Composer Chats – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Randall Standridge (b.1976) received his Bachelor's of Music Education from Arkansas State University. During this time, he studied composition with Dr. Tom O'Connor, before returning to Arkansas State University to earn his Master's in Music Composition, studying with Dr. Tom O'Connor and Dr. Tim Crist. In 2001, he began his tenure as Director of Bands at Harrisburg High School in Harrisburg, Arkansas. He left this post in 2013 to pursue a career as a full-time composer and marching arts designer.

Mr. Standridge's music is performed internationally. He has had numerous works selected for the J.W. Pepper's editor's choice. His compositions Snake Charmer, Gently Blows the Summer Wind, and Angelic Celebrations have been included in the "Teaching Music Through Performance in Band" series. He has had numerous works performed at the prestigious Midwest Clinic in Chicago, Illinois. The Arkansas State University Wind Ensemble premiered his work Art(isms) at the 2010 CBDNA conference in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and his work Stonewall: 1969 was premiered at the National LGBA conference in 2019. His Symphony no.1: A Ghost Story was premiered in 2023. In addition, Mr. Standridge's "unBroken Project," a musical initiative about mental health, has received widespread acclaim for its musical content and for providing opportunities to normalize discussions about mental health for music students and audiences.

In addition to his career as a composer, Mr. Standridge is the owner and editor of Randall Standridge Music, LLC and Grand Mesa Marching. He is in demand as an arranger/designer for the marching arts. He lives in Jonesboro, Arkansas, with his husband, Steven, and their very, very spoiled pets.

Erin Keeton-Howard is a Seattle-based educator, conductor, and composer. Community music, and the formation of community through making music, is at the heart of her research interests, educational philosophy, and personal passion. Erin is delighted to engage in this adventure through her work as a guest conductor/composer/clinician and through her recently released book: “Women in Wind Band” published in December 2023 by GIA Publications, Inc. This text is written from the experience of women to foster a more authentic and inclusive future for everyone in the field.

Serving as Director of Upper School Bands at The Northwest School, Erin is currently in her 16th year of teaching. She is a multi-year nominee ​for Teacher of the Year and has been awarded the Sigma Alpha Iota Leadership Award. In 2020 her wind ensemble at Inglewood Middle School was selected to perform at the National Association for Music Education Northwest Region conference. While teaching, Erin maintains an active role in community music. She is a director and founder of Formation Wind Band, Seattle’s all-women wind ensemble. Formation has the honor of performing at the upcoming 2024 Washington Music Educators Association conference. Previous community music involvement includes directing the North Seattle Symphonic Band and Modern Jazz Ensemble at North Seattle College, serving on the artistic staff of Rainbow City Performing Arts, and co-founding the Give Back Brass Band. 

 Erin discovered composing during the pandemic. She enjoys writing music for all levels but is particularly passionate about writing quality music for student musicians to nurture developing skills and specific idiosyncrasies for each instrument. Erin is actively commissioned to write music for ensembles all over the country. Her works include compositions for concert, jazz, pep, and brass bands as well as various chamber ensembles. Erin’s music is published with Murphy Music Press, Carl Fischer, and Randall Standridge Music Publications. To view her catalog, click HERE.

Erin graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri (B.S. in music education) and the University of Washington (M.A. in music education, emphasis instrumental conducting). She has studied conducting with Tim Salzman, Dr. Mallory Thompson, Dr. Chris Bianco, Dr. Tony Maiello, Dr. Emily Moss, and Dr. Steven Davis. Erin is a member of the National Association for Music Education, National Band Association, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. Washington Music Educators Association, and Sigma Alpha Iota International Women’s Music Fraternity. 

In addition to her musical pursuits, Erin is passionate about travel, cooking, the PNW coast, and sudoku. Erin resides in Mountlake Terrace, WA with her wife Felicia.

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Arthur Breur started seriously studying piano as a child of eight after his grandmother Jocelyn passed away. The two had been very close, and his weekend stays at her home inevitably included him asking her to play piano.

At ten he started taking lessons, having already taught himself a variety of music in those two years, including various movie score themes and ragtime pieces. He gradually discovered that he enjoyed composing and playing his own music more than playing what was assigned to him by his piano teacher.

From the start, his compositions were very affected by the music in movies and on television. It is not in jest that he points to the music performed on such television shows as “Sesame Street”, “The Electric Company”, and “The Muppet Show”—not to mention the superb songs of “School House Rock”—as sources of inspiration. Further, many excellent scores for movies of that time, such as Escape to Witch Mountain, Close Encounters, Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Trek, and others, fascinated him and formed his ideas on how music should “work”—with accessible, easily remembered themes that can be associated with specific things, people, or feelings. His music was also heavily influenced by an excellent music program at his childhood church.

By that time he had been studying piano for eight years, he had composed more than a dozen pieces, and had taken a college-level music theory course. He studied piano performance and composition and got his Bachelor of Music degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois. His college piano instructor worked with his desire to compose by assigning him works by composers that inspired him. Works by Prokofiev and Ravel in particular influenced his compositional tone considerably. Around this time, Danny Elfman’s film music also came to his attention and provided yet another dimension of sound to pursue.

In the early 1990s, he collaborated with lyricist, comedian, and singer, Cristopher Blake. Between them they wrote more than twenty songs, many of which were performed live at various Los Angeles cabarets and open-mic nights.

Over the more than 35 years he has been composing, he has written more than 120 individual pieces, including works for five weddings, two Christmas revues, numerous videos, and one short film, Leah (2008), directed by Neil H. Weiss.

Arthur Breur currently lives in Portland, Oregon with his husband, Brian, whom he met in 1996.

www.arthurbreur.com

LAN THEISEN (b. 4 October 1981) is a composer, saxophonist, author, and educator. Influenced in his youth by the careers of Leonard Bernstein and Quincy Jones, Theisen soon established his personal ethos of creating and sharing new music with joyous enthusiasm across multiple artistic endeavors. He continues this commitment to comprehensive musicianship by tirelessly combining the disciplines of composing, performance, scholarship, conducting, advocacy, and pedagogy.

Theisen's compositions encompass a wide array of genres and instrumentation including chamber music, art song, solo piano, concerti, jazz, pop song, musical theatre, symphonies, improvisational music, and more. Praised as coming from “an extraordinarily talented and prolific composer,” his works are frequently commissioned/performed by musicians around the world to audience acclaim. Though Theisen's official catalogue of over seventy pieces is stylistically diverse, his compositions typically feature memorable melodic ideas, emotional sincerity, complex yet sensuous harmony, and dramatic formal designs. A fundamental characteristic of his music is the hybridization of genres. For example, it is common to hear twelve-tone rows in a new jack swing tune, Medieval organum weaved into improvisational music, film noir score tropes in a band piece, and jazz fusion chord progressions underpinning a string quartet. He regards his aesthetic as “Re-Modernist” – rooted in Modernist classical music from the early and middle 20th century yet also informed by contemporary jazz, hip hop, New Wave, and Motown. (Think Miles Davis meets Lutoslawski, Stravinsky meets Stevie Wonder.) The artistic goal is not ironic quotation and juxtaposition but an earnest desire to create surprising yet coherent musical communication between composer, performer, and audience.

Theisen is a collaborative composer, easily incorporating input from the performers for whom he is writing. His music is often inspired by ritual, history, myth, virtuosity, visual art, place, phantasmagoria, and the uncanny. Some recent premieres of Theisen's music have occurred at National Sawdust (Brooklyn), New Music Gathering, and the World Saxophone Congress (Strasbourg, France), and the North American Saxophone Alliance biennial conference.

An active saxophonist, Theisen concertizes in classical recitals, gigs with jazz bands and musical theater productions, directs multiple ensembles, and premieres/records the music of fellow contemporary composers. National appearances as a classical saxophonist include performances at Scorca Hall in OPERA America’s National Opera Center, at the 39th Festival of New American Music, at the U.S. Navy International Saxophone Symposium, and as guest recitalist at the Wichita State University New Voices Festival. His acclaimed voice/saxophone avant-pop band, MIATp, combines experimental music, multiple pop genres, and theatre in live performances across the United States. To extend his mission as a collaborative performer, he also founded the Resonance Saxophone Orchestra. Theisen’s curated

Ryan Fraley (b. 1973) is an accomplished composer, arranger, producer, music engraver, and engineer. Ryan's compositions and arrangements have been performed worldwide by jazz ensembles, orchestras, and bands of all levels. His work is published by The FJH Music Company inc. (Fort Lauderdale, FL) and his own imprint, HXmusic, LLC. He is the co-founder of Wave Mechanics Union, a studio jazz orchestra with two albums released. Ryan has provided orchestrations for Jon Anderson (vocalist from the band Yes) for Jon's various solo projects, and music for media of all types. Ryan is a member of The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers; is a frequent recipient of ASCAP Plus Awards; and a voting member in the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.

Ryan received a master's degree in composition from the State University of New York at Potsdam, and a bachelor's degree in music theory and composition from Ball State University.

https://ryanfraley.com/

Katherine Bergman (b. 1985) is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on environmentalism, literature, and found materials to create music that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. She has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, including the U.S. Coast Guard Band, Estonian Police and Border Guard Orchestra, Hub New Music, Zeitgeist, Seen/Heard Trio, The Dream Songs Project, and many others. Her works have been presented at ISCM World Music Days, The Midwest Clinic, North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, College Band Directors National Association Conference, and The Upper Midwest Chamber Winds Symposium, and her compositions have received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Metro Regional Arts Council, and New Music USA.

​Katherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with composition instructors including Michele Gillman and Steve Wright. She has studied extensively with Mary Ellen Childs, and has received individual instruction from Samuel Adler.

Katherine’s work is published under Katherine Bergman Music, and her works for large ensemble are distributed by Murphy Music Press. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for 10th Wave Chamber Collective, Duo Leon, Nautilus Music-Theater, Isle Royale National Park, and a concerto for trombone and symphony orchestra commissioned by the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra. 

Katherine is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Spitting Image, a composer collective that brings together composers, listeners, and performers to strengthen the Twin Cities contemporary music community. 

https://www.katherinebergman.net/

Jorge Luis Vargas  was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila in 1971 and currently resides in Eagle Pass, Texas.  His full time job is a band director at Memorial Junior High, where he teaches beginner band, concert band, and Mariachi. His writing career started when he was asked to arrange  several mariachi mariachi songs for the local high school.  After several years of honing his skills as a mariachi composer and arranger, He wrote his first marching band show for CC Winn High School in Eagle Pass.  

After a few years of writing for marching band, he decided to take a chance and submit a string orchestra arrengement of Cielito Lindo to Grand Mesa Music. The arrangenmet was published and is on the J W Pepper  Editor's choice list.   In  2018, Red Giant, his first composition published by Alfred music was released. Since then, Jorge has released several band works published by Alfred Music, Randall Standridge Music, Wingert-Jones Music, and Excelcia Music. Several of his band compositions have been added to the Editor's Choice list, and his band compositions, and some of his peces have also been played at Midwest.

His education includes a Bachelor's degree in Music Education from The University Of Texas-San Antonio, and a Master’s degree in Education from  from  Lamar University

https://jvargasmusic.com/

Emily Rice is an LA-based, British-born composer for film and TV, known for her dark, post-classical score to the Netflix series "The I-Land"(executive produced by and starring Kate Bosworth) and for creating an introspective, bluesy-cello based score for "Miss Juneteenth" starring Nicole Beharie ("Sleepy Hollow", "Black Mirror"), which premiered to critical acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and was nominated by the Satellite Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, Gotham Awards and Austin Film Critics Association among others; the soundtrack was released by Lakeshore Records. Emily's other recent projects include the Netflix action-adventure anime film "Sol Levante" and documentaries "100 Years From Home", "For the Love of Rutland" and "For Love & Life: No Ordinary Campaign", executive produced by Katie Couric and Phil Rosenthal and featuring Barack Obama.

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Emily has contributed music and/or orchestration to major Hollywood productions such as "Phoenix Rising" (HBO's documentary mini-series featuring Evan Rachel Wood), "Tomb Raider", "Alita: Battle Angel", "The Mummy", "Altered Carbon" and "Star Trek: Discovery". An alumna of the prestigious Sundance Institute Film Music & Sound Design Lab, Emily began her musical life as a cellist playing in orchestras and rock bands. Her debut instrumental album "Maybe It's Because I'm a Londoner" was released in 2021 and is available on streaming platforms worldwide.

John M. Pasternak is an active composer, conductor, and teacher. John attended Kent State University (KSU) where he pursued a Bachelor of Music Education degree and served as President of the Kent State Chapter of the Ohio Collegiate Music Education Association (OCMEA). Mr. Pasternak was a Staff Arranger at Kent State University, where he focused on composing and arranging for the music department while conducting his works with many of the KSU music ensembles. He has composed repertoire for many Independent Films and is an elected member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP).

Since beginning teaching in 2013, John has directed band, Orchestra, and choir grades five through twelve. He has also taught fifth and eighth-grade general music. His roles have included assisting with marching band, concert band, middle school, and beginning band programs.

John is an experienced composer with works published by RWS Music Company, Carl Fischer Music, Bandworks Publications, Grand Mesa Music Publishers, Excelcia Music Publishing, and Wingert-Jones Publications. His “Intrepid Fanfare”, “Excel” March and arrangements of the “Heart of America” March and “National Defense” March were selected as one of the Top 100 works by Bandworld Magazine.  

In addition to his numerous concert works, John composed music for several films, including the Audio Technica video "How To Mic A Zombie." He has written for several Coaster Studios documentaries, beginning with “Save My Park” and most recently “This is How We Roll.” He is currently working on music for the American Coaster Enthusiasts (ACE) documentary “The Legacy of Schwarzkopf” which will be released in the Fall of 2024.

Mr. Pasternak is in demand as a composer and guest clinician for his concert work and teaching experience across musical genres. He is an active Ohio Music Education Association (OMEA) member and attends the Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic annually. 

https://www.johnpasternak.com/

Jon Bubbett, a native of Dothan, AL, graduated from Dothan High School (1977). He received his BMEd from Troy State University in Troy, AL, in 1981 and his MMEd in 1989 from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, IL. His career spanned thirty eight years with the last twenty six at Thompson High School in Alabaster, AL. His previous schools were Washington-Wilkes Comprehensive High School in Washington, GA, Demopolis High School in Demopolis, AL and Erwin High School in Birmingham, AL.

His bands have performed in a variety of venues across the southeast, most notably the Thompson High School Wind  Ensemble performed for the Music for All National Concert Band Festival in 2011 and again in 2015. The Thompson High School “Marching Southern Sounds” performed in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2017. The Thompson Wind Ensemble was also selected to perform at the Alabama Music Educators Association In Service Conference (1997, 2009, 2014, 2019), the Alabama Honor Band (2010, 2018), the University of Georgia JanFest (2013), the University of Alabama at Birmingham Honor Band (2016) and the CBDNA / NBA Southern Division Conference (2012). Mr. Bubbett is a seven time recipient of the National Band Association “Citation of Excellence,” as well as a recipient of the NBA Programs of Excellence “Blue Ribbon” Award in 2014. Additionally he received the Phi Beta Mu, Rho Chapter (Alabama) “Bandmaster of the Year” Award for 2015. 

Numerous times Mr. Bubbett has served as a guest clinician and adjudicator  in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. He has served as a clinician participant for both the Alabama Music Educators Association In-Service Conference,  Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and has served as the rehearsal assistant for the Music for All Honor Band of America since 2016.

https://www.jonbubbettmusic.com/