Composers

Mark Zanter has appeared on NPR’s Live at the Landmark, WILL, IPR, WVPN’s In Touch With The Arts, is published by Les Productions d’OZ, Schott European American and MJIC, and his works have been performed nationally and internationally at festivals including, MUSIC X, June in Buffalo, Soundscape, NYCEMF, Echofluxx, SEAMUS, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Generative Art International, Seensound, MIUC, Melbourne, and SPLICE.

Judith Lang Zaimont's music is often cited for its immediacy, emotion and drama. Her distinctive style-strongly expressive, sensitive to musical color and rhythmically vital-is evident in even her early music. The New York Times described it as "exquisitely crafted, vividly characterized and wholly appealing," and perhaps for these reasons her music has consistently drawn performers from around the globe and several of her works have achieved repertoire status.

Dr. Amir Zaheri (b. 1979) is the musical director and conductor of the University of Alabama Contemporary Ensemble, which is committed to performing music of the 20th and 21st centuries, including masterworks by established composers, music by emerging composers, and the music of University of Alabama student and faculty composers. He also serves as full time instructor of composition and theory, maintaining a full studio of student composers. Immediately prior to his appointment, Zaheri held the distinguished Narramore Fellowship at the University of Alabama, in Tuscaloosa, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Composition in 2013. At UA, Zaheri studied under the primary tutelage of C.P. First and received additional instruction from Peter Westergaard.

Stephen Yip was born in Hong Kong and is now living in the United States. He received his doctor of musical arts (D.M.A.) at Rice University and bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, studied with Law Wing-­fai, Clarence Mak, and Arthur Gottschalk.

Benjamin Yee-Paulson (b. 1994) is an internationally recognized American composer. Born in Boston MA, his music has reached many countries like the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and the United States. His music has premiered in many prestigious places like Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Harvard University, Curtis Institute of Music, Warwick Castle in England, La Schola Cantorum in Paris, and the world opening of Microsoft’s flagship store in New York City.

Believing that creativity is an elemental and essential part of human nature, Rain Worthington has followed her own instinctive path. Self-taught and cross-disciplinary, her creative impulses include concert music and sculptural spaces for attentive reflection. American Record Guide notes a focus of “deep interiority” from “a composer of considerable imagination, emotional expressiveness, and poetic sensibility.”

Kong-Yu Wong was born in Canton and he then became a HongKonger. He studies music at different institutes in China and Hong Kong, and was awarded a PhD from the University of York in England. Principal mentors of his include composers Gao Weijie and Nicola LeFanu. Wong’s recent works include a number of vocal compositions in varied forces and different languages. His piano music for young people is especially welcomed by pianists and audiences alike.

Native Floridian Henry Wolking (1948) is a composer, trombonist, conductor, teacher, and author. He completed his Bachelor Degree in music education from the University of Florida, and Master of Music in Composition at the University of North Texas in 1971. At the age of 24, he began his teaching career as head of the jazz area at the University of Utah. He retired in 2011 and is a University Professor Emeritus Of Music. He is the recipient of the 2018 School of Music Camerata Award, which celebrates the contributions of musicians and patrons of the arts to the University of Utah and broader community. He maintains a busy schedule of writing and arranging for classical and jazz groups. There are currently over 75 of his jazz works in the Walrus/EJazzlines online catalog.

Michael Wittgraf (b. 1962) is an electronic music composer whose recent work explores live manipulation of feedback, interactive improvisation, and video. His music has been performed around the world, and is available on the Ravello, New Ariel, Eroica, and SEAMUS recording labels, and through iTunes, Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, and other platforms. He has awards, commissions, and recognition from ASCAP, Modern Chamber Players, National Symphony Orchestra, Tempus Fugit, Louisiana State University, University of Minnesota, University of North Dakota, Florida State University, PiKappa Lambda, Zeitgeist, Chiara String Quartet, Bush Foundation, North Dakota Museum of Art, North Dakota Council on the Arts, and more. He was awarded a North Dakota Individual Artist Fellowship in 2007, and in 2011 he was named the North Valley Arts Council Artist of the Year.

Although born in Wisconsin, “Dean” Witter was raised in Los Angeles CA. His early studies were with Halsey Stevens in composition and Ethel Leginska in piano.

Betty Wishart and music are synonymous. Her earliest memories involve singing in church choirs and playing the piano. She was introduced to contemporary music while studying with Richard Bunger at Queens University. At the end of her junior year, she wrote her first composition, submitted it to a music fraternity and was invited to perform a mini-recital of her music at their international conference. That event inspired her to continue composing while earning an M.M. degree in piano performance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

John Christopher Wineglass is a multiple ®EMMY Award-Winning Composer who has performed on five continents, before U.S. presidents since Ronald Reagan, and with several ®OSCAR and ®GRAMMY Award-winning artists including Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, and Jamie Foxx to name a few. He has written several scores and incidental music for shows on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, CBS, and ABC as well as documentaries on Headliners & Legends for The Brady Bunch, Kathy Lee Gifford, and Farah Fawcett. Having scored mainly independent films, several of his nationally syndicated commercials include music for the United States Army, American Red Cross, and Texaco as well.

Anthony Wilson (b. 1962) developed a strong interest in music from an early age. He spent many hours at the piano as a child,  experimenting with various combinations of sound. His parents’ record player also provided the wonderful experience of being able to enjoy both the world of classical music and popular music.  

Mark Edwards Wilson, currently a member of the faculty of the University of Maryland, began his productive career in his native California. He studied with Henri Lazarof and Leon Kirchner at the University of California at Los Angeles, where he received a Ph.D. at the age of 25. He has received many prizes, awards, and other honors for his orchestral and vocal works, as well as his chamber music and electro-acoustic compositions, many of which have been commissioned and performed by major institutions and performing organizations.

Michael Glenn Williams' music and piano performance is featured on productions such as the "Chicago Hope;" "Wicker Park," "The Limey," "King of the Hill," "Younger and Younger," "House of Yes," "Through the Door" and "Wonderland." His concert transcriptions of video game music are featured in the game "Crabs and Penguins" from Coke, and performed by the Video Games Live orchestra.

Osias Wilenski was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From an early age he studied piano with Professor Vicente Scaramuzza and harmony, counterpoint and composition with Dr. Erwin Leuchter, who had been a pupil of Alban Berg. From Leuchter comes his early interest in 12-tone music, a system that Wilenski has abandoned since. During the 1950s and through the suggestion of pianist Arturo Rubinstein, Wilenski won a scholarship to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he resided for several years. There he studied composition with William Bergsma, William Schuman and Vincent Persichetti. He also had private piano lessons from virtuoso Simon Barere, of which he was the only pupil. He started a solo pianist career and played concerts in New York in Hunter College and Town Hall.

David F. Wilborn has emerged as an internationally acclaimed composer, trombonist, conductor, and music educator. He is an award-winning composer whose compositions are enjoyed for their creative use of rhythmic development and innovative musical style. Occasionally, these features intersect with passages of main-stream jazz or Latin jazz, thus making his music accessible to many listeners and performers. Overall, his style may be regarded as contemporary classical while borrowing from traditional music forms.

Beth Wiemann was raised in Burlington VT, studied composition and clarinet at Oberlin College and received her Ph.D. in composition from Princeton University. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally by the ensembles Continuum, Transient Canvas, Earplay, Guerilla Opera, and others.  Her compositions have won awards from the Orvis Foundation, Copland House, the Colorado New Music Festival, New York Treble Singers, and regional arts councils. She teaches clarinet, composition, and music theory at the University of Maine. 

Elements of Gregorian chant, Indian raga music, gamelan, rock, and progressive rock are frequently present in Bill Whitley’s work. Western composers who continue to influence his work include Brian Eno, John Cage, Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk, Tetsu Inoue, Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, Lou Harrison, Pauline Oliveros, and Paul Dresher.

Alastair White (b. 1988) is a Scottish composer and writer currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Composition at Goldsmiths, University of London with Roger Redgate. In 2018 he wrote and composed the opera WEAR, an immersive sci-fi which combined contemporary music with high fashion and abstract theater; it was described by Mark Berry as “spellbinding...an opera of rare imagination - and success” and has since been shortlisted for a Scottish Award for New Music.