JACOBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC
COMPOSITION DEPARTMENT
Fall 2024 News
48 Hours with the [Switch~ Ensemble]
Center for Electronic and Computer Music
Music Scoring for Visual Media
This Fall will feature a diverse array of contemporary music activities, guest composer appearances, multiple collaborations, world premiere performances, and our usual slew of concerts featuring works by our talented student composers and faculty. You can catch the full schedule of performances at our Events page. Please feel free to visit our composition blog for information about our department, access to faculty and student recordings, and recent news.
Guest Composers, Fall 2024
This past February, we have enjoyed visits from Pascal LeBeouf, who presented his work in the Composition Forum, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. Both were featured on the New Music Ensemble concert in September. Upcoming guests include composers Felipe Lara and our very own Eugene O’Brien.
NME and NOTUS Performances
This October, the New Music Ensemble performed several works by Charles Ives as part of the Charles Ives at 150 Festival, including his Set for Theater Orchestra, and his iconic Central Park in the Dark.
In addition to performances of works by Pascal LeBeouf and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, mentioned above, the NME will perform Felipe Lara’s Mosaic Maze, Eugene O’Brien’s In the Country of Last Things, Mason Bates’ The Rise of Exotic Computing, and Sean Shepherd’s Simple Machines. They will also be performing DM student Corey Chang’s work, What’s Next?, commissioned by the NME. The full calendar of NME concerts can be found here. All NME concerts can be viewed on IUMusicLive!.
In October NOTUS performed several of Charles Ives’ sacred choral works, also as part of the Charles Ives at 150 Festival.
New Voices for Orchestra
On November 19, David Dzubay will conduct the Symphony Orchestra in the New Voices for Orchestra concert. The concert will feature 5 new pieces by IU composers and alumni, including Jung-Woong Oh, Kian Ravaei, Rowan Lemaster, Eunji Lee, and Cooper Wood.
48 Hours with the [Switch~ Ensemble]
This year marks the 5th and final year of the Composition Department’s 48 Hours Symposium and Concerts. Over a single weekend, 8 IU student composers will each write an original work for the 48 Hours guest ensemble, which will then be performed at the end of the weekend on Sunday. This year’s guest ensemble is the New York-based [Switch~ Ensemble]. The 8 composers selected to participate are: Daixuan Ai, Sy Anderson, Elijah Culp, Yuanning Gao, Ye-chong Jeon, Rowan Lemaster, Jake Rogus, and Coda Sheuer. The event will take place Nov. 1 – 3. More information can be found here.
Opera
In November, the IU Opera and Ballet Theater will present the premiere performance of Mason Bates’ The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, with libretto by Gene Scheer. This opera is a coproduction with the Metropolitan Opera but will receive its world premiere on the MAC stage. Mason Bates will be present at the premiere and will also give a talk at the Composition Forum that week. Performances are scheduled for November 15, 16, 21, and 22.
Center for Electronic and Computer Music
Students and faculty continue to raise the profile of the CECM at national and international conferences and festivals. Last calendar year, students were selected 18 times for such events. This year, we are up to 36 selections. Highlights include (from left to right in the photos below) a contingent of CECM-ers at Electronic Music Midwest, outside of Chicago; a presentation of current student work at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music in Hangzhou, China; and a reunion of current CECM students and alumni at the International Computer Music Conference in Seoul.
Music Scoring for Visual Media
We are delighted to announce that two of our graduates from the MSVM master’s program are now working full time in L.A. Arda Ren is assistant to Mike Post and is currently writing cues for the new season of Law & Order. Eli Denson is working for TV composer Kevin Kiner on all of the new Disney + Star Wars shows: Ashoka, Clone Wars, Rebels.
Jacobs Composition Academy
The first Jacobs Composition Academy (JCA) Summer Intensive proved to be a huge success for students and faculty alike. Formed and directed by third-year doctoral student Corey Chang, who serves as the assistant director of the Jacobs Composition Academy during the fall and spring semesters, this new summer composition program gives students of all ages private instruction from some of Indiana University’s top award-winning graduate students, as well as composition professors Don Freund (JCA founder), Han Lash, and David Dzubay, and culminates with two concerts and eighteen premieres from track 1 participants. In addition, students this year were given the opportunity to witness lectures by distinguished guest composers and new music leaders Joan Tower, Amy Beth Kirsten, Cheng Jin Koh, Tengku Irfan, and Jiji Kim, all of whom provided important and diverse insights on being a composer and new music advocate.
Learn more about all JCA offerings at the website.
JACOBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC
COMPOSITION DEPARTMENT
Spring 2024 News
Center for Electronic and Computer Music (CECM)
Music Scoring for Visual Media
This Spring will feature a diverse array of contemporary music activities, guest composer appearances, multiple collaborations, world premiere performances, and our usual slew of concerts featuring works by our talented student composers and faculty. You can catch the full schedule of performances at our Events page. Please feel free to visit our composition blog for information about our department, access to faculty and student recordings, and recent news.
Guest Composers, Spring 2024
This past February, we have enjoyed visits from composers Pamela Z and Nina Young. Pamela Z presented her work in the Composition Forum, and both composers were featured on the following New Music Ensemble concert. Upcoming guests include composers Anthony Cheung, Chen Yi, and Melinda Wagner, all of whom will be here in March for the ACO Earshot Readings (see below), as well as Taiwanese-American composer Chihchun Lee.
ACO Earshot Readings at IU
This spring, the Jacobs School of Music is delighted to host the ACO Earshot Readings from March 20 – 23, featuring works for chamber orchestra by four young composers. The four composers, two of whom are current IU composition students, will be mentored by guest composers Anthony Cheung, Chen Yi, and Melinda Wagner.
NME and NOTUS Performances
In addition to performances of works by Pamela Z and Nina Young, mentioned above, the NME premiered DM composer Daixuan Ai’s commissioned work, The Burning of Yuan Ming Yuan. In March will feature two premieres, guest composer Chihchun Lee’s To be, or not to be?!, and DM composer Alexey Logunov’s Georgina Joshi Composition Award winning piece, The Hollow Men, alongside Augusta Read Thomas’ Terpsichore’s Box of Dreams. Then in April, works by the three ACO mentor composers will be featured, including Chen Yi’s Fire, Melinda Wagner’s Limbic Fragments, and Anthony Cheung’s Parallel Play. The full calendar of NME concerts can be found here. All NME concerts can be viewed on IUMusicLive!.
March 22, NOTUS will premiere the two winning works of the NOTUS Composition Contest, BM composer Erin Blake’s Gacela de la muerte oscura (Ghazal of the Dark Death), and MM composer Daniel Cui’s Jasmine Flower. The concert will also feature works by IU composition faculty Han Lash, and a new work by NOTUS director Dominick DiOrio.
Collaborations
The IU Jacobs Composition Department supports a wide range of collaborations with other departments throughout the year. This Spring will feature performances of works from many of those collaborations, including:
Kids Compose – melodies written by local school kids are selected and worked into new pieces for orchestra and concert band; performances on January 24 and February 21.
Piano Prelude Collaboration – premiere performance of 24 piano preludes by 24 different composers, featuring IU student pianists, March 30.
Nature Walk – a new collaboration where student composers will go on a nature walk with IU retired biology professor Roger Hangarter as inspiration for their new pieces for small ensemble. The premieres will be held April 27.
Other collaborations this spring include the Community Ballet, Trombone Choir, Brass Band, Carillon, and Voice and Guitar. More information on these and other collaborative opportunities can be found here. For updates on collaboration concerts, please see our Events page.
Center for Electronic and Computer Music
Spring is festival season for CECM composers. Several students are joining faculty members John Gibson and Chi Wang at Electronic Music Midwest (EMM) outside Chicago, MOXsonic at Central Missouri University, and the SEAMUS Electroacoustic Fais Do Do at Louisiana State University. Yao Hsiao and Huan Sun are among four national finalists for the Sweetwater SEAMUS commissions. Anne Liao, who will complete the Master’s in Computer Music Composition this semester, is traveling to Paris to present her music at the IRCAM Forum. Professor Wang is a finalist in the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at Georgia Tech for the Yuan instrument she designed and built. Professor Gibson will be guest composer at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
The CECM enjoyed an inspiring visit to one of our classes in February by Pamela Z, pictured here after the class. We also welcomed Felipe Tovar-Henao (DM ’20), who shared his fascinating music and research with us. For more information, visit cecm.indiana.edu.
Music Scoring for Visual Media
A new “Episodic Television Scoring” course is having its inaugural semester now. Two cohorts of MMSVM students are in Los Angeles for two months studying Episodic Television Scoring with Ric Marvin. Besides the course work, they have many visitors to the studio such as Kole Hicks—Riot Games, Jon Ohara—Mike Post Productions, Markus Siegel—John Powell’s assistant, and Yitong Chen—Gordy Haab assistant.
This past Fall, film writer and director Rod Lurie visited the current scoring class to discuss the driving force behind his film “Nothing but the Truth,” which the scoring students are using as a Long Form composing assignment.
This Spring will see the annual presentation of the Double Exposure collaboration featuring student composers, film makers, and sound designers.
Jacobs Composition Academy
The Jacobs Composition Academy (JCA) is doing very well this year with enrollment at full capacity. Now in its third year, JCA is helping aspiring composers of all ages from around the world learn the craft of composition with online private lessons, masterclasses, and a workshop and performance of their compositions by IU student performers. Under the direction of Dr. Benjamin Taylor, semesters have been lengthened to 12 weeks (previously 8 weeks) and private lesson time was increased from 30 minutes to 45 minutes. The feedback from students and parents has been overwhelmingly positive. Learn more about our offerings at our website.
JACOBS SCHOOL OF MUSIC
COMPOSITION DEPARTMENT
Fall 2023 News
Guest Composers and NME Performances, Fall 2023
NOTUS Premieres and Performances
Center for Electronic and Computer Music (CECM)
Music Scoring for Visual Media
This Fall we are delighted to host an array of activities, guest composer appearances, multiple collaborations, world premiere performances, and our usual slew of concerts featuring works by our talented student composers and faculty. You can catch the full schedule of performances at our Events page. Please feel free to visit our composition blog for information about our department, access to faculty and student recordings, and recent news.
Guest Composers and NME Performances, Fall 2023
This past September, we were honored to have Five Friends Guest composer George Lewis present the U.S. premiere of his piece, The Deformation of Mastery, performed by the New Music Ensemble under David Dzubay. On October 26 we will have another Five Friends guest, Lei Liang, present two pieces with the NME, Brush-Stroke (2004) and his Harp Concerto (2008) alongside the world premiere of Don Freund’s Soul Chaconne, with tsunami. Then on November 30, we welcome retired professor emeritus Claude Baker to present his piece, Carmen infernarum machina-rum fugaz, together with David Dzubay’s Labyrinth and Oswald Huynh’s I Ask My Mother to Sing.
48 Hours with Hub New Music
October 27 to 29, we are delighted to have Detroit-based Hub New Music as the guest ensemble for this year’s 48 Hours Symposium and Recitals. 48 Hours is a weekend-long project consisting of an intense period of 48 hours in which students compose works for a visiting ensemble.
This year’s participating composers are: Christian Courage Barda, KiMani Bridges, Elijah Buerk, Noah Burns, Mil Carroll, Kenneth Hightower, Yao Hsiao, and Em Singleton. Hub New Music will present two concerts, one featuring their own program, and one featuring the eight participating composers. 48 Hours was made possible by the generous funding of the Fox Family Trust.
New Voices Orchestra
November 12 the IU Concert Orchestra will premiere four new orchestra pieces for the New Voices Orchestra concert, now in its sixth year. The four composers, all current or former IU students, are: Justin Graff, Khimaira; ChunWai Wong, Fire; Alexey Logunov, MESSIER 87 (US premiere); and Pablo M. Teutli, Secuaz. The concert will be livestreamed by IUMusicLive!
NOTUS Premieres and Performances
On October 24, the NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble will present several premieres and performances by IU student composers and alumni. Among these is the recipient of the Sven-David Sandstrom Award in Choral Composition and IU alumnus, Matthew Peterson, for his piece An Inner Sky (2022, U.S. premiere). The program will also include works by two alumni Alex Berko’s You Through Me (2022) and Kahan Taraporevala’s Youth (2023), as well as current BM student Thejas Mirle’s, Du Silbena Datia (2022).
Center for Electronic and Computer Music (CECM)
The fall semester began with a concert of electronic music by three CECM faculty: John Gibson, Chi Wang, and Alicyn Warren. We then welcomed composer George Lewis to the CECM, while he was here for a New Music Ensemble performance. Later this fall, the CECM will feature three more in-person guests. Ted Moore, a composer, improvisor, and software developer, will visit us on October 31. He is a member of the FluCoMa project, which is widely known for implementing machine-learning approaches for sound design and control.
Ted Coffey, professor of music at the University of Virginia, visits on November 9. He is a composer of acoustic and electronic music with significant dance collaborations to his credit, including with the Bill T. Jones / Arnie Zane Dance Company.
Yuanyuan (Kay) He, a composer focusing on audiovisual media in combination with live instrumental performance, visits us on November 16 from the University of Arizona, where she is a professor of composition and music technology.
Rounding out the semester, IU composers will present a concert of their new electronic music on December 3, with a mix of live performances using a Wacom tablet, sensor-based custom-designed controllers, live-processed acoustic instruments, multichannel fixed-media acousmatic pieces, and installation sonic art.
Music Scoring for Visual Media
On November 4, the IU Cinema will present “Dragnet Girl,” a Japanese gangster-crime drama centers around the triangular relationship between career criminal Joji, his gangster moll Tokiko, and Kazuko, the proverbial girl-next-door. As Kazuko finds herself pulled deeper into Joji’s world, Tokiko is willing to do whatever it takes to preserve her relationship and her status as queen of the underworld. [1933, 100 min; drama, romance; silent with Japanese title cards and English subtitles]
This screening will be accom-panied by the debut of a new live score composed by IU Jacobs School student Ebenezer Eferobor, orchestrated by Kyle Peter Rotolo, and performed by IU Jacobs student musicians.
“Project Involve” is an annual event where six scoring composers collaborate with six emerging Los Angeles film makers via Film Independent (The Spirit Awards). The current six scores and films will be ready for premieres later this fall.