Robert Voisey
Co-Director
"With few opportunities and much competition, young composers show creativity in just getting heard." And in Chris Pasles’s article in the Los Angeles Times, Robert Voisey is highlighted as one of those composers. Composing electroacoustic and chamber music, his aesthetic oscillates from the ambient to the romantic. Rob Voisey embraces a variety of media for his compositions, and pioneers new venues to disseminate his music and reach audiences. His works have been performed in concert venues and radio broadcasts around the world.
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"Composer and electronic music impresario Robert Voisey devised the 60x60 concept so large numbers of composers could bring their work to audiences in a portable, palatable, and decidedly unconventional format. Since the series' inception in 2003, Vox Novus — Voisey's organization dedicated to the promotion of contemporary composers and their work — has solicited 60x60 submissions by composers at all professional levels worldwide and presented its hour-long recordings at concerts in cities from Brooklyn to Bucharest. …This digitized, compartmentalized, sound-bite format is a tantalizing new way to experience widely varied and eclectic electronic music. And 60x60's longevity and international acclaim show that Vox Novus' innovative strategy to attract audiences and encourage composers has actually worked" ( Alexandra Jones, Classical Voice of North Carolina)
Voisey is also the Co-Director of the Composer's Voice concert series at Vox Novus. This series features and exposes emerging composers as well as accomplished underexposed composers from other regions. It is designed to display their compositional "voice" in a themed exposition dedicated specifically to promote their music. Since the start of his role as Director of the "Composer's Voice" concert series, he has organized and produced more than 20 concerts in New York City. Through this series he continues to empower composers to broaden their audience by creating a venue to have their music heard.
David Morneau
Co-Director
David Morneau does not compose his music with a ‘poetic power’ that emphatically discharges from his work enchanting you in a hallucinogenic state of borderline exaltation. He does not intensely attempt to infuse symbolism into his work and shows no melodic motivation whatsoever. This would not be David. So you ask, ‘Well, then what does this so-called proclaimed musical talent propose to do?’
David began playing the trombone when he was nine because it was shiny and had a slide. His excitement with the instrument grew when he realized he could literally spit out of the shiny bell and it was actually an acceptable action. Once he became quite good at the musical part of the trombone, he then realized his performance ability to charm and alarm all at once. He became elated at the idea of bringing something offbeat to the stage just to see how people would react. This would involve a lot more than just a trombone…you would need many more instruments! Jugglers! Dancers! Computers! And you can’t just find something offbeat and alarming like that on a shelf somewhere—that would mean someone else had already done it. It would be old news—expected and redundant. You find it in the produced works of David Morneau himself. (Where he found it remains a mystery to most.)
Just to clarify, David is not a trombone performer. He is a composer of an entirely undecided genre. Among his diverse projects are 60x365 – a year-long podcast project for which he composed a new one-minute piece every day, Boop Boop Beep – a solo performance for Nintendo Gameboy, Three Questions – an experimental graphic score for any performer(s), and The Rhythm Variations – 12 variations on Gershwin for solo piano (winner of the 2004 Ruth Friscoe Prize in Composition). David’s current projects include a short concert-opera based the classic Simon electronic game and The A/Break Variations – a series of music videos for a dance in collaboration with Amiti Perry. He is also an active member of Seen Performance, an artist collective in New York City.
David’s music has been featured on a number of festivals worldwide, including the SPARK Festival of Electronic Music and Arts, Electronic Music Midwest, Sonoscope: Zeppelin, Expo Brighton, and SoundImageSound. He has participated in Robert Voisey’s 60x60 project since 2006. He has been featured on NPR’s All Things Considered and Kalvos and Damian’s New Music Bazaar. David holds degrees in music composition from Cornerstone University and Western Michigan University and is a doctoral candidate at The Ohio State University.
You could say he’s crazy but credentialed, or credentially-crazed. Do not think of him as yet another one of those ‘unique composers’ but rather a provider of exclusive unprecedented experiments. He carries his charm and alarm, the glamour to make standards stammer, the appeal of the unreal. Ladies and Gentleman, I give you Mr. David Morneau…also available at http://5of4.com.
[by Anna Morneau – January 2009]
Mike McFerron
Co-Director
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". . .one of the most tightly integrated orchestral pieces I've encountered in some time. At its core is a nine-note scale that gives rise to various permutations, yet beyond any manipulations of pitch sequences and relationships lies an inexorable, heroic quality I found remarkably compelling."
A Review of Perspectives for orchestra
Andrew Adler, The Courier-Journal
McFerron’s music has received critical acclaim and recognition. Perspectives for orchestra was awarded first prize in the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition (2002), was a recipient of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s “First Hearing” Program (2001), was awarded an honorable distinction in the Masterprize International Composition Competition (2003), and an honorable mention in the Rudolf Nissim Prize (2001). McFerron was chosen the winner of the Cantus Commissioning/Residency Program (2003), and he was a recipient of the 2005 CCF Abelson Art Song Commission. His music was a finalist in the 1st International Electroacoustic Music Contest – CEMJKO (2006), the 2004 Confluencias Electronic Miniatures II International Competition, the 2005 Truman State/MACRO Composition Competition, The 2005 American Modern Ensemble Composition Competition, the 2002 Swan Composition Competition, the 1999 Salvatore Martirano Composition Contest, and the 1997 South Bay Master Chorale Choral Composition Contest. McFerron has been a composers fellow at the MacDowell Colony (2001), June in Buffalo (1997), and the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers’ Forum in Bennington, Vt (1999). His music has been featured on SCI National Conferences, SEAMUS National Conferences, the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC), University of Richmond’s 3rd Practice Festival, Spark Conference, Annual Florida Electroacoustic Music Festivals, Spring in Havanna, the MAVerick Festival, several SCI regional conferences, and concerts and radio broadcasts across the U.S. and throughout Europe. He has received commissions from Cantus, SUNY-Oswego, GéNIA, the Chamber Music Conference of the East/Composers’ Forum, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Jesus Florido, Thomas Clement, Lewis University, Sumner Academy of Arts and Science, and three times by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony Orchestra. McFerron’s music can be heard on numerous commercial CDs as well as on his website at http://www.bigcomposer.com.