Recent Awards (list from the past decade)
Archive of previous newsletters
October 2022 Newsletter
Alumni News |
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Benjamin Taylor (DM ’14) receives Kaplan Foundation Commission Dr. Benjamin Dean Taylor has been selected for the 2022 Kaplan Foundation Commission at Saint Mary’s University. His new work for concert band will be premiered on April 16, 2023, at Page Theatre by the Saint Mary’s University Concert Band, Dr. Janet Heukeshoven, director. Taylor was selected from more than 60 applicants for this year’s competition. He plans to compose a work based on ancient hymn tunes. Taylor wrote in his application, “I welcome the opportunity to compose a work based on my current research into how Jewish music making has influenced Christian hymnology. I foresee that my musical work will be directly related to the message that we of differing faith traditions actually have much more in common than we do that separates us.” The full press release can be found here. |
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Four October Premieres for Alex Berko (BM ’18) Alex Berko will receive four premieres this month. On October 5, IU alumni James Palmer will premiere Berko’s Erupt/Erode for solo piano in Houston, Texas. On October 7 and 8, award-winning chamber choir Conspirare will partner with the Miró Quartet as part of their commissioning project, Hear Me Out in Austin, Texas. The ensembles will premiere Berko’s work You Through Me. On October 27, Musiqa, a new music collective in Houston, will premiere a new chamber work by Berko as part of their FotoFest concert series, and on October 29, the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra will premiere Berko’s Be at Rice University. |
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From One of Bernhard Heiden’s Last Students, Francis Ka-Nin (DM ’83) Francis Ka-Nin Chan graduated from IU in 1983. He had studied with Bernhard Heiden, Fred Fox, and John Eaton from 1974 to 1982. From 1982 to 2015 he taught theory and composition at the University of Toronto. Since his retirement, four of his recent works will be premiered in the coming months. Last January, Pitkä Talvi was premiered by percussionist Antti Ohenoja and a string quartet in Helsinki, Finland. His Harp Concerto will be premiered by Sinfonia Toronto on November 11 by harpist Teresa Suen-Campbell under the direction of Nurhan Arman in Toronto. Welcoming Spring will be premiered by Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra under Naomi Woo on January 14, 2023 in Winnipeg. His full-length opera Dragon’s Tale will be premiered in Toronto in mid-June 2023. Chan appreciated his education from IU and has many fond memories of his teachers and colleagues. He married his colleague Alice Ho, have two daughters, and five grandchildren with one more on its way this November. Email: kanin.chan@utoronto.ca |
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Matthew Peterson (MM ’08): October performances and Swedish Radio Choir premiere of Sandström Award commission On October 13th and 14th Simon Crawford-Phillips and Dalasinfoniettan perform Matthew Peterson’s And all the trees of the field will clap their hands in Falun, Sweden and the composer’s hometown of Smedjebacken. October 16th the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra of Minneapolis-St. Paul and conductor William Schrickel co-premiere Peterson’s Symphony No. 1 – The Singing Wilderness. October 29th at Berwaldhallen Kaspars Putnins and the Swedish Radio Choir premiere Peterson’s An Inner Sky at a memorial concert in honor of the late Sven-David Sandström’s 80th birthday. The 20-minute work sets three poems by EE Cummings – “l(a leaf falls)oneliness”, “! o(rounD)moon” and “brIght” – and was commissioned by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music as prize for the inaugural Sven-David Sandström Choral Composition Award, a prize co-administered by Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In the coming year it will be performed by Eric Ericson Chamber Choir, Sofia Vokalensemble, the Norwegian Academy of Music Vokalensemble, and Indiana University NOTUS. |
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Natalie Williams (DM ’12) Book Publication, A Century of Composition by Women A Century of Composition by Women: Music Against the Odds, edited by Prof. Linda Kouvaras, Assoc Prof. Maria Grenfell, and Assoc. Prof. Natalie Willliams, is now available. This book presents accounts of creative processes and contextual issues of current-day and early-twentieth-century women composers. This collection of essays balances narratives of struggle, artistic prowess, and of “breaking through” the obstacles in the profession. Part I: Creative Work – Then and Now illuminates historical and present-day women’s composition and various iterations and conceptions of the “feminine voice”; Part II: The State of the Industry in the Present Day provides solutions from the frontline to sector inequities; and Part III: Creating; Collaborating: Composer and Performer Reflections offers personal stories of current creation in music. A Century of Composition by Women: Music Against the Odds draws together topical issues in feminist musicology over the past century. This volume provides insight into the professional and compositional procedures of creative women in music and stands to be relevant for composers, performers, industry professionals, students, and feminist and musicological scholars for many years to come. |
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Nicolas Chuaqui (MM ’16) Wins Competition and Looks Forward to Premieres Nicolas Chuaqui, who has been working as a lecturer in composition and theory at the University of Wyoming, was a winner of Khorikos’ 4th Annual ORTUS International New Music Competition; his choral work Qui Confidunt in Domino will receive its NYC premiere by Khorikos on October 8th at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Brooklyn. Later this fall, the Riverside Symphony will premiere a newly-orchestrated version of Chuaqui’s large-ensemble piece Aurora, and this will take place on December 8th at Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center. Finally, in early 2023, pianist Jason Hardink will premiere a newly-commissioned piano work on the subject of the Great Salt Lake and its historically low water levels; more information will be available soon. |
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Robert Manthey’s (BM’ 99) Choral Work Peregrina Paloma Imaginaria premiered in the Netherlands The Utrechts Vocaal Ensemble in the Netherlands recently premiered Manthey’s Peregrina Paloma Imaginaria for SSAATB chorus, based on a poem by the Peruvian-Bolivian poet Ricardo Jaimes Freyre, as part of their 75th anniversary concert program, with performances in Utrecht and Rheden, the Netherlands. He is currently active as a composer, pianist, and conductor in the Netherlands. |
Student News |
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Kian Ravaei featured on Performance Today Kian Ravaei’s work Fantasy Variations (On a Theme by Dvořák) was featured on an episode of the classical music radio program Performance Today. The episode was broadcast on Thursday, September 29 to hundreds of public radio stations across the country, including Bloomington’s WFIU Public Radio. You can listen to the episode at the Performance Today website, and watch the live performance of Fantasy Variations at the Emerging Composers Intensive website. |
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Recording Available for Premiere of Em Singleton’s New Work, FRICTION This past July, Matchstick Percussion premiered IU sophomore Em Singleton’s FRICTION at Princeton University’s Taplin Auditorium as part of the 14th annual Sō Percussion Summer Institute. Their work contains elements of a role playing game, giving each performer a character sheet with musical and expressive information forming a sonic identity, stage presence, and gesture. The instrumentation is entirely comprised of found sounds categorized by their texture and the gesture of their interaction. Now available on YouTube, the premiere recording can be found on Sō Percussion’s Youtube channel, with engineering by Evan Chapman, an IU alum working through FOUR/TEN MEDIA. Watch the premiere on Sō Percussion’s YouTube. |
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Sam Parnin releases new album Sam Parnin’s second big band EP Thinking Out Loud is available October 21st for streaming and purchase. Each of the four tracks evolve and cultivate distinct emotional environments ranging from pyrrhic solitude to cathartic euphoria. The unique blend of through composed elements within the jazz ensemble highlights this composer’s voice. |
Faculty News |
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Don Freund new works on IUMusicLive recital Don Freund’s October 9 Faculty Composition Recital at 8 pm in Auer Hall will be live-streamed on IUMusicLive. The recital will feature 4 recent works — 3 premieres, including Stacked Dectet for an all-star faculty ensemble. |
Upcoming Events |
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(* Starred events are REQUIRED for IU composition students) |