’s music has been receiving increasingly wide recognition and numerous performances both in the US and abroad. A pioneer in the use of computers in performance, beginning in the late 1970s, Rolnick has often included unexpected and unusual combinations of materials and media in his music. He has performed around the world, and his music has appeared on 13 CD’s. Though much of Rolnick’s work has been in areas which connect music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of “experimental” music, his music has always been highly melodic and accessible. Whether working with electronic sounds, improvisation, or multimedia, his music has been characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging,” and as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.” Since 2003 he has completed The Shadow Quartet, for the NYC-based string quartet Ethel, Fiddle Faddle, for violinist Todd Reynolds, Body Work for vocalist Joan La Barbara, The Real Thief of Baghdad for Tyrone Henderson, Ambos Mundos for the Quintet of the Americas, Plays Well With Others for Paul Dresher’s Electro-Acoustic Band in San Francisco, Making Light of It for baritone Thomas Buckner, Digits for pianist Kathleen Supové, Uptown Jump for the MAYA Trio, Segal’s Billboard for harpist Jacqueline Kerrod, The Bridge for the Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire and the iFiddle Concerto for the American Composers Orchestra with soloist Todd Reynolds. His 13th CD, Digits, was released in 2006 on the Innova label. Rolnick teaches at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY, where he was founding director of the iEAR Studios. http://www.neilrolnick.com Past Composer Info: Richard Belcastro Richard Belcastro (b. 1976 and raised in Yuba City, California) is an active composer and musical activist in the Philadelphia area. His work is an eclectic blend of melodic and rhythmic elements of Jazz and Rock and Roll with a uniquely contemporary harmonic vocabulary. His music is composed for a variety of instrumental combinations ranging from the very traditional to the distinctly odd as well as ventures into electro-acoustic music and purely electronic explorations. Belcastro recieved degrees from Brandeis University (M.F.A. - Music Composition and Theory) and the University of California in Davis (B.A. - Music) and his teachers have included Ross Bauer, Martin Boykan, Eric Chasalow, Andrew Frank, Pablo Ortiz, David Rakowski & Jay Reise. Belcastro’s commissions have included works composed for Marilyn Nonken, The Serafin String Quartet, Network for New Music, Brian Sacawa, the PRISM Saxophone Quartet, the Avian Orchestra, the AUROS Group for New Music and numerous others as well as performances at the Gothenburg Guitar Society’s new music festival in Sweden and the Philadelphia Fringe Festival. He has also recieved grants and awards from The Meet the Composer Foundation, ASCAP/SEAMUS & New Sounds Music Inc. In addition to his work as a composer he is also the Executive Director of the Chamber Music Now! Annual Concert Series in Philadelphia (www.chambermusicnow.org) where he is focused on bringing the most talented and entertaining performers from around the world to the eyes and ears of the Philadelphia community in unique musical productions and collaborative projects between a variety of arts and media. He is also the Administrative Director of the Nelly Berman School of Music in Haverford, PA (www.nbsmusic.com) where he is active in bringing the gift of music to the next generation of talented musicians. His work serves to better connect diverse artistic communities and most importantly to excite and revitalize the classical music audience in and outside of Philadelphia. www.rbelcastro.com Phillip Bimstein Environmentalist mayor and former MTV rocker Phillip Kent Bimstein lives in Springdale, Utah, where he prowls the sandstone canyons of Zion National Park. A recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer and Austria's Prix Ars Electronica, Bimstein's music has been performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Bang on a Can Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, and the American Dance Festival. Ensembles who have performed Bimstein's works include Relåche, Turtle Island String Quartet, Modern Mandolin Quartet, Present Music, Abramyan String Quartet, Sierra Winds, Equinox Chamber Players , the California E.A.R. Unit, and Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues. A CD of Bimstein's music, Garland Hirschi's Cows, released by Starkland in 1997, garnered rave reviews internationally in such publications as Stereo Review, Wired, Fanfare, Stereophile, and this from Schwann Opus : "A highly entertaining, populist-oriented collection of serious modern music. Bimstein's compositions are a virtual breath of fresh air." Bimstein was recently featured in Parade and Outside magazines, and on National Public Radio's All Things Considered. Bimstein was born in Chicago and is a graduate of Chicago Conservatory of Music, where he majored in theory and composition. In the 1980's he led the new wave band Phil 'n' the Blanks, whose three albums and six videos were college radio and MTV hits. After further studies at UCLA in composition, orchestration and conducting, Bimstein took a hiking trip to southern Utah and never left. Fascinated by language and the ability of music to tell a story, he frequently incorporates text in his work. Refuge , his string quartet based on the book by Utah naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, was described as "sublime -- elegant perfection" by the Deseret News. His music has been choreographed by Margaret Jenkins and Repertory Dance Theater, and the American Dance Festival selected Bimstein as 1993 Composer in Residence. In 1997 Bimstein was awarded Meet The Composer's largest grant, the three-year New Residencies, during which he is composing music that celebrates and explores the intimate relationship between the landscapes of the desert southwest and the many cultures that have inhabited the area. In 2000, Bimstein received a Continental Harmony grant to write "The Bushy Wushy Rag," a work celebrating baseball and the city of St. Louis (see more information on the Projects page). In 2001 Bimstein is singing and writing songs for the new acoustic quartet blue haiku . Described by Outside Magazine as "America's only all-natural politician-composer," Bimstein was re-elected to a second term as mayor of Springdale in 1997. As mayor he is an outspoken advocate for protection of the environment and he has testified twice before Congress in support of Utah's wilderness. In 1996, the Town of Springdale, Zion National Park, Utah Department of Transportation and Zion Natural History Association were awarded the National Park Foundation's "Partnership Leadership Award for Beyond Park Boundaries." In 2001 Springdale was awarded the National Parks Conservation Association's first National Parks Achievement Award, "For their vision and efforts to develop an exemplary transportation system for Zion National Park." www.bimstein.com Conrad Cummings Conrad Cummings has composed operas (productions include a three-week off-Broadway run of "Photo-Op" with Ridge Theater at La MaMa ETC in New York and "Tonkin" with Opera Delaware) music for orchestra (including New Jersey, Indianapolis, and Louisville Symphonies and the Brooklyn Philharmonic) and amplified chamber ensemble (at the Knitting Factory and PS 122). He trained at Yale, Stony Brook, and Columbia, did post-doc work at IRCAM in Paris, taught at Oberlin Conservatory for ten years where he directed the music and media program, moved to New York to run a kids' interactive media company, and since 2003 teaches composition in the evening division at Juilliard. Projects currently in the works include an opera set in San Francisco in the 1980's and a monologue with music titled "How to Write a Failed Opera." Recordings are available on CRI's Emergency Music label; honors include MacDowell, Djerassi and Tanglewood fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Opera America, and The Rockefeller Foundation. For more info: www.conradcummings.com. Michael Daugherty Michael Daugherty is one of the most performed and commissioned American composers of his generation. Daugherty came to international attention when his Metropolis Symphony (1988-93), a tribute to the Superman comics, was performed in 1995 at Carnegie Hall by conductor David Zinman and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, and subsequently recorded for Argo/Decca. Other large orchestral works include UFO (1999), a percussion concerto commissioned and premiered by Evelyn Glennie and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Leonard Slatkin, and Fire and Blood (2003), a violin concerto commissioned and premiered by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra conducted by conductor Neeme Järvi. The Detroit Symphony also commissioned and premiered Daugherty’s second symphony, MotorCity Triptych (2000). His third symphony, Philadelphia Stories (2001), was commissioned and premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by David Zinman. Daugherty’s chamber music is widely performed as well, and has been recorded for Argo/Decca on the CD American Icons. His string quartets include Sing Sing: J.Edgar Hoover (1992) and Elvis Everywhere (1993), both performed on world tours and recorded on Nonesuch by the Kronos Quartet. His opera Jackie O (1997) has been produced in the United States, Canada, France, and Sweden and recorded by Argo/Decca. Daugherty has also composed numerous works for sumphonic band and wind ensemble, recorded by Klavier on a disk entitled UFO: The Music of Michael Daugherty. Born in 1954 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Daugherty is the son of a dance-band drummer and the oldest of five brothers, all professional musicians. He studied music composition at North Texas State University (1972-76) and Manhattan School of Music (1976-78), and computer music at Pierre Boulez’s IRCAM in Paris (1979-80). Daugherty received his doctorate in composition from Yale University in 1986. During this time he also collaborated with jazz arranger Gil Evans in New York, and pursued further studies with composer György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany (1982-84). After teaching music composition 1986-1991 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Daugherty joined the School of Music at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1991, where he is currently Professor of Composition. He was composer-in-residence with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (1999-2003) and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (2001-2003). Daugherty has received numerous awards for his music, including the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, recognition from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts. www.michaeldaugherty.net Kyle Gann Kyle Gann, born 1955 in Dallas, Texas, is a composer and has been new music critic for the Village Voice since 1986. Since 1997 he has taught music history and theory at Bard College. He is the author of The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Cambridge University Press, 1995) and American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer Books, 1997). A collection of his Village Voice columns titled Music Downtown is forthcoming (University of California Press). Gann studied composition with Ben Johnston, Morton Feldman, and Peter Gena, and his music is often microtonal, using up to 37 pitches per octave. His rhythmic language, based on differing successive and simultaneous tempos, was developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indian musics. His music has been performed on the New Music America, Bang on a Can, and Spoleto festivals. He received a 1994 commission from Music in Motion for his Astrological Studies, and in 1996-97 a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists' Fellowship. A 2001 commission from the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir resulted in Transcendental Sonnets, a 35-minute work for choir and orchestra, and he is currently writing a trilogy of microtonal chamber operas with librettist Jeffrey Sichel, called The Hudson River Trilogy. The first opera, Cinderella's Bad Magic, was premiered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In addition to Bard, Gann has taught at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, the School of the Art Instutute of Chicago, and Bucknell University. His writings include more than 2000 articles for over 35 publications, including scholarly articles on La Monte Young (in Perspectives of New Music), Henry Cowell, Mikel Rouse, and other American composers. He writes frequently for Chamber Music magazine and the New York Times, and he was awarded the Stagebill Award (1999) and Deems-Taylor Award (2003) for music criticism. Also in 1999, his compact disc Custer's Ghost was released on the Monroe Street label. In 2003, the American Music Center awarded Gann its Letter of Distinction, along with Steve Reich, Wayne Shorter, and George Crumb. www.kylegann.com Philip Glass Born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 31, 1937, Philip Glass discovered music in a line of records his father's radio repair shop carried in addition to servicing radios. To figure out why recordings of great chamber works sold poorly, Ben Glass would take them home to play for his three children. Philip rapidly became familiar with Beethoven quartets, Schubert sonatas, Shostakovitch symphonies and other music then considered "offbeat." It was not until he was in his late teens that Glass encountered more "standard" classics. At six, Glass began music lessons and at eight, took up the flute. But by the time he was 15, he became frustrated with the flute's limited repertoire as well as with musical life in post-war Baltimore. During his second year in high school, he applied for admission to the University of Chicago, passed and, with his parent's encouragement, moved to Chicago where he supported himself with part-time jobs waiting tables and loading airplanes at airports. He majored in mathematics and philosophy, and during off-hours practiced piano and concentrated on such composers as Ives and Webern. At 19, Glass graduated from the University of Chicago with majors in mathematics and philosophy. Determined to become a composer, he moved to New York and attended the Julliard School. By then he had abandoned the 12-tone techniques he had been using in Chicago and began gravitating toward American composers like Aaron Copeland and William Schuman. By 23, Glass had studied with Vincent Persichetti, Darius Milhaud and William Bergsma. Rejecting serialism, Glass preferred such maverick composers as Harry Partch, Charles Ives, Moondog, Henry Cowell and Virgil Thomson-- but still had not found his own voice. He then moved to Paris and spent two years of intensive study under Nadia Boulanger. In Paris, he was hired by a filmmaker to transcribe the Indian music of Ravi Shankar into notation readable to western musicians. In the process, he discovered the techniques of Indian music. After researching music in North Africa, India and the Himalayas, he returned to New York, renouncing his previous music, and applying eastern techniques to his own work. By 1974, Glass had composed a large collection of new music for both the Mabou Mines Theater Company, that Glass co-founded, and for his own performing group, the Philip Glass Ensemble. This period culminated in Music in Twelve Parts, a three-hour summation of Glass' new music. In 1976 Glass reached an apogee in his collaboration with Robert Wilson, creating the opera Einstein on the Beach, a five-hour epic that is now seen as a landmark in 20th century music-theater. Glass then decided to make Einstein part of a trilogy that resulted in the creation of the operas Satyagraha and Akhnaten. Over the years, Glass and Wilson have worked together on several other projects: the CIVIL warS - Act V (Rome Section) of the multi-composer epic which was written for the 1984 Olympics, White Raven - an opera commissioned by Portugal to celebrate its history of discovery which premiered at EXPO '98 in Lisbon and was performed as part of the 2001 Lincoln Center Festival, and Monsters of Grace - a digital 3-D opera. Glass has also collaborated with a variety of artists in a range of projects and expanded his repertoire to include music for opera, dance, theater, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and film. His cooperative recording projects Songs from Liquid Days with lyrics by David Byrne, Paul Simon, Laurie Anderson, and Suzanne Vega, as well as a collaboration with Ravi Shankar, Passages. His operas include The Making of the Representative for Planet 8 and Marriages Between Zones Three, Four and Five with librettos written by Doris Lessing and based on her novels; Hydrogen Jukebox, libretto by Allen Ginsberg and based on his poetry; The Voyage, based on the exploration of Christopher Columbus, written by David Henry Hwang; The Fall of the House of Usher, based on the Edgar Allen Poe short story; and the "pocket opera," In the Penal Colony, a musical theater work based on the short story by Franz Kafka. His most recent opera, Galileo Galilei, a collaboration with Mary Zimmerman, premiered in 2002. Glass' orchestral works include the large-scale work for chorus and orchestra such as Itaipu and Symphony No. 5, a work based on text from wisdom traditions throughout the world; Symphony No. 2, Symphony No. 3, Symphony No. 6 (Plutonian Ode), with text by Allen Ginsberg; and "Low" and "Heroes" Symphonies, both based on the music of David Bowie and Brian Eno. Glass also has produced concertos for violin and orchestra, saxophone quartet and orchestra, two timpanists and orchestra, and harpsichord and orchestra. His Tirol Concerto for Piano and Orchestra premiered in 2000 at the Klanspuren Festival in Tirol, Austria and his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, which premiered in 2001 at the Beijing Festival, was commissioned for Julian Lloyd Webber's 50th Birthday. Glass film scores include Godfrey Reggio's trilogy Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi; Errol Morris' The Thin Blue Line, A Brief History of Time and The Fog of War; Paul Shrader's Mishima; Bernard Rose's Candyman and Bill Condon's Candyman II; and an original score for the re-release of the 1930 Dracula with Bela Lagosi. Critically acclaimed film scores include Martin Scorsese's Kundun - which won Glass the LA Critics Award, as well as the Academy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Original Score - and original music for Peter Weir's The Truman Show - which won a Golden Globe Award for Best Score in 1999. Glass' most recent film work for Stephen Daldry's The Hours has also received a Golden Globe nomination. While Glass has written for dance such as In the Upper Room, choreographed by Twyla Tharp, and A Descent into the Maelström, his work also involves a set of unclassifiable theater pieces such as The Photographer, The Mysteries and What's so Funny? and 1000 Airplanes on the Roof with a libretto by David Henry Hwang and designs by Jerome Sirlin. Glass has also created a trilogy of musical theater pieces based on the films of Jean Cocteau, Orphée, La Belle et La Bête and Les Enfants Terribles. For his current touring project, Philip on Film, Glass performs live with his ensemble to a series of new short films as well as classics like Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, La Belle et La Bête, and Dracula. Annie Gosfield Annie Gosfield has created a body of work that includes large–scale compositions, chamber pieces, electronic music, video projects, and music for dance. Her work often explores the inherent beauty of non–musical sounds, and is inspired by diverse sources such as machines, destroyed pianos, warped 78 records, and detuned radios. She uses traditional notation, improvisation, and extended techniques to create a sound world that eliminates the boundaries between music and noise, while emphasizing the unique qualities of each performer. Annie lives in New York City and divides her time between performing on piano and sampler with her own group and composing for many ensembles and soloists. Annie's music has been performed worldwide by her own ensemble and by Joan Jeanrenaud, Fred Frith, Felix Fan, The Bang on a Can Allstars, the Flux Quartet, Silesian String Quartet, Rova, So Percussion, Talujon Percussion, Present Music, Newband/The Harry Partch instruments, Agon Orchestra, The West Australian Symphony Orchestra New Music Group, Marco Cappelli, George Kentros, and many others, at festivals including Warsaw Autumn, ISCM World Music Days, The Bang on a Can Marathon, The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Festival Musique Actuelle in Victoriaville, Wien Modern, OtherMinds, Company Week, and three "Radical New Jewish Culture" festivals curated by John Zorn. Gosfield's discography includes three solo releases on the Tzadik label. Her most recent CD, "Lost Signals and Drifting Satellites" features four recent compositions drawn from her extensive work for soloists and ensembles, performed by Joan Jeanrenaud, the FLUX Quartet, and others. Her 2001 Tzadik CD "Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery" features two large–scale pieces inspired by her 1999 residency in the factories of Nuremberg, Germany: EWA7, performed by Roger Kleier (guitar), Ikue Mori (electronics), Sim Cain and Jim Pugliese (percussion) and Gosfield (sampling keyboards); and Flying Sparks and Heavy Machinery, performed by The Flux Quartet and Talujon Percussion Quartet. Gosfield's first solo CD, "Burnt Ivory and Loose Wires", focuses on music inspired by detuned and destroyed instruments, performed by her own ensemble, ROVA, and cellist Ted Mook. Annie's music has also been featured on CD's released by Sony Classical, CRI, Harmonia Mundi, Wergo, Recommended, Caprice, Cantaloupe, Rift, EMF, Innova, Atavistic, ORF, and Starkland. Active as a performer and improviser, Annie has played with Derek Bailey, Joan Jeanrenaud, Roger Kleier, John Zorn, Fred Frith, Chris Cutler, William Winant, Ikue Mori, Scanner, Marc Ribot, Min Xiao Fen, Joey Baron, Jim Pugliese, Christine Bard, Sim Cain, David Moss, Davey Williams, and LaDonna Smith. Gosfield's compositions have been used by numerous choreographers and dance companies, including Karole Armitage, Susan Marshall, Milwaukee Ballet, Oregon Ballet Theater, Simone Clifford Dancers (Australia), Gruppen Fyra (Finland), and Ballett der Staatsoper Hannover (Germany). Gosfield will hold the Darius Milhaud Chair of Composition at Mills College in Fall, 2005. She was previously the Milhaud professor at Mills College in Oakland, California, in 2003. She has received fellowships from the McKnight Foundation, New York Foundation for the Arts, and the Siemens Foundation, and has received grants and awards from the NEA, the American Composers Forum, the Jerome Foundation, the American Music Center, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, The Rockefeller Foundation, and many others.www.anniegosfield.com David Laganella Composer / electric guitarist David Laganella (b. January 10, 1974) has been commissioned to compose for Americas leading new music artists including Marilyn Nonken, The Auros Group for New Music, Flexible Music, and Odd Appetite. Notable ensembles and artists who have performed his music include The Serafin String Quartet (at Carnegie Hall), The Concordia Chamber Players, and The Haddonfield Symphony (winner of their 2001 Composer Competition). In 2003, Laganella served as the Composer in Residence for the Bergslagens Chamber Symphony (Stockholm, Sweden) who premiered his double concerto, “Once on a Fall Fell Red for Guitar, Soprano and String Orchestra.” Laganella has received honors from numerous organizations including ASCAP, Meet the Composer Fund, The Pennsylvania Council of the Arts, The Orchestra Society of Philadelphia, The Society of Composers, and The American Composers Forum. He holds degrees in music composition from New York University and the University of Pennsylvania. He is the author of the ground breaking book, The Composers Guide to the Electric Guitar (available from Mel Bay Publications), which is a manual addressing all performance practices and notational issues for the instrument. Laganella is the Artistic Director of the Chamber Music Now Annual Concert Series in Philadelphia. David Lang David Lang — the prolific, enthusiastic and complicated composer — embodies the restless spirit of invention. Musically adventurous, yet deeply versed in the classical tradition, Lang is determined to make a music that resists categorization. He is constantly in search of new musical forms. Many of his pieces resemble each other only in the fierce intelligence and clarity of vision that inform their structures. Lang's catalogue is extensive, and his opera, orchestra, chamber and solo works are by turns ominous, ethereal, urgent, hypnotic, unsettling and funky. Moments of heart-wrenching lyricism may be pushed up against metal-crunching chords. Intense rhythmic patterns may fracture or unravel into luminous pockets of harmonic sound. Much of his work seeks to expand the definition of virtuosity in music — even the deceptively simple pieces can be fiendishly difficult to play and require incredible concentration by the musicians. The effect is spellbinding. "There is no name yet for this kind of music," writes music critic Mark Swed, but audiences around the globe are hearing more and more of Lang's work: in performances by such organizations as the Santa Fe Opera, the New York Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, The Cleveland Orchestra, and the Kronos Quartet; at Tanglewood, the BBC Proms, The Munich Biennale, the Settembre Musica Festival, the Sidney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival and the Almeida, Holland, Berlin, Strasbourg and Huddersfield Festivals; in theater productions in New York, San Francisco and London; in the choreography of Twyla Tharp, La La La Human Steps, The Nederlands Dans Theater and the Royal Ballet; and at Lincoln Center, the South Bank Centre, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Barbican Centre, and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Recent projects include monumental musical environments like the dark and meditative amplified orchestra piece The Passing Measures; The Difficulty of Crossing a Field — an opera for the Kronos Quartet with libretto by Mac Wellman and direction by Carey Perloff; the critically acclaimed opera Modern Painters about the curious and tragic life of art critic John Ruskin; the evening-length piano solo Psalms without Words, and the bittersweet comic book opera The Carbon Copy Building, with cartoonist Ben Katchor, Bob McGrath and the Ridge Theater, and composers Michael Gordon and Julia Wolfe, and World to Come, a Carnegie Hall commission for cellist Maya Beiser, which Ms. Beiser is performing on an international tour. He is currently working on the opera Anatomy Theater with visual artist Mark Dion. Other recent works include Loud Love Songs, a concerto for percussionist Evelyn Glennie and the Eos Orchestra, which premiered in New York in April 2004 and Fur, a concerto for pianist Andrew Zolinksy and the BBC Symphony Wales, which had its world premiere in September 2004 in the UK. Lang has been honored with the Rome Prize, the BMW Music-Theater Prize (Munich), a Kennedy Center/Friedheim Award, the Revson Fellowship with the New York Philharmonic, and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the New York Foundation for the Arts, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1999 he received a Bessie Award for his music for choreographer Susan Marshall's The Most Dangerous Room in the House, performed live by the Bang on a Can All-Stars at the Next Wave Festival of the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The Carbon Copy Building won the 2000 Village Voice OBIE Award for Best New American Work. Lang is co-founder and co-artistic director of New York's legendary music festival, Bang on a Can, and Composer-in-Residence at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Born in Los Angeles in 1957, Lang holds degrees from Stanford University and the University of Iowa, receiving his doctorate from the Yale School of Music in 1989. He has studied with Jacob Druckman, Hans Werner Henze and Martin Bresnick. HIs work is recorded on the Sony Classical, BMG, Point, Chandos, Argo/Decca, CRI and Cantaloupe labels. David Lang's music is published by Red Poppy (ASCAP) and distributed by G. Schirmer, Inc. Ray Lustig Light and dark elements are often tightly interlaced in Raymond Lustig’s vibrantly eclectic and expressive music. His works have been performed by the Juilliard Symphony, the new music ensemble counter)induction, pianists Blair McMillen and Marian Hanshaw, and clarinetist Beth Wiemann, and have been presented at Alice Tully Hall in New York, and the Caramoor Music Festival. The visual imagery and evocative nature of his music are often inspired by, and invite synergy with, physical movement. His music has been used for dance at the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, Barnard College’s Spring Dances concert, and the Juilliard School’s Composers and Choreographers concert. He has also composed for theatrical productions at New York’s historic ACC Theater and the New York International Fringe Festival. Born in Tokyo and raised in Queens, New York, Lustig received his B.A. from Holy Cross College, where his interests were divided between piano, composition, and the biological sciences. In 2003, after a nearly decade-long foray into biomedical research at Columbia University, he returned his full-time focus to his lifelong passion for music. He earned his Master of Music degree from the Juilliard School in 2005, and is currently a C.V. Starr Doctoral Fellow at Juilliard, where he studies with John Corigliano. His other teachers have included Samuel Adler, Jonathan Kramer, Sebastian Currier, Philip Lasser, Pia Gilbert, Conrad Cummings, Derek Bermel, and Shirish Korde. He is a winner of the Juilliard School’s 2006 Orchestra Competition, a recipient of the Irene Diamond Graduate Fellowship, Roger Casey Scholarship, the Pia Gilbert Scholarship, the Piser Scholarship, and Cartwright Scholarship. www.raymondlustig.com Jonathan Newman Jonathan Newman is an accomplished composer of diverse skills, having written orchestral, chamber, vocal, choral, wind ensemble, and electronic music, as well as music for dance and theater. A recipient of the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he has been described as "an outstanding composer...with a quirky and intellectually provocative bent." Newman (b.1972) holds degrees from Boston University's School for the Arts, where he studied with Richard Cornell and Charles Fussell, and The Juilliard School, where his principle teachers were Pulitzer Prize-winning composers John Corigliano and David Del Tredici. Early training includes studies at the Boston University Tanglewood Institute and the Aspen Music Festival, with studies under George Tsontakis and Bernard Rands. Recently, the chamber orchestra "Alarm Will Sound" commissioned arrangements of Aphex Twin electronica for "Acoustica", a CD project on the Cantaloupe label culminating in a performance at the 2005 Lincoln Center Festival. This season, his orchestral work Metropolitan, selected for the 2004 Whitaker New Music Readings by the American Composers Orchestra, will premiere with the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra in November 2005. Other notable commissions include The Rivers of Bowery, written for the Rutgers Wind Ensemble for the 2005 CBDNA National Conference, Wapwallopen for string quartet, premiered in Weill Recital Hall for the New York Youth Symphony’s “First Music 17” program, and Ohanashi for chamber orchestra, commissioned by the New Juilliard Ensemble and premiered in Alice Tully Hall. His breakthrough chamber work, OK Feel Good, originally written for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and later transcribed for wind symphony, has been played nationwide and beyond, with performances in Atlanta, Las Vegas, Portland, and Israel. His collaborative works for dance have enjoyed performances on multiple stages in New York, including The Juilliard Theater, Alice Tully Hall, P.S. 122, Dance Theatre Workshop, Judson Church, and Joyce SOHO, as well as venues nationwide. His works for educational ensembles, including Moon by Night, winner of the biannual NBA/Merrill Jones Composition Award, have been performed worldwide. Extensive work with the University of Nevada Las Vegas Wind Orchestra includes Chunk, a 2003 commission and title track on their 2004 CD release (Mark Custom Records), and OK Feel Good, a 1999 commission recently recorded on "3 Steps Forward" (Klavier, 2005). Additional recordings include CDs by the Rutgers Wind Ensemble, the Tokyo Symphonic Band, and the TAD Wind Symphony in Japan. Newman is a founding member of the composer-consortium BCM INTERNATIONAL: four stylistically-diverse composers from across the country, dedicated to enriching the repertoire with exciting works for mediums often mired in static formulas. BCM's music has generated a following of champions around the world, several thousand fans in an active online community, and two recordings: "BCM Saves the World" (2002, Mark Custom Records) and "BCM Men of Industry" (2004, BCM Records). He resides with his wife Melissa Schlachtmeyer, a costume designer, in New York City. www.jonathannewman.com Sophocles Papavasilopoulos Sophocles Papavasilopoulos has written music for a variety of venues and media including theater, opera, film, video, dance, video games, and the concert stage. He received his BM from Oberlin Conservatory where his chamber opera POOHSTICKS was produced. SOFT FOR DIGGING, a film directed by J.T. Petty featuring Sophocles’ music, has been presented at Sundance as well as numerous other festivals. His game music credits include a variety of PC/Mac and GameBoy games for such clients as Mattel, Acclaim, Infogrames, and Simon & Schuster. His collaborations with writer Sheila Callaghan include ELEMENTAL, a four-act play with music. He is currently pursuing a PhD in composition at New York University. www.bravenavel.com David Rubinstein David Rubinstein has received awards at the Ojai Festival, the Diana Barnhard American Song Composers Competition and the 2003 Renee Fisher Competition, which commissioned his latest piano work, Toccata. Recent compositions included Cappuccino Conertino, featured on the "In Praise of Music" Series in Los Angeles and Sonatina for Woodwinds, premiered by Calico Winds and featured on the Bakersfield Symphony New Directions Concerts. He has scored, orchestrated and conducted a number of films, including Marching Out Of Time and The Opera Club as well as theatrical productions such as Guare's Landscape of the Body. Performing the classic repertoire as well as his own music, his pianistic style is noted for its unobstrusive technique. Appearances during the 2001-2002 season included the Poulenc Sextet with the North Winds Quintet, the Bach Concerto in D-minor with the Cal State L.A. Baroque Ensemble and numerous performances of his solo piano work, Curious Assortment. www.home.pacbel.net/musicus Arlene Sierra Arlene Elizabeth Sierra is an American composer who divides her time between the U.S. and Britain. Recent commissions demonstrate her dual-national profile, from organizations including the Tanglewood Music Festival (the Paul Jacobs Award Commission), the Performing Right Society Foundation, the Albany Symphony, and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (a commission for its 25th birthday celebration). Her concert works are regularly commissioned by performers in the U.S., U.K. and Germany and her music for dance has been performed at Jacobs Pillow and Tanglewood, but most frequently in her home city of New York. Born in Miami in 1970, Arlene Sierra began her musical studies at the piano at the age of five. She had her first composition lessons at Oberlin College - Conservatory of Music, where she earned dual B.Mus. and B.A. degrees in Electronic Music and East Asian Studies. Her education continued at the Yale School of Music where she received an M. Mus. in Composition, and at the University of Michigan, where she was a Merit Fellow and received a Doctorate in Composition. In America her teachers included Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick and William Albright. As a participant in composition seminars at the Dartington Festival and the Britten-Pears School in the U.K., she studied with Judith Weir, Colin Matthews, Oliver Knussen and Magnus Lindberg. Described in the London Times as outstanding and vivid, Arlene Sierra's chamber, vocal and orchestral works have been performed by Aeolian Singers, the American Composers Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, Psappha, the Albany Symphony, the Schubert Ensemble of London, and the Tokyo Philharmonic; performances at festivals have included Aldeburgh, Bowdoin, Fontainebleau, Tanglewood, Dartington, and Aspen. She has received awards and grants from ASCAP, the American Music Center, the Society for Promotion of New Music, and Meet the Composer, as well as fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival, the MacDowell Colony and the Tanglewood Music Center. The only woman to win the Toru Takemitsu Prize for Orchestral Composition, the largest and most prestigious international competition for young composers, Dr. Sierra is currently a Composition Tutor and Composer in Residence at Cambridge University. www.homepage.mac.com/asie/Menu1.html Jacob Ter Veldhuis Jacob ter Veldhuis (1951) began his career in rock music and studied composition and electronic music at the Groningen Conservatory, where he was awarded the Dutch Composition Prize in 1980. During the eighties he made a name for himself with melodious, heartfelt compositions; music that does not eschew effect and, without being sugary or contrived, gratifies the ear. Ter Veldhuis makes superb use of electronics, incorporating audio samples from the Gulf War, Chet Baker and the Jerry Springer Show. His popular CD Heartbreakers is a colourful mix of 'high' and 'low' culture. Long queues at the box office for the four-day Jacob ter Veldhuis Festival in Rotterdam in 2001 already attested to the growing popularity of this composer, both in the Netherlands and abroad. His Goldrush Concerto, the Third String Quartet and several of his so called boombox pieces like Grab it! became hits, and various choreographers have been inspired by his music, like Hans van Manen and Nanine Linning, with whom he closely cooperated. A controversial figure in certain circles, Ter Veldhuis dares to stand up to what he calls the 'washed-out avant garde'. He strives to liberate new music from its isolation by employing a direct, at times provocative idiom that spurns 'the dissonant', in Ter Veldhuis' view a completely devalued means of musical expression. His 'coming-out' as a composer of ultra-tonal, mellifluous music reached its climax with the video oratorio Paradiso, released in 2003 on dvd and cd by Chandos. At the Holland Festival 2005, the premiere of ...NOW... by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra received standing ovations. Stewart Wallace Composer Stewart Wallace's music is fueled by collaborations with such artists as Richard Foreman, Christopher Alden, Evelyn Glennie, Marc Ribot, Amy Tan and longtime librettist Michael Korie, with whom he's written five operas. His unconventional and highly theatrical body of work is at once intensely rhythmic, melodic, irreverant and emotionally compelling. Harvey Milk, Wallace’s fifth opera and most widely known score, was commissioned by the Houston Grand Opera, New York City Opera and San Francisco Opera. With a libretto by Michael Korie and directed by Christopher Alden, the January 1995 world premiere in Houston played to sold-out houses and was discussed and debated in every major American and European newspaper, Time, Newsweek, Vanity Fair and CNN. The Washington Post said, “Harvey Milk is an astounding achievement – lively, artful, tough-minded American music-drama, deeply satisfying to ear, eye and mind.” The original Christopher Alden production was then seen in New York and San Francisco. In 1996, a new production of the opera in German premiered in Dortmund. Reviewing the Teldec CD with Donald Runnicles conducting the San Francisco Opera, France’s Diapason called Harvey Milk “truly staggering.” Wallace's next opera is based on Amy Tan's bestselling novel The Bonesetter's Daughter with Tan collaborating on the libretto with Michael Korie. The opera takes place in China right before the Communist revolution and is framed by the forgotten memories of an elderly Chinese mother in present-day San Francisco. Chen Shi-Zheng, whose 19 hour production of the Ming Dynasty Peony Pavilion was internationally acclaimed, will direct. In Spring 2006 Jessye Norman - making her Chinese debut - will premiere the first aria from the opera in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. The Bonesetter's Daughter will premiere in 2008 in the United States and China. Recent works include Skvera for Electric Guitar and Orchestra for "Guitar God" Marc Ribot at the Kennedy Center June 2004 with Leonard Slatkin conducting and the Cabrillo Festival August 2005 with Marin Alsop conducting; and Book of Five for Icebreaker and Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2002 and Bochum, Germany in 2003 with Steven Sloane conducting. Wallace was Music Alive Composer-in-Residence at the National Symphony in 2001-02. He is the recipient of numerous awards including fellowships and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Opera America, Meet the Composer, Mary Flagler Carey Trust and others. He was a fellow at the inaugural Institute for the Arts and Civic Dialogue at Harvard and invited by Toni Morrison to Princeton University as artist-in-residence at her Princeton Atelier. Residences at the MacDowell Colony and Yaddo have been indispensable to the development of his work. Stewart Wallace first met Andrew Sterman in 1989 when Andrew answered his panicked call by coming to Houston to play saxophone in the premiere of his first opera Where's Dick? For this, Wallace is eternally grateful. He has been an ardent fan of Sterman's music-making ever since. www.stewartwallace.com Matthew Welch Matthew Welch (b.8.24.1976) is a composer and multi-instrumentalist that works from an eclectic musical foundation. Matthew holds two university degrees in Experimental Music Composition, a BFA from Simon Fraser University (1999), and an MA form Wesleyan University (2001). Welch has studied with noted composers such as Barry Truax, Rodney Sharman, Alvin Lucier and Anthony Braxton. His compositions range from traditional-like bagpipe tunes to electronic pieces, improvisation strategies and fully notated works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestra and non-western instruments. His music has been featured in New Music festivals such as Ostrava New Music Days, Czech Republic, where he was a resident composer, and the New York based Music at the Anthology (MATA) new music series. He has also taken part in a number of compositional collaborations with Indonesian Gamelan composer-musicians in Bali and Java, performed in free improvisation contexts with numerable New York City improvisors, and played with art rockers in the Brooklyn underground. As a virtuoso of the Highland Bagpipe, he studied traditional Scottish and Irish music with Gold Medalist masters such as Colin MacLellan, Jack Lee, Angus MacLellan and Andrew Wright. Matthew also was a member of the four - time World Champion Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, having played with the band on their most recent wins in 1999 and 2001. He has also had a successful professional solo piping career within and beyond the traditional setting. Matthew has premiered a number of new compositions written for bagpipes by contemporary composers, further linking his piping to his broader musical career as a composer and multi-instrumentalist. This involvement with a more diverse musical context has led him into an expansion of his instrumental array to include alternative bagpipe configurations, accordion and various saxophones. Indonesian Gamelan percussion music, both Javanese and more recently, Balinese, have been another focus of Mattthew's, which he has pursued throughout his academic career, with the New York Indonesian Consulate gamelans, and in Bali. Matthew has been a long time teacher of the Highland Bagpipe and its music. He has instructed the Junior World Champion Robert Malcolm Pipe Band system in Vancouver, and been Head Instructor and Music Director of two Multi-tiered Pipe Band systems in Connecticut and Long Island. These bands have risen in competitive caliber directly due to his unique approach. He is also in demand as a visiting instructor to pipe bands along the East Coast, and has guest lectured in world music at SUNY Binghamton. For his dicography, Matthew appears on Alvin Lucier's Vespers and other Early Works, Anthony Braxton's Composition 247 in a trio with Braxton himself, and on Braxton's 10 [Solo Bagpipe] Compositions, 2000. Matthew has released two compact discs of his own music, Ceol Nua (Leo 336, 2002) highlighting orchestral and chamber works and Hag at the Churn (Newsonic 33, 2003), a collection of electronic concoctions. The eclectic breadth of his interests in Celtic music, gamelan, minimalism, improvisation and rock also converge in compositional amalgams for his New York based ensemble, Blarvuster. A recording of his most recent compositions, Dream Tigers, is due to release on Tzadik Records' Composer Series in March of 2005. Scott Wheeler Scott Wheeler's music has been commissioned and performed by the orchestras of Minnesota, Houston, Toledo and Indianapolis, as well as by New York City Opera, soprano Renée Fleming, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, the John Oliver Chorale, the New England Composers Orchestra, the Chicago Contemporary Players, Parnassus, the Newport Music Festival and Dinosaur Annex. His opera Democracy: An American Comedy has been commissioned by the Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program of the Washington Opera, to be premiered in January of 2005. A cd of Scott Wheeler’s works featuring the Gramercy Trio and friends is scheduled for release in July 2004 on the Newport Classic label. Wheeler's awards and commissions include the Guggenheim Foundation, the Koussevitsky Foundation, the Fromm Foundation, Tanglewood, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Massachusetts Artist Foundation, Yaddo, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the MacDowell Colony, as well as the Stoeger Prize for excellence in chamber music from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. His music can be heard on GM Recordings, Northeastern Records, Palexa and Koch International. Scott Wheeler has taught at New England Conservatory, Brandeis University, and Emerson College in Boston, where he is Artistic Director of Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble. As a conductor, Wheeler can be heard on the CRI, Capstone and Newport Classic labels. He has conducted the premieres of over a hundred new works, as well as the Boston premieres of works by Poul Ruders, Scott Lindroth, Judith Weir, Peter Maxwell Davies, and many others. Scott Wheeler studied at Amherst College, New England Conservatory and Brandeis University. His teachers include Virgil Thomson, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Arthur Berger and Lewis Spratlan.