INDIANA UNIVERSITY BLOOMINGTON

Two IU Composers recognized in the 2016 SCI/ASCAP Student Composition Competition

Alex Berko’s Aftershock was awarded first prize in the undergraduate division of the 2016 SCI/ASCAP Student Commission Competition. He will write a newly-commissioned work to be premiered at an upcoming SCI conference. Additionally, Jay Hurst’s Still Lives was awarded an honorable mention in the graduate division.

Nicholas Landrum to Receive Performance at SCI Conference

Nicholas Landrum’s work Meditation for organ has been selected for performance during the 2016 SCI National Conference at Ball State University by George Karst. The work was written as part of the Hammer and Nail collaboration between the Composition and Organ departments at the Jacobs School of Music, and was premiered on the Auer Hall organ by Jonathan Nothaft in Spring 2016.

Phillip Sink (DM ’16) Receives Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Mizzou New Music Initiative and the University of Missouri School of Music have awarded their first-ever postdoctoral fellowship to Phillip Sink (DM ’16). Sink will run the electronic music program, teach classes in composition, orchestration, and electronic music, and also begin a major research project to be completed during the two years of his fellowship.

Texu Kim (DM ’15) Receives Orchestral Premiere

In August, Texu Kim’s (DM ’15) new piece Sum for orchestra, commissioned by the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra, was premiered by the same orchestra, with conductor Shi Yeon Sung, at their “Mozart vs. Artificial Intelligence” concert. This academic year, Texu will teach music theory at Portland State University, in addition to Lewis and Clark College, to which he will return in the Spring. As well, Texu has been invited to do a residency at Copland House this year.

Francisco Cortés-Álvarez (DM ’15) Accepts Faculty Position

Francisco Cortés-Álvarez (DM ’15) has accepted a position on the faculty at the Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City, where he will teach composition and music theory, and help to shape the curriculum of the newly-created composition program.

Ryan Chase (DM ’14) Receives Summer Premieres, Faculty Appointment

Ryan Chase's (DM ’14) summer season featured the premieres of two newly commissioned works for the Tanglewood Music Center, where he was the 2015 Leonard Bernstein Fellow, and the Copland House, where he was the 2016 ASCAP Bart Howard Fellow for their CULTIVATE residency. Upcoming events include a performance of Stargazer by the Society of New Music, which received their 2016 Brian M. Israel Award, and the premiere of eyr ybroken by the CSU Northridge Orchestra, which received their 2016 Northridge Composition Prize. Additionally, Chase will join the faculty of Colgate University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Composition for the 2016–2017 academic year.

Natalie Williams (DM ’12) Wins Two Awards

Natalie Williams (DM ’12) recently won the International Alliance for Women in Music’s 2016 Judith Lang Zaimont prize, for best extended instrumental composition, for her 2015 string octet Saudade. In addition, the same piece was chosen as a finalist in the APRA/AMCOS Arts Music Awards for best instrumental work of 2015. The piece was commissioned by Musica Viva Australia as the first commission of the Hildegard Project, a commissioning program supporting women composers. The premiering ensemble included the Pavel Haas Quartet (Czech Republic) and the Doric String Quartet (UK).

Matthew Peterson (MM ’08) Receives Opera Commission

Matthew Peterson (MM ’08) has received a commission from the Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center for a new chamber opera as part of the 2016–17 American Opera Initiative. The opera, Lifeboat, about three refugees on a lifeboat, will be a collaboration between Peterson and librettist Emily Roller.

Claude Baker

Claude Baker has recently been awarded a commission from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition to write a 20-minute work for the Momenta String Quartet. The new piece will be premiered in October 2017 at the Tenri Cultural Center in New York City as part of the quartet’s annual “Momenta Festival.” This past March, his Sept Hommages for organ was premiered on the recently installed Pogorzelski-Yankee Memorial Organ at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. The performer on that occasion was Kola Owolabi, Professor of Organ at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The work was commissioned by the American Guild of Organists as the result of his selection as the winner of the AGO’s 2016 Pogorzelski-Yankee Annual Composition Competition. Other concert highlights from the previous season include the European premiere of his piano concerto by the Staatskapelle Halle in Germany (with Claire Huangci as the soloist) and two performances of chamber pieces at Brooklyn’s National Sawdust (by the American Modern Ensemble in December and by Ensemble ACJW in March).

David Dzubay

Professor Dzubay conducted May performances of his Producing For A While and all water has a perfect memory in Dallas with Voices of Change.  Both works were also recorded thanks to a grant from IU’s New Frontiers in the Arts and Humanities program. The CD will also include String Quartet No. 1, being recorded next March by the Orion String Quartet in NYC, and Kukulkan II, recorded by the IU New Music Ensemble. Symphony No. 2 - Through a Glass, Darkly was completed in March; commissioned by an eleven-member consortium led by the U. of S. Carolina Wind Ensemble director Scott Weiss, the work will premiere at USC September 25.  The Sackler Prize commission for UConn, Chamber Concerto for Trumpet, Violin and Ensemble, will be premiered in March and recorded in April. A Fromm commission was awarded for String Quartet No. 2, to be written for the Pacifica Quartet, with premiere in 2017-18.  Prof. Dzubay again taught his New Music Conducting course at IU the first six weeks of summer and returned to the Brevard Music Center for three weeks, teaching composition and conducting readings with band and orchestra.

John Gibson

John Gibson's new CD, Traces, will be released in October on the Innova label. This coming May, he will hold a Master Artist Residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts.

Larry Groupé

We are pleased to welcome Larry Groupé to the JSOM compositon department. He has begun mentoring students in special projects and in January will join us full-time, teaching courses and guiding minors in music scoring for visual media and mentoring collaborations between composers and filmmakers from IU's Media School. His recent activity includes the world premiere of Prometheus Unwound, a string quartet performed at an unprecedented event on the floor of the 200 inch Hale telescope at Palomar Observatory (with its 14" natural reverb). Upcomping for November will be the pilot for a new TV western, Monsters of Gods. website

Jeffrey Hass

Professor Jeffrey Hass has upcoming performances of his dance-based video/computer music work Labyrinths this fall at Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance and the Diffrazioni Multimedia Festival in Florence, Italy. Labyrinths was supported by a New Frontiers Grant from the IU Office of the Vice Provost for Research and features dancer Kate Anderson with choreography by Elizabeth Shea.

Sven-David Sandström

Professor Sandström's affiliation with the department continues, with him teaching courses in choral and opera composition during 2016-17. He arrives this week, following this weekend's production in Stockhom of his opera, Föreställningen.

Aaron Travers

Professor Travers’ chamber work, Sanctuary, was performed this summer at numerous National Parks throughout the country by Music in the American Wild, including Shenandoah, Mammoth Cave, Olympic, and Mount Ranier National Parks, among several others. In April 2016, Prof. Travers was awarded promotion and tenure by Indiana University. He looks forward to continuing his work with the students and faculty at the Jacobs School of Music.