CV

Updated 12/10/19


Education

2004                D.M.A Music Composition, Cornell University

Dissertation: Aleatory and Serialism in Two Early Works of Franco Donatoni

Composition with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra; Piano with Xak Bjerken

1997                B.M. Music Composition with Highest Honors, Indiana University School of Music; Four-year recipient of the Nina Neal Scholarship

Composition with Eugene O’Brien and Claude Baker; Piano with Edmund Battersby and Read Gainsford

2001                Live Electronics in Music Course, Bologna Conservatory

Studies with Alvise Vidolin, sound engineer, and Adriano Guarnieri, composer

Employment

 

Sep. 2019-       Associate Professor of Music, University of Missouri Kansas City Conservatory

Aug 2013-19   Virginia Kock Endowed Associate Professor of Music, Department of Music, University of New Orleans (on leave 2019-2020)

2009-2014       Artistic Director, MATA Music Festival for Young Composers, Non-profit, New York based organization founded by Philip Glass, Lisa Bielawa, and Eleonor Sandresky in 1996.

2010-12           Piano and Composition Faculty, Concordia College Conservatory

2007-08           Frederic A. Juilliard/Walter Damrosch Rome Prize

2006–              Adjunct Faculty, Boston University Office of Distance Education

in graduate level theory, jazz studies, and orchestration

Recent Publications and Releases

 

2018                Release of Eidos, contemporary compositions by Yotam Haber, Robert Morris, and Jason Eckardt. Collide-O-Scope Music, Hanging Bell Records.

2015                “Creative Silence: Donatoni’s Per Orchestra” in Franco Donatoni. Gravità senza peso. Atti del convegno, Parma 30 novembre 2013, LIM, Lucca.

2015                We Were All, Contemporaneous Ensemble, NYFA Fellows at 30: INNOVA Records

2015                Release of Torus, first monographic CD album, GPR Records, distributed by NAXOS

2014                Study #2 for Accordion and Electronics, released on Luca Piovesan’s Sul Tasto album (Col Legno)

2013-               Music written since 2013 published by RAI TRADE (U.S. Rep, Presser)

 

Residences, Fellowships, and Awards

2020                Awarded the Benjamin Danks Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters ($20,000)

2019                Awarded the Can$ 50,000 Azrieli Prize for Jewish Music

2019                Awarded a $10,000 Creative Endeavor Opportunity grant from the Office of Research, UNO.

2019                Awarded an International Collaboration with Austria grant from the Office of Research, UNO.

2018                Awarded a residency at Civitella Ranieri (May-June 2019 residency)

2017                Koussevitzky Music Foundation at the Library of Congress commission

2016                MacDowell Colony Artist Fellow (December)

2016                DAAD Artist-in-Berlin Grant (December 2015-July 2016)

2016                MAP Fund Grant with the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and Airlift New Orleans for New Water Music (premiere, April 2017)

2016                ATLAS Grant (Award to Louisiana Artists and Scholars) from the Board of Regents; used for a semester sabbatical of research and writing in Berlin, Germany.

2014                MacDowell Colony Artist Fellow

2014                New York Foundation of the Arts (NYFA) Grant for Voice imitator, collaboration with visual artist Anna Schuleit.

2013                Resident Composer, Blue Mountain Center

2012                Bogliasco Fellowship. Liguria, Italy. 4 weeks. Residency with MacArthur fellow Anna Schuleit, working on Voice Imitator collaborative project. a collaborative project consisting of 104 paintings and piano works based on the short stories of the Austrian writer Thomas Bernhard.

2011-12           Residency at Hermitage Artist Retreat (Project: The Voice Imitator)

2011                Composer-in-Residence, University of California, Los Angeles

2011                Resident Composer at Yaddo

2010                Resident Composer at Bogliasco Center

2010                Resident Composer the Rockefeller Bellagio Center

2009                Resident Composer at the MacDowell Colony

2005-06           John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow

2006                American Music Center Composer Assistance Grant

2004                First prize winner of the bi-annual ASCAP/CBDNA Frederick Fennell Competition for Young Composers of Concert Band Music. The winning work, Espresso, was performed during the National CBDNA Conference in New York City on February 24, 2005 by Rutgers University Wind Ensemble at NYU’s Skirball Center

2003                Resident at the Aaron Copland House, Peekskill, New York

2003                Composition Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center

2002                ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for In Sleep a King

2002                Fellowship to Aspen Music Festival Composition Master Class

1998                Resident Fellow Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts

 

Invited Talks, Guest Teaching and Presentations

2018                Inside the Arts with Diane Mack, speaking about New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center commission

2018                Co-chair and organizer of “Death and Thyme: Thomas Bernhard, Austria’s Enfant Terrible,” a national symposium at UNO.

2017                Guest Composer, Northwestern University (April)

2017                Composer-in-Residence, University of Texas-San Antonio. Performances and masterclasses (March)

2015                Featured radio interview (45’) on Inside the Arts with Diane Mack on New Orleans NPR station WWNO

2011                Composer-in-Residence, UCLA. Performances and Master classes.

2011                “Benedetto Marcello, Mount Sinai, and Invented Biblical Musical Traditions” University of Pennsylvania Department of Music Colloquium Series

2008                Featured (60-minute) podcast interview about current research and compositions for Nextbook.org, the Jewish cultural organization

2006                Guest Lecture, University of Pennsylvania (11/30)

2006                Guest lecturer at Barnard College, Columbia University (10/28)

2004                Invited to give a guest lecture for Dr. Michael Beckerman’s course on Song Literature at New York University (11/8)

Selected Musical Commissions and notable performances

2019                Da Capo Ensemble performs EPA II at Merkin Hall, NY (3/14)

2018                Kronos Quartet and LINES Ballet premiere new work based on From the Book. Yerba Buena Center, October 2018.

2018                Scene X from The Voice Imitator (an opera-in-progress) presented at the New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center as part of the Southern Sonic Festival

2018                EPA II performed at June in Buffalo

2018                Ecstatic Music Festival, NY. Face the Music and Kronos Quartet perform From the Book

2017                New Water Music (45’) commission by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

2017                From the Book commission for the Kronos Quartet, premiere 3/4/2017 Washington DC Performing Arts Society

2016                World premiere of Break_break_break, commission from the Kronos Quartet and Carnegie Hall. Premiere (4/2/16 Carnegie Hall)

2013                Commission by the Alabama Symphony Orchestra for A More Convenient Season (75’) for orchestra, chorus, soloists, and electronics. Performed in 2014 by CalARTS at Disney Hall, REDCAT

2010                Meet The Composer commission for an orchestra piece for The Knights Ensemble and singer Cristina Courtin for their 2011 national tour. Premiere January 10-11, 2011, Baryshnikov Arts Center, NYC.

2009                Between Composure and Seduction for drum kit, baroque violin, and bass commission from architect Peter Zumthor for the Vals Chapel, Switzerland

2008                Commission for the 29th annual Nuovi Spazi Musicali Festival, Rome, for Paul Bowman and Harvey Sollberger (October 16)

2008                Recipient of a Jerome Foundation Commission from the American Composers Forum for NYC-based ensemble MAYA

2008                Stendhal Syndrome (cl, vln, pno) Commission by the De Lakenhal Museum, Leiden, Holland for world premiere in collaboration with Dutch artist Maria Barnas’ Stendhal Syndrome Project (February 21)

2006                A Wine Dark Sea (string orch) Received a Music At the Anthology Festival Commission (MATA) for a string orchestra work premiered by The Knights in New York City, March 2007

2007                Torus (str qt) Commission from Bargemusic, NY, in celebration of its 30th anniversary for Flux Quartet

2004                ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award for Blur, Commissioned by Ensemble X.

Selected Musical Performances

2018                Kronos Quartet and LINES premiere new ballet incorporating From the Book

2016                New Ghetto Songs, an evening-length cycle, at the RomaEuropa Festival

2016                Selected for performance of Estro Poetico Armonico II at the 2016 MISE-EN Festival, NYC. (6/25)

2016                Performances of Break_break_break with Kronos Quartet at Holland Festival and Krakow

2016                Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra performs A Wine Dark Sea (05/12,13,15)

2015                European premiere of A Wine Dark Sea by Orchestre D’Auvergne, France (2/11)

2015                New York Philharmonic CONTACT! Series presents Estro poetico-armonico II (2/9)

2015                World premiere of Last Space Rites 6 with members of the Louisiana Philharmonic and the   New Orleans East Van Hahn Lion Dance Team (1/24)

2014                I Musici de Montreal present Estro Poetico-armonico I (12/18-19)

2014                Naples, Italy, (11/8) Premiere of New Ghetto Songs, an evening-length collaborative project on traditional liturgical music of the Roman Jewish community with singer-actor, Raiz (Gennaro della Volpe)

2014                Estro poetico-armonico II presented by Meitar Ensemble at Venice Biennale (10/6) and Tel Aviv Conservatory (10/27) (Fromm Foundation Commission)

2014                Fromm Foundation work, Estro poetico-armonico II, premiered at Symphony Space, NYC (5/31)

2014                Premiere of From the Book of Maintenance and Sustenance, Roulette, NYC, Max Mandel and Eric Huebner (3/25)

2014                A More Convenient Season at REDCAT Disney Hall (1/25,26)

Hailed by LA Times, Mark Swed, as “Faces to Watch: Classical Music 2014”

2013                Premiere of A More Convenient Season, Alabama Symphony commission in commemoration of the 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. (9/21)

2012                Gabriel Kahane performs Once the ocean takes you and A wife explains why she                           likes country at Carnegie Weill Recital Hall debut, (10/25)

2012                Alarm Will Sound premieres new version of We Were All, Sheldon Arts Center, St. Louis, MO (10/18)

2012                Venice Biennale Italian premiere of between composure and seduction (Ensemble Alter Ego 10/9)

2012                Premiere of Last Skin, for 8 violins, at Bard College. Contemporaneous Ensemble (5/2)

2012                Premiere of A wife explains why she likes country, CAG Winner, Mischa Bouvier, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall (3/6)

2011                American premiere of I am as part of the SoNiC Festival, American Composers Orchestra, Miller Theatre, Columbia University, Jack Quartet, Cantori NY. (10/17)

2011                Premiere of On Leaving Brooklyn, commission by 5 Boroughs Song Festival, Galapagos Arts Center, Brooklyn, NY. October 6.

2011                World premiere of I am for string quartet and choir by the students of the Florence Conservatory, Italy. June 25.

2011                Mizzou Festival fellow. Premiere of We Were All by Alarm Will Sound, Alan Pierson, Dir. July 10-17.

2011                American premiere of death will come while composer in residence at UCLA May 15-25

2010                Premiere of New Ghetto Music by the Knights Ensemble. Baryshnikov Art Center, January 10+11. Meet the Composer commission.

2010                Premiere of once the ocean takes you for voice and piano by Gabriel Kahane at Issue Project Room, Brooklyn. 17 November.

Collaborative Projects

2019                Co-teaching with UNO Computer Science faculty Dr. Ben Samuel and Fine Arts Professor Dan Rule a course designed to create video games in real-world, work-team environments.

2014-               Founder, New Orleans New Music. Commissioning and presenting contemporary music by international and local composers in New Orleans.

2017                Commissioned work for Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and community musicians in collaboration with visual artist team Airlift New Orleans and the Gulf Restoration Network

2015                Participant-presenter, “A Lake in the Other Room: Site-specific Memory, Trauma, and the Imagination in Art, Literature, and Medicine.” Seminar at the Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University. (1/21-1/23)

2008                Collaboration with Bulgarian-American artist and Rome Prize Fellow Daniel Bozhkov at Skulpturenpark Berlin Zentrum on the 30th year commemoration of first German cosmonaut in space (March)

 

Teaching

 

University of Missour-Kansas City Conservatory

 

Fall 2019

            Director, Musica Nova (UMKC’s new music ensemble)

Applied composition lessons (studio of 12 MM and DMA candidates)

 

University of New Orleans

 

Summer 2019 Innsbruck Program

MUS 1000 Music Appreciation

HUMS 2090 Contemporary Art and Popular Music in Austria

Spring 2019

            MUS 4598 Composing Music for Advanced Game Development

 

Fall 2017

MUS 2001 Composition for Everyone (an introduction to music composition, open to all students without prerequisite)

Spring 2017

            MUS 6101 Baroque & Classical Analysis (Graduate level seminar)

Fall 2016

(Same courses as in spring 2014)

Fall 2015

MUS 6101 16th Century Counterpoint (Undergraduate and Graduate level)

MUS 2101 Music Theory III (undergraduate level)

MUS 3801-6801 Applied Composition Lessons (Undergraduate and Graduate levels)

2MUS 7000 Thesis Advising

Summer 2015 UNO Rome Program

Spring 2015

MUS Techniques of 20-21st Century Music: Film Composition (undergraduate and graduate)

MUS 2102 Music Theory IV (undergraduate level)

MUS 3801-6801 Applied Composition Lessons (Undergraduate and Graduate levels)

Fall 2014

MUS 4102/6102 Analytical Studies of Romantic era and 20th Century (graduate level)

MUS 2101 Music Theory III (undergraduate level)

MUS 3801-6801 Applied Composition Lessons (Undergraduate and Graduate levels)

Spring 2014

Advanced Orchestration (undergraduate and graduate level)

MUS 2102 Music Theory IV (undergraduate level)

Fall 2013

MUS 4001 Music and Monumentality

Graduate-level seminar exploring music that grapples with commemoration from WWII to the present day.

MUS 2101 Music Theory III (undergraduate level)

MUS 3801-6801 Applied Composition Lessons

Boston University (online)

 

MU400: Facilitator, Graduate Music Theory Review a

MU600: Analytic Techniques for Tonal Music

MU 779 Facilitator, Orchestration

MU765 Facilitator, Philosophy and History of Music Education

MU767 Facilitator, African Music

MU766 Facilitator, Jazz Arranging 2

 

 

Performance

2015-               Conductor, Fleur de Lys Chamber Orchestra, New Orleans, LA

2001-03           Director, Cornell Chamber Singers

Duties included choosing all repertoire, holding auditions, and recruiting for a highly selective chamber vocal ensemble. Performed at least two major concerts a semester.

2002-03           Assistant Conductor, Cornell Wind Ensemble

Duties included directing half-rehearsals (45 minutes) twice a week. Conducted three works on two concerts.

Departmental and University Service

 

2019                TOLMAS Scholar Faculty Mentor two two undergraduate music majors

2018-               School of the Arts: Excellence in Arts Education Committee

2017-               Member, Courses & Curriculum Committee

2015                Invited Mivos Quartet for a week-long residency at UNO in partnership with Tulane University

2015-2016       Organizer and grant writer, 2015-2016 Musicology Colloquium Series at The University of New Orleans: Roger Moseley (Cornell), Gundula Kreuzer (Yale), Brigid Cohen (NYU), Ingrid Monson (Harvard), and Bonnie Gordon (UVA)

2015-               Member, University of New Orleans Strategic Enrollment Management Committee

2015-               Member, Advisory Committee on The University of New Orleans proposed School of the Arts

2014                Invited Contemporaneous Ensemble for a week-long residency at University of New Orleans for masterclasses and concerts with works by students and faculty.

2014                Invited guest lecture by David Harrington (Kronos Quartet) at University of New Orleans (2/14)

2014-               Regularly participates in Get to Know UNO Student Open House

Disciplinary Service

2015-               New Orleans Contemporary Arts Center Board of Trustees

2013-               MATA Board of Directors

2008-13           ASCAP Morton Gould Competition Juror

2006                Served on a five-member selection panel for CEC ArtsLink Projects, awards that support US artists to travel to East/Central Europe, Russia or Eurasia, pursuing projects in music, theatre, literature, and dance. (NYC, March 13-14)

2003                Juror for the 2003 Victor Herbert/ASCAP and Marian Richter Young Composers Contest (National Federation of Music Clubs)

2003                Served as member of a five-faculty search committee for Director of Bands for the Cornell University music department.

 

Selected Music Related Projects and Work

2010                Selected as one of five composers to participate in the 4th annual Iron Composer Competition. Cleveland, Ohio (10/22)

2006-7             Music Copyist/Assistant for Yo-Yo Ma’s Silk Road Project

2002                Composer and music director for the Ithaca, New York, production of the play, The Blue Room (David Hare), Magda Romanska, Director

2001                Biennale Arte Contemporanea, Porto Ercole, Italy. Panel discussion presented by Oscar Bianchi Kaüfeler on the music of Haber, Guarnieri and Carcamo – August 26

1996-98           Co-founder and director of the Milwaukee Youth Festival Orchestra – A week-long summer event of rehearsals and performances of twentieth century repertoire by talented high school and college musicians.

 

Technical Skills

Languages

English, Hebrew (native language); Italian (fluent); French (intermediate level of reading and comprehension); German (intermediate level of reading, writing and comprehension)

Computer Programs

Word, Quark, Photoshop, Excel, Access, Outlook, Filemaker, Finale, Sibelius, Digital Performer, AudioSculpt (sound analysis), Power Point, UNITY, PureData, FMOD, ProTools, LOGIC, SPEAR.