The 2020 Program (VIRTUAL)
Sadly, due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, we were forced to cancel the 2020 composition program as it was originally planned. The Alba Festival did run in an online manner and as part of this, we ran a six episode series that aired the week of the scheduled program. The entire series may be viewed below on YouTube and features interviews with the performers and several of the chosen program composers.
The 2020 Program Fellows
Kira Wales (2020 Ruth Crawford Seeger Award)Kira Namiko Wales (b. 2000) is a composer and violinist based in Miami, Florida. She is currently pursuing her Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory and Composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, where she studies with Dr. Lansing McLoskey. Since beginning her studies at the Frost School in August 2019, Wales participated in a composition master class with Melinda Wagner, and later performed Wagner’s Romanze With Faux Variations (Piano Trio No. 2), receiving a review from the South Florida Classical Review stating “[...] Kira Wales’ singing violin sonority encompassed the work’s passionate moods.” Wales was selected as the undergraduate division winner of the 2019 Ensemble Ibis composition competition, and her work Sonnet To Liberty for soprano and chamber ensemble will be premiered at the Frost School of Music in April 2020. Most recently, she has been commissioned to write a new work for the Invicta Saxophone Quartet at James Madison University. Being a violinist for more than a decade before picking up composition, Wales’ music is strongly influenced and informed by her experiences as a performer. Outside of music, Wales is also pursuing a psychology minor at the University of Miami, driven by her passion for mental health advocacy and social justice.
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Jonathan Wyatt (2020 Leslie Bassett Graduate Award)Jonathan Wyatt (b. 1997) is a composer, conductor, and sound artist. His work often explores relationships, connectivity, and control. He is particularly interested in making art that engages an audience from multiple perspectives, and that blurs the boundaries of form and medium. Jonathan is influenced by a number of conceptual and visual artists, including Damien Hirst, Yves Klein, Maggi Hambling, David Shrigley, Jeff Koonz, and Mike Kelley. He also draws inspiration from trap, hiphop, folk, metal, and indie rock artists. Some of his favorite composers are Benjamin Britten, Leoš Janáček, Alfred Schnittke, and Moondog. Jonathan has been a fellow at the Atlantic Music Festival, the Red Note New Music Festival, and was a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award. He holds a BM from Shenandoah Conservatory, where he studied with Jonathan Newman and Dr. Natalie Draper. Raised in a small southern Virginia town, he now lives in Brooklyn NY, and is pursuing an MM at the Mannes School of Music with Dr. David T. Little.
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Garrett Fuller (2020 David Stock Undergraduate Award)Garrett Fuller is a currently finishing his last semester at Georgia State University, majoring in music composition. He is originally from McDonough, Georgia and currently resides in Atlanta. At a young age Garrett knew he had a passion for music. He started playing trumpet in middle school and has continued to this day where he is a member of the premier wind ensemble at Georgia State University. He began composing in high school and has been working on his craft for the past five years. In that time he has come from writing short melodies for him and his friends to play on the trumpet to composing music for brass ensemble, wind band, and even the Georgia State University Panther Marching Band. He has a passion for trying new and ambitious things compositionally while striving to infuse as much passion and intensity he can into his pieces. A few notable compositions include Elision for horn and piano, Persisting Fear for woodwind trio, and the Rose a full wind band piece. His first string quartet will be premiered this spring at his senior composition recital. He is eager to improve his composition skills and continue to push the boundaries of modern day music.
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Nicole Russell (2020 Ruth Crawford Seeger Award)Nicole Russell (b. 1997) is an African-American and Mexican-American composer born and raised in Austin, Texas. Her work includes art songs, choral music, works for solo instruments, chamber music, and electro-acoustic music. Her work was featured on the Callope’s Call “Sounds of Unity” program and the 2019 Women in Music Festival on the campus of the Mississippi University for Women. She was also a selected student composer for the 2019 CISUM Percussion Workshop in New York. Nicole is an active pianist and mezzo-soprano, performing as a soloist or accompanist in styles from classical to jazz. She is a member of the Chancel Choir and Hand Bell Choir at Central Christian Church in downtown San Antonio and teaches piano and voice lessons to children. Nicole is currently pursuing her bachelor’s degree in music composition at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
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William Neace (2020 Leslie Bassett Graduate Award)William Neace (b. 1989) is an American composer, arranger, editor, and trumpet player living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. As a composer, William has received a number of residencies for Wind Ensemble and Orchestra through various school competitions, as well as a number of private commissions on a wide variety of ensemble groups from solo unaccompanied trumpet to concert bands and orchestras. As a teacher he has taught trumpet in private lessons, as well as sectionals in masterclass and rehearsal settings, conducted large and chamber groups, and taught private lessons in Composition, Music Theory, and the use of Engraving software such as Dorico, Finale, and Sibelius. William is currently at The University of Minnesota studying for a PhD in Music Composition. He is a registered composer under ASCAP. Outside of music he enjoys video games, nature walks, sports, and cooking.
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Bernard Short (2019 Alba Program Alum)Dr. Bernard Short (b. 1979, Harlem, NYC) was raised in Far Rockaway Queens, NY; he earned a BA in Music with a focus in Composition at Morehouse College in 2007, and a Masters in Music Education at The University of Georgia in 2012. He graduated with his PhD in Music Composition from the University of Iowa in 2018. During his time at the University of Iowa he was awarded a Full Dean’s Fellowship and worked as a Research Assistant for the Center for New Music; where he studied with Dr. Lawrence Fritts and Dr. David Gompper. From 2008-2014 he was the Director of Bands and Orchestra at Cross Keys High School in Atlanta, GA. While serving in his role as Musical Director, he assumed the responsibility of rebirthing multiple programs that are still thriving today. Furthermore, while serving in this capacity he reignited the programs vitality, which resulted in the department obtaining a number of notable grants from a wide range of organizations including the Grammy Organization. Furthermore, this success served as a launching pad in which Dr. Short was able to bloom into a thought-provoking composer with profound impacts. In 2015, he received a commission from The Julien Chamber Winds Ensemble at The University of Dubuque. In 2017, he was commissioned to compose a piece to have its world premier in Mykonos, Greece at the Delian Academy for New Music’s International Summer Academy for Composers and Sound Artists. In both 2019 and 2020, he was commissioned to compose string pieces, which had their world premier in Alba, Italy at the Alba Music Festival. Dr. Short’s music is the expression of a person’s soul that is best used as a way to communicate with someone without allowing words to obliterate the message.
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Aaron Wong (2020 Alba Assistant)Aaron Wong (b. 1996) is a composer, pianist, and bassoonist based in Boston, Massachusetts. His music takes inspiration from natural processes and phenomena as well as collaborations with other artistic disciplines, spanning text, film, dance, and visual art. Embracing his composer-performer duality, he often takes part in performances of his work and additionally has premiered several pieces by his colleagues. Recent projects include Songs of Uncertainty, a text setting of poetry by Stephen Crane for two sopranos and small chamber ensemble, and Escape, a solo work exploring the sound possibilities of the double bass. His focus is in chamber music, although his breadth of work includes orchestral and multimedia pieces as well. Aaron earned his B.A. in Music from Tufts University in 2019 under John McDonald, and is now continuing his composition studies at New England Conservatory with Kati Agócs.
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Austin Franklin (2020 Alba Assistant)Austin Franklin is a composer and sound artist based in Baton Rouge, LA. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Lamar University, and is currently pursuing a Master of Music Composition degree from LSU. Austin has several pieces for percussion published through C-Alan Publications and is regularly performed throughout the United States. He is the recipient of many awards and commissions, including the Sound/Sight Art Collaboration, the First Annual LSU Composition Competition, and the Dead Resonance Call for Aleatoric Scores. His is music has also been presented at festivals and conferences such as The Red Stick FutureFest (2018), New Interfaces for Musical Expression (2019), Society of Composers Incorporated (2020), and Electric LaTex (2020).
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Michael Grebla (2020 Assistant Photographer)Michael Grebla is a New York based emerging composer from Perth, Australia. His music endeavours to create meaningful and inclusive cultural experiences, drawing influences from tradition and the present. His recent works have dealt with ideas of journey, displacement, transience and spirituality, reflecting in part on his own experience as an immigrant. Michael is a curious composer with interests also in Mechanical Engineering and Acoustics in which he also holds a bachelor degree as well as photography – both have inspired previous compositions. His music has been performed for festivals and ensembles including the Zodiac Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, Connecticut Summerfest, Charlotte New Music, TUTTI Festival, Australian Youth Orchestra, and the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Michael recently completed a Master of Music with Honours at the New England Conservatory where he studied with Kati Agocs. Prior to this he completed a Bachelor of Music from the University of Western Australia with First Class Honours in the studios of Christopher Tonkin and James Ledger.
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Brian MoralesCalifornia-native Brian Morales has established an exciting presence on the New York music scene, with a reputation for excellence as a composer, conductor, and orchestrator. Nominated for an Olivier Award (Best Orchestration for the West End production of The Color Purple directed by John Doyle), Morales continues to explore soundscapes with dramatic elements. He has been named the 2019-2020 Composer-in-Residence with fp Creative where he will present an interdisciplinary collaboration with Julia Bengtsson in Cleveland, Ohio. He was Academy Fellow at the Talis Music Festival in Sarajevo and recently received the 2018 Pittsburgh Philharmonic EQT Young Composer Contest, resulting in the premiere his orchestral piece Arrivals. An enthusiast for solo viola literature, Brian often accompanies violist, Erin Hagood, in the repertoire. Brian also enjoys board games and 90's pop culture.
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John FranekJohn Franek (b.1996) is a pianist and composer who’s compositions “demonstrate a craftsmanship of a composer far beyond his years.” (Dr. J.A. Kawarsky, Professor of Theory & Composition) John has had premieres of his own works performed in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, most notably in New York City (US), Philadelphia (US), London (UK), Quito (Ecuador), Strasbourg (France), Paris (France), Havana (Cuba), Krasnoyarsk (Russia), Olomouç (Czechia), Rome (Italy) and Tashkent (Uzbekistan). Among these performances he has had his worked performed by ensembles such as The Siberian State Symphony Orchestra, The Moravian Philharmonic, The Central Jersey Symphony Orchestra, The Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey as well as members of the Lontano ensemble. As a sought after performer, John has personally performed on three continents and has given concerts throughout the United States. An avid researcher and performer of Mozart, recently toured his “Franek & Mozart” lecture-concert and is currently working on a Mozart book for popular audiences. John obtained a Bachelor in Music Theory & Composition as well as Piano Performance from Westminster Choir College and is currently pursuing a master’s degree in composition at King’s College London. His main instructors have included Phyllis Lehrer, Jay Kawarsky, Silvina Milstein and Aldo Brizzi. John has recorded extensively as a solo artist. In addition to his album Purely Mozart, John has also recorded a full solo album to be distributed by Naxos on the classical music label Affetto Records in the near future. He currently runs his own publishing company, LiveWire Music Editions, as well as his own record label and music platform, Aphoria Music, and is also published by Alijam Music.
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Evan SandenEvan Sanden is a musician, composer, and filmmaker. Under the moniker Necessary Collective, he has released various solo projects and scored several short films. He has also helped edit, direct, and write a variety of short student films. Film projects of his own are released under Ink Wrecked Productions. As a composer, Evan writes both acoustic and electronic music, inspired by a wide range of sources. In addition to his solo projects, he has written for short films directed by Erika Ranglova, Ezra Bebop, and himself. He has also collaborated with poet M.C. Montague and musical artist violethead. Additionally, he plays in experimental post-rock duo Baba's Theory along with Cooper Nettesheim, and in an ambient electronic group with Ezra Bebop, called All Available Chaos. Evan is currently studying music and film in Minneapolis, MN.
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