2019 Composer-In-Residence
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Pierre JalbertEarning widespread notice for his richly colored and superbly crafted scores, Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) has developed a musical language that is engaging, expressive, and deeply personal. Among his many honors are the Rome Prize, the BBC Masterprize, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's 2007 Stoeger Award, given biennially "in recognition of significant contributions to the chamber music repertory", and a 2010 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Jalbert has drawn inspiration from a variety of sources, from plainchant melodies to natural phenomena. His music has been performed worldwide, with four Carnegie Hall performances of his orchestral music, including the Houston Symphony's Carnegie Hall premiere of his orchestral work, big sky, in 2006. Other major works for orchestra include In Aeternam (2000), performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, Symphonia Sacra (2001), written for the California Symphony; Les espaces infinis (2001), written for the Albany Symphony, Chamber Symphony(2004), commissioned by the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Fire and Ice (2007), commissioned for the Oakland East Bay, Marin, and Santa Rosa Symphonies through Meet the Composer Foundation's Magnum Opus Project, Autumn Rhapsody (2008), commissioned by the Vermont Symphony, and Shades of Memory (2011) premiered by the Houston Symphony. Recent orchestral performances include those by the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood, and the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra under Marin Alsop. He has served as Composer-in-Residence with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (2002-2005), California Symphony under Barry Jekowsky (1999-2002), and Music in the Loft in Chicago (2003). Select chamber music commissions and performances include those of the Emerson, Ying, Borromeo, Maia, Enso, Chiara, and Escher String Quartets. Jalbert is Professor of Music at Rice University's Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and he serves on the Artistic Board of Musiqa, a Houston-based new music group. His music is published by Schott Music.
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2019 Guest Composition Faculty
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Rick BeatoRick Beato is a musician, teacher, and father of three. Rick has worked as a writer/producer with various bands in the rock and country genres. Two albums that he produced for NeedtoBreathe – “The Outsiders” (2009) and “The Reckoning” (2012) – won Dove Awards in the Best Rock/Contemporary category. He co-wrote “Carolina” with Parmalee in 2013, which climbed to number 1 on the Billboard’s Country Music Chart. He is certified to teach grades K-12 and holds a bachelor’s in music from Ithaca College and a master’s in jazz studies from the New England Conservatory of Music. He is presently a member of the Board of Directors at The GLOBE Academy dual-language immersion charter school in Atlanta, GA
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2019 Composition Faculty
Elliott Miles McKinley
Roger Williams University
BIOGRAPHY
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 is currently Associate Professor of Music Composition, Theory, and Technology at Roger Williams University.
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Peter Farmer
Freelance (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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Program Staff
Yan Pang with Director Elliott Miles McKinley during the 2018 program.
Elliott Miles McKinley (Director) • Yan Pang (Assistant Director)
Yan Pang is a composer, scholar, and pianist. She has had her music performed in the United States, Europe, and China. Among recent premieres and commissions is a new work, Nowhere Home, premiered and recorded by the SOLI Chamber Ensemble during the Alba International Music Festival. Currently, Pang is working on a new work for the Janáček Trio, to be premiered and recorded (for a future CD release) in January 2019 in Prague, and a new duo for violin and viola for Sonic Apricity. Her work as a dance musician and choreographer includes an ongoing project with the Twin Cities’ Black Label Movement. As a recipient of a Humanities Without Walls grant, Pang is working on a project to compose music and choreography for dance to communicate and frame critical environmental questions. Pang has co-authored several books, including Cool Math for Hot Music, All About Music, and Basic Music Technology (with Guerino Mazzola et. al.), published by Springer. Pang has had her music published by the China People’s Cultural Publishing Company, including Solis Ortus, which was a winner of the SunRiver International Composition Competition. As a songwriter, her album Glory Times is published by the China Scientific & Cultural Audio Video Publishing Company, and a paper “Scene of Sichuan Opera” (co-author with Mingzhu Song) published by the China People’s Cultural Publishing Company. Pang is a Ph.D. candidate in Music Composition (A.B.D.) with a minor in Theater Arts and Dance at the University of Minnesota. She received her M.Mus. from the McNally Smith College of Music, and did her undergraduate education in music composition and piano at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music. Pang focuses on inter-cultural music composition and performance, and considers both her music composition and work in dance choreography as a means to build multicultural understanding and tolerance. As an educator, Pang has taught courses in rock history at the University of Minnesota, and taught private lessons in piano and composition. She is currently Program Assistant for the American Composer Forum and Assistant Director of the Alba Festival Composition Program.