Composers

Jonathan Sheffer is a Grammy-nominated composer and conductor whose diverse career in music spans the worlds of classical, opera, dance, and film and television. Born in New York City, Sheffer graduated from Harvard University, where his teachers included Leonard Bernstein, and later attended The Juilliard Extension School and the Aspen School of Music. Sheffer’s range of works comprises television and feature film scores, works for orchestra, solo piano, concertos, musicals, and short operas. In addition to several scores for Hollywood films, including Encino Man, Pure Luck, A Shallow Grave and others, his most recent films include the documentaries Mann v. Ford (HBO) and the German/Israeli film, The Decent One, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival.

Frank Felice (b. 1961) is an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: each piece speaks in its own language, and his works can be by turns comedic/ironic, simple/complex, subtle/startling, or humble/reverent. Recent projects of Felice’s have taken a turn toward the sweeter side, exploring a consonant adiatonicism.

Monica (Niki) Houghton was born in Vermont and raised in northern Nevada. She holds A.B. and A.M. degrees from Harvard University in Chinese Language and Literature and East Asian Studies. She earned an M.M. in Composition from the Cleveland Institute of Music in 2003 and served as Instructor for their Joint Music Program with Case Western Reserve University for nine years before moving back to Nevada in 2011.

​Before turning his attention to composition, Andrew Lewinter had a long and varied career as an orchestral horn player and soloist. As a composer, Lewinter has a decidedly tonal and neo-romantic style that is often very contrapuntal and always emotionally gripping. His works include sonatas for each of the brass instruments and piano, a quartet for trumpet, horn, trombone and piano, quintets for both horn and string quartet and oboe and string quartet, a woodwind quintet, a string quartet, and a trio for oboe, horn, and piano, among other works scored for a variety of chamber ensembles. Lewinter’s compositions have been widely performed and recorded, and are available on Navona Records and Ablaze records.

“A new voice on our horizon is felt and heard with [composer] Debra Kaye” (Classical Modern Music Review). Her visceral music has been described as “an eclectic unfolding of creativity” (Gramophone), it ranges from lyrical to grooving, experimental to coloristic but above all, expressive and deeply felt. Kaye is a hybrid and her music reflects it. Born in Motown, currently living in New York City, she moved to Atlanta at an early age. Her life and music reflect a desire to feel, understand, and to integrate opposites.

Composer Jan Järvlepp creates a genuine European/American musical fusion by combining the excitement of rock and jazz rhythms with the large-scale classical structures found in orchestral and chamber music. The seriousness of his well-thought-out forms and the immediacy of contemporary rhythmic and melodic ideas make a potent brew that is appealing to both open-minded classical listeners and pop music listeners who are searching for something new.

Michael Murray has been described as "a contemporary craftsman-artist of original stripe" whose music is "easy to listen to in the best possible way." His compositions cover a wide variety of styles and media, but his gift for lyricism is particularly well suited to music for strings and the human voice. In addition to composing concert music, he has written music for film, theater productions, dance, and visual arts installations. His music appears on Navona and Ansonica Records, and is published by Ars Nova Press. He lives in Springfield MO where he is Professor of Music at Missouri State University.

“Full of charm and shapely allure” (Opera News) and “a tapestry of immense grace” (Textura) are some of the praises Christopher J. Hoh has received for his music. He grew up in Reading PA and was influenced as a young singer and accompanist by great works under conductors in Pennsylvania, New York, and Washington. He has been in Alice Parker’s composer seminar as well as workshops with Jean Berger, Daniel Moe, Robert Page, and Craig Jessop. 

Christopher Brakel (b. 1977) is a Boston-based composer of acoustic and electroacoustic concert music, an educator/arts advocate, a music copyist/engraver, and a technology consultant. To date, his concert works have been commissioned and performed across the United States, in Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, and Italy. These performances have included prominent regional, national, and international festivals, conferences, and concerts, including the L.A. Composers Project, Darmstädter Ferienkurse, SEAMUS, and SCI National Conferences, FSU Festival of New Music, June in Buffalo, Midwest Composers Symposium, and the Czech-American Summer Music Institute.

Nathan Froebe (b.1983) is a composer, conductor, and music educator. Having written for band, chorus, orchestra, chamber settings, and electronic media, his works have been performed both nationally and internationally, and frequently appear as favorites in the Midwest. Additionally, his works have been featured at a number of festivals and conferences, including the North American Saxophone Alliance, the International Tuba-Euphonium Association, the National Flute Association, the International Trombone Festival, and the Society of Composers, Inc. Froebe’s works often focus on narrative design and gestural presentation, utilizing a harmonic palette that ranges from thorny chromaticism to exuberant lyricism.

Richard E. Brown, a native of New York State and has been active as a composer-arranger and music educator for many years. His training includes M.M. and D.M. degrees in composition from Florida State University, as well as a B.A. in music education from Central College, which named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1983. His principal composition studies were with Carlisle Floyd, John Boda, and Charles Carter.

William Copper is an American composer of contemporary classical music, a theorist, and the authority on Intonalism, the science of structuring music according to intonation. His music is praised for its beauty, structural integrity, and innovative originality. He has been a life-long supporter and volunteer as Board Member and officer for music and cultural organizations.

Denice Rippentrop believes that composing is a craft that is as much about the creative journey as the final composition itself. Rippentrop is the creator of numerous choral works, each of which she finds challenging in process, but fulfilling in the end. Composing gives her energy and purpose as she continually challenges herself to write with integrity and compassion. Rippentrop writes with a style and flair that reflects her understanding of the voice and ensemble balance.

John Partridge has been performing in the San Francisco Bay Area since the 1970's. As a concert pianist and organist, he specializes in music by American composers. As a composer, he has written everything from film scores to church cantatas.  After graduating from Berkeley High School, John attended UC Santa Cruz where majored in composition and conducting. Returning to the Bay Area in 1976, Partridge served as music director of the Bay Psalmers (a chorus composed of businesspeople in downtown San Francisco), of Berkeley Harmonia Chorus and Orchestra, and at several local churches.

Richard Crosby was born in Ashland OH and raised in Largo FL. He holds a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education (1979), a Master of Music degree in Piano and Wind Conducting (1981), and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Piano (1990) from the University of Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music. His principal piano teachers at CCM were John Meretta and Richard Morris.

Angelique Poteat (b. 1986) is a native of the Pacific Northwest, and many of her works are inspired by the natural beauty of the region. Her music has been described as “engaging, restless” (New York Times), “serious and nicely crafted” (American Record Guide), and “extremely accomplished and vividly picturesque” (Seattle Times), receiving performances on four continents by ensembles including the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, arx Percussion Duo, Emerald City Music, CernaBella, and Trio Claviola. Poteat is the recipient of the 2015 American Prize in Orchestral Composition for her work Beyond Much Difference (2014), and has held Composer-in-Residence positions with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and the New Music on the Rock Festival.

With a musical palette ranging from traditional Jewish prayer modes to minimalist textures with rich melodic contours, and from jazz-influenced rhythms to imaginative orchestrations of the natural world, composer Dr. Meira Warshauer’s music has been performed live to critical acclaim and heard on broadcast and online media worldwide. In much demand for commissions, she writes for orchestras, chamber and vocal ensembles, and soloists, as well as opera.

An explorer of sonic realms, Judith Shatin is equally known for her acoustic, electroacoustic, and digital music. Called “highly inventive on every level” by the Washington Post, her music has been commissioned by organizations including the Barlow Endowment, Fromm Foundation, Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Wintergreen Performing Arts, and the Lila Wallace Reader’s Digest Arts Partners Program.

Gustav Hoyer was born in Denver CO in 1972. His musical pursuits began in high school following a life-changing encounter with the music of Beethoven and Mozart. He subsequently studied music theory, piano, and violin and pursued collegiate degrees in composition. He has written music for a wide variety of ensembles, media, and settings. His recorded music has been heard in film, on radio, and in performance around the world. He continues to create new orchestral music that draws on the tools of classical vocabulary while fully modern in their contemplations. 

Inspired by the worlds of nature and literature, Michael Matthews creates music that compels the listener to step beyond the every day to dwell for a while in images of paradox, to consider the ever-changing tapestry of life. Matthews has a deep love for the contemporary symphonic tradition and has established himself as a master of large-scale musical structures, motivic relationships, and organic wholeness, all of which lie at the core of symphonic thought. The symphony is, for Matthews, both a vital form and a special challenge that allows for musical ideas to be carried between movements. Compositional influences include Beethoven, Mahler, Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Schnittke and, more recently, Scandinavian composers Pettersson and Aho.