Alumni Information

Alumnus Jon Anderson's electroacoustic work for fixed media, dash.em, was selected for performance at the regional Society of Composers Inc. Conference hosted by Clarke University. His work for fixed media and video luft am morgen, was selected for performance at the 2013 New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival at the Graduate Center at CUNY. Both works were also invited for performance at the 2013 Electronic Music Midwest Mini-Festival, part of the New Sounds Festival 2013 hosted by Western Michigan University.

Alumna composer Hsiao-Lan Wang (DMA 2010) has recently received three commissions for new works: Adoration for piano four-hands will be premiered in Houston on 17 November 2012; Before Sunrise for vibraphone and marimba, and will be premiered on 4 December 2012 at the National Recital Hall in Taipei, performed by percussionists Ling Sun and Kunihiko Komori; and Currents of Inevitable Convergence for chamber orchestra and computer music will be premiered in 2013 by the National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra.

Alumnus Ricardo Gallo (BM 2002) received a grant from the Colombian Ministry of Culture for an artist residency at Banff, Canada, in October-November 2012. During the residency, Gallo will complete a new work for the New York-based ensemble Yarn/Wire.

This year's International Computer Music Conference, which takes place in Ljubljana, Slovenia on 9-14 September 2012, will include works by several UNT composers. In addition to being presented at the conference, works by faculty members Jon Christopher Nelson (Turbulent Blue) and Panayiotis Kokoras (Construct Synthesis) were selected by an international jury from among 600 entries for inclusion on the conference CD. Alumni composers Yu-Chung Tseng, Elainie Lillios, Jon Anderson, and Mikel Kuehn will also have works presented at the conference.

Alumnus Kevin Walczyk (MM 1991; DMA 1994) has been named the recipient of the ninth Raymond and Beverly Sackler Music Composition Prize. The competition, organized by the University of Connecticut’s School of Fine Arts, supports and promotes composers and the performance of their new musical works. An international award, the prize offers a substantial recognition including a commission of $25,000 to compose a work for a specified ensemble, public performances, and a recording. This year’s prize is for a concerto for brass quintet (Atlantic Brass Quintet) and wind ensemble.

Alumna composer Elainie Lillios (DMA 2000), an associate professor of composition at Bowling Green State University, has been awarded a commission from the prestigious Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) in Paris. Lillios is only the second American composer in the history of the GRM to be awarded a commission. Lillios’s new work will be premiered in October 2013 at La maison de Radio France in the Salle Olivier Messiaen, as a featured piece on the GRM’s “Multiphonies” concert series.

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.

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.

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.