Dan Shore (born 1975) is an American composer and playwright from

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

, whose works include ''The Beautiful Bridegroom'', '' An Embarrassing Position'', ''Travel'', ''Works of Mercy'', and ''Lady Orchid''.

Education

Shore attended the

New England Conservatory of Music The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, where he studied composition with Lee Hyla, Malcolm Peyton, and Scott Wheeler. He spent four years as a composer and lyricist in the BMI-Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop and studied opera composition in

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

on a

Fulbright Program The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

grant. He received his Ph.D. in composition from the Graduate Center of the

City University of New York The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

, where studied playwriting with Tina Howe and composition with David Del Tredici.

Compositions

His comic opera ''The Beautiful Bridegroom'', based on the play "Den forvandlede Brudgom" by

Ludvig Holberg Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (3 December 1684 – 28 January 1754) was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Denmark–Norway, Dano–Norwegian dual monarchy. He was infl ...

, was awarded first prize in the National Opera Association's Chamber Opera Composition Competition in 2009. Written for a cast of six sopranos, it has been produced over thirty times. Another comic opera, '' An Embarrassing Position'', based on a sketch by the same name by

Kate Chopin Kate Chopin (, also ; born Katherine O'Flaherty; February 8, 1850 – August 22, 1904) was an American author of short stories and novels based in Louisiana. She is considered by scholars to have been a forerunner of American 20th-century feminis ...

, received a Big Easy Entertainment Award in 2011. It also received first prize in the National Opera Association's Chamber Opera Composition Competition, in 2013. His most recent project is the opera ''Freedom Ride'', which commemorates the 1961

Freedom Rides Freedom Riders were civil rights activists who rode interstate buses into the segregated Southern United States in 1961 and subsequent years to challenge the non-enforcement of the United States Supreme Court decisions '' Morgan v. Virginia' ...

. Scenes from the opera were previewed at a 2011 gala hosted by Longue Vue House and Gardens, which originally commissioned the opera. In August 2016, a suite of excerpts from the opera was performed in Mexico City with La Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería. The completed opera will have its world premiere in 2020 at Chicago Opera Theater, conducted by Lidiya Yankovskaya and directed by

Tazewell Thompson Tazewell Thompson is an American theatre director, the former artistic director of the Westport Country Playhouse (2006–07) in Westport, Connecticut and the Syracuse Stage (1992–95) in New York state. Prior to that he was an assistant direc ...

Academia

Shore has taught at

Baruch College Baruch College (officially the Bernard M. Baruch College) is a public college in New York City, United States. It is a constituent college of the City University of New York system. Named for financier and statesman Bernard M. Baruch, the colle ...

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

, and

Xavier University Xavier University ( ) is a private Jesuit university in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It is the sixth-oldest Catholic and fourth-oldest Jesuit university in the United States. Xavier had an enrollment of approximately 5,600 undergraduate an ...

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

, and now teaches at the

Boston Conservatory at Berklee Boston Conservatory at Berklee (formerly The Boston Conservatory) is a private performing arts conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. It grants undergraduate and graduate degrees in dance, music, and theater. Boston Conservatory was founded o ...

References

1975 births Living people American classical composers American opera composers Baruch College faculty Boston Conservatory at Berklee faculty Classical musicians from Pennsylvania Emerson College faculty American male opera composers Musicians from Allentown, Pennsylvania New England Conservatory alumni Xavier University of Louisiana faculty CUNY Graduate Center alumni Writers from Allentown, Pennsylvania {{US-composer-20thC-stub