"Perfect Red," a film directed by David Covarrubias with original score by Neil Argo (BM 1976), was awarded Best Original Score at the 2008 International Digital Video and High Definition Festival. The film was also awarded Best Use of Music in a Short Film and Bronze Medal for Excellence at the 2008 Park City Film Music Festival.
Alumni Information
Welcome!
Alumni of the UNT Composition Program have achieved success as composers, arrangers, orchestrators, music copyists, audio engineers, producers, conductors, and teachers, working for advertising agencies, film studios, recording companies, symphony orchestras, and universities throughout the United States and around the world. The alumni directory included on this website is being continuously updated, and your assistance is appreciated in keeping this information current. We welcome alumni to send new or updated information for inclusion on this site.
Alumni Spotlight
Blake Dutton
- BM, 1985
Graduate studies in Philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania (PhD, 1995). Associate Professor of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago; previous appointments at Cornell, Emory, Georgia State University, and Boston College.
- http://www.luc.edu/philosophy/faculty_dutton.shtml
- bdutton [at] luc [dot] edu
Recent Alumni News
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The following North Texas composers will be participating in Electronic Music Midwest at Kansas City Kansas Community College (30 September - 1 October 2011): students Jonathan Jackson, Greg Dixon, and Dan Tramte; and alumnae Da Jeong Choi and Elainie Lillios.
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Piano works by current and former UNT composers were presented in two programs in Seoul, South Korea. "UNT in South Korea: Works for Piano" was sponsored by the Composers Forum and featured works by Daniel Bernardo, Da Jeong Choi, Joshua Harris, John Mallia, Andrew May, and James Worlton. The works were performed at Konkuk University (20 May 2010) and Baekseok Art University (27 May 2010) by UNT alumni pianists Hyangmee Kim, Min Kim, Eun Jun Oh, and Young Mi Seo.
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Diversions, a four movement work for tuba and piano by Kendall Prinz (MM 1999), received its world premiere on 20 May 2011 at the Southwest Regional Tuba/Euphonium Conference, which was held at Northern Arizona University. The work was premiered by Justin Lerma, tubist with the U.S. Navy Band in San Diego, CA.
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Robert Pound (BM 1992) was featured on NPR's "Morning Edition" (31 January 2006) discussing his orchestral work Irrational Exuberance.
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Alumnus Chapman Welch's article "Programming Machines and People: Techniques for Live Improvisation with Electronics" will be published in The Leonardo Music Journal 20.
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"Epitaphs Unwritten," the second symphony by alumnus Kevin Walczyk (MM 1991; DMA 1994), was selected as the winner of the National Band Association's 2011 Wiliam D. Revelli Memorial Composition Contest. Dr. Walczyk's Songs of Paradise for concert band received an honorable mention in the 2011 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) Young Band Composition Contest.
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Composition alumnus Stephen Anderson (MM 2000; DMA 2005) received a commission from the Barlow Endowment for a new piano concerto, composed for UNT faculty pianist Steven Harlos. Harlos premiered the work with the University of North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Tonu Kalam, on 13 April 2010.
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The first movement of Ilya Y. Rostovtsev's master's thesis composition Understatements was selected for presentation in the Pixilerations festival at Brown University in Rhode Island (October 2010) and the sfSound-curated San Francisco Tape Music Festival (January 2011).
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Alumna composer Christina Rusnak continues to organize the sound art series titled "New Sounds for a New Space" at the Dallas Contemporary, with a program on 7 October 2010 at 7:00 pm. The program includes works by Rusnak, and faculty composers Cindy McTee and David Stout.
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Jonathan Anderson (DMA 2010) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Composition at Wayne State University beginning Fall 2011, after having served as Dance Media/Production Coordinator at the university in recent years.
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Chaz Underriner (BA 2010) has performed as a guitarist at REDCAT in Los Angeles at the Sofia Gubaidulina Festival (May 2011), at the Wild Beast concert hall at California Institute of the Arts as a soloist with the Dogstar Orchestra performing Michael Pisaro's here (1) (July 2011), and as a soloist at the Laboratorium 2011 Festival in Antwerp, Beligum performing Mark Applebaum's DNA (March 2011).
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Alumnus Arthur Barrow (BM 1975) has been nominated for a Grammy Award for Singularity, an album featuring music by Robby Krieger of The Doors. Barrow co-wrote much of the music and co-produced the album with Krieger. Singularity was released in June 2010, and is a nominee in the Best Pop Instrumental Album category. The award ceremony is 13 February 2011.
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There Are Ghosts, a video work by alumnus composer Brian Hernandez (MA 2011), has been selected for performance at the international film and video festival, CINESONIKA, which takes place 18-19 February 2012 in British Columbia, Canada. In addition to the performance, all accepted works will be eligible for international distribution on DVD, public exhibition, museum curatorial, video on demand, and touring festival.
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Doctoral composers Da Jeong Choi and Greg Dixon, and alumnus Chapman Welch, were invited as guest artists to New Music Focus Week 2010 at the State University of New York, Oneonta (28 March - 1 April 2010). In addition to performances of their works by percussionist Julie Licata, Choi also presented three lectures at the festival.
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“Urdimbres y Marañas,” an album of original music by Ricardo Gallo (MM 2002) was released in December 2007. This is the second album released by the Bogotá-based Ricardo Gallo Quartet with the collective La Distritofonica.
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Veiled Resonance, a work for soprano saxophone and live interactive electroacoustics by alumna Elainie Lillios (DMA 2000) won in The Trivium Category 3 of the 36th International Competition of Electroacoustic Music and Sound Art/Bourges 2009 (www.imeb.net). Among the finalists were alumni Henry Vega (MM 2004) and Dave Gedosh (DMA 2009).
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UNT composition alumnus Mark Scott (BM '08) won first prize in the 2010 Eastern Trombone Workshop Composition Competition for his work Quartet Stories. In addition to a cash prize, the winning composition was performed by the Curtis Institute Trombone Quartet in a recital during the workshop.
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Alumna composer Christina Rusnak has been selected as Composer-in-Residence at Homestead National Monument in spring 2012 to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Homestead Act. The residency will provide three weeks of housing at the monument, located near Beatrice Nebraska.
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Works by the following UNT composers were presented at the 2009 conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana (April 2009): students Jon Anderson, Nick Bober, and Stephen Lucas; faculty Andrew May and Jon Christopher Nelson; and alumni Michael Kuehn and Elainie Lillios. Faculty flutist Elizabeth McNutt performed at the conference, and Emeritus faculty and UNT alumnus Larry Austin (BM 1951; MM 1952) was presented with the 2009 SEAMUS Award, in recognition of lifetime achievement and contribution to the art and craft of electroacoustic music.
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Recent film projects by Jermaine Stegall (MM 2003) include scores for "B.T.K." for Lionsgate Home Entertainment, "30 Days of Night: Blood Trails" for Sam Raimi's Ghosthouse Pictures, the emotionally-charged feature film "Love Conquers All", and the foreign romantic comedy "Efectos Secundarios" (Side Effects) with director Issa Lopez for Warner Bros.
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Cataclysm for solo violin by alumnus Ryan Manchester was selected for recording at the Cleveland Composers' Recording Institute in July 2009. The piece was recorded by violinist Rolf Schulte and engineered by Grammy-winner David Yost.
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UNT alumnus and composer Michael Daugherty was nominated for a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition for his piece Deux ex Machina. The album was nominated for Best Orchestral Performance and Best Classical Album.
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Improbable Edges for oboe and trombone by alumnus composer Mark Scott (BM 2008) will be performed by fellow UNT alumni Ben and Kristin Polk at the 2011 International Double Reed Society conference at Arizona State University.
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Fourteen UNT-affiliated composers have been selected to participate in the SEAMUS 2011 Conference at the University of Miami, 20-22 January 2011: student composers Da Jeong Choi, Greg Dixon, Joshua Harris, Brian Hernandez, Mark Oliveiro, L. Scott Price, and Dan Tramte; alumni composers Elainie Lillios, Stephen Lucas, Ilya Rostovtsev, Kohsuke Tajima, Rodney Waschka, and Chapman Welch; and former faculty member Butch Rovan.
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Works by the following UNT composers were presented at the 2007 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Copenhaguen, Denmark (August 2007): Camilo Salazar (Siluetas), alumnus Kazuaki Shiota (Internal Rhythms), and faculty member Andrew May (Ripped Up Maps). Papers were also presented by alumnus John Chow Seymour (“Computer-Assisted Composition in Equal Tunings”), composition student Adam Lockhart (“Cognitive Implications of Musical Perception”), and alumnus Jeffrey Morris (“Feedback Instruments: Generating Musical Sounds, Gestures, and Textures in Real Time with Complex Feedback Systems").
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The following UNT composers participated in the SEAMUS 2010 Conference at St. Cloud State University, 8-10 April 2010: student composers Greg Dixon and Da Jeong Choi; faculty members David Bithell, Andrew May, Jon Christopher Nelson, and Elizabeth McNutt; emeritus faculty composer Larry Austin; and alumni composers Elainie Lillios and Chapman Welch.
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Alumnus composer Chaz Underriner (BA 2010) received a commission as the winner of the annual composition competition by the Santa Clarita Master Chorale for the piece A Mountain in Labor for choir, narrator and piano. The work was premiered in June 2011 at the College of the Canyons Performing Arts Center (Santa Clarita, CA).
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Etude for Orchestra, a work by alumna Hsiao-Lan Wang (DMA 2010), will receive a performance by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in July 2011, with the composer conducting. The Japan Federation of Composers sponsors the performance as part of the Asian Music Festival 2011.
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The Canadian Electroacoustic Community, in collaboration with the Australasian Computer Music Association (ACMA) has announced the results of the 11th edition of JTTP (Jeu de Temps/Time Play). This year's winners included doctoral composer Mark Oliveiro in the Australasian section (for In Maluga) and 2010 Bourges resident artist Émilie Payeur in the Canadian section (for Triptyque). The 2010 edition of this project was open to young and/or emerging sound artists/composers from (or living in) either Canada, Australia, or New Zealand.
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Just After The Rain, a work by faculty composer Jon Christopher Nelson, is one of nine works selected by an international jury for Sonic Screens 2011. The work will be performed at O' in Milan, Italy on 26 November 2011. One of the other selected works was Spindlesong by 2007 Bourges/CEMI resident Diana Salazar (Simpson).
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Works by the following UNT composers were presented at the 2008 conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) at the University of Utah (April 2008): Nick Bober and Stephen Lucas (Shattered Images), Camilo Salazar and alumna Jessica Leza (Vejez naciente, Naciente vejez), faculty member Jon Christopher Nelson (Just After the Rain), alumni Mikel Kuehn and Elainie Lillios, and former faculty members Butch Rovan and Larry Austin.
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Alumna composer Michelle Alonso (BM 2011) has been awarded a Helene Wurlitzer Foundation Residency Fellowship for the summer of 2012. The fellowship provides three months of free housing for artists to work at the Foundation, located in Taos, New Mexico.
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Alumnus Eli Fieldsteel (MM 2010) was awarded the ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Commission at the 2012 SEAMUS Conference for his master's thesis composition, Fractus I for trumpet and electronics.
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Daniel Chan (BM 2004) was one of twelve composers selected for the 2009 ASCAP Film and Television Scoring Workshop. Chan’s Generations: Concerto for Violin & Orchestra received Special Distinction in the 2009 ASCAP Rudolf Nissim competition, judged by a panel of distinguished conductors.
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Nine UNT-affiliated composers were selected to participate in the SEAMUS 2012 Conference at Lawrence University, 9-11 February 2012: student composers L. Scott Price and Greg Dixon; alumni composers Ethan Hayden, Chapman Welch, Mikel Kuehn, Daniel Zajicek, Eli Fieldsteel, and Elainie Lillios; and former faculty member Butch Rovan.
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The following UNT composers had their works presented at the 2011 International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) at the University of Huddersfield, England (31 July - 5 August 2011): doctoral student Dan Tramte; alumni Da Jeong Choi, Mikel Kuehn, Elainie Lillios, and Yu-Chung Tseng; and former faculty John Mallia.
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Daniel R. Mitchell (MM 1984) recently authored the book BasicSynth: Creating a Music Synthesizer in Software (ISBN: 978-0-557-02212-0). The book and accompanying software explains how to create a custom music synthesizer in software using the C++ programming language. Information about the book is available on the internet at http://basicsynth.com
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On Top of Wheat Silos, a work by alumnus Ryan Manchester (BM 2008) was presented by the Chicago-based group Access Contemporary Music on 6 December 2010. A review of the event may be found on the Chicago Classical Review website.
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Works by several UNT composers were selected for performance at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in Montreal, Québec on 16-21 August 2009. Among those represented were student composer Greg Dixon (Water Home to Water); faculty composer Andrew May (Still Angry, performed by UNT faculty flutist Elizabeth McNutt); alumni composers Tseng Yu-Chung (FMM) and Kevin Patton (Digital Poplar Consort); and past CEMI resident composers Diana Simpson (Papyrus) and Juan Parra-Cancino (GeoAves).
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Darin Au (MM 1996), Academy Music Department Head at Punahou School (Honolulu, Hawai'i), chaperoned the Punahou School Marching Band during their participation in the 20 January 2009 Inauguration Day ceremonies in Washington, DC. President Obama attended the Punahou School as a child living in Hawai'i.
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Alumnus composer Yo Goto (MM 2004) has been awarded the American Bandmasters Association 2011 Sousa/Ostwald Award for his work Songs for wind ensemble. Previous winners of this prestigious award include North Texas alumni Michael Daugherty (2007) and Fisher Tull (1970), and former faculty composer Martin Mailman (1983, 1989).
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Dream of a Thousand Keys, the dissertation composition by alumna Da Jeong Choi (PhD 2011), was premiered on 8 March 2012 by the Joven Orquesta Provincial de Málaga as part of the International Women's Day celebration in Spain. The performance was featured on Canal Sur TV.
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Works by the following UNT composers were selected for performance at the International Computer Music Conference (ICMC) in New York City and Stony Brook, NY on 1-5 June 2010: student composer Da Jeong Choi (Reflection in the Glass); emeritus faculty composer Larry Austin (Le flutes de Pan, homage a Debussy); alumna composer Elainie Lillios (Nostalgiac Visions); and past CEMI resident composer Diana Simpson-Salazar (Spindle Song).
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UNT composition alumna Hsiao-Lan Wang (DMA 2010) received a commission from the Taiwan Symphony Orchestra to compose a piano trio titled Blue Mirror, Green Mirror, Red Mirror. The work is scheduled to be performed by players of the TSO in August 2011, and will be published and subsequently released on CD.
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The Hallelujah Drones, a new work for 6 vocalists and computer by Henry Vega (MM 2004) was premiered at CDCM (Madrid) and received additional performances at the Cankarjev Dom Festival (Slovenia) and at the Gaudeamus Music Festival in Amsterdam by the Nederland Vocaal Lab.
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...of Strength and Compassion, a work for band by Kendall Prinz (MM 1999), was named as a finalist in the first ATSSB Composition Competition in February of 2009.
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“Forget Not," an album of original jazz compositions by Stephen Anderson (MM 2000; DMA 2005) was released in May 2008 on Summit Records. The album features Anderson's trio with fellow UNT alumni — and former One O'Clock Lab Band members — Jeff Eckels (bass) and Joel Fountain (drums).
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"Yuan-缘," a recording of new music by Wu Fei (BM 2002) was released on the Tzadik Records Composer Series in November 2008. Her first CD for Tzadik, this recording features works for various ensembles, including a composition for percussion and Chinese traditional instruments and several solo pieces for piano, percussion and guzheng.
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Terry Lee (MM 2009) received a commission from the Rose V. Johnson Flute Performance Studio in Federal Way (Seattle), WA for a new work for flute choir. San Juan Suite, a five movement composition for 2 piccolos, 8 flutes, alto flute, and bass flute, was premiered in Federal Way on 4 June 2010.