MEET OUR FEATURED COMPOSERS
Our 2008/09 season will see regional & world premieres by these composers.
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2005/06
BRENT CHANCELLOR (b1978), is quickly becoming one of the musical forces of the rising mixed-media generation. His award winning music has been featured in gallery installations, on radio and television, in concert halls, in film scores, and on recordings by Body Thief, Alchemy Duo, Stereophonic Beat Matadors, SEM-G, Mimi Boncato, Ain’t Betty, Odyssey Films and Guestroom Productions, among others. Formally trained in classical, funk, jazz and computer music, his unique approach to composing manifests fantastically rich orchestral scores, lush electronic universes and inspiring avant-garde noise.
As a pianist, percussionist, conductor and electronic musician, Brent’s musical experience is diverse. His performance of Piano Phase by Steve Reich with Michael Dale at the 2000 Festival of New American Music was lauded by the composer as "one of the best performances" he had ever heard. Subsequent performances at FENAM in 2004 and 2005 featured the premieres of On the Essence of Light for voice, string quartet and electronics and Killa for live electronics. A staunch supporter of new music, Brent’s performances have found him active in clubs, bars, raves, galleries and recital halls throughout Germany, Canada, Uganda and the United States. As conductor he has led ensembles in works by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Paul Hindemith and Vincent Persichetti, and is continually seeking cutting edge programming by mixing electronics in traditional ensemble settings.
Growing up in California, Brent was often seen on drum-set and synthesizer in jazz, metal and rock bands. Taking an early interest in song writing and film score, he soon embarked on a formal education that included composition, orchestration, theory, conducting, piano performance and percussion. In 2000, while studying at the Hochschule für Musik Trossingen, Germany, Brent was introduced to the electronic music scene of Europe and quickly turned to electronic music production learning multiple software platforms and analog technologies; eventually networking multiple computers to create experimental generative music scores. Since 2002, Brent has been involved in hundreds of projects covering many genres including classical, hip-hop, world, dance, jazz, electronic, experimental, and commercial music, giving him a plethora of experience in varying production techniques and professional settings to build from.
Areas of Interest: Ethnomusicology
In June of 2002 Brent was invited to Uganda to track and record primate species in Kibale National Forest in Africa. During this time he studied the traditional music and indigenous drumming of Uganda; gaining a large knowledge base and making recordings that ultimately culminated in the release of two CD’s of indigenous music recorded in the field and the archival of all, but one, primate species found in Uganda. His recordings are used in multiple biological research projects in the US and Canada, as well as catalogued in the Music Library at Princeton University. Brent has returned to Uganda multiple times to study and record, and in 2005 was invited to perform with Ndere Troupe in Kampala.
Research: Brain-music Relationships
In 2006 Brent began independent research into the psychological and physiological effects of sound on biological systems and brain associations of different frequency mediums. He is currently experimenting with acoustic phenomenon in digital media, as well as assisting in brain-music research at multiple universities.
Brent Chancellor was commissioned to wrote, "Exultation on Light" for Vox Musica’s inaugural performance, "Distant Light", on April 1, 2006.
Website:
http://www.BrentChancellor.com
2006/07
The emerging young composer, MATTHEW SAMSON (b1989), recently graduated high school and is now on Scholarship at Westminster Choir College as a composition major. Although he only began composing in 2004, his music has already been performed across the United States, and in such notable venues as Chicago’s Symphony Hall, The Pentagon, The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, The Toronto Center for the Performing Arts, and the White House, and under the direction of world class conductors such as Charles Bruffy and Dr. Joe Miller. At sixteen years of age, Matthew was commissioned to write a women’s chorus work for the Westminster Choir College, Summer Music Camp. With its text based off of the famous, William Bourdillon, he wrote, “The Night Has a Thousand Eyes” in just about two days. This work had its west coast premier on Vox Musica’s “Vox Visions” concert, October 7, 2006.
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/MatthewSamson
KURT ERICKSON (b1970), is an active composer whose music can be heard frequently throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently serving as the 2001-2004 Composer-in-Residence at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi, where he writes sacred choral music for the professional ensemble Schola Cantorum. From 1999-2000, he served as Resident Composer in a unique Three Church Residency at the Grace Cathedral, St. Mary the Virgin, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.
In November 2002, his multi-media commissioned ballet Angels: Fallen & Otherwise was premiered by the Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Ragazzi Boys Chorus, and the Baroque Choral Guild. Recent performances of his music have been heard in Chicago, Italy, and Australia. In December 2003, the San Francisco Girls Chorus premiered a new commissioned work at Davies Symphony Hall, and his music was sung later that season by the Pacific Mozart Ensemble on the Composers, Inc. 2003-2004 concert series. In June 2004, he continued his work with the Lawrence Pech Dance Company, participating in a composer residency and performing at the Napa Valley Opera House. Upcoming performances and activities include a commission and residency with the Randolph-Macon Woman’s College Chorale (Virginia), an orchestral premiere by the Sacramento Philharmonic, a new work for soprano Marnie Breckenridge, a new piece for violist Kurt Rohde with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and a series of string quartet concerts with composer Daniel Feinsmith.
Born in Fresno, California, Kurt studied piano performance with pianist Philip Lorenz at California State University Fresno. He continued his graduate studies with William Cerny at The University of Notre Dame and composition at Mills College with Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran. While at The University of Notre Dame, he founded and directed the New Music at Notre Dame Festival—commissioning and premiering guest composer Ingram Marshall’s Rave. As a pianist/composer, he has participated as a fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Music 97 (Cincinnati), Chamber Music Institute (NY), and participated in the residency program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. He has received grants and awards from the American Music Center, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, and the Seaver Institute.
Erickson’s choral works will be recorded and released on an upcoming CD by the Schola Cantorum vocal ensemble on the Gothic Records label. In a recently published choral music dissertation, Dr. Randall Speer declared: “This is a composer to watch for.”
Website:
http://www.KurkErickson.com
MAGGI PAYNE (b1945), is Co-Director (since 1992) of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, Oakland, CA, where she teaches recording engineering, composition, and electronic music. She also freelances as a recording engineer and editor and a historical remastering engineer.
Her electroacoustic works often include visual elements which she creates, including video, dance, transparencies, and film. She also enjoys collaborations with other artists and has worked with video artist Ed Tannenbaum for over twenty years. She is also a flutist, and has written several works for flute as well as other acoustic instruments.
Major works include Electric Ice, Arctic Winds, fff, Santa Fe, Motor Rhythms, FIZZ, Of All, Eclectic Dielectic, Distant Thunder, Reflections, Brass Mirrors, Fluid Dynamics, System Test (fire and ice), Holding Pattern, Forest Sounds, breaks/motors, White Turbulence 2000, HUM 2, Sweet Dreams, Close-ups, Raw Data, Apparent Horizon, Minutia 0-13, Liquid Metal, Aeolian Confluence, Resonant Places, Desertscapes, Phase Transitions, Songs of Flight, Ahh-Ahh (ver 2.1), Airwaves (realities), White Night, Subterranean Network, Crystal, Solar Wind, Ling, Scirocco, Transparencies, and HUM.
She has had performances of her works throughout the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Australasia. She has received two Composer’s Grants and an Interdisciplinary Arts Grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and video grants from the Western States Regional Media Arts Fellowships Program and the Mellon Foundation. She has received three honorary mentions from Bourges, and one from Prix Ars Electronica.
Her works are available on Starkland, Lovely Music, Music and Arts, Centaur, MMC, CRI, Digital Narcis, Frog Peak, Asphodel, and/OAR, Ubuibi, and Mills College labels. Her work, Desertscapes, for two spatially separated women’s choruses, is available through Treble Clef Press.
Website:
http://www.MaggiPayne.com
2007/08
MARIO BURGOS (b1987), is currently a music education major at Ithaca College, in Ithaca, NY. He attended High School at Susquehanna Township High School where he first discovered the importance and satisfaction of teaching and writing choral music. He was a student director for the various choirs and participated in many district and regional choral events. Upon graduating in 2006, he returned the following year and volunteered as an assistant director under the instruction of Amy Burghdorf. Two of his pieces have been performed by the Susquehanna Township Chorus and Concert Choir. With Vox Musica’s light angelic vocal quality in his mind, Mario Burgos set the text “O Lux” to music. This is piece was written for Vox Musica and received its premiere performance on December, 1, 2007.
Website:
http://www.myspace.com/chorusfreak
JOSHUA SHANK (b1980), is quickly becoming recognized as a talented and innovative young composer whose music has been widely performed internationally by high school and professional ensembles alike. He received his undergraduate degree in Vocal Music Education from Luther College in Decorah, Iowa where he studied conducting with Weston Noble and composition with John Morrison and Neil Flory. In 2002, Joshua became the youngest composer ever awarded the Raymond W. Brock Student Composition Award by the American Choral Directors Association. The winning piece, "Musica animam tangens" (written at the age of 20), was premiered at the 2003 ACDA National Convention in New York City in Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center and has been performed from Los Angeles to South Africa.
His published works have sold over 40,000 copies worldwide and are available through Santa Barbara Music Publishing, Hal Leonard and Daehn Publications. Joshua served as contributor for Teaching Music Through Performance in Choir, Volume 2 and his work was featured in Choral Charisma: Singing with Expression by Tom Carter. He has been commissioned by organizations such as Kantorei (Denver), Choral Arts Ensemble of Rochester (MN), Young New Yorkers’ Chorus, Northern Arizona University, Nebraska Children’s Chorus Bel Canto, and Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, and he has served as composer-in-residence for the Minneapolils-based professional choir, The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists since the group was founded in 2004.
Website:
http://www.JoshuaShank.com
LEANNA PRIMIANI (b1976), is a native of California. She has just completed her DMA in composition at USC, and has studied with such noted composers and conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Peter Eötvös, Donald Crockett, Steven Stucky, Christopher Rouse, and Howard Shore.
Ms. Primiani has received many awards and performances of her music throughout the United States and Europe, including the premiere of Sirens II for Orchestra by Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony in February 2009. Other performances include scenes from her opera Truman presented at the Virginia Arts Festival in 2008, a 2008 winner of the Underwood New Music Readings by the American Composers Orchestra in New York, and Poems Dugan for Voice and Piano. Performances and installations of her music include sound installations for Pure: A Multi & Mixed Media Exhibition in Brighton, Massachusetts, Parada at the Herrenhaus Edenkoben (Germany), performed by Ensemble Aventure Freiburg and recorded for the SWR (German radio), Variations for solo piano performed at the June In Buffalo New Music Festival, Space: Music first prize for Paraklesis for women’s choir performed by Vox Musica in Sacramento, Parada at the Aspen Music Festival in Aspen Colorado, Searching for M with Help from a Large Orchestra at the Cabrillo Music Festival in Santa Cruz, California and Heterotic E8xE8 and Type I Superstring for Small Ensemble and Live Electronics at the CCMIX (Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis) in Paris, France.
As a conductor, Ms. Primiani currently serves as conductor for the California Opera Association, music director for the Central California Ballet, Music Director for LA Opera’s Demonstration Tour of Figaro’s American Adventure, associate conductor for LA Opera’s production of Judas Maccabeus under Maestro James Conlon, as well as cover conductor for the National Symphony. Before her appointment, she was one of four conductors selected from around the country to participate in The National Conducting Institute, and conducted the National Symphony Orchestra in May, 2006. She has served as music director of the Fort Worth Dallas Ballet in Fort Worth, Texas and has conducted many orchestras throughout the US and Europe including the Ensemble Aventure Freiburg (Germany), National Symphony, Fort Worth Symphony, Dallas Opera Orchestra, San Antonio Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Santa Rosa Symphony and Pasadena Symphony, among others. Ms. Primiani’s repertoire is vast and ranges from the standard symphonic and operatic repertoire, as well as specializing in the Twentieth Century symphonic, operatic and ballet masterpieces.
Website:
http://www.benjaminmartinson.com
Ms. Primiani has received several honors including ACO Underwood New Music Readings in NYC, first prize at the St. Paul Choral Competition, recipient of the prestigious USC Leonard Bernstein Music Scholar Award and USC Arts Grant two years running. Ms. Primiani has participated in several prestigious festivals and master classes including the Workshop for Young Conductors and Composers (as both composer as conductor) sponsored by the Peter Eötvos International Institute, the Susan and Ford Schumann Film Scoring Program and the Schumann Center for Compositional Studies with a fellowship at the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Composer’s Project at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, SYNERGY! Composer-conductor workshop sponsored by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Centre de Creation Musicale Iannis Xenakis Summer Intensive in Electronic Music in Paris, France, and the International Master Course in Symphonic Conducting with Neeme Järvi and was one of 10 participants chosen worldwide to participate in the Kiril Kondrashin Master class in The Netherlands. She also has the distinction to be the first female to receive a Ford Foundation Conducting Talent Grant.
She recently married and lives with her husband, Marc Primiani, in Santa Monica.
Website:
http://www.leannaprimiani.com
2008/09
VICTORIA POLEVA (b1962), Kiev (Ukraine). In 1989 she graduated from the Kiev State P.I.Tchaikovsky Conservatoire (now National Music Academy of Ukraine) as a composer with Prof. Ivan Karabyts’ and completed post-graduate studies in 1995 under Prof. Levko Kolodub. There she is a lecturer since 1990 (now at the Music Information Technologies’ Department).
Her compositions were performed at the following festivals: 1-5th “International Youth Music Forums” (Kiev, Ukraine, 1992-95, 1998); 3-13th “Kiev-Music-Fest” (Kiev, Ukraine, 1992-2002); 5-11th “Musical Premieres of the Season” (Kiev, Ukraine, 1994-2000); 7th and 8th International Festival “Contrasts” (Lviv, Ukraine, 2001-2002); 4th, 6th and 8th “Two Days and Two Nights of New Music” (Odessa, Ukraine, 1998, 2000, 2002).
Among the performers of her compositions are : National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine (Kiev, Ukraine), Kiev State Philharmonic Orchestra (Ukraine), National Radio Symphony Orchestra (Kiev, Ukraine), Ukrainian State Kiev Kamerata Soloists’ Ensemble (chamber orchestra – Kiev, Ukraine), Kiev Chamber Orchestra Archi (Ukraine), Rivne Chamber Orchestra (Ukraine), Khreshchatyk Choir (Kiev, Ukraine), Hans Joerg Fink pianist, Avalon Trio, ensemble f?r neue musik zurich (Switzerland), Accroche Note Ensemble (France) and others.
She is a winner of the L.Revutsky Prize of the Ministry of Culture and Arts of Ukraine (1995) and competition “Third Millennium Psalms” (1st Prize) (2001). Member of the Ukrainian Composers’ Union.
Website:
http://www.anm.odessa.ua/mic/Poleva.html;
http://www.myspace.com/VictoriaPolevaComposer
JOEL PIERSON(b1974), was born in Washington D.C. He studied classical piano as a child, andattended Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California, graduating with a degree inpiano performance. While in college, he began to change his focus to composition and jazz/improvised music. After graduating from college, Joelʼs band, The Rosewood Fall, was signed to Warner Brothers Records, and stayed involved with the label until 2005. On the side, he was music director at two churches and for an experienced jazz singer. Joelʼs other band, WPL, became sought after comedy/music act in Southern California and continues to generate work on the west coast. In 2006, Joel began working on a Masterʼs Degree in jazz piano performance at New York University, where he studied with Kenny Werner, Jean-Michel Pilc, and John Scofield. Living in New York has given Joel the opportunity to play at numerous music venues, including The Blue Note. Joel travels and performs extensively, recently playing with singers such as Tommy Tune and Clint Holmes. He continues to work on compositions, focusing mainly on choral, piano, and string writing.
Website:
http://www.joelpierson.com
SARAH MAJORINS (b1978), is a Bay area composer and pianist. Her recently completed dissertation deals with music and sorrow—specifically how music functions as a memorial, both personally and culturally. As a case study she analyzed John Adams’s piece On the Transmigration of Souls, written in memory of the 9/11 attacks. Sarah enjoys composing in a variety of styles. Her choral works have been performed by Westmont’s Chamber Choir, International Orange and the Davis Composers Collective. She has also had chamber ensemble pieces performed by the Arianna String Quartet and the Empyrean Ensemble. Sarah especially enjoys writing sacred music and, as a church music director she has composed eight Christmas cantatas as well as many works for congregational use. Sarah earned her Ph.D. in music theory and composition from UC Davis in 2007 and she lives in Oakland, CA with her husband and four-month-old daughter.
Website:
http://www.oaklandmajorins.com/musically-speaking.html
ABBIE BETINIS (b1980), is a composer of concert music whose work has been reviewed as "superb… whirling, soaring" (Bar Xizam), "contemporary and compelling" (Remember O Thou Man), "audacious. . .edgy. . .thrilling" (Cedit Hyems), and "alternating bursts of melodic invention with dreamlike impressionist harmony" (The Clan of the Lichens).
Always an enthusiast of language, Betinis continues to add to her catalogue of nearly 40 works for voice, with commissions ranging from an ad hoc collection of ten-year-olds to the fully professional Dale Warland Singers. She has set texts in English, German, ancient Greek, Latin, Persian, Spanish, and complete gibberish, and is currently working on a song cycle featuring the Norwegian poetry of Rolf Jacobsen. Her text setting has been called imaginative and sensitive, even while pushing performers to explore extended vocal techniques such as yodeling, crying, spitting, whistling, glottal sighing, or bird-calling. Her recent projects investigate topics as varied as ancient Greek love charms and binding spells, African melorhythm, the Norwegian Hardanger fiddle tradition, early American shape-note singing, and Sufi mysticism. A recent piece for The Rose Ensemble explores the pre-Christian Gaelic tradition of keening in a staged piece for solo soprano, mixed chorus, Gaelic harp, bodhran, and vielle.
Betinis’s music for solo voice, namely her song cycle The Clan of the Lichens: Five Poems of Opal Whiteley (2004), has enjoyed multiple performances in the
Originally from Stevens Point,
Betinis has received grants and awards from the American Composers Forum, American Society of Composers and Publishers (ASCAP), Cambridge Madrigal Singers, the Esoterics, Minnesota Music Educators Association, and first place in the University of Minnesota’s Craig and Janet Swan Composer Competition. At age 27, she has received over thirty commissions for new work, by organizations such as the American Suzuki Foundation, Anoka High School Band, Cantus, the Dale Warland Singers, The Rose Ensemble, The Schubert Club, The Singers-Minnesota Choral Artists, University of Minnesota Men’s Choir, and the Young New Yorkers Chorus. Her published music is available from Augsburg Fortress, Graphite Publishing, Kjos, Santa Barbara Music Publishing, and — new in August 2007 — in G. Schirmer’s Dale Warland Choral Series. Since 2005, she has served as composer-in-residence with The Schubert Club in Saint Paul.
Website:
http://www.AbbieBetinis.com
2009/10
BENJAMIN MARTINSON (b1987), is a student at Butler University, Indianapolis, where he has studied composition with James Mulholland, Michael Schelle, and Frank Felice and voice with counter-tenor Steven Rickards.
In 2006, Benjamin was a winner of the National MENC Student Composition Contest with his SATB choral work, "Agnus Dei". He was commissioned in 2008 by the American Pianists’ Association to write "Little Drops of Falling Sleep" for the APA Fellows Solo Piano Competition. His works have been performed in such notable venues as Wesley’s Chapel, London; Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin; and Assembly Hall, Salt Lake City.
While Benjamin’s output consists largely of choral works, he has written for various ensembles, concert band, string orchestra and electronic media. He is published by Colla Voce Music.