Composers

Jeffrey John Hall, a composer residing in Tucson AZ, was born in Milwaukee WI on May 22, 1941. His education includes both M.A. and D.M.A. degrees from Columbia University. He has written works for computer sound, voice, chamber ensembles, piano, and chamber orchestra.

Shara Nova has released five albums under the moniker My Brightest Diamond and has composed works for yMusic, Brooklyn Rider, Nadia Sirota, Conspirare, Cantus Domus, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Roomful of Teeth, and many community choirs, as well as Aarhus Symfoni, North Carolina Symphony, Indianapolis Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and the BBC Concert Orchestra, among others.

Ashlee T. Busch is a composer, performer, remixer, arranger, and educator based in Grand Rapids MI. Busch most enjoys collaborating with other artists in poetry, dance, installation art, video, and more. Such collaborations have included residencies with East Coast and Midwest universities, as an artist with Grammy-award-winning PARMA Recordings, publishing with mixed ensemble music education publisher Leading Tones LLC, publishing with digital choral music company Zintzo LLC, and collaborations with ensembles premiering her works across the United States.

The New York Times' head critic Anthony Tommasini raved about Keith Lay as "a composer to watch for," and Gramophone magazine has described his music as "unapologetically emotional.” Lay explains, "My life's goal is to share my reverent wonder about sound and the connections to our nature made available through listening. Every new piece is a joyful opportunity to construct a fresh musical method, technique, or invention."

Alla Elana Cohen is a distinguished composer, pianist, music theorist, and teacher who came to the United States in 1989 from Russia. Graduating from the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory with the highest honors of distinction, Cohen lives in Boston and is a professor at Berklee College of Music.

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.

A native of Houston, Andrew Schneider is a composer, pianist, and vocal coach whose virtuosic technique and daring interpretation has cemented his reputation among clients as a fearless musician. His extensive collaborative activity encompasses early music, standard operatic and art song repertoire, as well as contemporary music. Proficient for coaching purposes in French, German, Italian, and Latin, as well as adept with less frequently encountered languages, especially Slavic ones, Schneider enjoys using his considerable linguistic skill to help make challenging texts accessible to his clients. His wide ranging musical activities also include harpsichord and organ performance and conducting.

Welsh-born composer Hilary Tann lived in the foothills of the Adirondack Mountains in Upstate New York where she was the John Howard Payne Professor of Music Emerita at Union College, Schenectady. Her compositions have been widely performed and recorded by ensembles such as the European Women’s Orchestra, Tenebrae, Lontano, Marsyas Trio, Thai Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

Described by American Record Guide as “...a composer whose heart and care are palpable... who has a voice that deserves to be heard often” and by the Baltimore Sun as having “a refined sense of melodic arcs and harmonic motion,” Peter Dayton’s compositions have been performed across North America and in Europe.

(Ernest) John Robertson (b. 1943) was born in New Zealand but is a longtime resident of Canada. His secondary school offered music as a full time subject, allowing Robertson to find his footing. Upon leaving school, he went into the insurance business where he spent his working life. Having emigrated to Canada in 1967, he continued to compose on the side.

Katherine Price (b. 1992, Indiana) is an American composer of choral music, orchestral music, and chamber music native to Indiana. Price began composing as a child, writing down her compositions at age 13. Drawing influences from the Anglican Choral Tradition, European early music, American folk music, Orthodox hymnody, and holy minimalism, her compositions reflect the styles of such composers as Arvo Pärt, John Tavener, and Knut Nystedt.

Marvin Lamb (b. 1946) is Professor of Music & Head of the Music Composition Program at the University of Oklahoma, where he served as Dean of the Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts from 1998-2005. His music has been performed widely in the United States, Europe, Canada, Mexico, South America & Japan. In addition, his orchestral works have been performed by the symphonies of Atlanta, Dallas, Colorado, Nashville, Syracuse, the Cabrillo Festival, featured on chamber music series sponsored by the St Louis & Honolulu symphonies & recorded by the Czech Philharmonic Symphony.

Diane Jones’ music has been performed by The Relâche Ensemble, The Da Capo Chamber Players, Trio Casals, and Flautet. She has been commissioned by Mélomanie, the Society for New Music, and the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation, and she recently completed a commission from the Syracuse International Film Festival to score the 1919 silent film, “The Doll,” screened during the 2019 festival with a live ensemble.

Ben Marino (b. February 18, 1982) is a composer, producer, and pianist. Born and raised in Valencia CA, his education in music started early at the piano learning the Suzuki method. His private piano studies continued throughout high school where he was influenced by the solo piano compositions of Bela Bartok and Frederic Chopin. After graduating William S. Hart High School in Newhall CA in 2000, he was accepted to study Piano Performance and Music Composition at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA (2001-2002).

Fergus Johnston (b. 1959) is an Irish-born composer. He graduated from Trinity College Dublin with an Honors degree in Music in 1982. In 1999 he completed a Master's degree in Music and Media Technology at TCD (1999), and in 2011 he received a Ph.D. from the National University of Ireland, Maynooth. As a result of his contribution to Irish culture, he was elected to membership of Aosdána, Ireland's state-supported artistic academy, in 1992, and was a board member of the National Concert Hall, Dublin from 1996 until 2001.

Joungmin Lee is a composer, choral conductor, and digital music artist focusing on acoustic and electroacoustic music with interdisciplinary approaches. Lee's music is an experimentalist endeavor in pursuit of innovative sound both in the instrumental and digital worlds. He attempts to make this happen with several means, including spectral techniques, computer music, or any combination of these trends.

Marcellino's sound embraces Western art music tradition with eclectic influences from other musical traditions such as jazz and non-western music and folk traditions. Since graduation, Marcellino has built an international profile as a composer in various genres of chamber music, orchestral music, opera, musical theater, and radio works. He has been awarded various prizes and commissions, including an Australia Council Fellowship and the Lowin Prize for his work Canticle for Brisbane Cathedrals Festival.

Composer Paul Osterfield was born in Nashville TN in 1973. Spending his formative years in Northeast Ohio, he composed and performed as a cellist throughout middle school and high school, in addition to studying violin, piano, and conducting. His early efforts as a composer were recognized in 1990, when the United States Copyright Office and the Library of Congress awarded Osterfield first prize in their Young Creators’ Contest. The following year, that winning work was performed by the Cleveland Orchestra on their Family Key Concert Series.

Heidi Jacob’s music has been described by BBC Magazine as “compositions ...of complex mesmerizing beauty,” by David Patrick Stearns of the Philadelphia Inquirer as “a musical adventurer,” and by Gramophone Magazine as music with “.....forthright expressiveness [that] exposes a multitude of stylistic associations.” A composer, cellist, and conductor, she is a graduate of both the Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, with a D.M.A. in composition from Temple University. She has performed as a cellist throughout the United States and Europe and has recorded as a cellist and conductor for the Capstone Records, Albany Records, and Navona Records.

Born in Detroit MI in 1970, Sean Hickey’s earliest music education began at age 12 with an electric guitar, a Peavey amp, and a stack of Van Halen records (the early ones of course). He studied jazz guitar at Oakland University, later graduating with a degree in composition and theory from Wayne State University. His primary instructors were James Hartway, James Lentini, and Leslie Bassett. After moving to New York, Hickey pursued further studies with Justin Dello Joio and Gloria Coates. His works include a symphony (Olympus Mons), concertos for clarinet, cello and mandolin, two string trios, a string quartet, a flute sonata, a woodwind quintet and trio, numerous pieces for solo instruments, church, theater and orchestral music.