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UT New Music Ensemble
The UT New Music Ensemble is a contemporary chamber music group based at the University of Texas at Austin Butler School of Music (College of Fine Arts). The group has been led by Professor Dan Welcher since 1979. Featuring solo, chamber and large ensemble works by living composers and those of the recent past, UTNME presents six full-length concerts annually of new chamber music composed primarily within the past 20 years. This group consists of a sixteen-member core ensemble made up of student instrumentalists and singers at the Butler School of Music. Since the inception of the Visiting Composers Series in 1995, the ensemble has featured works of four to six world-class guest composers every year; recent guest composers have included Samuel Adler, Claude Baker, William Bolcom, Susan Botti, Evan Chambers, John Corigliano, Michael Daugherty, David Del Tredici, John Harbison, Stephen Hartke, Jennifer Higdon, Lee Hyla, Lowell Liebermann, David Maslanka, James MacMillan, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chamber Music
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part (in contrast to orchestral music, in which each string part is played by a number of performers). However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances. Because of its intimate nature, chamber music has been described as "the music of friends". For more than 100 years, chamber music was played primarily by amateur musicians in their homes, and even today, when chamber music performance has migrated from the home to the concert hall, many musicians, amateur and professional, still play chamber music for their own pleasure. Playing chamber music requires special skills, both musical and social, that differ from the skills required for playing solo or symphonic works. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Maslanka
David Maslanka (August 30, 1943 – August 7, 2017) was an American composer of Polish descent who wrote for a variety of genres, including works for choir, wind ensemble, chamber music, and symphony orchestra. Best known for his wind ensemble compositions, Maslanka published over 150 pieces, including ten symphonies, eight of them for concert band, over 15 concerti, and a full Mass. His compositional style is rhythmically intense and complex, highly tonal and melodically-oriented. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, and Japan. His Tenth Symphony was orchestrated by his son, Matthew Maslanka, as it was incomplete at the composer's death. Life Maslanka received his Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory (1961–1965) and went on to earn a Master of Music and Doctor of Philosophy from Michigan State University (1965–71). During his undergraduate work, Maslanka also spent one year studying abroad at the Mozarteum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kevin Puts
Kevin Matthew Puts (born January 3, 1972) is an American composer, best known for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera, ''Silent Night''. Early life and education Puts was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and grew up in Alma, Michigan. He studied composition and piano at the Eastman School of Music and Yale University, earning the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Eastman School of Music. Among his teachers were Samuel Adler, Jacob Druckman, David Lang, Christopher Rouse, Joseph Schwantner, Martin Bresnick, and, in piano, Nelita True. He also studied at the Tanglewood Music Festival with William Bolcom and Bernard Rands. Career He is composer-in-residence at the Fort Worth Symphony and has received a commission from the Aspen Music Festival. His Cello Concerto was premiered by Yo-Yo Ma. Puts's works have been performed by the St. Louis Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Utah Symphony (with Evelyn Glennie as percussion soloist), the Miró Quarte ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Donald Grantham
Donald Grantham (born November 9, 1947) is an American composer and music educator. Grantham was born in Duncan, Oklahoma. After receiving a Bachelor of Music from the University of Oklahoma, he went on to receive his MM and DMA from the University of Southern California. For two summers he studied under famed French composer and pedagogue, Nadia Boulanger at the American Conservatory in France. His music has won many prestigious awards, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Prize, and First Prize in the National Opera Association's Biennial Composition Competition. Grantham is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and three separate grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. The symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Cleveland, and Dallas are among the ensembles that have commissioned Grantham to write new works. Grantham also collaborated with fellow composer Kent Kennan to author the textbook ''The Technique of Orchestration.'' Grantham currently teaches ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chen Yi (composer)
Chen Yi () (born April 4, 1953) is a Chinese-American violinist and composer of contemporary classical music. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts (M.A.) in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Chen was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Si Ji (Four Seasons), and has received awards from the Koussevistky Music Foundation and American Academy of Arts and Letters (Lieberson Award), as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School and in 2012, she was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019. Early life Chen Yi and her siblings began studying classical music at age three as their parents were lovers of the genre. She began learning on piano and at age 4 was introduced to violin. Sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joan Tower
Joan Tower (born September 6, 1938)http://www.schirmer.com/default.aspx?TabId=2419&State_2872=2&ComposerId_2872=1605 Biography on Schirmer is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by ''The New Yorker'' as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. After gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, '' Sequoia'' (1981), a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has gone on to compose a variety of instrumental works including '' Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman'', which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's '' Fanfare for the Common Man'', the ''Island Prelude'', five string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michael Torke
Michael Torke (; born September 22, 1961) is an American composer who writes music influenced by jazz and minimalism. Torke was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where he attended Wilson Elementary School, graduated from Wauwatosa East High School, and studied at the Eastman School of Music with Joseph Schwantner and Christopher Rouse, and at Yale University. Works Sometimes described as a post-minimalist, his most characteristically postminimal piece is ''Four Proverbs'', in which the syllable for each pitch is fixed and variations in the melody produce streams of nonsense words. Other works in this style include ''Book of Proverbs'' and ''Song of Isaiah''. An early piece where he first used a certain post-minimalist style was '' Vanada'', made in 1984. His best-known work is probably ''Javelin'', which he composed in 1994, commissioned by the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games in celebration of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's 50th anniversary season, in conjunction wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscilla McLean
Priscilla McLean (née Taylor; born May 27, 1942) is an American composer, performer, video artist, writer, and music reviewer. Life Priscilla Taylor was born in Fitchburg, Massachusetts, the daughter of business manager Conrad Taylor and school teacher Grace Taylor. She graduated from Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts (BEd 1963) and the University of Massachusetts, Lowell (BME 1965). At Indiana University, Bloomington (MM 1969), she was greatly influenced by the music of Xenakis, who was teaching there. She has taught at Indiana University, Kokomo (1971-3), St. Mary's College, Notre Dame (1973-6), and the University of Hawaii (1985) and the University of Malaysia (1996). From 1976 to 1980 she produced the American Society of Composers' Radiofest series. In 1974 she and her husband, Barton McLean Barton McLean (born 8 April 1938) is an American composer, performer, music reviewer, and writer. Life Barton McLean was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of John and Gra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barton McLean
Barton McLean (born 8 April 1938) is an American composer, performer, music reviewer, and writer. Life Barton McLean was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, the son of John and Grace McLean, on April 8, 1938. He graduated from State University of New York (SUNY) Potsdam (BS 1960), Eastman School of Music (MM 1965), where he was a student of Henry Cowell, and Indiana University (DMA 1972). He taught music theory and double bass at SUNY (1960–66), while performing on double bass in jazz groups and the Hudson Valley Philharmonic Orchestra. From 1969–76 he taught music composition and theory at Indiana University South Bend. From 1969–76 he directed the Electronic Music Center at the University of Texas at Austin. In 1967 he married fellow composer Priscilla Taylor, and by 1974 they began professional touring as The McLean Mix, presenting their electro-acoustic music, which became a full-time occupation by 1983. He created a series of solo instrument and stereo tape pieces, best kn ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Augusta Read Thomas
Augusta Read Thomas (born April 24, 1964) is an American composer and professor. Biography Thomas studied composition with Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood; Jacob Druckman at Yale University; Alan Stout and Bill Karlins at Northwestern University; and at the Royal Academy of Music in London (1989). She was a Bunting Fellow at Radcliffe College in 1990–91 and a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows at Harvard University from 1991 to 1994. Thomas was the longest-serving Mead Composer-in-Residence with the Chicago Symphony, for Daniel Barenboim and Pierre Boulez, from 1997 to 2006. This residency culminated in the premiere of ''Astral Canticle'' for solo flute, solo violin and orchestra, one of two finalists for the 2007 Pulitzer Prize in Music. During her residency, Thomas premiered nine commissioned orchestral works and helped establish the MusicNOW series. Thomas has won an Ernst von Siemens Composers' Prize, among many other awards. She is a member of the American Academy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Theofanidis
Christopher Theofanidis (born December 18, 1967, in Dallas, Texas) is an American composer whose works have been performed by leading orchestras from around the world, including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Moscow Soloists, the National, Atlanta, Baltimore, St. Louis, Detroit, and many others. He participated in the Young American Composer-in-Residence Program with Barry Jekowsky and the California Symphony from 1994 to 1996 and, more recently, served as Composer of the Year for the Pittsburgh Symphony during their 2006–2007 Season, for which he wrote a violin concerto for Sarah Chang. Career Theofanidis holds degrees from Yale University, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Houston, and has been the recipient of the International Masterprize (hosted at the Barbican Centre in London), the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, six ASCAP Gould Prizes, a Fulbright Fellowship to France, a Tanglewood Fellowship, and the American Acad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shulamit Ran
Shulamit Ran ( he, שולמית רן; born October 21, 1949, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups. Biography Early life Born in Israel in 1949, Shulamit Ran began composing songs to Hebrew poetry at the age of seven. By the age of nine, she was studying composition with some of Israel's top composers, most notably Alexander Boskovich and Paul Ben-Haim. As a child, Jewish cantoral music played on the radio by her father had a huge ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
