Richard James Felciano (born December 7, 1930) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

Life

Felciano was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city in and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay A ...

and studied at

San Francisco State College San Francisco State University (San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 1899 as the San Francisco State Normal School and is part of the Califor ...

where he received his BA in 1952. In the same year he also obtained an MA from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

, where he studied composition with

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

. He continued his studies with Milhaud at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), or the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (; CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue Jean Ja ...

, where he received two diplomas in 1955, and went on to study privately in Florence for a year (1958–59) with

Luigi Dallapiccola Luigi Dallapiccola (3 February 1904 – 19 February 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Croati ...

. He also earned a PhD from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

in 1959. He taught at

Lone Mountain College Lone Mountain College was a private Catholic college acquired by the Jesuit run University of San Francisco (USF) in 1978. History It was built and founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart as Sacred Heart Academy in Menlo Park, Californi ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, before becoming composer-in-residence for the city of Boston from 1971 until 1973

Compositions

* ''Evolutions'', for clarinet and piano (1962) * ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', chamber opera (1964) * ''Gravities'', for piano four-hands (1965) * ''Contractions'', mobile for wind quintet (1965) * ''Mutations'', for orchestra (1966) * ''Spectra'', for flute ensemble and contrabass (1967) * ''God of the Expanding Universe'', for organ and electronics (1971) * ''Galactic Rounds'', for orchestra (1972) * ''EKĀGRATA'', for organ, two percussionists, and electronics (1972), written for the 1972 International Contemporary Organ Music Festival. * ''In Celebration of Golden Rain'', for gamelan and organ (1977) *''Islands of Sound'', an environment for multiple

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a musical keyboard, keyboard and consists of at least 23 bells. The bells are Bellfounding, cast in Bell metal, bronze, hung in fixed suspension, and Musical tuning, tu ...

s (1977) * ''The Tuning of the Sky'', for carillon (1978) * ''Come Away With Me'': Kindertotenlieder, for solo Renaissance recorders (1 player) and electronic sounds (1984) * ''Dark Landscape'', for English horn (1985) * ''Lontano'', for harp and piano (1986) * Concerto for Organ and Orchestra (1986) * ''Berliner Feuerwerksmusik'', for three mobile carillons (1987) * ''Constellations'', for multiple brass quintets, horn ensemble, and organ (1987) * ''Shadows'', for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello (1987) * ''Masks'', for flute and trumpet (1989) * ''Palladio'', for violin, piano, and percussion (1989) * ''Primal Balance'', for flute and contrabass (1991) * ''Camp Songs'', for orchestra (1992) * ''Cante jondo'', for clarinet, bassoon, and piano (1993) * Symphony, for string orchestra (1993) * ''Overture concertante'', for clarinet and orchestra (1995) * String Quartet (1995) * Prelude, for piano (1997)

References

Sources * *

Life

Compositions

References

Further reading