2018 Composer-In-Residence
George TsontakisGeorge Tsontakis has been the recipient of two of the richest prizes awarded in all of classical music; the International Grawemeyer Award, in 2005, for his Second Violin Concerto and the 2007 Ives Living, from the American Academy. He studied with Roger Sessions at Juilliard and in Rome, with Franco Donatoni. Born in Astoria, NY from Cretan heritage, he has become an important figure in the music of Greece and his music is increasingly performed abroad, with several performances in Europe every season. Most of his music has been recorded by Hyperion, Koch, INNOVA and NAXOS, including fourteen orchestral works, leading to two Grammy Nominations for Best Classical Composition. He served as Composer-in-Residence with the Aspen Music Festival for 40 years, where he was founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble with the Oxford (England) Philomusica, with the Albany Symphony for six years and with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for the 2009-10 season, among others. He is Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at the Bard College Conservatory. His most recent premieres include chamber works for Maverick Concerts, London's Mobius Ensemble and large-scale pieces for the Boston Symphony, the Albany Symphony and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra. He lives in New York’s Catskill Mountains.
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2018 Visiting Composers
Jacopo Baboni SchilingiJacopo Baboni Schilingi started piano and composition studies at a very young age, and entered the composition class of Ivan Fedele where he received a diploma in composition in 1994. He also worked at IRCAM in Paris and, in 1998, obtained a Masters degree in twentieth century musicology at the Ecole de Hautes Etudes under the direction of Hugh Dufourt. In 2010 he obtained his doctorate in musicology (summa cum laude) under the direction of Georges Molinié. As a composer he participated in many international music festivals such as Ars Musica, Présence, Agora, Polychrome, Royaumont, Manca, Musique et mémoire, Novelum (France) Settembre Musica, Roma Europa, Tempo Reale, Im 21 Jahrhundert Musik Neue Italienische Musikszene, Cottbus (Germany), International music weekend of Shanghai (China), Bartok Festival (Hungary) Lanus (Argentina), and the International Biennale From Zagreb. His music has been played throughout the world and, in 2006, he received the Special Mention Prix Italia 2006. His works have been performed by orchestras and ensembles such as the Orchestre d'Ile de France, Symphonic Orchestra of Cottbus, Ensemble Inter-Contemporain, Orchestra Utopica, Arditti Quartet, Ensemble Court Circuit, Klangforum Ensemble, Collegium Novum Ensemble, and the Ensemble Dedalo. Dr. Schilingi is the director of the Ensemble de Musique Interactive, a visiting scholar at Harvard University (2015), and is the director of the composition department at the Montbeliard Conservatory.
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Joseph DangerfieldJoseph Dangerfield has lived and worked professionally in Germany, Russia, Holland, and New York. He is the recipient of many awards and recognitions, including the Aaron Copland Award, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra's Composition Prize, the Henry and Parker Pelzer Prize for Excellence in Composition, and the Young and Emerging Composers Award. He was a Fulbright Scholar to the Russian Federation and the Netherlands (2009-10), where he served as composer-in-residence with the Ensemble Studio New Music at the famed Moscow Conservatory, and lectured at Maastricht Conservatorium. He has been a resident in the Leighton Studios of the prestigious Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada, and the Yaddo Colony in New York. Over the past several years his creative voice has garnered much attention, with performances of his works throughout the United States and abroad. His instrumental and chamber compositions have been performed at such international venues as the Moscow Conservatory, the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Frankfurter KuenstlerKlub, the Conservatorio di Giuseppe Tartini (Trieste, Italy) and in Carnegie Hall (Merkin), NY.
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2018 Resident Composition Faculty
Elliott Miles McKinleyRoger Williams UniversityBIOGRAPHY
Elliott Miles McKinley has had music performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Commissions include those from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, the SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble, the Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, the Martinů String Quartet, the Mirari Brass Quintet, and the Janaček Trio. The Minnesota Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Czech Radio Symphony have performed his orchestral music, and his works have been featured in international festivals; he is the recipient of a number of awards, grants, and fellowships including those from BMI, ASCAP, SCI, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, and Indiana University. McKinley earned degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, University of Michigan, and University of Minnesota. He has taught at the University of Tennessee, Washington and Lee University, and currently is Assistant Professor of Music Composition, Theory, and Technology at Roger Williams University.
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Peter FarmerFreelance (Boston)BIOGRAPHY
Peter Russell Farmer is a composer whose musical roots are varied. In his early teens, he discovered jazz, and he credits his love of polyphony to the influence of traditional jazz. It was, he states, ""the improvisational element of jazz that led me to composition." Farmer received degrees from the Boston Conservatory and the University of Minnesota. He attended the Ferienkurze für Neue Musik in Darmstadt, Germany where he worked with Karlheinz Stockhausen. Primarily working as a freelance composer and copyist, Farmer has taught music theory/composition at Berklee College of Music and Lowell State University. As a composer, his work has been performed by The Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra of Prague, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Slovak Radio Symphony. In 2012, his Ragout for Four was commissioned, premiered, and recorded by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble. This work was released in 2014 on New Dynamic Records. Farmer also has a number of sacred works ranging from Psalms to Parables, and his faith continues to be a source of great inspiration.
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