Colin Payne (2018 Leslie Bassett Graduate Fellow)Surrounded by the sounds of Detroit from an early age, Colin Payne's music combines the sounds of the avant-garde with elements of jazz, opera, and rock music. His compositions have been performed at venues and festivals in both Europe and the United States with premieres in New York City, Detroit, Chicago, Florence, Milan, Pavia, Stuttgart, Paris, and Siena. Most recently his work was performed at the Social Justice Art Festival in East Lansing, Michigan. Additionally, his music has been used for dance, T.V., and feature-length films. In 2017, he completed a film score for the feature-length film "Stay with Me", which premiered at the 2017 Traverse City Film Festival. His work has been performed by the Pierrot-ensemble All of the Above, flute-guitar duo Unassisted Fold, Grammy-nominated piano duo ZOFO, Duo Cortona, and the Michigan State University Symphony. His teachers and mentors include Mark Sullivan, George Tsontakis, Ricardo Lorenz, Gerald Custer, Lynn Goeringer, and Braxton Blake. Additionally, he has attended and master classes with Julia Wolfe, David Ludwig, Craig Bove, David Rakowski, Carlos Guedes, Robert Patterson, Beth Wiemann, and many others. Currently, he is finishing up his Master's degree in Music Composition at Michigan State University where he has been the recipient of fellowships within the College of Music. Apart from his life as a composer, Colin Payne also performs, conducts, and teaches.
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William Hawkins (2018 David Stock Undergraduate Fellow)William Hawkins (b. 1997) is a composer, violinist, dancer, and visual artist at Brown University. Hawkins has had works performed by chamber groups including the Mivos Quartet, the Momenta Quartet, the Neave Trio, the Walden School Players, and violinist Nigel Armstrong. His work has also been presented at the Atlantic Music Festival, the Walden Creative Musician’s Retreat, the Eastern Division Festival’s Young Composer’s Event, and the NEC Contemporary Music Festival. Hawkins currently studies composition with Wang Lu and Eric Nathan; in the past he has worked with Rodney Lister and, through master-classes, John Harbison and Michael Daugherty. When not composing, Hawkins can be found practicing violin for local performances, singing in the Brown University Chorus, rehearsing or choreographing hip-hop and Latin dance pieces with the Mezcla dance crew. He is pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and music composition and finds inspiration from the problem-solving skills and knowledge of the physical world gained from engineering.
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Kari Watson (2018 Ruth Crawford Seeger Fellow)Kari Watson has a passion for narrative, and works to create music that is energetic, tactile and emotionally driven. With roots in vocal study and performance, she often incorporates text into both her vocal and instrumental works. She has set the works of poets such as E.E. Cummings, Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and most recently Henrik Ibsen. Along with a passion for narrative arc, Kari strives to incorporate the dramatic arts into her work. Kari began studying voice at the Longy school of Music in 2010, and continued on to study at the New England Conservatory in the preparatory studies division. While studying composition with Margaret McAllister at NEC, she expanded her study to include classical voice, improvisation, piano and conducting. Kari has also been participating in various vocal ensembles, holding a variety of roles from performer, to music director, arranger, composer and rehearsal conductor. She has been featured in multiple workshops and programs such as the Brevard Institute’s summer composition fellowship, Eastman School of Music’s summer composition intensive and NEC’s contemporary festival. Kari has been programmed by a variety of ensembles, from the New York based Ensemble MISE-EN, to Oberlin’s vocal and instrumental ensembles. She has also received honorable mention’s in the Calliop’s Call, call for scores (2016), and the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra’s International Composition Competition (2016). She is currently working on a commission for the Four on the Floor Ensemble at Oberlin Conservatory, and most recently completed an orchestra piece for the Brevard Music Centre Orchestra. She has premiered works in Boston, New York, North Carolina and Ohio. Kari is a second year composition student at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studies with Stephen Hartke, Elizabeth Ogonek and Jesse Jones under a dean’s scholarship.
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Bryan Michael Wysocki (on leave for 2018) Bryan Michael Wysocki is an Atlanta-based composer and percussionist that’s interested in the intersection of modern music with other art forms. As a composer, much of his music takes inspiration from other disciplines, such as poetry and prose, theatre, and the visual arts. As a percussionist, he strives to program captivating and engaging music by composers from all walks of life. Bryan is a master’s student at Georgia State University, where he is pursuing MMus Degrees in both Percussion Performance and Composition. Prior, he received a BS in Music Composition from Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY). Recent festival appearances include the soundSCAPE New Music Festival (Maccagno, Italy), New Music on the Point (Leicester, VT), Yarn/Wire Summer Institute (Stony Brook, NY), and the Zeltsman Marimba Festival (New Brunswick, NJ).
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Ben RobichauxBen Robichaux (b.1991) is a dedicated composer whose interest for expanding his compositional style has always been a top priority. His compositions include works for orchestra, wind ensemble, choir, string quartet, solo piano, electronics, and several chamber ensemble combinations. His chamber works have been featured at the SEAMUS 2018 National Conference, the 2017 Atlantic Music Festival, the Electrobrass II Conference, the 2017 SCI Region IV Conference, the 2016 NACUSA/SCI Snapshot Conference, and the 2016 Society of Composers, Incorporated National Conference among others. His choir music has been performed by the Academy of Voices of Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Dekalb Choral Guild of Atlanta, Georgia, and the Repertory Singers of the University of Georgia. His wind ensemble works have been performed by the University of Georgia Concert Band, the Nicholls State University Wind Ensemble, the E.D. White Catholic High School Band, and the Bayou Community Band. He was recently appointed to the Society of Composers, Incorporated student council where he helps implement initiatives that increase student member involvement across the United States. He has studied composition with Natalie Williams, Leonard V. Ball, Peter Van Zandt Lane, Adrian Childs, and Emily Koh. He is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Georgia. He is published by Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC and is affiliated with BMI.
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Christopher VuChristopher Vu (b. 1995) is a Los Angeles native, Boston-based composer and keyboardist. Son of a concert pianist, his mom classically trained him for many years until he fell in love with jazz, blues, and rock as a teenager. Whether it was behind the piano or playing guitar in rock bands, he always loved arranging songs and writing tunes, and it manifested into writing contemporary classical music in college. Bringing in his diverse influences and interests, he has written works for orchestra, chamber, solo, and voice. Due to his work in composition, Chris was awarded the Montserrat Frontier Fellowship and the T. Frank Kennedy, S.J., Award for Excellence in the Academic Study of Music, and had his first commission from the Boston Percussion Group, a new music group described by The Boston Globe as “audacious and impressive”. Chris’ six-movement piece Ngan’s Sketches had its world premiere at Gasson Hall in spring 2017. As a performer, Chris regularly plays jazz piano throughout the city. In fall 2016, Chris was as a featured soloist to perform with Boston Pops in concert featuring Kristen Chenoweth conducted by Keith Lockhart, a sold-out concert event. Chris is the founding member of 8-piece funk/rock band Juice, which headlines and sells out venues in Boston and NYC, released a debut album, and won $20,000 during summer 2016 in a national battle of the bands in Milwaukee, WI at Summerfest. Chris graduated Boston College in 2017 and is continuing his composition studies at the New England Conservatory.
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Luke HaaksmaHailing from Asheville, North Carolina, Luke Haaksma (b. 1997) currently studies composition at Bard Conservatory under the tutelage of George Tsontakis and Joan Tower. At Bard College, he also studies piano with Blair McMillen and is pursuing a double major in film production. Luke’s musical background is diverse, largely rooted in his experience as a percussionist in youth orchestras and wind ensembles in Asheville and as a pianist in N.C. regional jazz bands. He began studying piano with jazz pianist Chuck Lichtenberger when he was eight, eventually turning his attention toward composition in high school under the instruction of Paul Swartzel. Several of Luke’s small ensemble pieces were performed at Asheville High School, and he regularly played his solo piano works at local jazz clubs. Now living in New York State, Luke has written three pieces for The Da Capo Chamber Players as part of their biannual concert series at Bard. Both his piece for pierrot ensemble, “Upswing”, and his trio, “Quill in the Trap,” have received second performances. During the summer of 2017, Luke studied at the Brevard Music Center with David Dzubey, Robert Aldrich, and Greg Simon. While there his piano etude “Crystal Murk” was selected by Jihye Chang to be toured as part of her multi-year solo recital project “Continuum 88.” Thus far, Crystal Murk has been well received at performances in North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee, and Taiwan.
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Isaac VillaroyaIsaac Villaroya (b. 1998), is a student at the Baylor University School of Music, pursuing his undergraduate studies in composition under the instruction of Scott McAllister. He began his musical studies as a pianist at age 8, then continued switching focus to a number of various instruments including percussion, flute, and trumpet, before finally settling on the violin. However, his main focus is found in his passion for music composition. His goal is to write music that constantly moves listeners through a wide spectrum of emotions, exploring disparate atmospheres yet still remaining cohesive through the manipulation of his musical palette. He strives to create music that entertains universal themes that urges reflection within the listener, while musically creating an aesthetic that strikes the balance between motion and clarity.
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Jason Antony GomezJason Anthony Gomez is a composer from Bakersfield, California. From a young age he studied violin, participating in local youth symphony programs. In high school he began to take an interest in composition. Most notably during this time, he had the opportunity to premiere a short violin duo for the Mayor of Wakayama, Japan while on a sister-city trip to the country with his school Wind Ensemble. Gomez pulls his inspiration from many different aspects of his life including his experiences living in Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. His style is also influenced by his deeply-rooted classical background and his love for rock, jazz, and electroacoustic music. His particular interest in writing chamber music is a result of his studies at California State University, Bakersfield where, due to the size of the program, most of the ensembles he performed in were string quartets and piano trios. During this time, he received many composition opportunities including frequent performances of his music, working with renowned visiting artists such as Johannes Möller and Jenni Brandon, and receiving the Modern Guitar Composition Grant Project. Gomez received his Bachelor of Arts in Music from California State University, Bakersfield where he studied composition with Doug Davis and Jim Scully and violin with Julia Haney. In addition to composing music, he currently plays with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra and teaches elementary band, choir, and orchestra.
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Nathanael GublerSwiss composer Nathanael Gubler connects skills as a composer and a violinist in a unique way. He performed in the National Youth Orchestra of Switzerland and numberless chamber music groups. Nathanael applied to the Royal College of Music in London in 2015, which awarded him with a Clifton Parker Award. His works were performed in Switzerland, Canada, Thailand, Spain, the Netherlands, Brazil and prestigious venues in the UK, like the National Portrait Gallery London. In 2017, he was selected by the Gaudeamus Festival to write a new piece for the Carillon in Utrecht which was premiered by Carilloneur Malgoisa Fiebig. In the same year, he was selected to represent the RCM at the Leeds Lieder Festival 2017. Furthermore, he was invited to showcase his music at the TMAO Festival in Bangkok and at the VIPA Festival in Valencia, Spain and successfully auditioned as Viola player for 2017’s Britten-Pears Orchestra which was conducted by Marin Alsop. Other Viola-projects include performances and recordings of contemporary Solo-Viola works like Brett Dean’s “Intimate Decisions” or Heinz Holliger’s “Trema” in Vienna. Also in 2017, a piece for Solo Oboe and seven Double Basses was performed by Fabien Thouand, Soloist at LA SCALA and Enrico Fagone, artistic director of the Bottesini Competition and broadcasted live in the Swiss radio. For 2018, he was invited to the ALBA Festival in Italy and received several commissions and was invited to be Guest Artistic Director for Borough New Music 2019 Festival in London. Nathanael is extremely interested in abstract art like Gerhard Richter, César Baldaccini or Wolfgang Tillmans as well as in astrophysics. He is currently studying with Jonathan Cole (Former teachers were Dai Fujikura, Jose-Maria Sanchez-Verdu, Stefano Gervasoni and Melinda Wagner) and Viola with Ralf Ehlers (Violist of the Arditti Quartet).
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Paul LorenzWith an education in Bauhaus architecture and fine art, Paul Lorenz has carved an intriguing niche in the international art world: bridging the principals and immediacy of painting, drawing and sound with the logic of architecture. All three media are a balance of physical structure (wood, canvas, paper, film); visual structure (brush strokes, scrapes, tears, lines); and tool (musical instruments, brushes, cameras, found objects), allowing the process to be the final subject. The idea behind the drawings and paintings is now developing sound and music compositions. Each sound piece starts with a visual image. The image dictates the direction and time, but the composer ultimately dictates the order, the complexity and the flow. Each piece has a distinct structure, though every musician is given the freedom to explore. Paul was born in Chicago and has lived and worked in Paducah, Kentucky since 2003. After graduating with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, he went on to study oil painting at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, the International School of Art in Italy and the University of California, Berkeley. Paul is currently in the midst of his MFA in Music Composition at the Vermont College of Fine Arts. Abstraction is not a style, but a state of mind...a way of thinking about action, time and circumstance, confidence and risk-taking, boldness and subtlety.
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Declan SiefkasDeclan Siefkas is composer, sound artist, and pianist from Oak Park, Illinois. In his first year of undergraduate study at Colorado College he declared a political science major, with the intent of going into politics. Though a pianist all his life, he did not encounter contemporary classical music until college. This discovery in his second year led him to begin teaching himself composition. In the fall of 2016, he founded the Tenebrae Ensemble at Colorado College, which performs new music concerts biannually at Packard Hall. In 2017 he attended the Atlantic Music Festival in Maine. At Colorado College, Declan studied piano with Susan Grace, and composition with Iddo Aharony and Jane Rigler. In the future, he hopes to attend graduate school and become a professor of composition. Declan’s music is deeply concerned with the interaction between people and their environment. Drawing on senses of light and texture, his music seeks to engender environmental attunement through tender acts of amplification, through celebrating sounds both forgotten and scorned. His recent music has incorporated field recordings of urban environments in synthesis with acoustic instruments.
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Chris SheltonChris Shelton is a teacher of guitar and music theory based in the Boston area. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in composition from Berklee College of Music and a Master of Music degree in Theoretical Studies from New England Conservatory. His composition and theory teachers include: Pozzi Escot, John Bavicchi, Vuk Kulenovic, and Roger Graybill, among others. He studied classical guitar with Abigail Aronson, Peter Clemente, and David Leisner. His compositions range from solo works to wind symphonies whose styles include Neo-Classical, Atonal, Serial, and Marches. As a founding member of the Boston-based composers’ group Aggregate he has had pieces, ranging from solo piano to string orchestra, performed in and around the Boston area and in New York’s CAMI Hall. As a guitarist and electric bassist, Chris has performed in groups such as The Francis Kim Band, Introspection, and various other groups which gave him extensive studio recording experience. While with these groups Chris performed on a regular basis in New York’s Greenwich Village, in and around the Boston area, and has toured throughout the East Coast of the United States, including Philadelphia and Baltimore, and the Midwest and west, including Oberlin College, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
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Glenn Livengood (2018 Composition Program Assistant)Glenn Livengood is an undergraduate at the University of Utah studying music composition. Born to a family of musicians, he quickly picked up an interest in the profession, learning a variety of instruments including the piano, guitar, and cello. In high school he performed as a cellist in the Utah Philharmonic Orchestra, and upon auditioning at the University of Utah received a scholarship in classical guitar. Applying his knowledge of music to composition, he has studied with, among others, Luke Dahn and Inés Thiebaut. His work pulls from a variety of inspirations, ranging from the Romantic work of Villa-Lobos to more contemporary influences like John Cage and Brian Eno.
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Yan Pang (2016 Program Alumna)Yan Pang is a music instructor and dancer at the University of Minnesota. She is a Ph.D. candidate in music composition with a minor in theater, art, and dance. A selection of her varied publications includes the album Glory Times (as songwriter and music director) by the China Scientific & Cultural Audio Video Publishing Company, “Solis Ortus” (winner of the SunRiver International Composition Competition) by China People’s Cultural Publishing Company, “Scene of Sichuan Opera” (co-author with Mingzhu Song), and the books Cool Math for Hot Music, All About Music, and Basic Music Technology (co-authored with pianist and composer Guerino Mazzola) by Springer. She has been commissioned for performances in Vienna, St. Petersburg, Prague, and has had her music performed throughout the world.
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