The following are finalists for CCOT's Arts Songs for the 21st Century composer competition: More about the competition
Victoria Bond
Victoria Bond leads a dual career as composer and conductor. Her compositions have been praised by the NY Times as "Powerful, stylistically varied and technically demanding," and her conducting has been called “impassioned” by the Wall Street Journal. Bond has served as Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony; guest conducted internationally and was profiled in the Wall Street Journal, NBC’s Today Show, People Magazine and The New York Times.
Eliza Brown
Composer Eliza Brown writes music that explores the interaction between natural acoustic properties of sound and culturally contingent ways of creating musical meaning. Recent projects include String Quartet No. 1, commissioned and premiered by the Spektral Quartet, and a solo piano piece for Ensemble Dal Niente’s Mabel Kwan. Eliza is currently a doctoral student and lecturer at Northwestern University, where her research has focused on contemporary opera.
Rich Campbell
"Coney Island" is the winner of competitions sponsored by Octarium & the Manhattan Choral Ensemble & performed by each. “Winter Stars” premiere next month by Bismarck Women’s Chamber Ensemble. "Come On In," (brass quintet) -winner of Washington Composers Forum competition. Recordings: "Variations On A Groove," by Brass Initiative (iTunes); “Home Again,” by Christopher Peacock. Rich is co-songwriter on a Grammy-nominated album by The Triplets; co-composer of "Puppy Love" @ NY's PS 122 & past participant in NY's New Dramatists Composer/Lyricist Studio.
Andrea Clearfield
Andrea Clearfield is an award-winning composer of music for orchestra, chorus, soloists, chamber ensembles, dance and multi-media collaborations. Her works are performed widely in the U.S. and abroad. Commissions include large-scale works for The Philadelphia Orchestra, Mendelssohn Club, Network for New Music and Orchestra 2001. She has composed ten cantatas. Her new cantata, Tse Go La, will be premiered by the Mendelssohn Club, Pennsylvania Girlchoir and the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia this April. For more information visit www.andreaclearfield.com
Michael Djupstrom
The work of composer and pianist Michael Djupstrom has received awards from such institutions as the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Chinese Fine Arts Society, and the Académie musicale de Villecroze, among many others. Djupstrom was born in St. Paul, MN in 1980 and studied at the University of Michigan and the Curtis Institute of Music. Other training included fellowships at the Tanglewood Music Center, the Aspen Music Festival, and studies in Paris with Betsy Jolas. www.michaeldjupstrom.com
Daniel Gilliam
Daniel Gilliam is a composer of art songs, choral, orchestra, and chamber music. Current commissions include a song cycle for baritone Nathan Wilson, and for the University of Minnesota Wind Ensemble and soprano. Mr. Gilliam has been commissioned by the Louisville Youth Choir, Turin Philharmonic Orchestra, The Phoenix Concerts and The Seasons Music Festival. He is from Louisville, KY; and currently lives in St. Paul, MN. For more information: danielgilliam.tumblr.com
Chappell Kingsland
Chappell Kingsland (b. 1980) has studied composition at Eastman (BM), with Chaya Czernowin in Vienna, and at Indiana University (MM, currently pursuing DM). He has received many awards as composer and pianist. His music seeks to integrate elements from diverse musical cultures (concert and popular, Western and Eastern, past and present) into a personal and compelling synthesis. He is now writing an opera about America's love affair with Oil.
Damon Thomas Lee
Damon Thomas Lee writes vocal, instrumental, electro-acoustic and multimedia/film works. He spent the better part of the last decade composing in Karlsruhe, a small town on the Rhine river near the German/French border, and often works with themes relating to food and the art of preparing it. He recently moved back to the US to Lincoln, Nebraska where he is Professor of Digital Arts and Music Composition. DamonThomasLee.com
Ray Leslee
Standup Shakespeare (with Alfred Molina, F. Murray Abraham, dir. Mike Nichols); Avenue X, the a cappella musical (50 productions incl Playwrights Horizons in NY and The Wilma Theatre, 13 Barrymore Awards incl Best Musical); A Good Man (The Vienna Chamber Opera); The Three Muskateers (national tour); Educating Rita (Steppenwolf Theatre); Palestine (New York Theatre Workshop); over 35 Shakespeare productions. A Chamber Christmas Carol (The Morgan Library in NY); Romeo & Juliet for Orchestra and Actors (The Buffalo Philharmonic); Maya Songs (the poems of Maya Angelou with Atlanta Symphony Orchestra).
Norman Matthews
Norman Mathews’ work has been performed at The Kennedy Center and at concert halls around the world. Rossetti Songs, a five-song cycle for piano, was recorded by Navona Records. Songs of the Poet, his Walt Whitman song cycle, was recorded for Capstone Records by Munich Opera tenor Gregory Wiest. Sonnet No. 61 for chorus, piano, and oboe won the 2011 Vocal Essence Award. His one-person musical theatre piece, You Might As Well Live, based on the life of poet Dorothy Parker, has been performed by Tony-Award-winner Michele Pawk and Broadway star Karen Mason. www.normanmathews.com
Ruben Naeff
Ruben Naeff - After studying mathematics and music in Amsterdam and working some years as an economist, Ruben Naeff (1981) is currently enrolled in a graduate program at New York University, where he studies composition with Michael Gordon. Ruben’s broad interest led to many interdisciplinary pieces like De Bètacanon (about the hard sciences), The Dancing Dollar (about the current financial crisis), and the YouOpera (about our lives online).
Daniel Schlosberg
Composer and pianist Daniel Schlosberg has had works played by the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, counter)induction, Encompass New Opera Theater, the Lorelei Ensemble, and New Triad for Collaborative Arts. Having grown up in Philadelphia, Daniel received a B.A. from Yale College and is now pursuing his Master's in composition at the Yale School of Music, working with Aaron Jay Kernis. He has won awards from ASCAP, ACO, and NFAA. His website is www.danschlosbergmusic.com.
Daniel Temkin
Daniel Temkin is an Artist Diploma Candidate at the Curtis Institute of Music. His work has been supported by grants and fellowships from the American Composers Forum, the Theodore Presser Foundation, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Brevard, Aspen, and Fontainebleau Festivals. His works have been performed across the United States by groups including the Nashville Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, MusicCity Mystique Percussion Group, and others. (For more, please visit: www.danieltemkincomposer.com)
Dale Trumbore
Dale Trumbore is a Los Angeles-based composer whose works have been performed by the Kronos Quartet, ACME, the USC Thornton Symphony, the NY Virtuoso Singers, and the Boston New Music Initiative. She has also received commissions, grants and awards from ACDA, Chanticleer, WomenSing, and the American Composer's Forum. In September 2011, Trumbore released her debut CD of art songs, Snow White Turns Sixty, featuring soprano Gillian Hollis. Hear more of Trumbore's music at daletrumbore.com or iTunes.
Thomas Whitman
Thomas Whitman (b. 1960) studied composition with George Crumb, Gerald Levinson, Max Lifchitz, Jay Reise, and Richard Wernick. He has received many prizes, fellowships, and commissions. His stage works include the chamber operas The Black Swan (directed by the late Sarah Caldwell in 1998) and A Scandal in Bohemia as well as portions of the collaborative opera Decameron (produced by International Opera Theater in Philadelphia and Italy). Whitman has taught at Swarthmore College since 1990.
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