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 & JSS2)
A native of Bozeman, Montana, John Drumheller received his DMA in composition from the University of Colorado in 1993. He has had further studies in digital synthesis and algorithmic composition at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford University as well as synthesis and digital signal processing at the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies at the University of California at Berkeley. His music has been performed across the United States, Europe, and Asia, including diverse venues such as the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, DC and the Issues Project Room in New York City. He has won several awards for his music, including the Eugene Kayden Colorado Arts Award, the Quinto Maganini Award and an Honorable Mention at the ALEA III International Composition Competition for his string quartet Ragged Tree at Olive Ridge, recorded on the CRS label. He is a founding member of the Boulder Laptop Orchestra and is Instructor of Composition and Director of Music Technology at the University of Colorado at Boulder.
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.