Annual News from the Composition Area 2008-09

Recent and Forthcoming Events of Note

FACULTY


Miguel Chuaqui
—New compact disc 2009 release on Centaur includes: El Canto Repartido (Canyonlands Ensemble, Morris Rosenzweig conductor), La Persistencia de la Memoria (Heather Conner, piano), Mareas (Carlton Vickers, alto flute), Desde el Límite (Left Coast Ensemble, George Thomson, conductor).
—Mareas, for alto flute and electronics performed by Jane Rigler at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival in April.
—La Persistencia de la Memoria, performed by the composer, at the 2009 National Conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS), Sweetwater, Indiana in April.
—La Persistencia de la Memoria, for piano and interactive electronics, performed and recorded by Heather Conner at the University of Utah in October.
—La Persistencia de la Memoria, all-electronic version for Disklavier and electronics, presented at Brigham Young University, in November.
—Blues en el Corazón, three piano works commissioned by pianist Marilyn Nonken.
—Presentation and workshop on motion-tracking techniques for interactive dance at the Utah Dance Education Organization (UDEO) Annual Conference, in March.
—Dee Grant recipient (with Steve Roens).

Steve Roens
—Invocations for soprano, cello and piano was performed on a Sundays at 7:00 faculty concert on February 8, 2009 by Cheryl Hart, John Eckstein and Vedrana Subotic.
—Specific Gravity for soprano and chamber orchestra was performed on the Utah Arts Festival on June 25, 2009 by Cheryl Hart and the Arts Festival chamber orchestra conducted by Andrew Rindfleisch.  
—Currently at work on a string quartet and have finished the first of three movements.
—Dee Grant recipient (with Miguel Chuaqui).

Morris Rosenzweig
—yeah you rite!, for alto sax and electronics, commissioned by saxophonist Tim Ruedeman, premiered Issue Project Room, NYC, in June. Upcoming performances of yeah you rite! by Tim Ruedeman include December 2009 performance at Listen Space, NYC March 2010 performance, NYU alumni concert, and others. Mark Ely will perform it in November 2009 in SLC.
—Working on Da Lieves ahda Saints, a commission for Daniel Lippel for electric guitar and electronics.
—Rough Sleepers, Fromm Foundation commission, performed and recorded by Canyonlands, Libby Gardner Hall in September, performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, Transit Festival, Belgium, in October.
—reprise, WSCMS, December 5, 2009, Merkin Hall, NYC, Louis Karchin, conductor.
—New CD accepted by Albany, contains: Rough Sleepers (Canyonlands Ensemble); Just One Step Beyond (Roberta Zalkind, viola, Igor Iachimciuc, cembalom); Past Light (New York New Music Ensemble, commission with funds from the Argosy Foundation); A Table of the Most Used Chords (Utah Symphony Horn section, Intermezzo commission); person, place (Carlton Vickers, Glenn Webb); reprise (NOVA, commissioned for its 30th anniversary, composer conducting).
—Conducted Canyonlands in recording of Steve Ricks' Waves/Particles, to be released on Albany.
—Colloquium presentation at Brandeis University, February.

Henry Wolking
—“Gone Playin” concerto for clarinet and string orchestra performance by the Orchestra of Kuopio, Rauno Tikkanen soloist, Robert Baldwin, conductor, Kuopio, Finland October 2008.
—Shoulder Space (premier performance) U of U Jazz band 1 October 1 LGH.
—Wake Up To A Melody U of U Jazz band 1, October 1 LGH, and October 18, Kick Off Fund Raising gala.
—Sumo Mix, U of U Jazz band 1, November 25 LGH.

ALUMNI

Christian Gentry
—Flux Flummoxed, Barlow Endowment Commission for Music Composition from BYU for Benjamin Sung, violin, and Jihye Change, piano.
—Composer Fellow at June in Buffalo, 2009
—Composer Fellow at Composers Conference at Wellesley College, 2009.

Michael Gates
—Accepted to the University of Massachusetts in Lowell Sound Recording Technology Graduate Program.

Marie Grudzien
—Commissioned by U of U Theatre Dept. to write original score for Classical Greek Theatre Festival production of MEDEA Sept. 2008
—Commissioned by Utah Opera to work in the schools on children's opera projects; wrote 2 original children's operas: 'The Journey Home' and 'Video Game Invaders'.

Brian Hulse
—3rd year as Assistant Professor (Theory/Comp) at the College of William & Mary.
—Teaching at the soundSCAPE Festival in Pavia, Italy.
—I had a CD released this year on Albany Records entitled "Pseudoragas."
—Gave talks and had performances (including 2 chamber operas) in Europe and the United States.
—Article published in GAMUT.
—Commissioned to compose a work for Flexible Music Ensemble (New York).

Rosemary Mead
—Commission by the Melbourne Chamber Choir (Australia) for a choral work to be premiered and recorded at the University of Melbourne under direction of Faye Dumont in August.

Samuel L. Richards
—Assistant to the Director of the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium.
—Director and conductor of the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.
—Original film music commissioned by Filmusik for a July performance of "Death Rides a Horse" in Portland, OR.
—"Resonant Seed", "Witness", an electronic work commissioned by choreographer Valerie Ifill, was premiered at the University of Oregon.
—"After Hours in The Parlour Room" an electronic work commissioned by choreographer Alex Taylor, and "The More We Get Together" an electronic work commissioned by choreographer Valerie Ifill, was taken on a tour of the West coast by UORDC (University of Oregon Repertory Dance Company).
—"There Are No Words Here" for solo viola, was commissioned by chorographer Kyle Sorenson, and premiered by the Eugene Contemporary Chamber Orchestra. This piece is slated to be included in an article by Brett Banducci on the subject of contemporary music for viola in the Journal of the American Viola Society.
—"The Phases of the Moon" for brass quintet, commissioned and premiered by Brass Windows in Eugene, Oregon.
—"Rapture and the Agon" for flute choir, performed by the University of Oregon flute studio, directed by Molly Barth.
—Original music for a documentary directed by Amira Dhugri about the Oregon School for the Blind, scheduled to be played on Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) later this year.

Steven Ricks
—Premiere of Amygdala, for clarinet, piano, and electronics by Jean Kopperud and Stephen Gosling at the TRANSIT New Music Festival in Leuven, Belgium, October 08.  This also included a pre-concert presentation of the piece, and participation in a panel discussion on American Music, both along with my former PhD advisor Morris Rosenzweig.
—Performance of Amygdala by the Kopperud/Gosling duo at the Festival of New American Music at CSU Sacramento.  Also included a master class on my music to composition students and a pre-concert lecture.
—Additional performances of Amygdala at the U of U, BYU, UCSD, U of Pittsburg, U of Pennsylvania, SUNY Buffalo, and at Merkin Hall in NYC, in late 08 and early 09.
—West Coast premiere of Young American Inventions by pianist Vicki Ray at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles, 12/08.
—Recording of two pieces with producer Judith Sherman in NYC: Amygdala, with performers mentioned above; and Extended Play, with Flexible Music.  Amygdala will appear on a forthcoming double-CD release by Jean Kopperud, "Xtreme Measures," and Extended Play is slated to appear on my next CD release, along side Waves/Particles (recorded by Morris Rosenzweig and Canyonlands) and Anthology (recorded by the Portland, OR-based group fEAR no MUSIC).
—Current projects include a trombone duo with electronics, Force of the Mind, for Bill Mathis and Will Kimball, to be premiered at the 2009 BGSU Festival of New Art and Music; and an extended piano solo/video work based on the Medusa myth for pianist Keith Kirchoff.

Seth Stewart
—Accepted into the University of Oregon Masters program in composition and awarded a Composition Graduate Teaching Fellowship (tuition + stipend).

STUDENTS

Liudmila Chise
—Silver Images, performed at the University of Utah by Utah Composers Ensemble, in April.
—Echoes for Clarinet, for string quartet and triangle, performed and recorded at Arizona State University, in April.
—Fantasia for Clarinet and Piano performed at the International Festival of Contemporaneous Music by the clarinetist Dumitru Negura and pianist Xenia Stolearciuc, Chisinau, Moldova, in June.
—Fantasia for clarinet and piano has been recently published in the: Album with pieces for wind instruments by the Publishing Center “Cartea Moldovei”, 2009

Nels Drue Daily
—Participated in the ASU/UofU Composer Exchange in April 2009 where Spheres was performed at ASU.
—Graduated from the University of Utah with his Masters in Music in May of 2009 and accepted an offer from the University of Nebraska- Lincoln to complete his DMA in Music Composition with a full-award graduate teaching assistantship for three years.

Igor Iachimciuc
—In John's Garden, cycle for the clarinet and piano; September 2008; recorded by Jean Kopperud - clarinet, and Stephen Gosling - piano; presented at the master class at the Union of Composers and Musicologists of Moldova in December 22, 2008
—'In John's Garden' published in Moldova in June by Editura CARTEA MOLDOVEI, Chisinau 2009.
—Leopard's Path, 13 visions for chamber ensemble, performed at the University of Utah by Utah Composers Ensemble and at Arizona State University in April.
—Four Christmas Carols, and Three American Songs, arranged for two pianos; April 2009; commissioned by Dr. Susan Duehlmeier; included on her recent CD.
—Three American Songs, performed at Libby Gardner Hall, Salt Lake City in December.
—Eight pieces for flute, clarinet, violin, and cello; performed at Zilele Muzicii Noi (The Days of New Music) International New Music Festival in Chisinau (Moldova) in July.
—Poemele luminii (Poems of Light), presented at the Composers Forum at the Arizona State University in April 2009.
—Concert Suite for solo cimbalom, taken as a subject for MDA by Alexandru Parfeni at the University of Arts (Moldova) in May 2009.

Jamie Rankin
—Premier of "Triangles", commissioned by the MUNDI project, featuring ten grand pianos, which I conducted for the "Imagine A Piano" piano monster concert at Glendale Middle School, Salt Lake City.

Sergiu Rosca
—Pianist Iulia Rivilis performed my Preludes for piano during the International Festival of Contemporary Music "Days of New Music," Chisinau, Moldova, in June.

Shawn Standing
—Transitions, for electronics, presented at the 2009 National Conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the U.S. (SEAMUS), Sweetwater, Indiana in April.
—Completed the Bachelor in Music this year.