Composers

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.

Randy Bauer's works have been performed across the United States and Europe by members of the Minnesota and St. Paul Chamber Orchestras, the Brentano String Quartet, eighth blackbird, Nash Ensemble of London, Zeitgeist, and many others, and has been broadcast on WFMT Chicago and Minnesota Public Radio. He has been a McKnight Foundation Fellow, and a resident artist at Yaddo, the Ucross Foundation, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. He holds degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and Princeton University, and is on the faculty of Macalester College in St. Paul MN.

Jay C. Batzner (b. 1974, Dubuque IA) is currently on the faculty of Central Michigan University where he teaches music technology, electronic music composition, and music theory courses. Prior to this position Dr. Batzner was on the faculty of the University of Central Florida, Kansas City Kansas Community College, Metropolitan Community Colleges (Kansas City area), and Indiana University Southeast. He earned his doctorate in composition at the University of Missouri - Kansas City and holds degrees in composition and/or theory from the University of Louisville and the University of Kansas.

The music of award-winning composer Greg Bartholomew is frequently performed across the United States and in Canada, Australia and Europe by such highly regarded instrumental ensembles as Third Angle New Music Ensemble, the Electrum Brass Trio, and the Spring Wind Quintet, as well as such acclaimed choral ensembles as Seattle Pro Musica, Austin Vocal Arts Ensemble, and Connecticut Choral Artists (CONCORA). NPR classical music reviewer Tom Manoff called Bartholomew "a fine composer not afraid of accessibility."

Carol Barnett’s music has been called audacious and engaging. Her varied catalog includes works for solo voice, piano, chorus, diverse chamber ensembles, orchestra, and wind ensemble. She has received grants and fellowships from the Camargo Foundation, Cassis, France (1991), the Inter-University Research Committee on Cyprus (1999), the Jerome Foundation (2002), and the McKnight Foundation (2005).

Nearly all of Navid Bargrizan's compositions explore intonational and tuning concepts, ranging from just intonation and extended equal temperaments (e.g. 24-tone or 36-tone equal temperament) to various microtonal concepts taken from diverse musical cultures. Since 2014, his experiments with microtonality have resulted in 13 premieres and more than 40 performances of his works in the United States, Canada, Germany, and Austria, including at New York City Electroacoustic Festival, Toronto Electroacoustic Festival, Eastern Music Festival, Florida Contemporary Festival, and conferences of the Society of Composers, Inc.

Stephen Barber is an influential American voice with over 30 years of professional experience as a composer of concert and film music and an arranger, performer and producer for jazz, classical, popular and world music. From early beginnings in Abilene, Texas, his musical contributions encompass a varied list of the world's leading musicians and ensembles, including Joe Zawinul, Joe Henry, Keith Richards, Meridian Arts Ensemble, Ornette Coleman, T. Bone Burnett, Trakia (Bulgaria) folk ensemble, London Symphony Orchestra, Chamber players from the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, American Boys Choir and Czech Radio Orchestra, to name a few.

Composer Jason V. Barabba's (b. 1970) work has been called "deeply meditative" by Fanfare magazine, and his music has been performed by such diverse musicians as the Arneis Quartet, Janaki String Trio, clarinetist Richard Stoltzman, the California E.A.R. Unit, and Chicago's Quintet Attacca. Reviews of the 2011 premiere of Barabba's work Diddling: Considered as One of the Exact Sciences said it was "uproariously hilarious, Barabba's "Diddling" was plain evidence of this composer's tremendous talent and ability to evoke laughter from the listener " not an easy task."

Regina Harris Baiocchi is a composer, author, and poet. Her music has been performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Philharmonic, U.S. Army Band, American Guild of Organists, Chicago Brass, Gaudete Brass, and Milwaukee Brass quintets, Lincoln Trio, Avalon String Quartet, and other acclaimed artists. Baiocchi has written music for symphony orchestra, a mass, libretto, opera, marimba concerto, hand drum concerto, ballet, chamber ensembles, choral, jazz, gospel, solo: voice, flute, oboe d’amore, bass oboe, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, and pipe organ.

Lawrence Ball grew up surrounded by music of all kinds, perpetually, in the home. He is a largely self-taught composer and musician, who began playing melodies by ear at age 4. Ball holds a Computer Science BSc Hons. degree from London University, 1972, where he also studied computer-generated music research. Notable collaborations include those with The Who’s guitarist and principal songwriter Pete Townshend on the Lifehouse-Method project, which resulted in over 10,000 generated music portraits over the internet. A related album, METHOD MUSIC, was released in 2012 on Navona Records. Over the course of his career, Ball has covered a broad palette of media expressions, scored over 200 musical pieces, recorded a wide range of music including electronic, programmed computer software, and improvised over 4000 improvised piano works.

Inspired by Christian iconography, Nathan’s compositions emphasize music’s ability to propose emotional narratives by layering and/or juxtaposing simple musical ideas, or “sonic icons.“ This approach to composition—praised by the Boston Globe as “adroit and expressively efficient”—stresses the relationship between disparate musical ideas, which the audience is invited to reconcile of their own accord. And while the narrative journeys of Nathan’s compositions can thus be as varied as humanity itself, the subject of each work points only to One: the salvation of humanity.

Composer by character and performer by temperament, James Scott Balentine is as complex as his music; that is, moderately enigmatic yet engaging. His compositions are fun and interesting to play, intriguing to the listener, and crafted in a personal language influenced by ethnic dance, jazz and folk idioms, tonal as well as atonal and serial techniques.

After he finished his studies piano, church organ, and choral conducting at the Dutch Institute for Church Music in Utrecht, Hans Bakker (b. 1945) worked as a teacher at two music schools in the Netherlands. He also conducted two choirs and was active in the improvisational music scene. His career in music was followed by the study of Sanskrit. After obtaining his master's degree at the University of Amsterdam, he returned to music, becoming completely occupied by teaching at Globe Center for Art and Culture in the city of Hilversum.

Robert A. Baker (born 1970, Toronto, Canada) is a composer, theorist, pianist and conductor of new music. His compositions have been performed at concerts and at festivals and conferences in North America and Europe including: the St. Magnus and York Spring New Music Festivals (UK); Jihlava International Choral Festival (Czech Republic); Festival "Giuseppe Rosetta" (Italy); New Music North (Canada); Miami New Music ISCM Festival (USA).

Sidney Bailin started composing when he was 6. His first piece was in three-part counterpoint, a fact that he still cannot explain. Imitative counterpoint remains a defining characteristic of his music, perhaps because of his early exposure to species counterpoint, which he learned formally at the age of 10.