Artistry First
 

COMPOSER BIOGRAPHIES

ADDERLEY, Cedric (b.1965)
Adderley was born in Columbia, South Carolina and educated at East Carolina University and the University of South Carolina and has composed in all forms.  His principle teacher was Dick Goodwin at the University of South Carolina.  Active as a clinician, conductor, teacher and composer, he is currently chariman of the music department at Claflin University in Orangeberg, South Carolina.


ATEHORTUA, Blas (b.1943)
Considered one of South America's most prominent composers, Atehortua studied with Aaron Copland, Oliver Messiaen, Luigi Nono, Iannis Xenakis and Alberto Ginastera.   For many years he was a student and orchestrator for Ginastera.  His honors include grants from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation and numerous commissions in North and South America.  Atehortua is currently on the faculty of the Universidad Industrial DeSantander and resides in Bucaramanga, Columbia.

BALENTINE, James Scott (b.1947)
Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Balentine was educated at the University of South Carolina and the University of Texas at Austin.  His compositions and commissions reflect a diverse output ranging from music for orchestra, films, wind ensemble, jazz ensembles, theatrical and chamber groups.  His works have been performed by the Indianapolis Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Houston Saxophone Quartet, International Clarinet Society, Florida Woodwind Quintet and more. Balentine is currently on the faculty of the University of Texas at San Antonio.

BAZSALI, Gordon (b.1970)
Bazsali was educated at Illinois Wesleyan University and Northwestern University.  He has studied with Alan Stout, Jay Yim, Michael Pisaro, Stephen Syverud and David Vayo.  His compositions are in diverse mediums and display an inherent lyricism.  An active trumpeter for studio and live performance, Bazsali also maintains work as a conductor, recording producer, arranger and trumpet instructor.  He currently resides in the Chicago area.

BIRD, Arthur  (1856-1923)
Bird was born on a farm in Belmont, Massachusetts and studied with his father and uncle, both of whom were composers and music teachers.  In 1875 Bird continued his studies at the Berlin Hochschule.  In 1881, after four years as organist at St. Matthew's Church in Halifax, Nova Scotia, he returned to Berlin to study composition and became a friend an disciple of Liszt.  He remained in Berlin for the rest of his life.  His works are in a rich late Romantic style and noted for their contrapuntal texture.  Bird was among the first American composers of  the late nineteenth century to bring their music to European audiences.

BUCK, Dudley  (1839-1909)
Buck was born in Hartford, Connecticut and is best known as an organist and composer of church music.  He studied at Trinity College in Hartford and later in Leipzig and Dresden.  In 1871 he became a faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music.  In 1875 he settled in New York as assistant conductor of the Theodore Thomas Orchestra and as organist at Holy Trinity Church.  He remained there until his retirement in 1903.  Buck's reputation as a composer rests primarily upon his large secular cantatas and organ works.

CAMPO, Frank  (b.1927)
Campo, born in New York City, studied composition with Ingolf Dahl in Los Angeles, Arthur Honegger in Paris and Goffredo Petrassi in Rome while on a Fulbright scholarship.   His many works include an opera, three secular cantatas, four concertos, orchestral music, a wide variety of chamber music and two works for wind ensemble.  Campo has taught at various U.S. universities including California State University at Northridge from 1967-1992 and is currently Adjunct Professor of Composition at the Claremont Graduate University in California.

CHADWICK, George Whitefield   (1854-1931)
Chadwick was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and defies the stereotype often attributed to him as a stuffy "Boston classicist".  He was an independent , self reliant, high school dropout forced to pay for his own musical education.  His formal education was from the Leipzig Conservatory and the Munich Hochschule for Music.  As a leading figure in the second New England School of composers, Chadwick distinguished himself as an organist, composer, conductor and teacher.  In 1887 he became director of the New England Conservatory and remained an influential force there for many years.   His many works firmly established the German-American Romantic tradition in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

EMERSON, Ty Alan (b.1972)
A native of New Hampshire, Emerson was educated at the Shenandoah Conservatory, Louisiana State University and the Peabody Conservatory.  His honors include a 1999 Morton Gould ASCAP Young Composers Award, the 1999 Searle McCullum Donor Prize from the Washington Chapter of the National Society of Arts and Letters, and awards from the Louisiana Music Teachers Association, the Music Teachers National Association, the Southeastern Composers League and ASCAP standard awards.  He currently resides in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

FRANTZEN, John (b.1964)
Born and raised in Maquoketa, Iowa, Frantzen is a graduate of Arizona State University where he studied trombone and instrumental music. He has studied privately with W.A. Mathieu, author of The Harmonic Experience, John Heiss at the New England Conservatory of Music and Randal Shinn at Arizona State University.  Frantzen is the first composer to be selected for the 2001 Ballerbach Consortium Commissioning Project.  He currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.

FUCHS, Kenneth (b.1956)
Fuchs is currently Professor of Music and Director of the School of Music at the University of Oklahoma. He was educated at the University of Miami and the Juilliard School where his composition teachers include Milton Babbitt, David Del Tredici, David Diamond, Vincent Persichetti, Alfred Reed, and Stanley Wolfe. He has received numerous awards and honors for his music, including the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, grants from Meet The Composer, the ASCAP Foundation, the American Bandmasters Association, and residencies at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico.

GAINES, David  (b.1961)
Gaines was educated at Northwestern University, American University and the Peabody Conservatory of Music.  His many works have been performed internationally by the Tokyo String Quartet, Bulgarian Esperanto Choir and the Young Artist Philharmonic.   He has been a guest composer at the University of York in England, the Reykjavik Conservatory in Iceland and the International Music Seminar in Bulgaria.  Gaines is also active in the international language of Esperanto.  He currently resides in Ashburn, Virginia.

GLAZER,  Stuart  (b.1945)
A native of Detroit, Glazier is Professor of Theory and Composition at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida.   He was educated at Eastern Michigan University and Texas Tech University.  Glazer has composed in almost every medium and has more than thirty works published.  His music is recorded on the CRI, Crest and Opus One labels.

GOTTSCHALK, Arthur  (b.1952)
Born in San Diego and raised in the Northeast, Gottschalk was educated at the University of Michigan where he studied with Ross Lee Finney, Leslie Bassett and William Bolcolm. He is the recipient of numerous awards, most notable, the 1978 Charles Ives Prize, 1983 Composer-in-Residence at the Columbia/Princeton Electronic Music Center, CBDNA Composition Award, Sigvald Thompson Orchestral Composition Award and numerous commissions.  He is currently Associate Professor of Music at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

KORTE, Karl  (b.1928)
Korte is a graduate of the Juillard School where he studied with Copland, Luening, Mennin, Persichetti and Petrassi.  He is an Emeritus Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at Austin where he taught from 1971-1997. His music has attracted national and international attention through many prizes and awards, including two Guggenheim Fellowships, a Fullbright Fellowship to Italy and New Zealand, and a Gold Medal from the Belgian government in the Queen Elizabeth International Competition.  He has composed in all forms and resides in Buskirk, New York.

LEE, HyeKyung
Lee was born in Seoul, Korea and is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin where she studied with Donald Grantham, Dan Welcher, Russell Pinkston and Stephen Montague.  She has also studied with Bernard Rands at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in Florida and Ladislav Kubik at the Czech-American Summer Institute in Prague.  Awards include the 1993 Composers Guild Award, the Delius Composition Contest, the 1997 Nancy Van de Vate Prize for Orchestral Music, ASCAP Standard Awards and many more.  Lee is also an accomplished pianist and has performed her own compositions as well as premiering numerous contemporary new works.

LENTINI, James (b.1958)
Detroit native James Lentini was educated at the University of Southern California, Michigan State University and Wayne State University.  He has studied privately with George Perle, Jere Hutcheson, Morten Lauridsen and Robert Linn.  Awards include First Prize in the Atwater-Kent Composition Contest, the McHugh Composition Prize and several consecutive awards from ASCAP.  Notable performances include the Krakow Philharmonic, Bohuslav Martinu Orchestra, Xian String Quartet, Atlanta Brass Society, Philadelphia Trio, Canada's Nouvel Ensemble Moderne and many more. Lentini is currently on the faculty of Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.

MAKRIS, Andreas (b.1930)
Makris was born in Salonika, Greece and educated at the National Conservatory of Greece, Phillips University, Kansas City Conservatory, Mannes College of Music, the Aspen Music Festival and studied with Nadia Boulanger at Fountainbleau in France.  Awards include a Damrosch Grant, the Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music, National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP Awards and citations from the Greek government.  Makris was a violinist in the National Symphony in Washington, DC from 1960 until his retirement in 1990.  He also served as composer-in-residence with the National Symphony and for many years was an advisor on new music to conductor Mstislav Rostropovich.  He currently resides in Silver Springs, Maryland.

MENDELSSOHN,  Felix (1809-47)
A major figure in early romanticism, Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg, Germany.   His romanticism was rooted in classical forms and evokes the elegant balance associated with  his personality and style.  He composed in all forms except opera and was also active as a pianist, conductor, organizer of music festivals and teacher.  His life was cut short by a stroke at age 38.

REED, H. Owen (b.1910)
Born in Odessa, Missouri, Reed retired in 1976 as Professor Emeritus in Theory and Composition from the Michigan State University after 37 years of teaching.  He was educated at Louisiana State University and the Eastman School of Music and studied privately with Howard Hanson, Bohuslav Martin, Roy Harris, Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein.   Reed has composed nearly one hundred works in all forms and has received numerous awards and honors.  Perhaps his best known work for winds is La Fiesta Mexicana.   He currently resides in Arizona.

RHODES, Philip  (b.1940)
Rhodes is Composer-in-Residence and the Andrew  Melon Professor of Humanities at Carleton College in Minnesota where he joined the faculty in 1974.  Educated at Duke University and Yale University, he has received numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, two From Foundation grants, a McKnight Fellowship, a citation and award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and many more.  His works have been published by C.F. Peters, EMI, Presser, School and recorded by CRY, AR-Deutsche Gramophone, Orion and Inna.  Major performances of his works include the Atlanta Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and National Symphony.

RING, Gordon  (b.1953)
A native of Missouri, Ring was educated at Central Missouri State University and North Texas State University, studying composition with Martin Mailman, Donald Boolean and Walter Hale.  He has received many awards, including the National Band Association, International Horn Society, National Orchestral Association, Texas Choral Directors Association, Pro Rate Chorale and more.  He is currently Associate Professor of Music at Longed College in Virginia.

ROBICHEAUX, Earl  (b.1954)
Robicheaux was educated at Louisiana State University and the University of Texas at Austin.  He has studied composition privately with Dan Welcher, Karl Korte, Donald Grantham, Morton Subotnick, Stephen Montague and further study with Donald Erb at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.  His principle teacher at University of Texas was Karl Korte.  He currently resides in Louisiana.

SANDLER, Felicia (b.1961)
Currently on the faculty of the New England Conservatory, Sandler received her education at University of the Pacific, Catholic University of America and the Universtiy of Michigan.  Her teachers include William Bolcom, Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng, and Curtis Curtis-Smith. Sandler has written in variety of forms including large ensemble, electronic, theater dance and choral. Awards and commissions include the Dale Warland Singers, University of Michigan, Wild Swan Theater, American Composers Orchestra's Whitaker New Music Reading Session and more.  She continues to explore the use of musics from non-Western indigenous societies by Western composers.

SCEARCE, J. Mark  (b.1960)
Scearce was educated at Northeast Missouri State University and Indiana University where he studied composition, horn performance and philosophy/religion.  Published and recorded, his music has won four national competitions and has been heard in performances in France, New Zealand, Korea and the U.S.  He is the founder of the "Mirror of the New" festival of contemporary music and the contemporary ensemble Kawana'ao in Hawaii.  In 1997 Scearce was the recipient of Hawaii's first ever Individual Artist Fellowship for Music Composition.  Scearce is currently Resident Composer in the School of Music at the University of Southern Maine.

STERN, Robert (b.1934)
Stern was born in Patterson, New Jersey and educated at the University of Rochester, the Eastman School of Music and UCLA.  His numerous grants and commissions include the National Endowment for the Arts,  Library of Congress, Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Martha Baird Rockefeller Fund for Music and others.  His music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Japan and Israel and has been recorded on the Polygram, Albany, Centaur, CRI, Gasparo and Opus One labels.  He is retired from the faculty of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and currently resides in Amherst.

SYLER, James (b.1961)
Syler is the founder and owner of Ballerbach Music. Raised in New York and Florida, he was educated at Northern Illinois University, the University of Miami and the University of Texas at Austin. Primarily a self-taught composer, he has studied composition with Alfred Reed, Karl Korte and Michael Colgrass. His awards include the 1993 National Band Association Award, the 1993 Arnald Gabriel Composition Award, two grants from the American Music Center and numerous commissions.  Major performances of his works include the New York Choral Festival, Turtle Island String Quartet, Tanglewood Institute, Eastman Wind Ensemble, American Jazz Philharmonic, Canto Spiritus Chorus, San Antonio Choral Society and over 150 performances. He also remains active as a writer of poems, articles and more than 50 published music reviews. He currently resides in San Antonio, Texas.
TURRIN, Joseph  (b.1947)
Turrin has maintained a unique career as a concert composer and film composer.  He was educated at the Eastman School of Music and the Manhattan School of Music.  As a concert composer, he has been recognized with commissions and awards from the New York Philharmonic, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Meet the Composer, New Jersey Symphony, ASCAP, American Music Center, the United Nations and others.  As a film composer he has worked as a composer and conductor on such diverse projects as Little Darlings, Weeds, Tough Guys Don't Dance, Nightmare on Elm Street 3, the silent film classic Sadie Thompson, and others.  He currently resides in New Jersey.

WHITE, Tyler Goodrich (b.1961)
White is currently Director of Orchestral Activities at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Music. He receieved his education from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Cornell University and additional studies at the University of Copenhagen, the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau, and the Herbert Blomstedt Institute of Conducting. His composition teachers have been Steven Stucky and Karel Husa.  His work as been recognized by commissions from the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, as well as by awards and grants from BMI, Vienna Modern Masters, the Conservatoire Américain de Fontainebleau (Prix Maurice Ravel), the MacDowell Colony and as the winner of the 1996 Omaha Symphony Guild International Composition Competition.

WIDOR, Charles Marie  (1845-1937)
Widor was born in Lyons, France and first studied organ with his father.  Afterwards he went to Brussels to study organ with Lemmens and composition with  Fetis.  At the age 25 he proceeded Cesar Franck as Professor of Organ at the Paris Conservatory and later became Professor of Composition there.  Widor spent most of his life in Paris and is remembered for his many organ works, most notably the 10 Symphonies for Organ.