Composers

A composer, songwriter, educator, guitarist, and radio host, Chris Cresswell is a curious musician whose work betrays his affection for sonic wanderlust. With an ear that incorporates all sorts of sounds, from field recordings to a singer/songwriter at an open mic night, Cresswell’s music “… blurs the boundaries between industrial and organic, soothing and suspenseful, and introspective and anxious” (International Clarinet Association) and “…is not really my thing, but it’s cool to hear him on the radio.” (his Mom). Having once shared the stage with a Pulitzer Prize winning poet and a Top 40 country star (two different occasions), Cresswell’s music has been heard in coffee shops, concert halls, and venues around the world, from chic Brooklyn venues like Areté Venue and Gallery and The Firehouse Space, to Birmingham, England’s renown Symphony Hall and the Paleis voor Schone Kunsten in Brussels.

Frederic D’Haene is a Belgian avant-garde composer and creator of his own composition technique called ‘paradoxophony’ or ‘paradoxical coexistence.’

James Dashow has had commissions, awards and grants from the Bourges International Festival of Experimental Music, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, Linz Ars Electronica Festival, the Fromm Foundation, the Biennale di Venezia, the USA National Endowment for the Arts, RAI (Italian National Radio), the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Rockefeller Foundation, Il Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte (Montepulciano, Italy), the Koussevitzky Foundation, Prague Musica Nova, and the Harvard Musical Association of Boston. In 2000, he was awarded the prestigious Prix Magistere at the 30th Festival International de Musique et d’Art Sonore Electroacoustiques in Bourges.

Herbert Deutsch was a composer, author, educator, and performer, and was Professor of Music at Hofstra University for 57 years. He is a composer of music in various media and his work has been widely performed, and commissioned works have been featured at national and regional conferences. In 1972, Deutsch co-founded the Long Island Composers Alliance. During his career at Hofstra, he founded Jazz Ensemble, Electronic Music Studios, New Music Ensemble, and created the B.S. Degree programs in Jazz, Composition/Theory and Music Business. He received the George Estabrook Distinguished Alumni Award in 1996 and the Hofstra Alumni Achievement Award in 2001. The Music Department has established the Herbert Deutsch Award for highest honors in Music Education.

Robert Dusek received his academic training at the Eastman School of Music, Southern Methodist University, and the University of Colorado – Boulder, where he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1990. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors in the field of composition, including Columbia University's Bearns Prize, the ASCAP Raymond-Hubbard Award, an A.H.A.B – Neodata Fellowship for his Symphony No. 1, and several national and local awards and grants. His music has been performed worldwide and recorded by such groups as North-South Consonance and the Warsaw Philharmonic. Dusek is the Founder/Director of DaCapo LLC, an organization devoted to the pursuit and development of artistic and compositional endeavors.

A poet who composes. Refines Chinese ancient essence, which combines with western civilization. Also a writer for film, TV and others, right now looking for someone to mediate.

Amos Elkana was born in Boston, but grew up in Jerusalem. At the age of 15, he picked up the electric guitar and began to study music, which soon became his primary occupation in life. In 1987, aged 20, he returned to Boston to study jazz guitar at the Berklee College of Music and composition at The New England Conservatory of Music. In 1990, he moved to Paris where he studied composition with Michele Reverdy. He also took composition classes with Erik Norby in Copenhagen, and with Paul-Heinz Dittrich and Edison Denisov in Berlin. Two years later he returned to Israel where he has been living since. In 2007 Elkana received his M.F.A. in music/sound from Bard College, New York. While at Bard, he focused on electronic music and took lessons with Pauline Oliveros, David Behrman, Richard Teitelbaum, George Lewis, Maryanne Amacher and Larry Polansky, among others.

Turkish composer Hakki Cengiz Eren’s (b. 1984) music has been performed across the United States and Europe. Recent performances of his music have been given by renowned soloists and ensembles, including Garth Knox, Calvin Wiersma, Mak Grgic, members of ECCE (Diamanda Dramm, Paolo Vignoroli, Vasko Dukovski and Virginie Tarrête), Argus Quartet, Ensemble Nodus and the Thornton Edge.

Corey Fant (b. 1989) is an American composer, producer, recording engineer, and performer, who has studied at the University of Alabama and Belmont University. Fant is currently studying composition at the University of Alabama under Dr. Amir Zaheri, and he has also studied with Dr. C. P. First. Compositionally, Fant is engaged in a numerous collaborations with his colleagues ranging from acoustic to electroacoustic works for a large variety of ensembles.

With music “[thriving] in the sustained tension, like the kinetic energy emanating from the corners of a frame, the opposing forces holding up a house” (Rachel Evangeline Chiong, 2022), Toronto-based composer Juro Kim Feliz has internationally presented his work across Southeast Asia, North America, and Europe. Born and raised in the Philippines, he studied composition at the University of the Philippines and McGill University under Jonas Baes and Melissa Hui. He also sought further mentorship from composers Liza Lim, Dieter Mack, Linda Catlin Smith, and Japanese koto artists Hiroko Nagai and Masayo Ishigure.

Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, and composer. Since 1988 he has been a member of the internationally acclaimed electronic modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, with whom he has recorded eight CDs. He leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an experimental & improvisational brass band, and performs with the community-based Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band. Since 2015 he has annually led a pick-up band of unafiliated musicians at the HONK!Oz Festival in Wollongong, NSW, Australia. His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film. Field was named a 2017 Finalist in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.

Avner Finberg is an Israeli-American composer and violinist. He studied composition with Ari Ben-Shabtai at The Jerusalem Academy of Music, with Robert Cuckson at The Mannes College, and with Susan Botti at Manhattan School of Music, where he earned a doctorate dfasin composition in 2015.

Finberg’s music has been described by Steven Stucky as “reined, mature work of impeccable technique, original voice, and considerable ambition.” His musical inspirations stem from his Israeli roots and his current life in the United States, combining without discrimination multiple world music traditions with contemporary and classical music techniques and modern technology.

Lukas Foss (1922-2009) German-born American composer of primarily stage, orchestral, chamber, choral, vocal, and piano works that have been performed throughout the world; he was also active as a conductor. He started piano and theory studies with Julius Goldstein-Herford at an early age and began composing at age seven. After studies in composition in Paris from 1933-37, he studied composition with Rosario Scalero at the Curtis Institute of Music from 1937-39.

Mike Frengel is an internationally recognized composer, performer, researcher, and educator. Born in Mountain View, California, Mike graduated with a B.A. in electroacoustic music from San Jose State University in 1995, where he studied composition and sound production with Allen Strange and Dan Wyman. He spent another three years in the San Francisco Bay Area working at Apple Computers Inc. as well as remaining affiliated with the C.R.E.A.M. Studios at SJSU as a Research Scientist. Mike completed his M.A. in electroacoustic music composition at the Bregman Studios at Dartmouth College in 1999 under the tutelage of Jon Appleton, Charles Dodge, Larry Polansky, and Christian Wolff. He completed his Ph.D. at City University, London, where he studied composition with Denis Smalley.

J. Ryan Garber is an Associate Professor at Carson-Newman College where he teaches music composition, theory, organ, and bassoon. A native of Virginia, he earned degrees from James Madison University and The Florida State University. Garber has received awards, grants; and recognition from five national organizations. In 2002, the Tennessee Music Teachers Association presented Garber with its "Composer of the Year" award. His Concerti no for orchestra is featured on ERM Media's "Masterworks of a New Era" series. and his music has been performed in many parts of the US and in Germany and Austria.

Glancey’s music embodies a unique blend of traditional and progressive musical elements, and expresses a fervent harmonic language, coloristic textures, and intricate formal designs. A background in and affinity for all popular styles and film music infuse his writing with sonic freshness and rhythmic energy. His music has been programmed throughout the United States and Europe, as well as featured in a number of independent films. 

David K. Gompper (b. 1954) has lived and worked professionally as a pianist, conductor, and composer in New York, San Diego, London, Nigeria, Michigan, and Texas. He is currently Professor of Composition and Director of the Center for New Music at The University of Iowa. From 2002 to 2003 Gompper was in Russia as a Fulbright Scholar, teaching, performing and conducting at the Moscow Conservatory. 

Stephen Goss’s music receives hundreds of performances worldwide each year. It has been recorded on over 80 CDs by more than a dozen record labels, including EMI, Decca, Telarc, Virgin Classics, Naxos, and Deutsche Grammophon. His output embraces multiple genres: orchestral and choral works, chamber music, and solo pieces. He is considered ‘One of the guitar’s finest living composers’ (International Record Review).

Masatora Goya is a composer extensively writing a new kind of chamber music for everyone. Trained as a vocal performer first, he explores the musical landscape of drama, space, and emotion. Described as a "composer of cultural crossroads" by American Composers Forum, his unique eclecticism has attracted many musicians performing in nontraditional chamber ensembles.

Jackson Greenberg is a Los Angeles-based composer, producer, and performer born and raised in Philadelphia. From a young age, Jackson was a featured soloist in various Philadelphia all-city youth jazz ensembles. He was close to pursuing a career in jazz performance when, during his senior year, his high school drama teacher insisted he write the score for her two plays: Dracula and The Tempest. It was these experiences of witnessing his compositions supporting drama that led Jackson to instead pursue a career in composition.