Blog

Program Note- flowchart_I (2017) flowchart_I is part of a larger cycle of multichannel electro-acoustic compositions that all deal with the mapping of data derived from systems and organism characterized by flow. flowchart_I is particular in that it is not based on statistical or empirical data sets, it reflects on recent...

On the upcoming Pendulum concert, happening February 22nd, composer and laptop virtuoso Sean Winters will be controlling Ableton (Audio) & Max for Live (Visual) with a Launchpad, a Nanokontrol, and an X3D Joystick. When asked about the work, he explained: "I once came across an Aaron Copland quote about a...

For me, writing music can sometimes feel like a constant question of WHO AM I. Some pieces feel like battlegrounds, where identity asserts itself against all odds. Others are floating dreams, unconcerned and unaffected, identity trailing lightly behind. Others still, I am changed by the end. This piece was hard...

If you’ve ever stopped to enjoy the music drifting from a painted piano near the Pearl Street Cheesecake Factory, then you’ve been exposed to the many talents of first-year composition student Jack Gaffney . Gaffney not only writes the tunes he taps out but also covers the piano in his...

the distance of the moon (2015) Duration: 7:00 minutes Instrumentation: solo piano Premiere: Texas State International Piano Festival (June 1-4, 2015) by finalists Inyoung Kim, Nathan Ryland, Soyeon An, Sung-Soo Cho, Hyeinn Jun, and Jeremy Hassell Click to Listen To purchase the score, click here Notes: This piece was inspired...

When the atmosphere around a light source contains a haze of ice particles, the reflected light can cause an optical phenomenon where tall luminous bands project up into the sky. These bands, known as light pillars , rise out of the textures created in a new work by composer John...

Faculty Dan Kellogg presents a world premiere this weekend with the Colorado Springs Philharmonic . Faculty Carter Pann presents a new brass work next week in Delaware. UROP undergrad project grants deadline is 2/17. Local Artists Feature - Our Pendulum poster artwork features art and photography of people within our...

Bill Elliott, CoM advisory board member and former theory professor, will premiere his chamber ensemble work this Wednesday, with Carter Pann conducting an all-star faculty and student ensemble. Bill shares some thoughts... "Sonata for Winds and Strings, for flute, clarinet, Fr. horn, bassoon, and string quartet, was written as my...

The other day I sat down with composer Egemen Kesikli to ask him about his piece The Logical Conclusion , which is being performed on the November 30 th Pendulum concert. The piece, for solo violin, begins with brash chords contrasted by ghostly sliding wisps. Occasionally, ferocious rhythmic passages drive...

Before tonight's Pendulum concert, there was a buzz in the air. New music was about to happen. The concert opened with the intriguingly titled “For the Eastern Elk,” an elegy to a subspecies of elk that diseappeared in 1877 in Pennsylvania. “It's a meditation on extinction; a commentary on the...