Artists

Steven D. Block was born in New York City on November 5, 1952. He is currently Dean of the College of Fine Arts at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley after having served as Chair of the Department of Music at the University of New Mexico for 17 years.

Iowa-born composer Marilyn Bliss has written many widely performed orchestral, chamber, and solo works. She received her B.M. degree in composition, flute, and voice at Coe College in Cedar Rapids IA, and did her graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania and the City University of New York. Her composition teachers included such distinguished composers as George Crumb, George Rochberg, Jacob Druckman, Jerry Owen, and Harvey Sollberger. 

Karl Blench is a composer and conductor who holds bachelor’s degrees in education and music theory from the University of New Hampshire, and a Master’s degree and DMA in composition from Rice University. His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Cuba. Recent engagements include performances of his works by the Shepherd School Chamber Symphony, the h2 Saxophone Quartet, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and the University of New Hampshire and University of Houston Wind Ensembles.

Praised for her “beautifully full and lyrically strong tone” by Gramophone Magazine, Meredith Blecha-Wells is a sought-after performer and instructor. She has played throughout much of the United States, as well as Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia. Currently based in Oklahoma City, Blecha-Wells performs regularly with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic and the Brightmusic Chamber Ensemble.

John G. Bilotta was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but has spent most his life in the San Francisco Bay Area having attended the University of California at Berkeley and, later, the San Francisco Music and Arts Institute where he studied composition with Frederick Saunders.

Hayes Biggs was born in Huntsville, Alabama and raised in Helena, Arkansas. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition from Columbia University. His teachers include Don Freund, Mario Davidovsky, Jack Beeson, Fred Lerdahl and Donald Erb. Biggs has been a fellow in composition at the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley, at the Tanglewood Music Center, at Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Millay Colony for the Arts and the MacDowell Colony. Among his honors are a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship and an Aaron Copland Award, which afforded him the opportunity to live and compose at Copland House in upstate New York for several weeks. Since 1992 he has been on the faculty of the Manhattan School of Music, teaching courses in the theory and composition departments.

John Biggs was born in Los Angeles in 1932. His father was organist/composer Richard Keys Biggs, and his mother was singer Lucienne Gourdon. During his youth he received training in acting, singing, piano, bassoon, and violin, and was a member of his father’s church choir.

Tucker Biddlecombe (Ph.D.) is Director of Choral Activities at Vanderbilt University’s Blair School of Music. There he conducts the Vanderbilt Chorale, and Symphonic Choir, and teaches courses in Choral Conducting and Music Education. He also serves as Director of the Nashville Symphony Chorus, the offcial vocal arm of the Nashville Symphony Orchestra. Dr. Biddlecombe is a veteran teacher and a passionate advocate for music education. Ensembles under his direction have performed to acclaim at state and division conventions of ACDA, and he is active as a guest conductor. A native of Buffalo New York, Biddlecombe is a graduate of SUNY Pots dam and Florida State University, where he completed doctoral studies in choral conducting and music education with André Thomas. He resides in Nashville, TN with his wife Mary Biddlecombe, Artistic Director of the Blair Children’s Chorus.

Eric Biddington was born in Timaru, New Zealand in 1953, and received his schooling in Timaru and Christchurch. Upon leaving school, he began part-time work as a laborer and studied at the University of Canterbury, although this was interrupted by illness in 1974. In 1979 he returned to study, laboring work, and musical composition and graduated with degrees in music, arts, and science. Despite suffering from schizophrenia and depression since his teenage years, Biddington has become a prolific and widely performed composer.

Award-winning Michigan composer Dinah Bianchi creates vibrant and exciting music; music that is sublime, beautiful, and full of the communicative power of art. She is well versed in a variety of musical genres with a portfolio that includes music for orchestra, concert band, string ensemble, chamber ensemble, solo works, and electronic music. Well received both nationally and internationally, Bianchi’s music has been performed in concert halls in Europe, Asia, Canada, and the United States. Recently, she completed a recording session for Chasse Noir with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The recording was released in August of 2022 and is anticipating an album release with PARMA in the Spring of 2024.

Donald Betts made his New York debut as a pianist and composer at the age of 21, playing his own music along with works by Prokofieff, Liszt, and Schumann. The New York Times called him "a pianist of imagination and poetic feeling". Musical America cited "his tremendous technique and bravura style".

The music of Gary D. Belshaw (ASCAP) has been performed throughout the United States and abroad, including England, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Spain. Most notably, Belshaw’s Victory Day Overture for concert band received its world premiere in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory. His Oofdah Fanfare premiered in the Imperial Concert Venue of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria.

Brian Belet lives in northwestern Oregon with his partner and wife Marianne Bickett. His album SUFFICIENT TROUBLE, containing ten of his computer music compositions, was published by Ravello Records in 2017. Stellar Nebulae, for string orchestra, was published on the album PRISMA VOL. 4 by Navona Records in 2020, and his brass quintet Three by Five was published on the album BRASS TACKS, also by Navona Records, in 2022. Additional music is recorded on albums published by Capstone, Centaur, Frog Peak Music, IMG Media, Innova, New Ariel Recording, SWR Music/Hänssler Classic, and the University of Illinois labels, with research published in Contemporary Music Review, Organised Sound, Perspectives of New Music, Proceedings of the International Computer Music Conference, and Proceedings of the International Web Audio Conference.

Yuriy Bekker, critically-acclaimed violinist and conductor, has been a mainstay of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra (CSO) in Charleston SC for 15 years. He has recently been named the CSO’s Artistic Director and also continues to lead as Concertmaster (2007) and Principal Pops Conductor (2016). Bekker previously served as the orchestra’s Acting Artistic Director from 2010-2014, playing a major role in the orchestra’s successful resurgence. 

Charles Alan Beeler (February 10, 1939 - April 28, 2016) Beeler completed his graduate study in theory and composition at Washington University, where he received an M.A. and Ph.D. He studied composition with Robert Wykes, Robert Baker, and Harold Blumenfeld, theory with Leigh Gerdine, and musicology with Lincoln Bunce Spiess and Paul Amadeus Pisk.

Patrick Beckman received his B.M. and M.M. in piano from the University of Illinois-Urbana. After graduation he became Artist-in-Residence at Highland College in Illinois where he later headed the music department. He has also taught at Rockford College. Beckman's works for piano include the albums Songs for Piano (1981); Biscuit Alley (1984); Street Psalms (1985); and Spring Chants (1987). Past CDs include Earth Day Sonata (1992); Piano Pieces (1997); Tavern Tunes (2003); American Scenes Vol. 1 (2006); American Scenes Vol. II (2007) and Street Dance (2008, produced by Bob Lord).

Kansas composer Dwight Beckham, Sr. did his undergraduate and graduate work at Wichita University. He has studied composition with Homer Keller, Adrian Pouliot, Harold Moyer, Joshua Missal, and Robert Marek. He has played trumpet with the Wichita Symphony Orchestra, the Newton Mid-Kansas Symphony Orchestra, and the Wichita Wind Ensemble.

As a composer, Bunny composes contemporary classical music as well as jazz and ballads. Her most recent works include “Breathe” for jazz ensemble, “Suite for Sarro” for string trio, “Fantasy for Saxophones”, (quartet) “Fantasy for Brass” (quintet) and the suite “Two Rivers and An Ocean” for mixed percussion ensemble. Her client commissions include arrangements. Bunny holds a Master of Fine Arts degree in Music Composition from the Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Composer Garth Baxter is noted for his modern traditionalist style of writing. He combines the traditions of form and clear melodic writing with contemporary approaches to harmony and other elements. He is recognized as one of the preeminent composers of art songs and has been described as an unabashed lyrical, tonal composer.

Dušan Bavdek (b. Slovenia, 1971) is a composer and professor of composition and music theory as well as a vice dean for international affairs at the University of Ljubljana Academy of Music. His compositional opus encompasses pieces for symphony orchestra, string orchestra, wind orchestra, opera, ensembles, chamber groups, and soloistic performance.