Newsletter 01-2015

Will Rowe’s character pieces for violin and piano based on paintings by Gustav Klimt, Secessionist Subjects, will be included in the 2015 mise-en festival this June. The festival takes place in NYC, and the piece will be performed by the festival’s resident musicians, ensemble mise-en.

Jihyun Kim’s piece, Extempore Anamnesis, has been named as an honorable mention in the Red Note New Music Composition Competition.

Keith Fitch has been appointed Composer-in-Residence at the Rocky Ridge Summer Music Center, where he will direct the Young Artist Program in Composition.

David Werfelmann will be joining the faculty at Webster University in August 2015 as Assistant Professor of Music in Theory and Composition and Director of the B.A. in Music Program. During his short visit to Webster, it became immediately clear that it would be a great fit, and he is thrilled to begin this new chapter.

Clint Needham’s Concerto for Wind Ensemble, commissioned and premiered by the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory Symphonic Wind Ensemble last spring, has been awarded the 2014 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize from Ithaca College. The award is given out every two years and there were 90 entires submitted this year. Previous winners of the award include composers Frank Ticheli, Warren Benson, Jeffrey Hass, Adam Gorb, Evan Chambers, David Dzubay, and John Mackey. In addition to the prize, the Ithaca College Wind Ensemble will perform the work in the Fall of 2015.

Additionally, Cleveland Orchestra member Jack Sutte has released a solo trumpet CD entitled Fanfare Alone that features his work Three Ditties, and the award winning Bala Brass Quintet recorded my second brass quintet, Abstract Mosaics, on their CD entitled Revealed.

Gordon Williamson has just finished a six-month artist residency at the Künstlerhof Schreyahn in Germany, where he completed a new commission for the Radio Orchestra Stuttgart (SWR). The new piece, Unhinged, will be premiered on February 8th as part of the 2015 Eclat Festival. On November 21st and 22nd, Musik 21 Niedersachsen presented portrait concerts of his works in Wolfenbüttel and Hannover, together with the German composer Johannes Boris Borowski. He has also recently been awarded a three-month residency in Graz, Austria in 2015 as part of the Styria Artist-in-Residence Program.

In 2012, Keun-Hyoung was the recipient of The 31st Korean Composition Grand Prix, awarded by The Music Association of Korea. The honor is awarded not only based on the submitted piece, but also the accomplishments of the canditate over the last three years. The prize has been considered as the Grand Prix for all of composers in Korea.

In more recent news, Keun-Hyoung’s first opera, I am Joongsub Lee, was performed in Osan Arts Center last August. It was the third time performance with another possible performance next year in Jeju, Korea. Finally, Keun-Hyoung’s new opera Woonyoung, a court maid will be premiered on February 14 to 15 2015 at the National Theate of Korea. The opera was commissioned by The Arts Council of Korea and The Seoul Opera Ensemble, directed by Soo-Dong Chang, will manage the production.