Theory & Composition Faculty
Matthew Barnson - Theory & Composition (YAS)
Matthew Barnson is emerging as an exciting new voice in both the United States and Europe. His work was featured at the 2007 MATA Festival and the 2006 ISCM World New Music Days in Stuttgart at the special invitation of Wolfgang Rihm. He has been in residency at Acanthes (2005-2007), Aspen (2004-2005), June in Buffalo (2005, 2007) and Ostrava Days (2007). His works are performed by top veteran new music ensembles, venerable orchestras and some of the most exciting emerging artists, including the Arditti String Quartet, Quator Diotima, the Manson Ensemble, the Knights, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre national de Lorraine, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, the Yale Philharmonia, the Janacek Philharmonic, the New York Virtuoso Singers, Seraphic Fire, singers Nicole Cabell, Ian Howell and Erin Morley, violist John Graham, cellist Jason Calloway and conductors Simon Bainbridge, Peter Eötvös, Sarah Hicks, Shinaik Haim, Roland Kluttig, Jacque Mercier and Zsolt Nagy.
After winning several minor competitions, he became the youngest recipient of a Barlow Commission at the age of 22; in 2007 he received his second Barlow Commission. He is a recent recipient of a Jerome Commission (2008) from the American Composers Forum, a Kimmel Harding Nelson Fellowship (2009) and will receive a 2009 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
His teachers have included Joseph Schwantner, Augusta Reid Thomas, Christopher Rouse, Steven Stucky and in extensive masterclasses: Wolfgang Rihm, Kaija Saariaho and Toshio Hosokawa. He studied at the Eastman School of Music, the University of Pennsylvania and is currently pursuing a doctorate at Yale with Martin Bresnick, Ezra Laderman, David Lang and Ingram Marshall. A native of Salt Lake City, he currently lives in New York City.
Recent projects include a new woodwind quintet for Sospiro (commissioned by the Barlow Endowment), a new work for Third Coast Percussion, a song cycle for countertenor Ian Howell and a percussion duo for James Dietz. Matthew teaches at Yale College where he has taught electronic music, composition and introductory music theory courses. Click here to visit his website.
John Drumheller - Theory & Composition (JSS1)
John Drumheller is Instructor of Music Technology and Composition at the
University of Colorado College of Music. He received a BME from Montana State
University and an MM and DMA from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He
has had further studies in algorithmic composition and sound synthesis in LISP
at Stanford University as well as studies in digital synthesis and signal
processing in the SuperCollider environment at the University of California at
Berkeley with James McCartney.
Dr. Drumheller is the Director of Music Technology at the University of Colorado where he teaches composition, electronic music, and music theory. His performance experience includes classical, jazz, and commercial music. Dr. Drumheller's compositions have won several awards including the 1994 Quinto Maganini Award. His piece Five Landscapes was selected from over 100 compositions from around the country and was premiered by the Norwalk (CT) Symphony Orchestra.
Daniel Kellogg (Visiting Artist) - Composition (YAS)
"The sheer polish and profundity of DANIEL KELLOGG’s writing commands attention," wrote the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His busy career has been highlighted by numerous awards and a growing list of commissions.
Mr.
Kellogg’s Praegustatum, which was premiered last year by
the Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, will receive its U.S. premiere at the
Aspen Music Festival in August 2006. The Colorado Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Jeffrey Kahane, will open its 2006-2007 season with a new
work commissioned from Mr. Kellogg in celebration of the new Frederic
C. Hamilton Building at the Denver Art Museum. Mr. Kellogg is also
writing an oratorio based on the Book of Daniel, commissioned by Soli
Deo Gloria, Inc., which will be premiered by the San Diego Symphony, conducted
by Jahja Ling, during the 2007-2008 season..
in 2006 The South Dakota Symphony has chosen Mr. Kellogg as its composer-in-residence for three seasons. Mr. Kellogg will also hold a Music Alive residency with the Green Bay (WI) Symphony in 2007-2008.
In November 2005, The Philadelphia Orchestra premiered Mr. Kellogg’s work, Ben, commemorating the 300th birthday of Benjamin Franklin, conducted by Christoph Eschenbach. His music has been premiered by the Ying Quartet, the President’s Own United States Marine Band, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Yale Philharmonic, cellist Fred Sherry, flutist Catherine Ramirez, and eighth blackbird. His works have been performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and the National Gallery of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Caramoor Music Festival, and broadcast on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today,” New York’s WQXR, and China National Radio. His Divinum Mysterium has been released, to critical acclaim, on eighth blackbird’s Cedille Records CD, “Beginnings.”
Mr. Kellogg has been honored in 2003 and 1997 with Charles Ives Awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. More recently, he was awarded his sixth ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. He also received the 2003 ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Award for his orchestral work Jasper and Carnelian, which was premiered by the Santa Barbara Symphony conducted by Gisele Ben-Dor. He won the 2002 Harvey Gaul Composition Competition to write a work for the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and the 2000 William Schuman Prize from BMI. Mr. Kellogg was chosen as Young Concert Artists Composer-in-Residence in 2002.
Mr. Kellogg received his Bachelor’s degree from the Curtis Institute and Master’s degree from the Yale School of Music, where he is now a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts. He has studied at Indiana University, the Aspen Music Festival, and the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. Mr. Kellogg served as composer-in-residence at the University of Connecticut in 2000-2001, and has since returned as a visiting lecturer. He currently holds the post of Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of Colorado at Boulder and resides in Colorado with his wife, pianist Hsing-ay Hsu Kellogg, and daughter, Kaela Li Kellogg. His website is at www.danielkellogg.com.
David Ludwig - Theorist & Composer-in-Residence (YAS)
David Ludwig's music has been performed internationally by leading musicians
of today in some of the world's most prestigious locations. His
music has been called “entrancing,” and that it “promises
to speak for the sorrows of this generation,” (Philadelphia Inquirer).
It has further gained recognition for its “expressive directness”
(The New York Times) and has been noted for “a yearning, poetic
quality” (Baltimore Sun). His works have been performed in
such venues in the United States as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and
the Library of Congress, and have been heard on PBS and NPR's Weekend
Edition.
Ludwig has received commissions from many prominent artists and ensembles. The Grammy Award-winning “eighth blackbird” ensemble premiered his new work Haiku Catharsis at the Kimmel Center in 2004. Also in 2004, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra premiered Ludwig's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra for their 70th Anniversary concert. In 2005, Ludwig continued his residency with the VSO after writing a new work for violinist Jaime Laredo that the composer conducted on a tour of a dozen concert halls. His Concertino was one of the top ten most frequently performed orchestra works by a living composer that year according to the American Symphony Orchestra League.
Other commissions have been received from important musicians including pianist Jonathan Biss, flutist Jeffrey Khaner, violinist Soovin Kim, violist Michael Tree, and guitarist Jason Vieaux. The 2007-2008 Season will feature commissions for the Minnesota Orchestra, Concert Artists Guild, The Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the University of Michigan Wind Ensemble, and the Detroit Chamber Winds ensemble as well as a double concerto for violinist Jaime Laredo and cellist Sharon Robinson.
Recipient of the First Music Award, an Independence Foundation Fellowship,
and a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, Ludwig has been twice
nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Stoeger Award.
He has received awards from the American Composers Forum, American Music
Center, and has a three-year residency funded by the prestigious Meet
The Composer “Music Alive!” program.
Ludwig was the Young Composer in residence at the Marlboro Music School
for three consecutive years. In addition to Marlboro, he has been
in residence at the Yaddo and MacDowell artist colonies. He is a
resident artist at the Isabella Gardner Museum, is the resident composer
and permanent New Music Advisor of the Vermont Symphony, and is the director
of the Contemporary Music Program at The New York Summer Music Festival.
Born in Bucks County, P.A., Ludwig received a B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory with Richard Hoffmann and his M.M. from MSM. He continued post-graduate work at The Curtis Institute with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon and Ned Rorem, and at the Juilliard School with John Corigliano. He is the George Crumb Fellow in the University of Pennsylvania PhD program. Ludwig joined the faculty of Curtis in 2002 where he serves as the department coordinator and the artistic director of the 20/21 New Music Ensemble. His website is at www.davidludwigmusiccom.
Jeanne
Nelson, Theory and Practice Partner, is a piano teacher in Iowa City,
Iowa. A graduate of Augustana College, Ms. Nelson has done post-graduate
study at University of Iowa. She is president of Iowa City piano
teachers' organization, adjudicator, church organist, and accompanist
for Musical Comedy Troupe. Her piano students have won many awards
for music composition and Ms. Nelson loves teaching music theory.
James Welch - accompanist (JSS2)
Mr. Welch is known throughout the Western New York area as a collaborative pianist and soloist. He is a graduate of East Carolina University where he received his M.M. in Piano Performance and worked as a graduate teaching assistant. He received his B.M. in Piano Performance and a Performer's Certificate from the State University of New York College at Fredonia. His teachers have included Dr. Paul Tardif, Brian Preston, and Robert Jordan. Mr. Welch regularly accompanies vocal and instrumental recitals, choral concerts, musical theatre and opera workshops, master classes, and auditions throughout the Western New York area including a master class given by Renee Fleming in 2006. During the summer of 2007 he served as a staff accompanist for the Interlochen Summer Arts Camp. Mr. Welch presently serves on the faculty at the State University of New York College at Fredonia as a vocal accompanist and instructor of class piano. /