Composition news

The Aakash Mittal Quartet, led by Aakash Mittal (BM 2007, saxophone), received the ASCAP/Chamber Music America award for Adventurous Programming of Contemporary Music for jazz ensemble in January in New York. The group performs its members’ original works and draws heavily on the improvisational vocabulary and compositional aspects of the North Indian classical raga tradition.

Members of the CU Bassoon Studio perform faculty composer Daniel Kellog's Canticle of Earth February 22, 2011 on the Faculty Series in Grusin Music Hall.

Jazz Piano Bachelor of Music student Annie Booth received an Honorable Mention as part of the 2011 ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards. This program, established in 2002, was created to encourage gifted jazz composers from throughout the United States. The recipients, who receive cash awards, range in age from 9 to 29, and are selected through a juried national competition.

The Takács Quartet just completed a three-concert series focusing on Schubert in New York City (92nd Street Y), and at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. The series featured the New York premiere of a new work composed for the Quartet by CU Composter Daniel Kellog based on the slow movement theme of Schubert’s “Death and the Maiden” Quartet; guest pianist Jeffrey Kahane, guest cellist Paul Katz, and guest bassist Joseph Feeney. Reviews:

CU-Boulder composition faculty member Daniel Kellogg is working on a new opera, The Autumn Orchard, which will be workshopped this summer at the CU New Opera Workshop. Here are a few sample posts from his blog danielkellogg.blogspot.com: