Irish composer Gerald Barry studied in Cologne with Stockhausen and Kagel, and came to public attention in 1979 with radical ensemble works titled “________” and Ø. Gramophone Magazine said of his music, “it is at once highly formal and iconoclastic, perky and suave, sensuous and brittle…This is Stravinsky squared, cubism …read more »

National Medal of Arts, Pulitzer Prize, and Grammy Award-winner William Bolcom is an American composer of keyboard, chamber, operatic, vocal, choral, and symphonic music. Born in Seattle, Washington, he began composition studies at the age of eleven. He went on to study with Darius Milhaud at Mills College while working …read more »

Born in Berkeley, California, to a mother of mixed Peruvian/Chinese ancestry and a father of Lithuanian/Jewish descent, Gabriela Lena Frank explores her multicultural heritage most ardently through her compositions. Inspired by the works of Bela Bartók and Alberto Ginastera, Frank is something of a musical …read more »

Michael Gandolfi has a broad range of musical interests encompassing not only contemporary concert music but jazz, blues and rock, through which he first became a musician. The span of his musical investigation is paralleled by his cultural curiosity, resulting in many points of contact between the world of music …read more »

Winner of the 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, 1998 Pulitzer Prize, and 2011 Nemmers Award, Aaron Jay Kernis is one of America’s most honored composers. His music appears prominently on concert programs worldwide, and he has been commissioned by America’s preeminent performing organizations and artists, including the New York …read more »

David T. Little is “one of the most imaginative young composers” on the scene, a “young radical” (The New Yorker), with “a knack for overturning musical conventions” (The New York Times). His operas JFK (Fort Worth Opera / Opéra de Montréal), Dog Days (Peak Performances/Beth Morrison Projects), and Soldier Songs …read more »

Hailed by the Houston Chronicle as a composer whose music reflects a “charging, churning celebration of the musical and cultural energy of modern-day America,” Cindy McTee “brings to the world of concert music a fresh and imaginative voice.“ She has received numerous awards for her music, most significantly: a Guggenheim …read more »

Composer and conductor Christopher Rountree stands at the intersection of classical music, new music, performance art and pop. Rountree is the founder, conductor and creative director of the path breaking L.A. chamber orchestra wild Up. The group has been called “Searing. Penetrating. And Thrilling” by NPR’s Performance Today and named …read more »

Gabriella Smith is a composer from the San Francisco Bay Area whose music has been described as “high-voltage and wildly imaginative” (Philadelphia Inquirer); “bold, original and suggests exciting new directions for American music” (Maestro Giancarlo Guerrero); and “You really get the Pacific Ocean, man!” (Cabrillo Festival audience member). Her compositions …read more »

Leading American orchestras, instrumentalists, and wind ensembles around the world have performed the “straightforward, unabashedly beautiful sounds,” (Boston Herald) of Chicago based composer James M. Stephenson, both to critical acclaim and to the delight of audiences. Most recently, Charles Vernon, Chicago Symphony bass trombonist, asked Stephenson to write a new …read more »