Symposium of Contemporary Music, 2006

Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, Millikin University, and the IWU University Speakers Committee present .

SYMPOSIUM OF

Sean Parsons, Acting Symposium Director

Featuring the

NEW YORK NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE April 12 -14, 2006

.......

~

.•..

Ii[lirtois Wesleyan

I

T ' •U

N I V E R SIT Y

Symposium of Contemporary Music 2006 THURSDAY, APRIL

13, 2006

4:00PM PANEL DISCUSSION

Life as a Performer of New Music THE NEW YORK NEW MUSIC ENSEMBLE:

Jayn Rosenfeld, flute Jean Kopperud, clarinet Linda Quan, violin Christopher Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling, piano Dominic Donato, percussion' James Baker, conductor David Vayo, Professor of Composition and Theory, moderator

FRIDAY, APRIL

14, 2006

7:30PM CONCERT

The New York New Music Ensemble presents Five Premieres H20 (2005) .......... .... . .. . ......... ........ . ....... .. John Stafford (b. 1978) Dominic Donato, marimba soloist

Brian Baxter, marimba David Cramer, marimba Steph Lyon, marimba Zach Walz, marimba Josh Ziemann, marimba

Cycles (2006) ..... . .............. : .. . ................... Jeremy Brunk (b. 1975) Jayn Rosenfeld, flute Jean Kopperud, clarinet Linda Quan, violin Christopher Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling, piano Dominic Donato, percussion James Baker, conductor Awakening of the Heart (1998) .............................. David Vayo (b. 1957) Commissioned (in part) by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition at Brigham Young University

Linda Quan, violin Christopher Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling, piano James Baker, conductor Bencharong (2002) ............................... Narong Prangcharoen (b. 1973) Jayn Rosenfeld, flute Christopher Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling, piano Intermission A Musical Narrative for Expanded "Pierrot Ensemble" (2002) .. Mario J. Pelusi (b. 1951) Made possible. in part. by an Artistic and Scholarly Development Grant from Illinois Wesleyan University

Jayn Rosenfeld, flute Jean Kopperud, clarinet Linda Quan, violin Christopher Finckel, cello Stephen Gosling. piano Dominic Donato, percussion James Baker, conductor Following the program, the audience is invited to a reception in the Presser Hall Reception Room. courtesy of Delta Omicron, Phi Mu Alpha, and Sigma Alpha Iota This program is presented as part of the IWU New Music Series

About the New York New Music Ensemble: For twenty-nine years, the New York New Music Ensemble has commis­ sioned, performed, recorded, taught, and fiercely advocated the music of our time. Described as "pulsating with life and timbral excitement" (Los Angeles Times), the group is sought out by composers and audiences wishing thoughtful and passionate performances. The Ensemble's interests span music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, "classics;' the music of emerging composers, and music involving extended instrumental and elec­ tronic techniques, theatre, interactive and live electronics, and graphics.

The New York New Music Ensemble has performed extensively through­ out the United States and in Europe, South America, China, and Japan. In past years, the Ensemble has been in residence at Brandeis University, Emory University, and at the June in Buffalo Fe1>tival. The Ensemble has released twenty recordings to date, among which are Music of Arthur Kreiger (Albany Records: TROY609); Music of Wayne Peterson (Koch International: 37498-2HI); New Electro-Acoustic Music: Primosch, Rulon, Steiger (Centaur CD: 2338); Music of Carter, Davies and Druckman (GM Recordings: GM2047CD); and S(:hoenberg's Pierrot lunaire (GM Recordings: GM2030CD).

Many distinguished composers have written music specifically for the New York New Music Ensemble, including: Milton Babbitt, Leslie Bassett, Arthur .Berger, John Cage, Mario Davidovsky, Jacob Druckman, John Eaton, Vivian Fine, Tod Machover, Steven Mackey, Donald Martino, George Perle, Mel Powell, Ralph Shapey, Joseph Schwantner, Harvey Sollberger, and Charles Wuorinen.

Finally, this season begins an ambitious, five-year commissioning program, starting with works by: Ross Bauer, Eleanor Cory, John Harbison, Leon Kirchner, Eric Moe, Mario Pelusi, Stephen Ricks, Morris Rosenzweig, Harvey Sollberger, and Rolv Yttrehus. In addition to its New York season and its twoweek tour to California and Utah, the Ensemble will be in residence at Illinois Wesleyan University and at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

About the Individual Artists: James Baker holds the B.F.A. degree in music performance from the State University of New York at Purchase, where he studied percussion and conducting with Raymond Des Roches. He pursued further conducting and composition studies with Yehudi Wyner, Robert Levin, and Alvin Brehm.

He holds the B.M. and M.M. degrees from the Juilliard School where he was a scholarship student of Saul Goodman and Elden Bailey and an active conductor of contemporary music. Mr. Baker enjoys a busy career as a performer, composer, and conductor and is currently principal percussionist of the New York City Ballet orchestra. He appears regularly as a percussionist with such orchestras as Orpheus, Eos, the American Composers Orchestra, St. Lukes, NY Pops, Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra, NY Chamber Symphony, and Westchester Philharmonic. An expert in early music performance practice, he plays regularly with the NY Collegium, Concert Royal, and New York Collegium and has appeared with The Academy of Ancient Music.

As a chamber musician, Mr. Baker has appeared with many ensembles, including the New York New Music Ensemble, EOS, Da Capo Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae, Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society, Carnegie Hall "Making Music" Ensemble, SEM Ensemble, and New Band. He has worked closely with such composers as Hans Werner Henze, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Phillip Glass, Lucas Foss, George Crumb, Morton Subotnik, Earl Brown, Tan Dun, Jerry Hemingway, H.K. Gruber, Jacob Druckman, Mario Davidowsky, and many others.

As a conductor, Mr. Baker has a varied and extensive background. On Broadway, where he has played in bands for many shows, he has been active on conducting staffs for several shows. He was Associate Music Director for An Inspector Calls and Associate Conductor of The King and I, The Sound of Music, The Music Man, Oklahoma and La Boheme.

A noted conductor of contemporary music, Mr. Baker has conducted The New York New Music Ensemble on many occasions; e.g., he was resident conductor of the Ensemble at the June in Buffalo Festival, in tours including performances in Los Angeles at the MOCA, in San Francisco, in Pittsburgh, and in Asia, as well as at The Kitchen, Knitting Factory, Carnegie Recital

Hall, Miller Theater, and in many other venues. He has led "The Pocket Opera Company" in critically acclaimed performances of Don Quixote and Peer Gynt by the composer John Eaton. Young composers know him for his fine work in composition workshops, where he leads ensembles in new works.

He has presented workshops on many university campuses, including Rice University, the University of Pittsburgh, the University of California at Long Beach, SUNY Buffalo, and at the University of California at Sacramento. He conducted the premiere of Martin Brody's Earth Studies in Boston, and in his student days led the Juilliard Contemporary Music Ensemble and The Purchase New Music Ensemble.

Mr. Baker has worked extensively in the recording studio where he has worked with such film composers as Elmer Bernstein, Jerry Goldsmith, Howard Shore, Elliot Goldenthal, Carter Burwell, and Ennio Morricone, and he played in the recording sessions for many films, including The Untouchables, Interview with a Vampire, You've Got Mail, Bringing out the Dead, The Castle, Copland, The Chamber, Ransom, Sphere, Mercury Rising, What Planet are You From?, 8mm, Primary Colors, Spanish Prisoner, Wide Awake, etc.

As a composer, Mr. Baker has penned a number of works for the theater and for dance, as well as concert music, and received a Bessie Award ¡i n 1988.

His most recent work was heard at Dance Theater Workshop in March of 2006. Forthcoming composition projects include a commission from the Opera Ballet de Lyonne, for September 2006.

As a performer in the jazz and pop fields, Mr. Baker has appeared with Branford Marsalis, Tony Bennett, Dave Brubeck, Dizzy Gillespie, Aretha Franklin, Astor Piazzola, Styx, Barry Manilow, John Denver, Carly Simon, Rosemary Clooney, Linda Ronstadt, Maureen McGovern, Audra MacDonald, Nine Inch Nails, and many others. He has participated as soloist or conductor in many festivals, including Mostly Mozart, Lincoln Center, Pepsico Summerfare, University of Alabama Contemporary Music Festival, Prague Spring Festival, June in Buffalo, Ravinia, Tanglewood Festival, Yale Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Next Wave, American Dance Festival, Bang on a Can Festival, Moab Music Festival, and Saratoga, among others.

Dominic Donato is active as a percussion soloist, chamber musician, composer, and teacher. He is a member of the Talujon Percussion Quartet and DoublePlay Percussion Duo and has performed with many New York new music groups and orchestras. As a soloist, Donato has performed in New York, Rome, Amsterdam, and Paris, where he gave the French premiere of Iannis Xenakis' percussion concerto, Omega. He was invited to the Gulbenkian Festival in Lisbon, Portugal and the Donaueschingen Music Festival, where he premiered James Tenney's Song 'n' Dance for Harry Partch

with the SWR Symphony Orchestra. In the Fall of 2006, Donato will present Tamtam 2, the second in a series of recitals featuring music for tamtams.

This recital will include premieres by Steve Ricks, Elizabeth Hoffman, and Peter Jarvis plus works by James Tenney, Stuart Jones, and Dominic Donato.

Recent recordings include Dividing Time for percussion soloist and trio by Steven Ricks (with Talujon) and Geminis by Elizabeth Hoffman (with DoublePlay). A graduate of Stony Brook University and the Manhattan School of Music, Dominic Donato directs the Percussion Department at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, State University of New York.

Christopher Finckel, born into a family of cellists, began his studies with his father George Finckel and is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music where he studied with Mischa Schneider and Orlando Cole. Currently, he is also a member of the Manhattan String Quartet. He has concertized in the Far East, Australia, Europe, Central America, and throughout the United States and Canada. A frequent guest artist with such acclaimed ensembles as the Tokyo String Quartet, the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, and Speculum Musicae, Mr. Finckel has appeared at the Casals, Santa Fe, Ravinia, Madeira Bach, and Norfolk Chamber Music Festivals and is a founding member of the North Country Chamber Players of New Hampshire.

Stephen Gosling's piano playing has been hailed as "electric" and "luminous and poised" (New York Times), as "possessing utter clarity and conviction" (Washington Post), and as "extraordinary virtuosity" (Houston Chronicle).

A native of Sheffield, England,.Mr. Gosling moved to New York in 1989 to study with Oxana Yablonskaya at the Juilliard School, where he earned the Bachelor, Masters, and Doctoral degrees in piano performance. During his time at Juilliard, he was awarded the Mennin Prize for Outstanding Excellence and Leadership in Music and the Sony Elevated Standards Fellowship.

He was also featured as concerto soloist an unprecedented four times.

Energetically committed to the music of our time, Mr. Gosling has been a member of the New York New Music Ensemble since 1999. He is also a member of Ensemble Sospeso, Columbia University's Sinfonietta Moderna, and Ne(x)tworks, a group dedicated to the realization of aleatoric scores.

Additionally, he is a frequent guest artist of many other groups, including Orpheus, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Continuum, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, Speculum Musicae, Ensemble 21 , DaCapo Chamber Players, SEM Ensemble, the League of Composers/ISCM Chamber Players, and Da Camera of Houston. He has also played in Off-Broadway productions and collaborated with several dance companies. Finally, Mr. Gosling is a prolific recording artist, and may be heard on New World Records, Bridge, CRI, Mode, Innova, Albany, Cenfaur, Rattle Records (New Zealand), Altarus, and Decca Records.

Jean Kopperud is one of the most versatile and innovative clarinetists appearing before the public today and is known for her virtuosic performances both in the concert hall and in music theatre. A graduate of the Juilliard School and former pupil of Nadia Boulanger, Ms. Kopperud has toured internationally as a concert soloist and chamber musician. National acclaim for her performances of Karlheinz Stockhausen's HARLEKIN, a tour-de-force for dancing clarinetist, resulted in her Avery Fisher Hall debut presented by the New York Philharmonic. In addition to the New York New Music Ensemble, Ms. Kopperud is currently a member of the Chamber Players of the League of ComposerslISCM, Washington Square Chamber Players, Ensemble 21 and the Omega Ensemble. She is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and on the adjunct faculties of Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. At Juilliard, she teaches a class called "On the Edge" as well as private and class clarinet in the Music Advancement Program. "On the Edge" is a course on the practice of performing that is also presented in master classes and workshops around the country.

Linda Quan has had a diverse career as a violinist concertizing and recording in the United States, Canada, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

In the new music field, she has most recently performed and recorded with the New York New Music Ensemble, the Atlantic Quartet, and the ISCM Chamber Ensemble. In addition to her position on the faculty of Vassar College since 1980, her activities in the "period instrument" field have included performances with the Aulos Ensemble, the Handel and Haydn Society, the American Classical Orchestra, the Smithsonian Chamber Players, and the Bach Ensemble. She has recorded on the Harmonia Mundi, Smithsonian, CRI, Musical Heritage Society, MusicMasters, Opus One, and Decca (L'Oiseau-Lyre) labels. Presently residing in New City, New York, Ms. Quan lives with her husband, oboist Marc Schachman, their children Toby and Nikki, and their Akita dog, Moho. .

Jayn Rosenfeld, Executive Director of the New York New Music Ensemble, is a graduate of Radcliffe College and the Manhattan School of Music where she studied flute with James Pappoutsakis, William Kincaid, and Marcel Moyse. She was principal flutist in the American Symphony Orchestra when it was conducted by Leopold Stokowski and won a National Endowment for the Arts Solo Recitalist Grant in 1986. Her many recordings include concerti

by Cimarosa and Constantinides, solo works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Leon Kirchner, John Anthony Lennon, and Robert Erickson, and many chamber works on the Bridge, CRI, Opus One, GM, Musical Heritage, Columbia, and Centaur Records labels. Ms. Rosenfeld also performs with the ISCM .f.nsemble, the Richardson Players at Princeton University, and the Washington Square

Chamber Players, and is first flutist of the Princeton Symphony Orchestra.

Ms. Rosenfeld teaches at the Juilliard School in the Music Advancement Program and at Princeton University.

About the Music (notes by the composers):

H20

Last spring, my colleague Jeremy Brunk and I began considering a possible collaborative project for the next academic year. H20 is the result of our discussions and was completed in August, 2005. The composition was written for five marimba parts (six players) and was intended to be performed in one of three ways: live, with six players; with one live player and with the other parts pre-recorded (my original plan); or record and mix all of the parts to create an electro acoustic work. This six-minute work combines a pulsing 10/8 rhythmic pattern that shifts by an eighth note every few bars, a dense polychordal harmonic structure, and overlapping dynamic markings that move at different rates for each part. The effect is that of a continuous "wash of sound" that is quite fluid. This performance will be the first with six live performers.

Cycles Cycles is a continuation of my interest in abstract evolutionary forms. Much

like a sonata or fugue, this work is not programmatic, but is constructed around the development of a musical motive within a predetermined formal structure. The first movement consists of five sections equal in time length, alternating between full ensemble and solo cadenzas, first in the piano, then in the keyboard percussion. The next two movements, not yet ~omposed, will give solo cadenzas to the remaining instruments in the sextet. The title refers¡ to the manner in which the primary motive is developed, which occurs through a series of cyclical rotations, determined by rhythmic relationships among members of the ensemble, and resulting in a gradual return to the orientation of the original motive. This process was realized through a predominantly contrapuntal, seven-part texture, treating the two hands of the piano as independent voices. The resulting rhythmic language is quite chaotic, with the bar line serving merely as a point of coordination among the parts. As a composer who writes primarily for percussion, I have been interested in exploring the various timbres produced by the mixed ensemble, occasionally layering extreme ranges and contrasting articulations while maintaining a generally homogenous sound . . Cycles was composed specifically for the renowned New York New Music

Ensemble and this event. I would like to thank all the musicians for their hard work, and each of the universities involved in supporting the Symposium.

Awakening of the Heart Awakening of the Heart was composed during a period of turmoil and loneli-

ness. My longing for tenderness and intimacy and my hope for the future fill the piece, which I half-seriously thought of calling Naked Music - not because of any sexual overtones, but because it struck me as so emotionally exposed. My hopes were fulfilled several years later when I met MarieSusanne, who I married and to whom I had been waiting to dedicate this composition.

Bencharong

The Thai word "Bencharong:' which describes the decoration of Thai porcelain, means "five colored" consisting of Red, Blue, Yellow, Green, and Black.

These were made in China with Thai designs drawn by the aristocrats specifically for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Ayutthaya and Bangkok royal courts. Bencharong's most distinctive feature was the complexity and regularity of the five-colored design depicting mythological creatures such as angels and heavenly maidens, and naturalized and stylized flowers and animals' particularly birds and deer.

In this composition, I attempted to compose five short pieces representing the character of each color. Each movement has a different set of notes, feeling, and distinctive sound. My experiment with this piece has to do with the relation between sounds and the audience's emotion. I use the variety of sounds to remind the audience about the colors and the feeling of each individual color. Furthermore, I also try to dovetail smoothly the sound of each movement with the sound of the next movement but still have the distinctive sounds of each color, as happens in the Bencharong porcelain.

A Musical Narrative for Expanded "Pierrot Ensemble"

This work was completed in 2002 and is dedicated to the memory of Edward T. Cone. With regard to the title of my composition, by "narrative:' I mean "story:' and, of course, "Pierrot Ensemble" refers to the instrumentation (minus the "speaking voice") of Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, which has been "expanded" through the inclusion of a percussionist who plays twenty-three instruments. There is no extra-musical program for this work; i.e., it is an "abstract" composition. Nevertheless, there is a "contextual" program. In other words, the various musical gestures are related in numerous ways. Each of these gestures has either a comparatively unique musical character or is related in some way to other gestures within the work. The com-

position is a discourse in music ~ased on musical ideas. I suppose one could also say that this is a musical story composed of musical characters; perhaps the best example of an analogous form in literature would be the novel.

(Incidentally. the title of this work. like the titles of many of my other compositions. reflects my interest in linguistics and in the structurally suggestive relationships between certain aspects of linguistics and music elements.)

With respect to form and design. my composition is a single-movement work (approximately twenty-three minutes in duration) comprised of five clearly defined "parts;' each of which is. in turn. divided further with respect to formal structures. Part I is slow in tempo. extensively polyphonic and polyrhythmic. features the cello. does not include the piano. and employs a variety of non-keyboard percussion instruments in an entirely subordinate manner. Part II is of a moderate tempo. begins with and features the piano. employs a variety of percussion instruments including keyboard instruments that are used somewhat independently of the piano music. and makes comparatively little use of the cello. Part Ill. which begins with cadenza-like passages in the clarinet. is moderately fast in tempo and features a trio of instruments: clarinet. cello. and piano; alSo. it employs in an entirely subordinate manner only the non-keyboard percussion instruments. In Part IV. which is fast in tempo. all of the performers play essentially equally important roles. the principal melodies tend to be passed among the various instruments (Le .• Klangfarbenmelodie-like in character). and the textures change rather frequently. Part IV concludes with an acceleration into Part V, which is very fast in tempo and which begins with an unaccompanied percussion solo.

Until Part V. percussion instruments have played essentially subordinate roles; now. th~ough much of Part V, the percussionist is a featured performer.

In addition. there are accompanied flute and violin duos as well as accompanied clarinet and cello duos. Eventually. the trio of instruments heard in Part III returns as a featured collection of instruments. Finally. all of the performers contribute to the conclusion of the work.

With respect to the melodic and harmonic vocabularies. all of these vocabularies are derived from a single series (and variations thereof) of pitch classes and interval classes. Another significant contributing factor to my particular style of composition is the abundance of long-lined melodies that are developed and varied simultaneously. In these and other respects. I suppose I could be described as a "maximalist; i.e .• I find it fascinating to see to what extent I can explore and develop the various structural properties of an initial musical gesture.

Finally. because this is music that can be performed properly only by virtuosi. I am thrilled that the NYNME will be giving my work its premiere.

About the Composers: John Stafford II, who is originally from Danville, Illinois, is currently on the faculty at Millikin University where he teaches theory, composition, and vocal jazz. His music has been performed throughout North America and Europe. He has been awarded commissions from the Instituto Cultural DominicoAmericano in the Dominican Republic, the New York Treble Singers, the Prairieland Voices Choral Ensemble, and Millikin University.

The University of Oregon's Waging Peace Through Singing, an international competition for choral music on the theme of peace, sponsored by the Carlton Savage Endowment for International Relations and Peace, has recognized his work. He has also received recognition from other organizations such as The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the Society of Composers Inc. (both national and regional conferences), the National Federation of Music Clubs, the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs, the Sandusky New Music Festival, the North American Music Festival at Lynn University, the Otterbein Festival of Contemporary Music at Otterbein College, and Primavera En La Habana 2004 (Spring in Havana 2004) International Electroacoustic Music Festival in Havana, Cuba. Al'so, he was recently selected as a finalist for the IV Edition of Pierre Schaeffer International Competition of Computer Music in Italy.

In addition, such artists as Velvet Brown, Marilyn Shrude, members of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Hradec Kralove Men's Chorus, the Gregg Smith Singers, Chicago A cappella, the New York Treble Singers, the Millikin University Choir, Millikin University Children's Choir, the Prairieland Voices, the University of Northern Colorado Women's Glee Club, the Anti-Social Music Ensemble (based out of NYC), and the Arkansas State University Faculty Brass Quintet have performed his music. Stafford is, or has been, a member of the Society of Composers Inc., the American Choral Directors Association, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers, and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia. He has received degrees from Millikin University (B.M.) and Bowling Green State University (M.M.). His teachers have included Marilyn Shrude, Elainie Lillios, Burton Beerman, and David Burdick. Stafford's music is published through First Step Publishing.

Jeremy Brunk teaches applied percussion, music theory, ear training, composition, and twentieth-century music history at Millikin University. A proponent of new music performance, he also directs the E}\:perimental Music Percussion Ensemble and frequently presents faculty recitals in the premieres of new works. Currently he performs with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra and Millikin-Decatur Symphony orchestra. His past performances include residencies and festivals with Christian Wolff, Annea Lockwood, Pauline Oliveros, Steve Reich, and Vinko Globokar. As a composer; his percussion ensemble works were performed at the 2000 Midwest Composers' Symposium and 2003 Percussive Arts Society International Convention. His composition teachers include Erik Lund, Zack Browning, and Carolyn Bremer.

David Vayo is Professor and head of the composition department at Illinois Wesleyan University where he teaches composition and contemporary music and coordinates the Symposium of Contemporary Music and the New Music Cafe concert series. Vayo has also taught at Connecticut College and the National University of Costa Rica. He holds an A.Mus.D. in Composition from The University of Michigan where his principal teachers were Leslie Bassett and William Bolcom; his M. Mus. and B. Mus. degrees are from Indiana University where he studied with Frederick Fox and Juan Orrego-Salas.

Vayo has received awards and commissions from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, ASCAP, the Koussevitzky Music Foundations, the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Music Center, the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, and the Illinois Council for the Arts, and has been granted numerous artists' colony residencies. Over two hundred performances and broadcasts of his compositions have taken place, including recent performances in Mexico, Japan, the Netherlands, Finland, and France and at Northwestern University, the Cleveland Institute of Music and CalArts. Festivals which have programmed his work include the InternationalTrombone Festival, the International Double Reed Festival, the Banff Festival of the Arts, and the World Music Days of the International Society for Contemporary Music. Vayos Symphony: Blossoms and Awakenings has been performed four times by the St. Louis Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. His compositions are published by Southern Music, A. M. Percussion Publications, and the International Trombone Association Press.

Thai composer, Narong Prangcharoen began his com position studies in Thailand with Narongrit Dhamabutra and graduated with a Bachelor Degree in Music Education from Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok.

He received his Masters Degree in Composition from Illinois State University where he studied with Stephen Taylor and David Feurzeig. He has received many scholarships and assistantships from the University of Missouri-Kansas City for his studies in the Doctoral Program in Composition under the direction of Zhou Long, James Mobberley, Paul Rudy, and Chen Yi. He is the recipient of many awards including the Alex;ander Zemlinsky International Composition Competition Award, the 18 th ACL Irino Memorial Composition Award, Pacific Symphony's American Composer's Competition Award, and the Toru Takemitsu Composition Award. Prangcharoen's music has been performed by many ensembles including the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Pacific Symphony, the Heartland Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra of Thailand, Ensemble TIMF, Lyrique Quintette, California Summer Music Group and Bennett Lerner in Asia, America, and Europe and subsequently broadcast by the ABC Classic FM-Australia's Classical Music Network. Among his commissions are works for the Pacific Symphony Orchestra, CCM Concert Orchestra, The National Symphony Orchestra of Thailand, Lyrique Quintette, and Bennett Lerner. Prangcharoen's recently commissioned piece, Sattha for string orchestra, piano and percussion, dedicated to the 2004 Tsunami victims, was given its premiere by the Pacific Symphony on November 30, 2005 and was warmly received by the audience in Orange County, California. His other memorial piece for Tsunami victims, Commemoration, for cello and piano, wi~l be premiered on May 7,2006 in New York. His latest commissioned piece, Respiration of the Sun, for orchestra, will be premiered in 2006 by the CCM Concert Orchestra.

Prangcharoen was invited to participate in the John Duffy Institute, part of the 9th Virginia Arts Festival in 2005 to work with Mark Adamo, John Corigliano, John Duffy, Tania Leon, and Billy Taylor. In June 2005, he was invited by the Sichuan Conservatory, China to present his music and to give master classes for undergraduate and graduate students. Prangcharoen was awarded scholarships to participate in the California Summer Music 2003 and 2004 programs at Pebble Beach, California. He was also a guest composer at the Asian Music Week 2004 at the University of Arkansas and is a founder of the Thailand Composition Festival in Bangkok, Thailand.

Finally, Narong Prangcharoen currently holds the position in the Western Music Department at Srinakharinwirot University in Bangkok as well as the

position of Instructional Assistant Professor of Music in Composition at Illinois State University.

Mario J. Pelusi is Director of the School of Music and Professor of Composition and Theory at Illinois Wesleyan University. He has composed numerous commissioned chamber and orchestral works for some of this country's leading performers of new music and is the recipient of numerous grants, prizes, and fellowships. Pelusi holds the M.F.A. and Ph.D. degrees in composition from Princeton University, where his principal teachers were Milton Babbitt and Edward T. Cone, and the B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from the University of Southern California. He has held teaching positions at The Ohio State University, Reed College, the University of Southern California, the Lawrenceville School, and the Westminster Choir College and has taught courses on a wide range of subjects, including composition, theory, counterpoint, analysis, orchestration, electronic music, twentieth-century music, and film music. In addition to his work in composition, Pelusi's research interests include non-tonal theory, music analysis, rhythm in music, the process of creativity, music and mathematics, and music and linguistics. Pelusi, who is also a conductor, specializes in twentieth-century and contemporary music and has conducted new music ensembles in the performances of numerous compositions, including many premieres of works by his contemporaries.

Pelusi is the recipient of numerous grants, prizes, and fellowships from a variety of sources; e.g., the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the American Music Center, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. Earlier in his career, he was a professional jazz pianist and arranger and composed music for films and television programs. Finally, Pelusi has an extensive background in music administration and college admissions.

6lj111pOsizlln O~ crgOnte111pOtal:lj (§lUusic Guest Composers • Performers • Scholars 1952-20 06 1952: Earl George, Grant fletcher, Burrill Phillips

1978: M. William Karlins

1953: Anthony Donato, Homer Keller

1981: Walter S. Hartley

1954: Normand Lockwood, Robert Palmer

1982: David Ward-Steinman

1955: Wallingford Riegger, Peter Mennin 1956: Hunter Johnson, Ulysses Kay 1957: Ernst Krenek, William Bergsma 1958: Aaron Copland 1959: Paul Pisk, George Rochberg 1960: Roy Harris 1962: Robert Erickson, George Rochberg, Glenn Glasow 1963: Robert Wykes, Alabama String Quartet 1964: Robert Wykes, E. J. Ulrich, Salvatore Martirano, Herbert Brun, Ben Johnston

1979: Leonard B. Meyer

1983: George Crumb Concert 1984: Robert Bankert, Abram M. Plum, R. Bedford Watkins 1985: Michael Schelle 1986: Jean Eichelberger Ivey 1987: Jan Bach 1988: John Beall 1989: Hale Smith 1990: Karel Husa 1991: Alice Parker 1993: (Spring) Alexander Aslan1azov 1993: (Fall) Leslie Bassett, John Crawford (Society of Composers, Inc. Region 5 Conference) 1995: David Diamond

1966: Louis Coyner, Edwin Harkins, Philip Winsor, Edwin London

1996: Morton Gould Memorial Concert

1967: frederick Tillis, George Crumb

1997: Joseph Schwantner

1968: lain Hamilton

1998: Arvo Part

1969: The Loop Group, DePaul University

2000: Libby Larsen

1970: Halim El -Dabh; Oily Wilson

2001: William Bolcom, Joan Morris

1971: Edward J. Miller

2002: Present Music

1972: Stravinsky Memorial Concert

2003: Mario Lavista, Carmen Helena Tellez

1973: Courtney Cox, Phil Wilson 1974: Scott Huston 1975: David Ward-Steinman 1976: Donald Erb 1977: Lou Harrison, Ezra Sims

1999: John Corigliano

2004: Louis Andriessen, James Quandt, Monica Germino, Cristina Zavalloni 2005: Vince Mendoz<1 2006: New York New Music Ensenble