Composers

Alex Freeman (b. 1972, Raleigh NC) composes in a wide range of styles and media. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music, Boston University's School of Fine Arts, and the Juilliard School, where he completed his doctoral studies in 2004. His doctoral research led him to Finland, via a Fulbright Fellowship, where he lived for six years, studying at The Sibelius Academy and freelancing, before he assumed his current position of Assistant Professor of Music in Composition at Carleton College in Northfield MN.

Philip Carlsen (b. 1951, Coulee Dam WA) earned degrees in composition from the University of Washington, Brooklyn College, and the CUNY Graduate Center. His principal teachers were Robert Suderburg and Jacob Druckman; he also studied with William Bergsma, Stuart Dempster, Mario Davidovsky, and Charles Dodge.

Clifton Callender (b. 1969, Pascagoula MS) is Associate Professor of Composition at Florida State University, and holds degrees from the University of Chicago, Peabody Conservatory, and Tulane University.

Marvin Schluger (1923-2004) was born into a poor immigrant Jewish family in Philadelphia PA. His father had been a coppersmith in the Old World but found it difficult to make a living in America, so Schluger's mother worked to sustain the family. It seemed, however, that there was always an extra dollar-and-a-half for Schluger and his sister to take weekly music lessons. Piano studies with Joseph Levine, and subsequently with Maria Carreras, were the focus of this early music education, while Schluger's explorations in composition were largely self-taught.

Robert Burrell (b. 1956) composes music across a wide spectrum of genre and medium. Coming out of his foundational years in the improvisational genre of charismatic worship music, he has developed a distinctive voice across multiple disciplines.

Raymond Bokhour is a composer, actor, and playwright. He has composed for over 70 theatrical productions over 30 years, with 10 years as Resident Composer for Albany's Actors Shakespeare Company. He composed for the Hudson Valley Shakespeare Company's productions of Winter's Tale, Much Ado, and Twelfth Night.

Mitch Hampton was born in 1967 in New York City, was educated at Interlochen Arts Academy and received a Bachelor's and Master's from New England Conservatory of Music. His piano teacher and mentor while there was Stanley Cowell. His composition instructor was Thomas McKinley.

Composer Gerald Cohen has been praised for his "linguistic fluidity and melodic gift," creating compositions with "a strong sense of tradition- one that embraces Brahms, Bartok, and Britten on one hand and his own Jewish heritage on the other" (Gramophone Magazine). His deeply affecting compositions have been recognized with numerous awards and critical accolades.

Zae Munn is Professor of Music at Saint Mary's College in Notre Dame, Indiana where she has taught composition and theory courses since 1990. She is the Director of the Summer Composition Intensive at Saint Mary's College and has taught at Interlochen Arts Camp, Bowdoin College, Transylvania University, and Lehigh University. Her DMA and MM degrees in composition are from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and her BM in composition is from Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University.

Aleksander Sternfeld-Dunn (b. 1980, Vallejo CA) grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, was educated on both coasts and now finds himself in the middle of the country. His music combines a frenetic rhythmic language, lean textures and lyrical sensitivity. His music has been recorded and performed throughout the United States, Europe, Canada, and Asia by ensembles and organizations including the Kiev Philharmonic, The Contra Costa Chamber Orchestra, Huntsville Alabama Army Band, Composers Inc, Conundrum, The Yale Brass Trio, Scott/Garrison Duo, and Vox Novus.

"Doron Kima utilizes some extremely arresting musical gestures and makes good use of jazzy rhythms, with effective use of contrasts between sections. The composer is clearly in control of the material and instruments" (The American Prize Composition Competition). Kima's catalogue includes works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo, voice, electro-acoustic, and film scores.

Brian Noyes grew up in Cardiff, South Wales, and began his music education by studying the classical guitar at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, subsequently freelancing as a performer and teacher until his interest in composition took him to University College Cardiff and then Goldsmiths' College, London. This was the time, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when his first pieces were performed by ensembles such as Lontano, Music Projects London, Singcircle, etc., and also, pivotally for him as a composer, when he attended Dartington Summer School, under the tutelage of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, and Aldeburgh School of Advanced Studies, with Sir Harrison Birtwistle.

Nicholas Anthony Ascioti was born in Syracuse NY on May 30th, 1974. He attended the College of St. Rose in Albany NY where he earned degrees in Composition and Conducting. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree in Composition from Bennington College in Vermont. Asciotis has studied with Allen Shawn, Dr. Amy Williams, and Stephen Siegel.

Peter Vukmirovic Stevens is a composer, pianist, and multimedia artist. Stevens’ illustrative music covers an extensive palette of sensibilities from concert to sound art. He is the founder of Ensemble Ex Materia. Stevens lives in Paris.

Fredrick Kaufman is the composer of over 130 published compositions that have been performed worldwide by orchestras such as the Warsaw Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Czech Radio Orchestra, Lithuanian Philharmonic, London Sinfonietta, National Orchestra of Brazil, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New World Symphony and the Pittsburgh Symphony orchestras. Kaufman is a former Fulbright Scholar, and recipient honors and fellowships from the Endowment of the Arts, the Rockefeller, Guggenheim and Ford Foundations.

William Coble’s premieres include the Richmond Symphony, Hudson Valley Philharmonic, Syracuse Symphony, Moravian Philharmonic, Concerto Soloists Chamber Orchestra, Composers Conference Chamber Orchestra, Contempo Chamber Orchestra, eighth blackbird, New York New Music Ensemble, Alea III, and the Pacifica String Quartet. He has been performed by Matt Albert, David Tanenbaum, Scott St. John, Steve Harlos, Charles Mokotoff, Daphne Gerling, Susan Synnestvedt, William Hite, Jay Morrissey, Walter Huff, Elizabeth McNutt, Sharon Garvey-Cohen, Chuong Vu, Janelle Ott, Lisa Kaplan, Judy Pannill, and Heran Yang.

Arend moves easily across genres such as classical, jazz, and electro-acoustic music. He has written or performed music in contexts ranging from theater, dance, and concert stage to art galleries, night clubs, and outdoor festivals. Arend's music has been performed in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Gramophone Magazine calls Shawn Crouch a "gifted young composer" and Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times describes Shawn Crouch's work as music of "gnarling atonal energy". Lawrence Johnson of the Miami Herald called his Road From Hiroshima; A Requiem a "staggering achievement, an imaginative, powerful and deeply moving work" making the Miami Herald and Sun Sentinel's 2005 Classical Music Standouts.

American-born composer, Nicolas Kaviani, has been actively composing chamber, orchestral and choral music since the age of 13. Mr. Kaviani received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from the University of California at Santa Cruz in the year 2000, studying under the noted composer David Cope. He then went on to earn his grade de master in composition from the prestigious Conservatoire de Musique Olivier Messiaen in Avignon, France. There Mr. Kaviani was invited multiple times to attend master classes with some of the most prominent composers in France, including on one occasion Pierre Boulez, during the summer of 2005. In 2006 Mr. Kaviani's String quartet #4 was performed in the Festival de Musique Contemporaine in Avignon.

Portland OR native Kevin M. Walczyk received the Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of North Texas where he received the Hexter Prize for outstanding graduate student and served as arranger for the renowned University of North Texas One O'clock Lab Band. Walczyk's works have been commissioned and/or recorded by organizations that include the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Oregon Symphony, Kiev Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, Ukraine National Symphony, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Portland Youth Philharmonic, and consortium-commissioning projects comprising over 60 university and conservatory wind ensembles.