Composers

Syrlane Albuquerque

Syrlane Albuquerque was born in Brazil. In 2003 she moved to US to pursue her degree in Theory of Composition. She went to Dallas Baptist University (undergraduate) and Southern Methodist University (masters), studying with Michael Cox, Simon Sargon and Xi Wang. Her style is a blend of classical and Brazilian music.

Rodrigo Baggio

His music has been performed in many cities around the world such as São Paulo (Brazil), Paris (France), Quebec (Canada), Bremen (Germany), London (England), Bucharest (Romania), Vermont, New York and Washington DC (USA). As a performer, he has played concerts in different countries of the globe.

Jeremy Beck

Jeremy Beck’s music has been presented by New York City Opera, American Composers Orchestra, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Iowa, the Albuquerque Symphony Orchestra, Portland (Maine) Symphony Orchestra, the Moravian Philharmonic, Center for Contemporary Opera, Peabody Opera, Yale Opera, the Dallas Festival of Modern Music, IonSound Project, Pacific Serenades, the Nevsky String Quartet, the Da Kappo String Quartet, and the San Gabriel String Quartet, among others. The recipient of awards and grants from the Wellesley Composers Conference, Oregon Bach Festival, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Composers Forum, Millay Colony for the Arts, and the arts councils of Iowa, California, and Kentucky, Beck holds degrees in composition from the Yale School of Music, Duke University, and the Mannes College of Music.

Joseph Bohigian

Joseph Bohigian is a composer, percussionist, and pianist whose music has been heard around the world in Germany, Portugal, Armenia, Brazil, and across the US. He is currently a graduate student at Stony Brook University and received his BA degree in composition from California State University Fresno. His primary teachers include Matthew Barnson, Kenneth Froelich, Benjamin Boone, and Matthew Darling. He has also studied with Artur Avanesov in Yerevan, Armenia and, in 2014, held an internship with Vox Novus in New York City where he curated a concert for the Composer’s Voice Concert Series. In addition to composing, Bohigian is an active percussionist and pianist, having performed in New York City, Yerevan, and across California.

Martin Bonk

Martin Bonk graduated from City University of New York with a B.S. in Music, where he studied 20th Century Composition, Orchestration, and Composition under John Corrigliano, Ulysses Kaye, David Maslanka, and Malvina Leshock respectively. He studied Guitar with Jorge Morel, Dennis Sandole, Joe Sgro, and Joseph Mayes, plus, Jazz Performance at Eastman School of Music workshop. He has written numerous works in both Jazz and serious idioms.

Douglas DaSilva

Artistic Director of the Composer’s Voice concert series, and Director, Artistic Planning: Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame, Douglas DaSilva composes in various styles including jazz, pop, children’s music, chamber music and experimental. Much of his writing is influenced by Brazilian music and self-inflicted stress. His compositions have been described as “very individual, and to us has a very clear personality” in Classical Guitar Magazine. In 2013, DaSilva’s work was featured on the George Enescu festival in Bucharest by cellist Şerban Nichifor. In 2015, his octet Schuylkill was premiered by the Rosario Ensamble for the 26º SIMPOSIO DE MÚSICA CONTEMPORÁNEA in Argentina, and his commemoration to World I “DULCE ET DECORUM EST” was premiered by mezzo-soprano Abigail Wright & guitarist Kenji Haba at the National Opera Center, NYC.

Samuel Friedman

Sam Friedman is a 15-year-old composer and trumpet player. Sam Friedman started playing trumpet at PS40 in Manhattan and continued at Third Street Music Settlement with Micah Killian. He is currently taking lessons with Ray Riccomini at Mannes Prep. He has performed recently with Face The Music, the InterSchool Orchestras’ Symphonic Band, the Mannes Prep Philharmonic as well as with various ensembles at Kinhaven Senior Session and Special Music School High School where he is completing his sophomore year. Friedman began composing while at Third Street and has studied composition with Eleanor Cory and Nic Scherzinger at Mannes Prep. Sam has also collaborated on compositions with his friend Henry Nelson and their band “Broken Arms & Atheists”. Friedman’s main compositional influences are composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartok, and Olivier Messiaen, as well as jazz composers like Thelonious Monk and Charles Mingus. Friedman’s String Quartet, “Mechanical Studies,” is based around his interest in the melodic and rhythmic structures of machines, and their natural beauty.

Masatora Goya

Masatora Goya is a composer extensively writing a new kind of chamber music for everyone. Trained as a vocal performer first, he explores the musical landscape of drama, space, and emotion. Described as a “composer of cultural crossroads” by American Composers Forum, his unique eclecticism has attracted many musicians performing in nontraditional chamber ensembles. His new album "Dream of Sailing" is released from Ravello Records. www.masatoragoya.com

Mark Hagerty

Mark Hagerty is an award-winning, highly individualistic American composer who pursued classical training as an instrumentalist, singer, and composer, and then determined his own path, outside of any tradition or institution. He has developed two practices—one that extends pre-classical forms, and one that sets all traditions aside in favor of more extreme forms and modes of expression. He strives for a deep connection with performers and listeners, and his music has found enthusiastic audiences internationally and across the US. He is currently working in larger forms and exploring the melding of sound sculpture with more intimate musical expression.

Cindi Hsu

Cindi Hsu’s powerful music has incredible depth and perception into the human soul. It is poetry without words.” Her music has been performed in Asia, Europe, and the United States in many venues including Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. Originally from Taiwan, Ms. Hsu currently resides in NYC where she is on the composition and piano faculty of the Music Conservatory of Westchester. Impulse” captures a young woman’s wildly compulsive, unrestrained love of dance. It begins with her irresistible, unreflective urge and burning desire to dance with unguarded, passionate abandon. This opening section then resolves into a contrasting peaceful middle section,. But, the “fever” for the dance abruptly reawakens with the reoccurrence of the impetuous opening theme that possesses the woman’s soul, and brings Impulse to its driven conclusion.

Danny Leo

Musician, composer, and producer, Danny Leo is a product of both the American theater and punk scenes. His music is as widely defined, ranging from electro-acoustic soundscapes to large-scale works for extended orchestra. Danny cut his teeth in the utopian rock and noise scenes of 1990’s Lower East Side, and Providence, RI, with outfits such as Native Nod, Radio to Saturn, Sin-Eaters, and the Holy Childhood. His catalog includes releases by Vermiform, Gern Blandsten, Touch and Go, Lookout!, Shangrila, Kill Rock Stars, RVNG Intl., Arctic Rodeo, and other labels. He has performed extensively across the United States and Europe, penned works for film and television, and has been recognized as a BMI Composing for the Screen Fellow.

Annea Lockwood

Annea Lockwood (b. NZ) is known for her explorations of the rich world of natural acoustic sounds and environments, in works ranging from sound art and installations to concert music. Her music has been performed in many venues and festivals including: MACBA Barcelona, the Other Minds Festival, San Francisco, the Walker Art Center, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, Sonic Acts XIII and the Tectonics Festival 2015, New York. Recent work includes Wild Energy, a collaboration with Bob Bielecki: A site-specific multi-channel installation focused on geophysical, atmospheric and mammalian infra and ultra sound sources, currently running in the exhibition, A Garden of Sonic Delights at the Caramoor Festival of the Arts. She is a recipient of the 2007 Henry Cowell Award and a professor emerita, Vassar College.

Brandon Maahs

Brandon Maahs is a composer from Dallas, Texas. What started as a fabricated one-man rock band in primary school to get the attention of girls, has developed into multiple awards, premieres and commissions in the state of Texas and across the country, including the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Dallas Wind Symphony, the UNT Green Brigade and the Spirit of Atlanta Drum and Bugle Corps. He currently studies at the University of North Texas with Kirsten Broberg. Maahs aims to meld in his music the tonal and atonal in a way that's both academically satisfactory and enjoyable to the common listener.

Serban Nichifor

Serban NICHIFOR (b. 1954, Bucharest-Romania), American Composer, Prizes and Awards: Amsterdam, Tours, Evian, Athens, Urbana-Illinois, Birmingham-Alabama, Toledo, Koln, Karlsruhe, Roma, Trento, Newtown-Wales, Bydgoszcz, Jihlava, Zagreb, a.s.o., Officer of the Order of the Crown, conferred by His Majesty Albert the Second, King of Belgium. Over 200 compositions: Symphonic, Vocal-Symphonic, Concertant, Chamber, Vocal, Choral and Computer Music.

Lucas Oickle

Lucas Oickle is an award-winning Nova Scotian artist based in Vancouver. His accolades include being a 2014 recipient of the "2011 Canada Games Artist of Excellence Award", a 2015 SOCAN award, and a nomination for best short film score at the 2015 Portsmouth International Film Festival. He currently sits on the board of directors for Vancouver Pro Musica.

Gene Pritsker

Gene Pritsker has written over five hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. All of his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of the eclectic ensemble: Sound Liberation, as well as being the co-director of Composers Concordance. Gene's music has been performed all over the world at various festivals and by many ensembles and performers. The New York Times described him as "...audacious...multitalented." www.genepritsker.com

Augusta Read Thomas

The music of Augusta Read Thomas is nuanced, majestic, elegant, capricious, lyrical, and colorful — "it is boldly considered music that celebrates the sound of the instruments and reaffirms the vitality of orchestral music." (Philadelphia Inquirer) In February 2015, music critic Edward Reichel wrote, "Augusta Read Thomas has secured for herself a permanent place in the pantheon of American composers of the 20th and 21st centuries. She is without question one of the best and most important composers that this country has today. Her music has substance and depth and a sense of purpose. She has a lot to say and she knows how to say it — and say it in a way that is intelligent yet appealing and sophisticated."

Sergio Roberto de Oliveira

Nominated for the 2011 Latin Grammy in the category of "Best Contemporary Classical Composition" and for the 2012 Latin Grammy for the CD "Prelúdio 21 -String Quartets" for which he participated as producer and composer, Sergio Roberto de Oliveira has been actively participating in the Brazilian and international music scenes over his 17 years as a composer. His work has made an impact outside Brazil, particularly in the USA and England, with lectures, interviews, concerts and musical publications. He is one of the most active and most widely performed composers in Brazilian contemporary music. His work has been widely disseminated by groups such as the Quarteto Radamés Gnattali, the Duo Santoro, Música Nova, GNU, the Quarteto Colonial, and many others. Various articles in specialized journals and sites have cited the composer, who has frequently been invited to lecture at American universities including Princeton and Duke. In 2009 he was Artist-in-Residence at Duke University. In addition the USA and the UK, Oliveira's music has also been played in Italy (Milan, Trent, Udine, Pavia), Holland (Amsterdam), German (Karslhue and Hamburg), Chile and Mexico (Mexico City). His discography includes 13 Cds as composer and 14 Cds as a producer. His catalog of compositions includes more than 100 works for various ensembles. Sergio Roberto de Oliveira is a member of the Latin Academy of the Arts and Science of Recording.

Etienne Rolin

Etienne Rolin is a French-Amercian composer-conductor instrumentalist and teacher working in Bordeaux France. After studies with Nadia Boulanger O.Messiaen and I.Xenakis as well as his practice of jazz and free improvisation, his style has evolved into a very complex genre of musical composition. His scores range from soloist to chamber music and opera. He conducted Soundpainting performances in France, Austria, and in the United States. He present recitals of Hindustani music on the Bansuri flute in traditional and contemporary settings.

Faye-Ellen Silverman

Faye-Ellen Silverman’s compositions are published by Seesaw Music Corp., a division of Subito Music, and recorded on Albany, private labels (sold on CD Baby), New World Records, Capstone, Crystal and Finnadar. She has received awards from UNESCO, the National League of American Pen Women and ASCAP, and been awarded residencies at the Villa Serbelloni, VCCA, the Macdowell Colony, and Yaddo. She has received commissions from Nicole Abissi, the IWBC for the group SymbiosisDuo, the Phoenix Concert series, Edinboro University Chamber Players, Seraphim, Philip A. De Simone, Larry Madison, Thomas Matta, the IWBC for Junction, the Monarch Brass Quintet, the Sylvia and Danny Kaye Playhouse, the Fromm Foundation, NEA, Great Lakes Performing Artist Associates, Con Spirito, the Greater Lansing Symphony, and the Chamber Music Society of Baltimore. She is currently an Associate Part Time Professor at both Mannes College the New School for Music and the New School for Public Engagement.. For further information, please visit her Web site: www.fayeellensilverman.com.

Max Stannard

Max Stannard studied Music at Lancaster University, graduating with First Class Honours. His principal study is the trombone with a background in brass bands. He has performed with and composed for a wide variety of ensembles and now works as a school teacher.

Robert Voisey

Composer, producer, singer, Robert Voisey has been described as “mad” by the New York Times and publications around the globe. The LA Times highlighted Voisey as a composer using creativity to get his work heard. His work has been heard in more than 40 countries in venues including Carnegie Hall, Winter Garden Atrium in New York City, London’s Stratford Circus, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Tompkins Park in New York City and Chashama’s street window on 37th street in New York City, as well as TV, radio, off-off broadway productions, movie screenings, bars, and a 3 story video installation projected against a building. Robert Voisey is the Executive Director of Vox Novus, a new music production and promotion company. Through Vox Novus, he founded and directs the performance projects: 60x60, Composer’s Voice, Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame, and Circuit Bridges resulting in more than 500 performances promoting thousands of composers, musicians, choreographers, dancers, and artists

Blair Whittington

Blair Whittington is a native Los Angeles composer of chamber and orchestral music. Guitar was his first serious instrument but he now spends most of his free time composing. He studied composition with Byong-kon Kim. For the last two decades he has worked as music librarian at the Brand Library & Art Center and also directs the Brand Library chamber music series. His music has been performed by Mark Robson, Maksim Velichkin, Yumi Suehiro, the UK Guitar Quartet and the Bateira Trio.

David Wolfson

David Wolfson is currently working towards his PhD in composition at Rutgers University, and has taught at Rutgers University, Montclair State University and Hunter College. He is enjoying an eclectic career, having composed opera, musical theatre, touring children’s musicals, and incidental music for plays; choral music, band music, orchestral music, chamber music, art songs, and music for solo piano; comedy songs, cabaret songs and one memorable score for an amusement park big-headed-costumed-character show. Current projects include two musicals and a chamber opera. His CD Seventeen Windows, featuring the solo piano suite Seventeen Windows and the Sonata for Cello and Piano, is available from Albany Records, iTunes and Amazon.com. For more information: www.davidwolfsonmusic.net.

Rain Worthington

Rain Worthington has a distinct voice within the field of contemporary music. As music journalist, Bob Briggs, noted, “… she writes music which speaks to the senses, is packed with real emotion and, most important of all in contemporary music, really communicates.” World music, minimalism and romanticism have influenced her style in emotionally evocative work that is nuanced, delicate, powerful and transporting. Rain’s music takes “…ideas of American musical style to a new place – like a walk in a familiar, yet very different park... And isn't afraid to come up with its own startling conclusions.” (Kyle Gann)

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame: Re-Imagining Schubert with Stephen Porter

Erik Branch

Erik Branch is a native of New York City, and received a BA and MA in Music (Composition) from Hunter College. He lives near Orlando, Florida, where he is active as a pianist, musical director, composer/arranger, operatic tenor, and actor on stage and screen.

Justin Blackburn

Justin Blackburn’s chili recipe has won top honors in every major contest worldwide. Bootlegged recordings of him reading the collected works of Emanuel Morgan and Anne Knish swept the 2002 Grammys. Justin Blackburn is the man every man would love to be.

Timothy J. Bowlby

Born in Wolfville Nova Scotia, Timothy J. Bowlby holds degrees from Acadia University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is Senior Lecturer in Music and Film Studies at Lewis University in Romeoville Illinois.

Alex Conde

Alex Conde, San Francisco jazz-flamenco-classical pianist and composer, graduated Spanish conservatories and Boston’s Berklee College of Music, was recently Piano Chair, Oakland School for the Arts, collaborates with jazz and flamenco luminaries, performing in the U.S. and internationally. His Descarga for Monk will be released through ZOHO Music February 2015.

Paul Cowell

Paul Cowell played percussion for many years, but after becoming more interested in Baroque music, switched to continuo playing. He is a composer and arranger; his pieces have been played on the BBC and ABC, and performed across the UK, USA and Australia. He lives and works in London.

Rafael Gutiérrez Gandía

Composer Rafael Gutiérrez Gandía (Seville-Spain). In 2013 he was finalist in the international Oberon Quartet Composition Contest in Richmond (USA) for his string quartet Autumn Dream. In 2014 his piece Spiral Void (for clarinet double bass) is selected for The Vienna University to be part of Physik Et Musik in Academy Traunkirchen .His electroacoustic piece Giros II is released in O Festival Música Viva e a Trienal de Arquitectura de Lisboa . In 2015 his electric guitar composition Barrett was released in " Composition Workshop / extended techniques on traditional instruments and Composers Forum " at the Conservatory Rafael Orozco of Cordoba ( Spain).

Konrad Harley

Konrad Harley is a Canadian composer, organist, and music theorist. In 2014, he completed a PhD dissertation in music theory at the University of Toronto entitled “Harmonic Function in the Music of Sergei Prokofiev.” "Thoughts on the Rosebud of the Heath" is a scherzetto that alludes to the theme of Schubert's song "Heidenröslein," D.257

Gyuli Kambarova

Russian composer and pianist Gyuli Kambarova has Developed a unique voice in her compositions; her works incorporate an incredible mixture of Eastern sounds and classical techniques. Gyuli is a graduate of the prestigious Rostov State Rachmaninov Conservatory, and received two Masters of Music with honors.

Jona Kümper

Jona Kümper, pianist and composer from Germany, studied piano in Dortmund and Cologne and received a graduate recital in 2003. In 2008 he received the Neuss Composition Award, in 2012/13 he won 3rd Prices in the International Composition Competition Sofia and at the Carl-von-Ossietsky-Award, Oldenburg.

Douglas Madison

Douglas Madison is a retired computer programmer. He studied composition with Robert McBride and Robert Muczynski at the University of Arizona, and with Sarah Dawson in Boulder, Colorado. He has no published works.

João Pedro Oliveira

João Pedro Oliveira completed a PhD in Music at Stony Brook University. He has received numerous prizes and awards, including three Prizes at Bourges Electroacoustic Music Competition, the prestigious Magisterium Prize, the Giga-Hertz Special Award, 1st Prize in Metamorphoses competition, etc..

Norberto Oldrini

Norberto Oldrini Self-taught composer, he also trained with Detlev Glanert. His music has been performed in Italy, USA, UK, China, Hungary, Germany, Yugoslavia, Portugal, Romania, Libya, Argentina, meeting dance, poetry, improvisation, cartoons, theater. RNCM Orchestra, Roland Böer, Algoritmo Ensemble, Minguet Quartett, Guido Arbonelli, are the most important performers of his works.

Edward Ruchalski

Impromptu was composed after listening to Krystian Zimerman’s recording of Schubert’s Impromptu’s D 899 and D 935 (one of my favorite recordings). I was inspired by Schubert’s use of ternary form, his monothematic ideas and the clarity of his melodic line.

Dominic Sewell

Dominic Sewell is a classicaly-trained composer and orchestrator. He is a graduate of Oxford and the Royal College where he was a PRSF scholar having studied with Joseph Horovitz. After initial success in writing classical music for the concert hall, Dominic expanded his remit to encompass writing music for film & TV.

Juan María Solare

Juan María Solare, born in Argentina, works in Germany as composer, pianist (contemporary & tango) and teaching at the University of Bremen and at the Hochschule fuer Kuenste Bremen. His music has been performed in five continents. Fifteen CDs of different performers include at least one piece of him.

Fifteen-Minutes-of-Fame Into the Chaotic Dreams with Yumi Suehiro

Steven Aprahamian

Steven Aprahamian has composed music for theater productions, concert performances, and art installations throughout the United States and abroad. Born in Manhattan, he graduated from Rutgers College (English, honors) and later studied composition with Charles Wuorinen and Charles Fussel. His latest musical theater piece is The Fountain of Youth (foymusical.com).

Fabian Beltran

Fabian Beltran was originally born in Bogota, Colombia and recently received a B.A in Music Composition from the University of Texas. As an undergraduate student, he was the recipient of multiple awards. In the Fall of 2015, Fabian will begin his M.M composition studies at the Manhattan School of Music.

Jean-Patrick Besingrand

Jean-Patrick Besingrand is a French composer living in the US. He holds a Master in Music and Conservatory prizes in Composition, Soundpainting, Musical analysis, Harmony, Counterpoint, and Fugue. He is working on his thesis at the Sorbonne, and studies composition at CUNY the Graduate Center.

Anthony Donofrio

Anthony Donofrio currently teaches composition, theory, and new music at the University of Nebraska Kearney. His artistic influences include the relationship between literary structure and music, evening-length pieces, and the music of Morton Feldman. More information can be found at www.donofrio-music.com.

James Gaddas

James Gaddas is an emerging composer based in Cardiff (UK). They attended Cardiff University, graduating in 2015, having studied composition with Arlene Sierra.

Steven Harry Markowitz

Steven attended Dick Grove school of music in Studio City California. He enjoys improvising at the keyboard employing stylings which blend classical and jazz influences. His compositions have been world premiered in Romania, New York and Boston.

Luigi Morleo

Luigi Morleo (born 16 November 1970 in Mesagne, Province of Brindisi) is an Italian percussionist and composer of contemporary music, who lives in Bari and teaches in Bari at the Niccolò Piccinni Conservatory. He appears in varied musical and artistic styles like rock-cross-over, folk-popular, jazz and DJ; however actors,

Tomàs Peire

Born in Barcelona, Tomàs Peire is a music composer based in Los Angeles. He studied composition in Barcelona, Helsinki at Sibelius Academy, and New York, where he earned a Master’s degree in Composition (NYU). He writes both concert and film music and is pursuing a PhD in Composition at UCLA.

Francisco del Pino

A former student of Fernando Maglia and Gerardo Gandini, Francisco del Pino (*1980) is a composer born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His work spans from solo to symphonic music and has been awarded several national and international prizes.

Mathieu Daniel Polak

Mathieu Daniël Polak (born 1972) obtained two Master Degrees in Composition namely at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven (Belgium) and at the Utrecht School of Arts in Utrecht (The Netherlands). At both schools he studied with Dr. Jeroen D’hoe. Moreover, Mathieu studied carillon at the Netherlands Carillon School in Amersfoort.

Saman Shahi

Saman Shahi is a professional musician in Toronto. His music has been read and performed by many ensembles and renowned performers across Canada ( National Ballet of Canada), United States as well as France, Germany and Malaysia. His Music has also been broadcast on BBC Farsi and CBC.

Edward Strauman

Edward Strauman, a Yamaha Artist/Educator and a Eubie and Marion Blake Scholar, earned his Ph.D. in music composition from New York University. He studied composition with David Berger, Edward Green, Justin Dello Joio and Deniz Hughes. Dr. Strauman is an Associate Professor of Music at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.

Gabriele Toia

Italian pianist, harpsichordist and composer. He graduated from the Conservatory of Milan. His music has been performed in Italy, Switzerland, Greece, Holland, USA, New Zealand and Australia. He has recorded contemporary and ancient music for Ducale, MDS Records Zurich and participated in broadcasts of Italian and Swiss national radios.

Luca Vanneschi

Luca Vanneschi’s music was awarded prizes in more than twenty International competitions and it has been performed by some of the more qualified musicians all over the world. Hans Werner Henze said about his music: “… it is an intelligent, non conformist, elegant and full of grace music.”

Martin Watt

Martin Watt is a South African composer, currently lecturing in musical analysis, composition and orchestration at the South African College of Music in Cape Town. He has composed over 50 works and his music has been performed, recorded and broadcast in many European countries, The US and The East.