Composers

Östhammar, Sweden-based Håkan Sundin (b. 1961) leads a varied musical career, working as a composer, freelance flutist and saxophonist, and as a church musician. Sundin received his jazz education from Skurups Folk High School (1980-82), and continued on to the Malmö Academy of Music for flute and composition (1983-88); from there, he continued his education in composition with seminars at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus, Denmark (1988-90). In addition to his formal education, Sundin has continued his flute studies with private lessons from flutist Manuela Wiesler, among others.

Composer, teacher and conductor William A. Fletcher can trace his fascination with music to a specific event: a free concert given by a then-new duo, Simon and Garfunkel, when he was 12 years old. He took up guitar that very week, and joyfully played it all day, every day for the next 15 years...

Don Freund is an internationally recognized composer with works ranging from solo, chamber, and orchestral music to pieces involving live performances with electronic instruments, music for dance, and large theatre works. He has been described as "a composer thoughtful in approach and imaginative in style" (Washington Post), whose music is "exciting, amusing, disturbing, beautiful, and always fascinating" (Music and Musicians, London).

William Vollinger is predominantly a composer of vocal music, spoken and/or sung, performed by groups such as the Gregg Smith Singers and New York Vocal Arts Ensemble, whose performance of Three Songs About the Resurrection won first prize at the Geneva International Competition. The instrumental work The Violinist in the Mall won the 2005 Friends and Enemies of New Music competition. Sound Portraits is a collection of his vocal works featuring soprano Linda Ferraira recorded by Capstone-Ravello. Raspberry Man was selected for both the 2009 National SCI Conference in Santa Fe NM and the University of Nebraska 2009 New Music Festival.

The music of Peter Van Zandt Lane (b. 1985, Port Jefferson NY) has been described as having "Propulsive rhythms" and "surprising lyricism" and has been praised by musicians and critics alike (Boston Musical Intelligencer) as music that "gives an amazing first impression." A Boston-based composer and bassoonist, Peter writes passionately for ensembles of all types, and often employs the use of electronics in his compositions. With backgrounds in classical performance and rock, contemporary theory and music engineering, he draws on his diverse experiences to create music that is fresh, genuine, and widely appealing.

From the onset of his career, German composer Gerhard Stäbler (b. 1949) has not only been active as a composer, but also involved in the political and organizational arenas. He organized the new music festival Aktive Musik, along with serving as the artistic director of the 1995 World Music Days of the ISCM in the Ruhr Area in Germany. A third vital point of his activities lies in teaching; he has worked with many young international composers in a variety of workshops and seminars. He was a composer-in-residence and visiting professor throughout North and South America as well as in the Middle and Far East.

Lawrence Siegel brings to the writing of KADDISH twenty-five years of experience creating and directing music and music theater projects using texts from oral histories, interviews, and community dialogues. His music has won awards from the McKnight Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation, the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, and many others. He has been a fellow in composition at the Tanglewood Music Center and the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, NH.

Jim Scully (b. 1979) is a composer, performer and educator in the fields of contemporary classical music, electroacoustic music and jazz studies. He is currently a member of the music faculty at CSU Bakersfield, where he is tasked with teaching an array of courses in the fields of Music Theory, Jazz Studies, Composition and Music Technology. In addition, he serves as Director of the CSU Bakersfield Guitar Arts Series, Director of Small Jazz Ensembles, Director of the Audio/MIDI Lab and Assistant Director of the Bakersfield Jazz Festival.

Sophia Serghi (b. 1972) was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and is now a resident of the United States. She has written works for stage, orchestra, and chamber ensembles, along with her vocal and multimedia works, and her compositions have been performed throughout Europe and the United States.

Composer James Tribble has been writing and playing music for about 30 years, gradually learning his craft. He taught himself piano at 14, creating a lot of bad habits, and he has performed and taught piano, violin and viola since then while improving his own technique.

Francis Fairman (b. 1923) was born in Annapolis MD. Growing up in a musical family, his father played the violin, his mother the piano, his brother the trumpet, and his sister the violin, Fairman was exposed to music at an early age; he had his first piano lesson in Pittsburgh at the age of 5, and was soon able to sight read and play Beethoven's Sonata Pathetique Op. 13. At age 10, his family moved to Philadelphia, where he continued music lessons under Ms. Gertrude Hamilton, a Curtis Institute graduate.

A native of Manitowoc, WI - distinguished composer and pianist Allen Bonde is Professor Emeritus of Music at Mount Holyoke College. A graduate of Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, he has both the Master of Music and (the first) Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the Catholic University of America. He has received many awards, honors, and commissions, notably a Festival Casals Scholarship, a Yale Graduate Fellowship, an American Composers Project, a Rockefeller Foundation Grant, and was recognized for his outstanding contributions in music with Alumni Achievement Awards from Lawrence University and Catholic University.

Neil Thornock was born in Washington State — the rural, agricultural side — in 1977. He received degrees in organ performance and composition from Brigham Young University and a Doctor of Music degree from Indiana University.

London-born Nicholas Sackman (b. 1950) studied music at Nottingham University and then at Leeds University with Alexander Goehr. He spent fifteen years teaching music in schools before returning to the Music Department at Nottingham as a Lecturer in Composition.

Unabashedly tonal and delightfully anachronistic, the music of American composer Scott Michal combines lyric, harmonic and rhythmic ingenuity with exceptional craftsmanship in a unique stylistic manner that remains true to the spirit of the great masters. Neo-classic in form and tonality, innovative and original in content, Scott’s music is always fun to listen to, and fun to perform.

Composer and bassist Israel Neuman (b. 1966, Haifa, Israel) received a Ph.D. in composition and a M.A. in jazz studies at the University of Iowa, and a B.Mus. in jazz studies at the University of Hartford. He studied composition with Lawrence Fritts, John Eaton, David Gompper and John Rapson. He studied bass with Gary Karr, Michael Klinghoffer, Diana Gannett, Volkan Orhon, and Anthony Cox.

Michael Boyd (b. 1978, Montgomery County MD) is a composer, scholar and experimental improviser who currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA. His music, performed throughout the United States, attempts to (re)integrate performers into the creative process of music making through graphic notation and embraces experimental practices such as live electronics, improvisation, installation, multimedia and performance art.

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.

Michael Summers' music has harmonic richness, rhythmic flair, and a gift for melody. His works include lyrical string quartet movements, sexy 17th-century song settings and funk-inflected piano pieces. His organ piece Variations on an English Folksong, released by Navona in 2011, was described as 'urgently dramatic' by Gramophone and 'striking and ingenious' by Allmusic.com. Other keyboard works include Modus operandi for piano, which was first performed in 2010. One critic noted its 'subtle and complex rhythms and its impressionist language' and likened the style to Bartok and Debussy.

Tadd Russo (b. 1976, Parma, Ohio) received his master's degree in composition from The Ohio State University, where his principal instructor was Thomas Wells. Critic Ralph O'Dette has praised his lyrical gift, hailing his music for the theatre as memorable.