Allan Crossman has had the great pleasure to write for soloists and ensembles worldwide, including many commissions and awards. Millennium Overture appeared on the eponymous GRAMMY-nominated album from North/South Consonance; Music for Human Choir shared Top Honors at the Waging Peace Through Singing Festival in Oregon; Flyer, for cello solo and string orchestra, was written in 2003 for the centenary of the first Wright Brothers flight and premiered/recorded by the North/South Chamber Orchestra (NYC) under Max Lifchitz, with cellist Nina Flyer. It was a featured piece by the Kalistos Chamber Orchestra at the Society of Composers national conference at Denison University, OH. Florébius, violin/piano, was released by Parma in 2016, with the Eusebius Duo (San Francisco). The musical, The Log of the Skipper’s Wife, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Co. at Stratford and the Kennedy Center, with music drawn from Irish/Scottish shanties. Canada Council, American Composers Forum and others have supported his work. He taught at Concordia University (Montreal) and the San Francisco Conservatory. Crossman was born into an artistic family in New York City in 1942 and worked with George Rochberg, George Crumb, and Hugo Weisgall at the University of Pennsylvania (Honors BA, MA). His principal piano studies were with Irwin Gelber.
JOHN G. BILOTTA
John Bilotta (b. 1948) was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, but has spent most his life in the San Francisco Bay Area where he studied composition with Frederick Saunders at the San Francisco Music & Arts Institute. He has also attended masterclasses and workshops with Alexander Tcherepnin, David Del Tredici, and Chen Yi. His interest in composition began in middle school where he experimented with writing instrumental and vocal works some of which were performed in school events. After high school, he attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he received Bachelors and Masters degrees in Psychology.
Bilotta’s early vocal works, particularly the Renaissance Songs, Yeats Songs, and Two Songs on American Poetry, have been performed repeatedly at music festivals and concerts in both the United States and Europe. His most recent song cycle The League of Minor Characters (2017) premiered this past August.
His one-act opera Aria da Capo (1980), a setting of the verse play by Edna St. Vincent Millay, was a finalist in a competition sponsored by the New York City Opera. His second opera Quantum Mechanic (2007), winner of two awards, is frequently performed in the U.S. and Europe. His third opera Trifles (2010), a setting of the play by Susan Glaspell, has had multiple productions in the U.S. His most recent opera Rosetta’s Stone (2015) was a collaborative project with a Norwegian composer/librettist team and premiered in California in 2016 with European performances being planned for the 2018-2019 season.
Bilotta’s works have been performed in the United States, Canada, Asia, and Europe by outstanding soloists and ensembles including rarescale, Earplay, the Talea Ensemble, the Washington Square Contemporary Music Society, Chamber Mix, Musica Nova, Avenue Winds, Presidio Ensemble, the Boston String Quartet, the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra, the Kiev Philharmonic, the Oakland Civic Orchestra, San Francisco Cabaret Opera, Bluegrass Opera, Boston Metro Opera, Thompson Street Opera, New Fangled Opera, and Floating Opera.
His music is available on Capstone Records, Navona Records, New Music North, Beauport Classical Recordings, ERMMedia and Australia’s Bouddi Recordings. He is a member of the Board of Directors for Goat Hall Productions and a member of the Executive Committee of the Society of Composers, Inc., for which he edits SCION, the Society’s opportunities newsletter.