Ben Morris is a composer and jazz pianist known for blending genres and telling unconventional stories through music. Influenced by his Norwegian heritage, he explored folk music's impact on Norwegian jazz during a Fulbright Grant in Oslo. His debut album, Pocket Guides, received critical acclaim and multiple awards. Beyond jazz, Ben is a versatile composer for film, theatre, and opera, with works performed by top ensembles. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University and holds advanced degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder, Rice University, and the University of Miami. This show includes excerpts of the following compositions: Ymir’s Bones, for jazz band. Longleaf, for chamber ensemble. The Fall of Man and Other Tales, an opera. ➡️ Your next step is to join my free course community for composers by signing up here (for FREE) ➡️ https://www.skool.com/composersbrainlite

Patrick O’Malley is an award-winning composer of symphonic, chamber, and film music. Whether writing for an orchestra or electronic textures, his music embraces abstract worlds and emotions with the goal of igniting listeners’ imaginations. His classical works have been performed across the United States and Europe, and his film music has been heard in several American film festivals. O’Malley has been recognized or performed by organizations including the Albany, Minnesota, Ft. Wayne, and Milwaukee Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s National Composer Intensive, The ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and The Aaron Copland House Residency. He was named Composer of the Year by the Sioux City Symphony in 2018, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in 2021. O’Malley also serves as the arranger and a conductor for the video game concert series Journey LIVE with Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory. O’Malley completed his masters and doctoral degrees in music at the University of Southern California where he studied with Andrew Norman and Sean Friar. He divides his time between living in Los Angeles California, and Lake Charlevoix, Michigan. 🌐 https://www.musicbypatrickomalley.com/ 💿 All of the works featured on this podcast can be heard on the composer's debut orchestral album, "The Horizons": https://www.orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100303-patrick-omalley-the-horizons/ 📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 📰 NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras 🕒 Timestamps 00:38 "Obliviana," for orchestra 15:48 "Rest and Restless," for orchestra 33:40 "Concerto for viola and orchestra, 'The Horizons'"

A sound artist and composer from Philadelphia, Pa, Dani Dobkin received a BA in Experimental Music and the Electronic Arts from Bard College where she studied under Bob Bielecki, Marina Rosenfeld and Richard Teitelbaum. Always in search of new ways to engage and interact with sound, she works with installation, modular synthesis, handmade circuits, live electronic improvisation, and interdisciplinary projects with dancers, musicians, poets, and visual artists.  Dobkin recently received her MFA in Sound Arts from Columbia University and is pursuing her Doctorate in music composition at Columbia.  

🌐 https://danidobkin.com/

💿 “Weavings,” for the Serge modular: https://issueprojectroom.org/video/serge-modular-50th-anniversary-dani-dobkin

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

00:35 “Weavings,” for the Serge modular 

15:25 “Magnolias in Boom,” for chamber ensemble, excerpt 1

31:08 “Magnolias in Boom,” for chamber ensemble, excerpt 2

French-Lebanese-American violist Noémie Chemali received her Bachelor’s degree from McGill  University’s Schulich School of Music, her Artist Diploma from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, and her Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers include Becca Albers, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Carol Rodland.

During her time at Juilliard, she made her Carnegie Weill Hall solo debut in the UN Chamber Music Society’s Arabic Language Day concert and collaborated with dancers of the New York City Ballet.  During her time at the McDuffie Center for Strings, she performed alongside faculty members of the Cavani and Ehnes String Quartets. In 2019, she also performed in “A Night of Georgia Music,” a tour the American South with violinist Robert McDuffie,  guitarist Mike Mills of the band R.E.M., and pianist Chuck Leavell of the Allman Brothers Band/Rolling Stones.  Some performance highlights from McGill include playing a concert with clarinetist David Krakauer in a program of Klezmer music, being selected to perform a chamber work by John Rea in a concert presented by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) alongside Schulich faculty and students, and participating in the 2018 Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival, where she collaborated with students from the Mozarteum (Austria) and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore).

🌐https://www.noemiechemali.com/

💿“The Mouraba' Dance,” by Wajdi Abou Diab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSapqWxOdU

💿“Tasalsul IV,” by Saad Haddad: https://youtu.be/JuUrwUrnzCQ?si=IGij9mEv04pMrkFX

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

Inside Arabic Music: https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Arabic-Music-Performance-Century/dp/0190658355

🕒 Timestamps 

00:00 Ensemble Phoenicia 

04:00 LinkedIn

06:58 Conservatory

09:35 Cadenza from “The Brown Texts,” by Layale Chaker

11:30 Concert protocol

12:45 Why play Middle Eastern-inspired music? 

19:50 “The Mouraba' Dance,” by Wajdi Abou Diab

29:68 “Tasalsul IV,” by Saad Haddad

38:20 Playing in orchestra

Matthew Ricketts (b. 1986, British Columbia) is a Canadian composer based in New York City. His music moves from extremes of presence and absence, from clamor to quietude, at once reticent and flamboyant. Matthew’s music has been called “lyrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced” (The American Academy of Arts and Letters) and is noted for his “effervescent and at times prickly sounds,” “hypnotically churning exploration of melody” (ICareIfYouListen) as well as its “tart harmonies and perky sputterings” (The New York Times). He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow.

His works have been performed internationally by JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Flux Quartet, the Fromm Players, Quatuor Bozzini, the Chiara String Quartet; vocalists Tony Arnold, Sharon Harms, Lauren Worsham, Karim Sulayman and Ekmeles; Collage New Music, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Ensemble Paramirabo, Argento and Talea Ensemble; soloists Jean-Willy Kunz, Nathaniel LaNasa, Sara Laimon and Julia Den Boer; and orchestras including the Aspen Philharmonic (Robert Spano, cond.), Esprit Orchestra (Alex Pauk, cond.), the Minnesota Orchestra (Osmo Vänskä, cond.), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Kent Nagano, cond.), the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. Matthew was Composer-Collaborator-In-Residence at East Carolina University from 2016-2018.

Active as a writer as well as a composer, Matthew has published articles, reviews, poetry and libretti, and has worked closely with authors and poets Lauren J. Rogener, Paul Legault, Christian Schlegel, Mark Campbell, Royce Vavrek, Klara du Plessis and Tomson Highway on multiple collaborative projects. Other collaborative endeavors include scoring the feature-length film Glob Lessons (Tribeca Film Festival premiere, 2021) and recent projects with dancer-choreographers Brendan Drake and Jennifer Nichols.

Matthew holds degrees in music composition and theory from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music (B.Mus. 2009) and Columbia University (DMA 2017). Matthew’s principal mentors include Brian Cherney, John Rea, Chris Paul Harman, George Lewis and Fred Lerdahl. He was a Core Lecturer at Columbia University from 2017-2020.

🌐 https://matthewricketts.com/

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 RESOURCES (these will be continued to be updated) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

00:00 “Swivel,” from Outtake (a song cycle-in-progress with Royce Vavrek)

16:12 “Munch Blur,” from Outtake 

35:46 “Fast Backward,” from Unruly Sun 

42:21 Humor in music?

50:30 “Then as now,” from Unruly Sun

A.J. McCaffrey is a songwriter and composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. With a background in theater, fine arts and literature, and an upbringing that has fostered a love for a wide variety of musical styles, A.J. writes music that strives to tell a story. His works are theatrical in nature, employing harmonically rich and lyrically striking sound worlds to create moving, dramatic narratives.

Hailed by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as a composer of music “imbued with an extraordinary wit and intelligence”, A.J. received the Academy’s 2014 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship. He has been commissioned to write music for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. A.J.’s music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, the New Fromm Players, the Radius Ensemble, the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble and by members of the Chiara Quartet, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alarm Will Sound, Boston's Firebird Ensemble and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival and School, A.J. has been a featured composer on BMOP's The Next Next series, Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music and the New Gallery Concert Series. His orchestral work Thank You for Waiting was chosen for the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, and he was subsequently awarded the 2013 Underwood Emerging Composers Commission.  Recent collaborations include works for violist Jonah Sirota, HOCKET piano duo, clarinetist Julia Heinen, Project Fusion saxophone quartet, and the Light Matter Trio.

A.J. holds degrees in music from Rice University, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the University of Southern California. He has studied composition with Richard Lavenda, James MacMillan, Donald Crockett and Stephen Hartke. A passionate educator, A.J. was one of the founding instructors for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s groundbreaking Composer Fellowship Program.  He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at California State University Northridge. A native of the Boston area, A.J. lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.

🌐http://www.ajmccaffrey.com/

💿“Our Options Have Changed,” for string quartet and video: https://youtu.be/gCvj80FciZ8?si=CyY6GJGpTswii0tT

Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒Timestamps 

00:00 Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program

13:17 “Implied Airs over an Imaginary-Drone,” for solo cello

23:09 “Our Options Have Changed,” for string quartet and video

37:04 “Here Come the Waterworks,” for viola and piano

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984) is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations. Recent commissions include In a Grove, a new opera co-produced by LA Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh and the Detroit Symphony, an antiphonal brass concerto for the Cincinnati Symphony, a piano concerto for Shai Wosner and the Phoenix and Albany Symphonies, a percussion concerto for Third Coast Percussion, and four works for the LA Philharmonic. His first opera, Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino’s novel, was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and he is the recipient of multiple GRAMMY nominations. He is the winner of the 2015–2016 Rome Prize and was a resident at the Laurenz Haus Foundation in Basel, Switzerland from 2022–2023. Christopher Cerrone holds degrees from Yale and the Manhattan School of Music and is published by Schott NY. He is on the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music and lives in Jersey City with his wife 🌐 https://christophercerrone.com/ 💿 Excerpt from “In a Grove”: https://youtu.be/MrUYcrlEDW0?si=xNqtSLP7BTQMxeKJ 💿 ”Hoyt-Schermerhorn”: https://youtu.be/5ow8q6OEwkY?si=Mj2twqGQYldJthaO 💿 ”Don’t Look Down”: https://youtu.be/7CeMaDGaoxs?si=UArCQ889wheIzfbS Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html 📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 YouTube is underrated 06:45 Languages 08:30 Opera 10:40 Excerpt from the opera, “In a Grove” 12:40 Electronics 19:55 “Hoyt–Schermerhorn,” for piano and electronics 28:45 Aesthetics 34:20 Saad’s Saariaho story 38:27 “Don’t Look Down,” for percussion quartet 42:30 Rhythm 47:50 David Bruce 50:20 Professor Cerrone

KOH Cheng Jin is a Singaporean composer, Yang Qin and violin performer currently based in New York. Her music is eclectic and diverse in personalities. As a Chinese and Western trained musician, her works incorporate various influences from these worlds and reflect her passionate enthusiasm in unifying colorful music idioms.

Recently, her work Before Daybreak was premiered at the semifinal rounds of the 2022 Singapore International Violin Competition as the commissioned piece, and her interdisciplinary work Mountain of Echoing Halls for Yangqin and the Ohio-based Verona Quartet and dance, commissioned by Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, was premiered at their centennial celebrations Spring 2023. She was the youngest composer to be commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and has also worked with members of the Paris-based, world-renowned Ensemble InterContemporain, New York’s Metropolis Ensemble, New Thread Quartet, Imani Winds, Society of New Music, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and the Juilliard Orchestra; in Singapore, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO), Ding Yi Music Company, K 口 U Musik, Morse Percussion, T’ang Quartet, School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA) Chinese Music Ensemble, The Purple Symphony, ACS Barker Road Chinese Plucked Strings Ensemble and others. Her multiple accolades also include Mirror Visions Ensemble Prize, Society of New Music 2020 New York Federation of Music Clubs’ Brian Israel Prize, the Palmer Dixon and Gena Raps Chamber Music Prizes from the Juilliard School, as well as the Margaret Blackburn, John Eaton Memorial and Boston New Music Initiative Prizes. Her works have been performed at Singapore International Festival of Arts, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Yale-Norfolk New Music Workshop, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego, Australia Woodend Winter Arts Music Festival, Sidney Chapel (Cambridge, UK), China Conservatory Concert Hall, and the Esplanade, Victoria Concert and Singapore Conference Halls in Singapore. As a proficient Yang Qin musician who won the Singapore Chinese Music Competition (Open Category) with a solo debut with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Cheng Jin is indebted to her teachers Miss Qu Jian Qing and Miss Seah Poh Chun, as well as Dr. Kelly Tang, who was her first mentor in Composition at School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA). She is also grateful to her pedagogues at The Juilliard School, Robert Beaser and Melinda Wagner, both who were instrumental in her pursuit of Bachelor’s (Hons) and Master’s degrees in Music Composition generously supported by Singapore’s Loke Cheng Kim Foundation. She was also honored to be the Teaching Fellow for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (Composition) for two years and its Evening Division (Music Theory). She is currently a member of the Composers’ Society of Singapore (CSS) and developing her musical, research and educational interests as a MacCracken PhD Fellow and Teaching Assistant at New York University (College of Arts and Science).

🌐https://www.kohchengjin.com/

💿”Before Daybreak,” for solo violin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-P38953dGE

💿”Mountain of Echoing Halls,” for yangqin and string quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b60DRDRYvk

💿”醉荡步,” for gaunzi/sunoa, erhu, ruan, and guzheng: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-cMUbNEVA

Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

🕒Timestamps 

00:55 Juilliard

06:25 “Before Daybreak,” for solo violin

12:18 Notation in “Before Daybreak”

19:30 NYU

27:40 “Mountain of Echoing Halls,” for yangqin and string quartet

38:30 Non-Western instruments 

49:43 ”醉荡步,” for gaunzi/sunoa, erhu, ruan, and guzheng

Phillip Golub is a composer and pianist based in New York. His musical practice centers around rethinking the rehearsal process as a site of musical sociality and collective creation.

Phillip has released music in numerous formations. He is the co-founder of the collective band Tropos (Axioms // 75ab, Biophilia Records (2020) and Shadow Music, Endectomorph Music (2023)). His solo piano debut Filters (2022), came out to critical acclaim on Greyfade. Phillip is also a member of Layale Chaker’s Sarafand Ensemble (Inner Rhyme, In a Circle Records (2019)). He also has performed numerous times with the Cecil McBee Quartet. He is an active performer in numerous music scenes in New York with frequent appearances at leading jazz, improvised music, and contemporary concert music venues and series, such as Roulette Intermedium, National Sawdust, and The Stone. His compositions have been performed at venues such as Merkin Hall (NYC), The Broad Stage (Santa Monica, CA), and on festivals such as Tribeca New Music (NYC), Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and the Hear Now Music Festival (Los Angeles).

Phillip was also the musical dramaturg and music coordinator for … (Iphigenia), a new opera born out of a collaboration by Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding. He has studied composition with Michael Finnissy and Julian Anderson and piano and improvisation with Jason Moran, Bruce Brubaker, Joe Morris, and Ran Blake. He holds degrees from Harvard University (B.A. English), The Guildhall School of Music & Drama (M.Mus. Composition), and The New England Conservatory (M.M. Jazz Performance).  Phillip is also an advocate for independent music artists’ labor rights as a member and organizer for Music Workers Alliance.

🌐 https://www.phillipgolubmusic.com/

💿 “Rag Out!” on Bandcamp (supports artists directly): https://phillipgolub.bandcamp.com/track/rag-out

💿 “Filters” on Bandcamp (supports artists directly):

https://phillipgolub.bandcamp.com/album/filters

Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

🕒 Timestamps 

00:39 Wayne Shorter

08:22 “Abiding Memory,” for electric guitar, cello, piano, bass, and drums

15:13 Graffiti composing

16:00 Phillip’s “original rag”

18:18 “Rag Out!,” for solo piano

21:52 Band-leading as composing 

28:05 Composing as a pianist

29:15 “Filters,” for solo piano

31:28 Notating rubato

35:30 “Filters,” for “piano+”

39:45 What happened to composer-performer virtuosos?

44:10 Thinking like a pianist

49:20 Saad has a rhythm problem

Brandon Patrick George is a leading flute soloist and Grammy®-nominated chamber musician whose repertoire extends from the Baroque era to today. He is the flutist of Imani Winds and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Albany symphonies, American Composers Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others. He has been praised as “elegant” by The New York Times, as a“virtuoso” by The Washington Post, and as a “knockout musician with a gorgeous sound” by The Philadelphia Inquirer. His debut album was released by Haenssler Classics in September 2020; The New York Times has described it as “a program that showcases the flute in all its wit, warmth and brilliance.” 🌐 https://www.brandonpatrickgeorge.com/ 💿 “TWOFOLD” album on Bandcamp (supports artists directly): https://brandonpatrickgeorge.bandcamp.com/album/twofold-icr029 💿 “TWOFOLD” album on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/38iOCqOLGc6gMBAQv9Ddbg?si=_Q9cMe-JQrOtxKi60YcGNw 💿 “TWOFOLD” album on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/twofold/1701806946

Timo Andres (b. 1985, Palo Alto, CA) is a composer and pianist who grew up in rural Connecticut and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Notable works include Everything Happens So Much for the Boston Symphony; Strong Language for the Takács Quartet, commissioned by Carnegie Hall and the Shriver Hall Concert Series; Steady Hand, a two-piano concerto commissioned by the Britten Sinfonia premiered at the Barbican by Andres and David Kaplan; and The Blind Banister, a concerto for Jonathan Biss, which was a 2016 Pulitzer Prize Finalist. As a pianist, Timo Andres has appeared with the LA Phil, North Carolina Symphony, the Albany Symphony, New World Symphony, and in many collaborations with Andrew Cyr and Metropolis Ensemble. He has performed solo recitals for Lincoln Center, Wigmore Hall, San Francisco Performances, the Phillips Collection, and (le) Poisson Rouge. During the “quiet” season of 2020/21, Timo Andres built an impressive library of gorgeous music films, featuring a deep range of repertoire which he performed, recorded, engineered, directed, and edited from home. He shares these films with an engaged international subscriber audience on his YouTube channel.

https://www.andres.com/

Described as a “rising star” by MusicWorks magazine, JUNO-Nominated composer Jared Miller has collaborated with the American Composers Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, the symphony orchestras of Vancouver, Toronto, Detroit and New Jersey, The Attacca Quartet, Latitude 49, the New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute and Standing Wave. His music has been presented in the New York Philharmonic Biennial, the ISCM World Music Days, Vancouver’s Queer Arts Festival and the Festival Internacional de Jóvenes Orquestas. Since Fall 2022, he has served as an Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of North Carolina School for the Arts.

🌐 https://jaredmillermusic.wordpress.com/

Alex Paxton is an award-winning composer and jazz trombonist known for his highly innovative compositions and dynamic performances. His scores, published by Ricordi Berlin, have garnered praise from esteemed sources such as the BBC Magazine and the Financial Times, describing his work as packed with life force and hyperkinetic rainbow-hued joy. Recipient of numerous awards including the Ivor Novello, Paul Hindemith Prize, and Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize, Alex defies genre boundaries with his modern and future-oriented style. His music has been performed internationally by renowned orchestras and ensembles, and he has released critically acclaimed albums like "MUSIC for BOSCH PEOPLE" and "HAPPY MUSIC for ORCHESTRA." In addition to his compositional work, Alex is an accomplished jazz trombone soloist and founder of the Dreammusics ensemble. He is also dedicated to music education, teaching composition and improvisation at prestigious institutions like Trinity Laban Conservatoire. Alex's vision for new music aims to transform classical music into a truly global phenomenon. 🌐 https://alexpaxtonmusic.com/ 💿 All of the works featured on this podcast will be released in 2025. Follow Alex via his instagram page "dreammmusics" to stay up-to-date with his fantastical sound world. 💿 In the meantime, check out his other albums: https://alexpaxtonmusic.com/DISCOGRAPHY 📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a virtual lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html 📰 NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras 🕒 Timestamps 01:20 "Spit Crystal Yeast-Rack Dripping (à l’orange)," for 6 players & electronics 14:40 "Shrimp BIT Babyface," for 10 players & electronics 34:45 "Blue Chew Cheerio Earpiece," for 11 players, jazz/improvising soloist & electronics

Charles Peck is a composer whose work has been called “daring” (Philadelphia Inquirer), “wild and shimmering” (Broad Street Review), and “substantial, personal, genuine” (Roger Shapiro Fund for New Music). His music, spanning a range of chamber and large ensembles, has been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Albany and Columbus Symphonies, the Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the JACK Quartet, Sandbox Percussion, and Contemporaneous. Recently awarded fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Peck has also received commissions from the Barlow Endowment, the McKnight Foundation, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Alarm Will Sound, the Bergamot Quartet, and Ji Hye Jung and has been named a winner of composition competitions with the New York Youth Symphony, ASCAP, the Lake George Music Festival, Frame Dance, the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Symphony in C, the Tribeca New Music Festival, the Boston New Music Initiative, and the Foundation for Modern Music, among others. His music has been featured at a variety of venues and festivals, including Carnegie Hall, Chicago’s Symphony Center, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, the Mizzou International Composers Festival, the Minnesota Orchestra’s Composer Institute, the Beijing Modern Music Festival, Cultivate at Copland House, and the New Music Gathering. Peck is a member of the composition faculty at the University of Pittsburgh. 🌐 http://charlespeckmusic.com/ 🎼 “Vinyl,” for chamber orchestra: http://charlespeckmusic.com/portfolio/vinyl/ 🎼 “Splinter,” for piano trio: http://charlespeckmusic.com/portfolio/splinter/ 🎼 “Rift & Shade,” for string quartet: http://charlespeckmusic.com/portfolio/rift-shade/ 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 🕒 Timestamps 00:33: Composition professor jobs 05:50 “Vinyl,” for chamber orchestra 09:20 Alarm Will Sound 11:39 Vinyl records 15:10 Georg Friedrich Haas 18:57 Minnesota Orchestra 22:27 My view on the orchestra 25:53 Sul ponticello 27:52 Conductors 31:09 “Splinter,” for piano trio 32:28 Bluegrass fiddle technique 35:17 Parallel fifths 40:48 Festivals 43:17 Repurposing music 46:19 “Rift and Shade,” for string quartet 48:43 Debussy, Ravel 52:45 Competitions

David Bennett Thomas (b. 1969) is a prolific composer who has composed music for chamber groups, soloists, and choruses around the world. He is also active performing and recording in the jazz realm. Thomas has received commissions, grants, and awards from organizations to release many albums of both classical and jazz music. Thomas also has an active life on YouTube, where his music theory videos and composition videos have millions of views. He teaches composition, theory, and piano at The University of the Arts in Philadelphia. For more information, please visit www.davidbthomas.com 🌐 https://www.davidbthomas.com/ 🎼 “Edifice,” for bass clarinet and piano: https://youtu.be/MKXoR_YXRWM 🎼 “You Can Dance If You Want To,” for alto flute and piano: https://youtu.be/BAfml08e3b0 🎼 “A Hymn To God The Father,” for chorus, piano, and organ: https://youtu.be/jJntDlUM_Nk 🎼 “Carla,” for alto flute: https://youtu.be/2ivWYet8gR0 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 Resources mentioned: Oboe Unbound, by Libby Van Cleve: http://libbyvancleve.com/oboe-unbound Extended bassoon techniques: Filling the pedagogical gap, by Arno Colin Steyn: https://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/70498/Steyn_Extended_2019.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y The Bass Clarinet: A Personal History, by Harry Sparnaay: https://www.boosey.com/shop/prod/Sparnaay-Harry-The-Bass-Clarinet-A-Personal-History/2488569 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:30 Mailing Scores 02:30 David’s YouTube channel 06:18 “Edifice” for bass clarinet and piano 08:57 Educational theory videos 15:37 David’s “You Can Dance If You Want To” for alto flute and piano 16:48 Classical vs. jazz aesthetics 22:38 How David composes 27:10 “A Hymn To God The Father” for chorus, piano, and organ 29:19 Simplicity 31:40 Film music 39:28 Lukas Foss 42:42 Resources for oboe, bassoon, and bass clarinet 44:03 Solo music 44:55 “Carla” for alto flute 50:17 Post-graduation 55:30 Creative time

Adventure and collaboration are at the heart of NYC-based violinist Clara Kim’s multi-faceted career as new music performer, chamber music artist, and educator. By commissioning, premiering, and championing the works of living composers, Clara has quickly established herself at the forefront of her generation in the interpretation of contemporary music. She has collaborated with some of today’s most celebrated and imaginative musical voices such as Christopher Cerrone, Stephen Hartke, Andrew Norman, Kaija Saariaho, Juri Seo, Chris Theofanidis, and Augusta Read Thomas, and continues to actively premiere works through her solo and chamber music projects. Towards her commissioning efforts with her quartet, Clara has received support from organizations such as Chamber Music America, The Koussevitzky Foundation, Concert Artists Guild, and Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts. As a performer, Clara concertizes regularly and loves connecting with audiences, people, and communities across the world. Her significant engagements include performances at Carnegie Hall, Jordan Hall, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Hall, and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Clara is a recipient of the St. Botolph Club Foundation Emerging Artist Award and a first prize winner of the Cremona Solo Violin Competition, in addition to a first prize winner at the MPrize Chamber Arts and Concert Artists Guild Competitions as a member of the Argus Quartet. Also dedicated to community engagement and education, Clara directs Midori’s Orchestra Residencies Program, where she coaches and performs alongside violinist Midori. During the summers, she spends her time teaching and is the lead faculty artist at the Summer Performing Arts with Juilliard in Shanghai. Clara holds diplomas from Tufts University (English Literature), New England Conservatory, the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, The Juilliard School, and a doctoral degree from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. 🌐 http://clarakimviolin.com/about/ 🎼 Andrew Norman’s “Sabina,” for violin solo: https://youtu.be/t9nWDztfpYc 🎼 Christopher Cerrone’s “Can’t and Won’t,” for string quartet, performed by Argus Quartet: https://youtu.be/SUcJRXPWBZI 🎼 Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s “Khanyisa,” for violin and piano: https://youtu.be/nyt7bj7piDI 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:42 Public speaking 10:59 Andrew Norman’s “Sabina” for solo violin 12:38 Clara talks “Sabina” 15:42 New music as part of conservatory training 25:45 Christopher Cerrone’s “Can’t and Won’t” for string quartet 27:05 Rehearsing “Can’t and Won’t” with the Argus String Quartet 33:13 Premieres 36:50 Bongani Ndodana-Breen’s “Khanyisa,” for violin and piano 39:39 South African influences in “Khanyisa” 42:53 Grants 48:55 Juilliard

Emily Praetorius is from Ojai, CA and recently completed her DMA at Columbia University in New York. She is the co-owner of Kuro Kirin Espresso and Coffee. Previously, Emily studied composition and clarinet performance at the University of Redlands (BM) and composition at Manhattan School of Music (MM). Emily has studied with Kathryn Nevin (clarinet), Susan Botti, Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis, and Anthony Suter, with additional guidance from Reiko Fueting and Sam Pluta. 🌐 https://www.emilypraetorius.com/ 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 Intro 00:43 Coffee business 00:85 Transferable skills 11:17 “Here There Then Now,” for string quartet 14:55 Just going for it in “Here There Then Now” 17:19 Breathing sounds 24:26 Escapism 26:45 Ojai Music Festival 28:48 “Nothing Never Always Sometimes,” for mixed ensemble 33:27 Titles 35:00 Piccolo/tenor sax doubling 37:52 Saxophones 40:05 Wind ensembles 47:12 Post-school feelings toward music as a career 53:42 Money

Fjóla Evans is a Canadian/Icelandic composer and cellist. Her work explores the visceral physicality of sound while drawing inspiration from patterns of natural phenomena. Commissions and performances have come from musicians such as Bang on a Can All-Stars pianist Vicky Chow, Grammy-winning ensemble eighth blackbird, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Her work has been featured on the MATA Festival, Bang on a Can Marathon, Gaudeamus Music Week, Cello Biennale Amsterdam 2020, Ung Nordisk Musik, and the American Composers Orchestra's SONiC Festival. As a performer, she has presented her own work at venues such as Cluster Festival of New Music, (le) poisson rouge, Mengi in Reykjavík, and at Toronto's Music Gallery. Fjóla has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts, and KulturKontakt Austria, among others. She has studied composition with Julia Wolfe, cello performance with Matt Haimovitz, and completed a master’s degree in composition at the Yale School of Music. In September 2019 she began doctoral studies in composition at Columbia University where her research is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Recent and upcoming projects include a string quintet written for the Aizuri Quartet commissioned by the Women’s Musical Club of Toronto, a new work for the Toronto Symphony Orchestra as part of their NextGen Composers commissioning program, Íslenzk Ferðaflóra: a song cycle for Dúplum duo based on a taxonomy of Icelandic plant life, VC2 cello duo’s rendition of Ridge & Furrow featured on the album Beethoven’s Cellists, the premiere of Jöklaklukka for Pro Coro Canada, a performance of Lung by the Residentie Orkest in the Netherlands, and the release of cellist India Gailey’s recording of Augun on Redshift Music. Fjóla is the 2017 winner of the Robert Fleming Prize from the Canada Council for the Arts. Fjóla’s website: http://www.fjolaevans.com/ “Paris, Texas,” for pedal steel guitar and percussion: https://open.spotify.com/track/0wSykHSIhdZ0JMlGcVo7V6?si=32a2b974c2314192 “Jöklaklukka,” for choir: https://youtu.be/qcgGswFx59E 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

01:07 Composer/performers 05:23 Toronto Symphony premiere 06:56 “Paris, Texas,” for pedal steel guitar and percussion 09:16 Dipping into the American culture and selecting microtonal tiles in “Paris, Texas” 15:48 Going for the most direct sound 20:55 “Jöklaklukka,” for choir 22:50 Composing glaciers with Icelandic text in “Jöklaklukka” 35:28 US vs. Canada new music scenes 40:39 Where would someone start if they were interested in new music? 42:15 Why we still write for orchestra in 2023 47:55 Fjóla in Finland

Husband and wife Bruce and Belinda Broughton have many lifetimes of musical experiences to share between the two of them. Bruce scored many TV shows and movies that you may have heard of, like Silverado, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Rescuers Down Under, and most recently, Seth McFarland’s sci-fi series, The Orville. Over the last several decades, he’s also been honing his craft outside the film music world, with pieces like his "Oboe Concerto" and his recent "String Theory," a string orchestral work that focuses on different combinations of string orchestral writing. His wife, Belinda, has served as the concertmaster for many of Hollywood’s A-list composers, including Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard. In 2013, I studied with Bruce during my senior year at USC in Los Angeles. 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 Bruce’s website: https://brucebroughton.com/00:00:00 Intro 00:01:13 Film vs. concert music 00:04:29 How Bruce began composing for Belinda 00:07:07 “String Theory,” for string orchestra 00:09:38 Orchestration 00:14:46 Style 00:18:26 Contemporary music techniques 00:22:09 Hans Zimmer 00:24:20 Working for directors 00:27:09 Concert music 00:29:40 “And On the Sixth Day, II.,” for oboe and orchestra 00:33:23 Is there a divide between concert and film music? 00:36:14 Concertos 00:38:46 Sight reading at the Hollywood Studios 00:43:10 Should composers orchestrate? 00:49:40 John Powell 00:51:33 Studio musicians 00:56:00 Film music concerts 01:02:36 DAW 01:06:55 Concert composers that write for film Bruce Broughton’s biography (edited): Bruce Broughton is best known for his many motion picture scores, including Silverado, Tombstone, The Rescuers Down Under, The Presidio, Miracle on 34th Street, the Homeward Bound adventures and Harry and the Hendersons. His television themes include The Orville, JAG, Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures and Dinosaurs. With 24 nominations, Broughton has won a record 10 Emmy awards. His score to Silverado was Oscar-nominated, and his score to Young Sherlock Holmes was nominated for a Grammy. His music has accompanied many of the Disney theme park attractions throughout the world, and his score for Heart of Darkness was the first recorded orchestral score for a video game. In the spring of 2016, he arranged a commercial album of songs from motion pictures and Broadway for the multi-talented Seth MacFarlane. Many of Broughton’s concert works have been performed by the Cleveland Orchestra; the Chicago, Seattle and National Symphonies; the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; the Sinfonia of London; and the Hollywood Bowl. These have included Fanfare for 16 Horns, a joint commission by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the International Horn Society premiered at the Hollywood Bowl; Modular Music, composed for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra; the children’s fantasy The Magic Horn; In the World of Spirits and A Celebration Overture are among his commissioned works for symphonic winds; and Fanfares, Marches, Hymns and Finale and Masters of Space and Time are among his works for brass. Broughton’s Heroes has been chosen as the 2020 Championship Section Final for The National Brass Band Championships of Great Britain. Belinda Broughton’s biography (edited): Belinda Broughton began performing violin concertos as a child with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. At 18, having moved to London three years earlier to study, she joined the 1st Violins of the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO), the youngest ever to do so. She also joined the 1st violins of the London Symphony Orchestra touring Russia then recording her first ever movie score with them, “Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back.”

The music of composer Daniel Ott (b. 1975) has been described as “epic and intimate, embracing and overpowering” (The News Tribune), “compelling” (Dance Magazine), and “of considerable artistic seriousness” (MusicWeb International). His work has been heard all over the world, most notably at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Sadler’s Wells, the Musée du Louvre, the Guggenheim Museum, the Fall for Dance Festival in New York’s City Center, as well as throughout Asia and Latin America. Commissions for his work have come from the National Symphony, New York City Ballet’s Choreographic Institute, the Chiara Quartet, and Bargemusic, among others. Recent projects have included the premiere of Ott’s Fire-Mountain for orchestra and chorus by Symphony Tacoma, a work inspired by the power and fragility of our National Parks; his String Quartet No. 2 by the Chiara Quartet, as part of their innovative Creator/Curator commissioning series; and Blue Water, a chamber concerto for violin, piano, and string quartet, whose music “weaves together images of magnificence and terror” (The New York Times), commissioned for Bargemusic’s 30th Anniversary and premiered by the Shanghai Quartet and guests. Noted for his work for dance, Ott has composed a number of ballet scores, including An Inflorescence for the New York Choreographic Institute’s 10th Anniversary at Miller Theatre in New York. In a unique experiment, the work was set to dance by three of the world’s leading choreographers––Larry Keigwin, Alexei Ratmansky, and Christopher Wheeldon––and performed three times in one evening by ACME (American Contemporary Music Ensemble). Ott has also collaborated with Benjamin Millepied, from whom he has received a number of commissions. Their Double Aria was described as the “highlight of the night” (The New York Times) at its NYCB premiere. An award-winning composer, Ott has been recognized numerous times for his work. He is a 2013 recipient of the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and has also received their Charles Ives Scholarship. In addition, he has been honored several times by the ASCAP Foundation with the Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Ott studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Juilliard School, where his teachers included Ned Rorem, John Corigliano, and Robert Beaser. He currently serves on the faculty of both Juilliard and Fordham University, where he is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition. Ott resides in New York with his wife and their two children. Dan’s website: https://www.danielottmusic.com/about/ “Fire-Mountain,” for orchestra and chorus: https://youtu.be/0wf5V7Fv4lU “Clarinet Sonata, II: Nocturne,” for clarinet and piano: https://youtu.be/j0qZi_K2wh8 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

00:18: Climate-related commissions 04:59 Excerpt from “Fire-Mountain,” for orchestra and chorus 07:04 Choir as foreground, background, and formal element in “Fire-Mountain” 12:53 Dan’s teaching duties at Juilliard and Fordham 17:35 Composing for dancers 21:56 Writing for regional orchestras 31:15 Variation 4 from “Clarinet Sonata, II. Nocturne” 34:10 Writing for friends and “being of the times” in “Clarinet Sonata” 42:15 Generational shifts in aesthetics 47:20 Yaddo residency 52:53 Kids and composing 59:37 You don’t have to be John Adams

Corie Rose Soumah is a composer from Montreal and currently based in New York City. Her works have been performed in Canada, the U.S, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Her musical interests lie in shattered sounds realms through collage and gestural practices. She explores sonic textures through acoustic mediums and electronic and analog technologies. Her approach is part of an active redefinition of a new québécitude brought under the influence of cultural, sonic and aesthetic multiplicities. Winner of a SOCAN Foundation Award, Soumah works have been performed by an extensive number of ensembles and performers. Some of them include the guitar quartet Instruments of Happiness, string quartet Flux, Hypercube quartet, vocal sextet Ekmeles, Pierrot ensemble Paramirabo, percussion sextet Sixtrum, ensemble Contemporary Insight, New Music Concerts, Orkest de Ereprijs, Paramirabo and Wet Ink. Passionate about the encounter between music and other artistic forms, she contributed to several multidisciplinary projects with students from L’École supérieure de Ballet du Québec and students from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal as well as the actor Yves Desgagnés. Her works have also been featured at the 24th Young Composer Meeting in the Netherlands, Italian soundSCAPE festival and highSCORE festival and the Domaine Forget at Charlevoix where she was composition fellow. Soumah is currently pursuing a Doctoral degree in composition at Columbia University. Her teachers include Zosha Di Castri, Annie Gosfield, George Friedrich Haas, Marcos Balter and George Lewis. She completed a BMus degree in composition from the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal where she studied with Nicolas Gilbert, Jimmie Leblanc and Serge Provost. She has also worked with Chaya Czernowin, Trevor Grahl, Amy Beth Kirsten, Martijn Padding and Michel Tétreault. Soumah is an associated composer at the Canadian Music Center. Corie’s website: https://www.corierosesoumah.com/about/ “like a frog on the road to it,” for six amplified voices, tape, and live processing: https://youtu.be/rDfYs1htYKI?t=1990 “Spinning, Touched, Undreamt; Snow-,” for electric guitar, percussion, tenor sax, piano, and electronics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ez2euTGGwNw&ab_channel=ScoreFollower

00:40 Acquiring other skills as a composer 03:55 Reacting to negative comments 7:00 Liking/disliking music 08:43 PIECE 1 Excerpt 1: “like a frog on the road to it” 10:54 Trusting your first idea 20:32 Manifesting identity 23:14 PIECE 1 Excerpt 2: “like a frog on the road to it” 25:14 Writing for the voice 28:38 Dawn Upshaw programed Saad’s vocal work 30:29 Begging as a composer 32:32 How do you know someone actually wants to work with you? 36:03 Do you have to compromise when writing for orchestra? 40:04 PIECE 2 Excerpt: “Spinning, Touched, Undreamt; Snow-” 42:14 Korean drama 45:44 Jazz and expectations from others 49:44 How to use Adobe Illustrator to create graphic scores 55:14 The problem with (the lack of) critical listening 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

Born in Osaka, Japan, composer Nina Fukuoka moved to Lodz, Poland at the age of four. She graduated from the Grazyna and Kiejstut Bacewicz Academy of Music in Lodz, Poland with a Master’s degree in Theory of Music and Bachelor’s degree in Composition in the class of prof. Zygmunt Krauze. In 2012, she studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, Belgium as a participant of the Erasmus Exchange Program with prof. Peter Swinnen, where she continued her education in the Master’s program and graduated with distinction in 2016. In the field of electronic music she has been guided by Krzysztof Knittel, Kasia Głowicka, and Benjamin Van Esser. She is currently pursuing a doctorate in Music Composition at the Columbia University in New York City.

Nina’s website: http://ninafukuoka.com/

Ziyi Tao is fascinated by languages and the process of making sense of things, he strives to write more than just music. Currently under the mentorship of Andrew Norman, Ziyi has also been inspired by and worked with many other composers, including Beat Furrer, Marco Momi, Francesco Filidei , Mark Andre, Jon Deak, Molly Herron, Max Grafe, Robert Beaser, and Reiko Füting. Ziyi is interested in exploring the ethical and political potentials of music, hoping to branch out in exploration of hybrid expressions of different ideas through diverse mediums. Ziyi is fortunate to have worked with, and have had his works performed by numerous prominent artists and ensembles, including pianist and composer Conrad Tao, pianist Peter Dugan, the Arxis Ensemble, the mdi Ensemble, the Kenari Quartet, the Isosceles Trio, the Julius Quartet, the Hypercube Ensemble, the Juilliard Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pacific Chamber Orchestra, and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic. Ziyi’s works has also been conducted by outstanding conductors, including Thomas Wilkins, Jeffrey Milarsky, Beat Furrer, and Fedor Lednev. Ziyi has received numerous scholarships and awards, including the Gena Raps String Quartet Prize 2022, first prize of the XVI Open Composers Competition Named After Andrey Petrov, “ Share of Hope”, the Jack Kent Cooke Young Artists Award 2021, being named Winner of the NAfME Student Composers Competition 2021, and the 44th DownBeat Student Music Award. Ziyi’s website: https://www.ziyi-tao.com/ “Trio,” for viola, bass clarinet, and piano: https://youtu.be/Dmzt1c7w4ZU “The Toy-Maker,” for harp and percussion: https://youtu.be/YOr9ScuKn6I “ALL,” for orchestra: https://youtu.be/jzceWsojPx0

00:40 Composition at Juilliard vs. Columbia 09:50 Composition class at Ziyi’s high school 12:03 What there an assignment in your high school class that changed the way you write? 17:35 “Trio,” for viola, bass clarinet, and piano 19:05 How Ziyi wrote the “Trio” in 3 days 31:13 Where does the dread come from while composing? 35:09 How do you start your piece? 39:15 What does concept mean to you? 44:43 Timing for short pieces 46:25 “ALL,” for orchestra 48:50 “tonal” quotation in “ALL” 58:39 “The Toy-Maker,” for harp and percussion 01:01:03 Pissing people off with another composer on “The Toy-Maker” 01:07:25 The problem with sharing your music as a composer 01:12:00 What is a composition lesson? 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 Monthly NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

An avid collaborator, Camila Agosto is an electroacoustic composer and interdisciplinary artist currently based in New York City. Camila seeks to discover intersections of her work with additional artistic fields through partnerships with other musicians, visual artists, choreographers, instrument builders, and creators. Her projects range from acoustic and electroacoustic concert works and orchestral scores to interdisciplinary projects incorporating visual media and dance, and from solo instruments and larger ensembles to fixed media works. Her music is both fully notated and improvisational and often employs extended instrumental techniques, exhibiting a particular emphasis on the exploration of different timbral and textural elements. Within her works, Camila is interested in uncovering the sonic potentialities of acoustic instruments through highlighting and exposing the human element of live performance. 🌐 https://www.camilagosto.com/ 💿 The Memory of Water: https://www.camilagosto.com/the-memory-of-water 💿 Transparent Balance: https://soundcloud.com/camilagosto/transparent-balance?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing 💿 Paracusia III.descry: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzKVFxVtSkQ 📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a virtual lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html 📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras 🕒 Timestamps 06:50 "The Memory of Water," for solo viola and electronics 25:40 "Transparent Balance," for solo piano 37:38 "Paracusia III.descry," for saxophone and electronics

Uri Kochavi is an Israeli composer, guitar player, and improviser based in New York. He writes music for acoustic instruments, self-made objects, DIY instruments, electronic and electro-acoustic settings. His recent work seeks to challenge the (assumed) nature of every sound generator he writes for, at the meeting point of technology and acoustic sound. Kochavi is currently a Doctoral Fellow in composition at Columbia University, where he studies primarily with Georg Friedrich Haas, George Lewis, and Annie Gosfield.

Uri’s website: https://urikochavi.com/

Anna-Louise Walton is an American composer of chamber, orchestral, and electronic music. In her music, she explores concepts of mimicry, the notation of improvisatory rhythms, and the utilization of household objects such as PVC pipe, shot glasses, and knitting needles.
Anna-Louise’s website: http://www.annalouisewalton.com/

Artun Çekem is a composer born in Istanbul, Turkey. His work primarily deals with the concept of the uncanny, and more particularly, the uncanniness that is latent within anthropomorphic entities. From a sonic perspective, this concept has led him to focus on and spectrally analyze the human voice, with the aim of repurposing it under new, instrumental settings. Through this instrumental resynthesis, he intends to defamiliarize the original source material and capture a liminal zone between what may be perceived as "human" and "non-human".

Artun’s website: https://www.artuncekem.com/

The music of adventurer-composer Stephen Lias (b. 1966) is regularly performed in concert and recital throughout the United States and abroad by soloists and ensembles including the Arianna Quartet, the Anchorage Symphony, the Oasis Quartet, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival Orchestra, the Ensamble de Trompetas Simón Bolívar, the Boulder Philharmonic, and the Russian String Orchestra. His music is published by Alias Press, and distributed worldwide exclusively by Theodore Presser. His pieces are regularly featured at major national and international conferences including the International Trumpet Guild, the North American Saxophone Alliance, and the ISCM World Music Days. Lias served for eleven years as Composer in Residence and Music Director at the Texas Shakespeare Festival.

Stephen’s website: https://www.stephenlias.com/

Sofia Jen Ouyang (b. 2001) is a composer interested in the intersection and collision of musical, literary, and philosophical concepts. Central to her thinking are concepts, in no particular order: ideologies, binaries, ambiguities, indeterminacies, philosophies, literary theories, physicality, noise, gender, culture, sexuality, music, paradigms, hybridity, distortions, liminalities.

Sofia’s website: https://www.sofiaouyang.com/

Bobby Ge (b. 1996) is a Chinese-American composer and avid collaborator who seeks to create vivid emotional journeys that navigate boundaries between genre and medium. He has created multimedia projects with the Space Telescope Science Institute, the Scattered Players Theater Company, painters collective Art10Baltimore, and the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.

Winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize, Ge’s current/recent projects include an orchestral work for the youth symphonies of Atlanta, Seattle, New York, and Guangzhou, a First Music commission for the Interlochen Arts Academy and the New York Youth Symphony, a song for Khemia Ensemble, and a multimedia work for soprano Ariana Wyatt and chamber ensemble commissioned by the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts.

https://www.bobbygemusic.com/

From ballet to opera to Korean traditional-orchestra, the wide-ranging talent of composer Nicky Sohn is sought after across the United States, Europe, and Asia. Characterized by her jazz-inspired, rhythmically driven themes, Sohn’s work has received praise from international press for being “dynamic and full of vitality” (The Korea Defense Daily), having “colorful orchestration” (NewsBrite), and for its “elegant wonder” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), among many others. As a result, Sohn has enjoyed commissions and performances from the world’s preeminent performing arts institutions, including Stuttgart Ballet, National Orchestra of Korea, St. Louis Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Aspen Philharmonic, and New York City Ballet.

https://www.nickysohn.com/nicky-sohn

Patrick O’Malley is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and media music. He is inspired by mysterious dichotomies in nature and art, writing music that often embraces abstract worlds and emotions rather than concrete images. Through balancing challenging techniques and traditional expression, O’Malley’s goal is to ignite the listener’s imagination and memory in enduring ways. His works have been performed across the United States and also in Europe.

Most recently, O’Malley has been recognized or performed by organizations including the Albany, Minnesota, Ft. Wayne, and Milwaukee Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s National Composer Intensive, The ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and The Aaron Copland House Residency. He was named Composer of the Year by the Sioux City Symphony in 2018, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in 2021. O’Malley also serves as the arranger and a conductor for the video game concert series Journey LIVE with composer Austin Wintory. O’Malley completed his masters and doctoral degrees in music at the University of Southern California where he studied with Andrew Norman and Sean Friar. He divides his time between living in Los Angeles California, and Lake Charlevoix, Michigan.

https://www.musicbypatrickomalley.com/

Known for her attentive arrangements and immersive world-building, Hannah Kendall’s music looks beyond the boundaries of composition. Her work bridges gaps between different musical cultures, both honouring and questioning the contemporary tradition while telling new stories through it. Contrasting fine detail with limitless abandon, she has become renowned both as a composer and a storyteller, confronting our collective history with narratively-driven pieces centred on bold mission statements. Kendall’s recent work has provided a meeting point for different types of music, carrying with it the weight of connected but unharmonised histories. Recently, she’s achieved this by looking beyond the typical tools of composition, using auxiliary instruments that exist outside of the concert hall. In Tuxedo: Vasco ‘de’ Gama, she integrated the spiritual Wade in the Water, transcribing its melody into a delicate music box, contrasting the fragility of the instrument against the song’s resounding place in history. Tuxedo: Hot Summer No Water (2020) for solo cello features an ACME Metropolitan whistle, placing a sonic timestamp on the piece; pointing to a year significantly defined by the police’s presence in black communities. Her Tuxedo series is named after an artwork by American artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. His eponymous piece provides one of many graphic scores that Kendall has used as inspiration throughout her career. Rather than create ‘representations’ of these images, she uses them to spark her writing process. Building pieces from a place of intuition, her compositions are just as likely to be become abstracted, turned inside out by surprises she finds along the way, as they are to have a firm narrative. Kendall’s work has been widely celebrated. She has created pieces such as Disillusioned Dreamer (2018), which the San Francisco Chronicle praised for having a ‘rich inner life’, as well as The Knife of Dawn (2016), a chamber opera that received critical acclaim for its involving and claustrophobic representation of the incarceration of Guyanese political activist Martin Carter. Her work has been performed extensively, and across many platforms. She has worked with ensembles including London Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, LA Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, The Hallé, Ensemble Modern, and London Sinfonietta, but you’ll also find her collaborating with choreographers, poets and art galleries; crossing over to different art-forms, and celebrating the impact these unique settings have on sound. She is currently composing an Afrofuturist opera for experimental vocalist and movement artist Elaine Mitchener, and is the recipient of the 2022 Hindemith Prize for music composition. Born in London in 1984, Kendall is based in New York City as a Doctoral Fellow in composition at Columbia University. 00:00:00 Intro 00:00:14 How many hours a day would you like to compose? 00:09:00 Routine 00:15:10 Culture’s effect on composing life 00:24:30 How did you become a composer? 00:29:52 What’s in your “vision map”? 00:43:05 Withdrawing works 00:47:00 Orchestral commissions 00:58:00 Does anything still surprise you? 01:00:10 Why does a piece need to be perfect? 01:03:40 Afro-Diasporic influences 01:09:50 Dealing with commissioners 01:12:42 Why opera? Hannah’s Tuxedo pieces: Tuxedo: Hot Summer No Water: https://youtu.be/YAUrBAWzXYU Tuxedo: Crown; Sun King: https://youtu.be/x5sPAmfar3M Tuxedo: (Copper); Ivory Mask, for oboe and piano: https://youtu.be/i08peIt8220 🌐 Hannah’s website: https://hannahkendall.co.uk/ 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

Joshua Cerdenia is a Filipino composer of music for the concert and theater stages, described by renowned conductor Leonard Slatkin as "a composer to watch over the next several years." His works have been commissioned and performed by prominent orchestras in the United States and beyond, such as the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Virginia Symphony Orchestra, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, appearing in such venues as Lincoln Center in New York, the Max M. Fisher Music Center in Detroit, the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid, and the Esplanade in Singapore. Other works have been performed by chamber ensembles from across East and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the United States, including Ensemble TIMF, Duo Amrein/Henneberger, the Lunar Ensemble, the 10th Wave Chamber Collective, and the New Juilliard Ensemble.

https://cerdenia.com/

Mary Kouyoumdjian is a composer and documentarian with projects ranging from concert works to multimedia collaborations and film scores. As a first generation Armenian-American and having come from a family directly affected by the Lebanese Civil War and Armenian Genocide, her compositional work often integrates recorded testimonies with resilient individuals and field recordings of place to invite empathy by humanizing complex experiences around social and political conflict. She has received commissions from such organizations as the Kronos Quartet, New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Alarm Will Sound, Beth Morrison Projects, and Bang on a Can. Kouyoumdjian is a cofounder of the annual new music conference New Music Gathering, is on faculty at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University and The New School, is proud to have her music published on Schott’s PSNY, and is based in Brooklyn, NY. 🌐 www.marykouyoumdjian.com 💿 Bombs of Beirut: https://youtu.be/pNegch1_dyU?si=hwHmZzPgqPIQq_ST 💿 Paper Pianos: https://youtu.be/Llxtb_0HNt0?si=OMY0aR1bT-bDhKvh 💿 Adoration: https://youtu.be/70YnbYCyu0I?si=M1MXJeRcTRLbJB82 📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a virtual lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html 📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras 🕒 Timestamps 05:26 "Bombs of Beirut," for string quartet and electronics 17:30 "Paper Pianos," for chamber orchestra and electronics 30:55 "Adoration," an opera for voices, string quartet and electronics

A native of Bogota, DM R [Diana Rodriguez] is an electroacoustic music composer based in New York City. Having its footholds in post spectral, ambient, pop culture, Colombian folk, and Rock en Español, their music has been presented by artists such as the International Contemporary Ensemble, Yarn Wire, Alarm Will Sound, ECCE Ensemble, counter)induction, Boston Musica Viva, Berrow Duo, Eric Drescher, and Josh Modney at venues like the BANFF Centre for the Arts and Creativity, the DiMenna Center for Classical Music, the Goethe Institut in Boston, Americas Society, University of North Colorado, the Coral Gables Museum, Boston Conservatory, and the New England Conservatory. Their recent projects include an electroacoustic installation piece for the National Sawdust Ensemble (NSE), part of the 2022 Hildegard Commission Initiative, an evening-length work for the New York-based trio Sputter Box commissioned by the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, a multimedia piece for the TAK ensemble and Joy Guidry, and a string duo for andPlay. DM R is a dissertation fellow at Columbia University, a teaching assistant at New York University and teaches composition at Kaufman Center’s Face the Music. 00:00:00 Intro 00:02:00 Marching band 00:27:13 Classical music vs. non-Western music 00:38:25 Composing in an academic setting 00:42:00 Diversity 00:47:00 Composers wear many hats 00:51:00 Improvisation 00:58:20 Social media 01:04:33 Personal ideology 01:14:00 Academia in the United States 01:25:00 Privilege DM R’s website: https://www.dmr.land/ DM R’s husband, Murat: http://www.muratcolakmusic.com/about.html 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

Tyson Gholston Davis (b.2000) is an American composer in his senior year at The Juilliard School where is a recipient of the Jerome L. Greene Fellowship studying with Robert Beaser. Davis began composing at the age of eight years old and entered the University North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) as a high school freshman, studying with Lawrence Dillon. In the summer of 2019, Davis worked with the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America (NYO-USA) and Antonio Pappano to premiere his work, Delicate Tension, a piece that was commissioned by the American Embassy in Berlin for the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The work was performed in Berlin, Edinburgh, and Hamburg. Since then, Davis has been a leading desired composer to be performed and commissioned by leading ensembles. He has been the recipient of more than 22 commissions by organizations such as; The Juilliard String Quartet, the Albany Symphony, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Eighth Blackbird, WQXR (New York Public Radio), New York New Music Ensemble, Metropolis Ensemble, and various other groups and soloist. His recently finished work, Amorphous Figures (String Quartet No. 2) was commissioned by Da Camera Society of Houston, The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Chamber Music Cincinnati for the Juilliard String Quartet. The work will be premiered in April of 2023. Currently, Davis is backed up with commissions until mid-2024 with works for soprano saxophone and piano (for Robert Young), wind quintet (for Zephyros winds), solo piano (Jonathan Biss), and several others. Tyson’s favorite classical composers include Beethoven, Elliott Carter, Henri Dutilleux, Unsuk Chin, and Jacob Druckman. He also loves the pop music of Marvin Gaye, John Denver, and Simon and Garfunkel. He lives in Washington Heights, NYC, and enjoys frequent walks in Fort Tryon Park. 00:20 Introducing composer Tyson Davis 00:55 Going to the gym 03:35 What’s the food like at Juilliard? 08:36 The role of composition mentors and lessons 15:00 Dealing with time in music 16:30 Agency for musicians 19:00 Improvisation as influence 22:40 The audience’ relationship to new music 25:40 Tyson’s upbringing as a composer in North Carolina 30:50 University of North Carolina School of the Arts 35:35 The importance of writing solo works 41:33 Tyson’s new string quartet 44:20 How does Tyson balance out his commissions? 48:00 Tyson writes by hand! 49:36 Speed dating pieces 51:25 Why microtonality? 54:50 Should new music programmed at Juilliard be more adventurous? 58:35 Microtonality discussion continued 01:03:47 The creative “box” Juilliard student composers tend to write in 01:08:00 Gen Z composers Ivan Wyschnegradsky's Manual of Quarter-Tone Harmony https://underwolf.com/wyschnegradsky The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory and History for the Impractical Musician https://a.co/d/gKfS61W Tyson’s website: https://tysongholsdaviscomposer.com/ 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a 1-on-1 meeting with me directly via this link if you're interested in having a lesson or consultation: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad 📰 NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

Hailed by the New York Times as “ravishing and engulfing,” Gity Razaz’s music ranges from concert solo pieces to large symphonic works. Ms. Razaz’s music has been commissioned and performed by Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, Washington National Opera, National Sawdust, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, former cellist of the Kronos Quartet Jeffrey Zeigler, cellist Inbal Segev, violinist Jennifer Koh, violinist Francesca dePasquale, Metropolis Ensemble, Canada’s National Ballet School, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Symphony Orchestra, New York Choreographic Institute, American Composers Orchestra, and Amsterdam Cello Biennale among others. Programming highlights include an upcoming commission for acclaimed cellist Alisa Weilerstein and her multi-year project “Fragments,” a 2021 commission from BBC Symphony Orchestra for the prestigious Last Night of the BBC Proms at London’s Royal Albert Hall, and an upcoming concerto for world-renowned flautist Sharon Bezaly and the United Strings of Europe. Other commissions have included a full-length ballet for Ballet Moscow, which still receives regular performances ever since its world premiere in Moscow in June of 2017. She was the composer-in-residence for the inaugural season of Brooklyn’s ground-breaking National Sawdust and Chautauqua Opera Company in 2017. Her first short opera was commissioned by Washington National Opera and premiered at the Kennedy Center. Her music for cello and electronics was included in the opening of Seattle Symphony’s Octave 9 in March 2019. Her compositions have earned numerous national and international awards, such as the 2019 Andrew Imbrie Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters that is “is given to a composer of demonstrated artistic merit in mid-career”, the Jerome Foundation award, the Libby Larsen Prize in 28th International Search for New Music Competition, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra Composer Institute, Juilliard Composers’ Orchestra Competition, three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer awards, ASCAP Plus Award, Juilliard’s Palmer Dixon Award for the outstanding composition of the year in 2010 and 2012, to name a few. In 2016, Ms. Razaz was offered the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Ms. Razaz attended The Juilliard School on full scholarship, and received her Bachelor and Master of Music in Composition under the tutelage of Samuel Adler, Robert Beaser and John Corigliano. About Gity’s album, “The Strange Highway”: https://icareifyoulisten.com/2022/08/gity-razaz-releases-evocative-profound-debut-album-the-strange-highway/ Hear Gity’s album, “The Strange Highway,” everywhere where music streams. Gity’s website: https://www.gityrazaz.com/ 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a consultation/lesson with me directly via this link: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad/consultation-lesson 📰 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

Sami Seif (b. 1998) is a Lebanese composer and music theorist. His music is inspired by the aesthetics, philosophies, paradigms and poetry of his Middle-Eastern heritage. His work has been described as “very tasteful and flavorful” with “beautiful, sensitive writing!” (Webster University Young Composers Competition). His latest musical concerns center around the phenomenology of time and of differing degrees of focus. Seif’s music has been performed by such renowned artists as Mary Kay Fink and Stanley Konopka of The Cleveland Orchestra, and has been recognized internationally by a number of institutions such as ASCAP, SOCAN, The RED NOTE New Music Festival, the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, the Stamford Music and Arts Academy, the Foundation for Modern Music, the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs, the Cleveland Composer’s Guild, Webster University, the Arizona Flute Society, and Abundant Silence, among others. Additionally, he was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra call for scores from a pool of more than 2200 applicants from more than 90 countries. In 2020, he was selected again from a larger pool of almost 8000 applicants. Originally from the small town of Ashkout in Mount Lebanon, he was born to a non-musical family in Abu Dhabi and he is fluent in Arabic, French and English. He started out at the age of twelve as a self-taught musician, composing and playing keyboard instruments. He then formally studied piano, composition, audio engineering, and sound synthesis. Seif completed his BM, double-majoring in composition and music theory at the Cleveland Institute of Music. At CIM, he earned the Donald Erb prize in composition and the Beth Pearce Nelson award in music theory. He is currently studying with David Schober at the CUNY Graduate Center as a doctoral fellow. His former teachers include Julia Victorivna Podsekaeva (composition and piano), Roger Bergs (composition), Alan Reese (music theory), and Gerardo Teissonnière (piano) 🌐 Sami Seif’s website: https://www.samiseif.com/ 📰 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a consultation/lesson with me directly via this link: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad/consultation-lesson

From birdsong-inspired compositions to political monodramas, the wide-ranging music of composer Alexander Liebermann is sought after across the United States and Europe. His recent compositions include a climate-change reflecting monodrama commissioned by the Deutsche Oper Berlin, a birdsong-inspired string trio commissioned by members of the Staatskapelle Dresden, and a soundtrack for the documentary film Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures. As a nature enthusiast, Liebermann devotes much of his time to the sounds of wildlife; his original and accurate transcriptions of animal vocalizations are viral on social media and featured in the world-renowned magazine National Geographic. His first book Birdsong: A Musical Field Guide, is published by Just A Theory Press. Liebermann graduated from Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler, Juilliard, and Manhattan School of Music. For his dissertation on Erwin Schulhoff, Liebermann received the Saul Braverman Award in Music Theory. Liebermann resides in New York, where he is a music theory and ear training faculty member at Juilliard’s preparatory division Music Advancement Program. 00:00 Intro 00:30 Introducing Composer Alex Liebermann 02:10 Work/life balance and how one’s surroundings can be a conduit to it 03:55 Berlin summer music festival with Professor Sam Adler 06:00 What was it like to study with Sam Adler? 07:37 The generosity of the late Steve Stucky 10:25 Recounting composition studies at Juilliard and the Manhattan School of Music 13:35 How Alex survived the pandemic as a foreign student in the USA 16:30 Why Alex loved music theory classes at Juilliard 19:00 Alex’s new book, “Birdsong: A Musical Field Guide,” inspired by his viral transcriptions from social media 24:30 How does Alex transcribe nature? 29:25 The “samba” bird 32:10 What Alex learned from doing all these transcriptions 35:45 The impossibility of a perfect transcription 37:00 Why Alex is not allowed to make money from performances of his transcriptions 39:37 Comment down below to be a part of Alex’s project! 42:05 The definition of music changes from country to country 43:27 One of Alex’s transcriptions was viewed over 3 million times 46:30 Saad’s late grandfather had a huge bird sanctuary 49:00 Alex on his new wind quintet based on Brazilian bird transcriptions 57:00 CBS Sunday Morning will feature Alex and his transcriptions! 🎫 Tour dates for wind quintet: https://alexanderliebermann.com/concerts 📚 Birdsong: A Musical Field Guide: https://www.justatheorypress.com/product/birdsong/112 Alex’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lieberliner/ Alex’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AlexanderLiebermann Alex’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.liebermann 🌐 Alex Liebermann’s website: https://alexanderliebermann.com/ 📰 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a consultation/lesson with me directly via this link: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad/consultation-lesson

Flutist Joseph Monticello joins Saad in a wide ranging discussion about our time at Juilliard, Joe's interests in non-Western music, and the direction of concert music going forward. 00:00 Flutist Joseph Monticello serenades Saad's studio 00:10 Saad's eventual wife thought Joe and Saad were the same person at Juilliard 04:55 Getting in touch with our shared Lebanese roots 07:05 On "world music" 09:16 Playing the Japanese shamisen, Persian tar, and oud as a conservatory-trained flutist 16:25 Instruments crafted for you vs. factory-made instruments 20:02 Why does everyone want a gold flute? 22:10 Connecting with music via touch 24:48 Does life experience affect playing? 26:41 Why the world premiere is always a throw-away performance 30:50 Staying creatively fresh and excited about composing for specific instruments 33:25 What does honesty mean as a composer? 34:05 Why composing for orchestra is challenging 35:48 Joe's friend wrote a tough piece for him at Interlochen 39:46 The set falls apart! 40:00 Creative limitations for composers 41:10 Programming new music 44:13 What makes today's generation of composers any lesser than those before us? 46:10 Combatting reverence culture in classical music 50:20 Richard Strauss is harder than Ligeti, Bartok, and Takemitsu Flutist Joseph Monticello’s playing has been praised by both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal as “graceful" and for being as “exciting as the singers.” Equally at home on both modern and historical flutes, Joseph enjoys a multi-faceted career as principal flutist of Boston Baroque and assistant principal flutist with the Florida Grand Opera and Palm Beach Symphony orchestras, making his home in Miami. A frequent performer with the genre-bending NuDeco Ensemble, Joseph has been featured on three of their commercially-released albums and has shared the stage with genre-defining artists Wyclef Jean, Tank and the Bangas, Masego, Cory Wong, Cory Henry, Luke James, and Larkin Poe. Joseph has also performed with Les Arts Florissants, Philharmonia Baroque, The Berlin Friday Academy, One Found Sound (SF), Kaleidoscope (LA), Bach Collegium San Diego, New York Baroque Incorporated, Seraphic Fire, IlluminArts, and as principal flute of the Teatro Nuovo festival orchestra, specializing in the historically informed presentation of Bel Canto opera on period-appropriate instruments. A fierce proponent of Japanese traditional music, Joseph has studied Nagauta and Yamatogaku shamisen in the US and in Japan, having recently been invited to perform at the National Theatre in Tokyo. As a student of these under-represented musical styles, he has previously been awarded funding by Oberlin College’s Shansi In-Asia Grant and the New York-based Friends of Flutes Foundation. In addition to his performing career, Joseph’s passion for musical curatorship is furthered by his role as part-time Archivist for the New World Symphony in Miami Beach. In his free time, Joe enjoys searching for the holy grail of iced coffees, wherever his travels take him. Joseph is a graduate of the Masters in Historical Performance program of The Juilliard School, Oberlin College and Conservatory, and Interlochen Arts Academy High School. In addition to a number of original instruments dating from the 18th to 20th century, Joseph plays on a Dana Sheridan flute with additional headjoints by Salvatore Faulisi and David Chu, a Bulgheroni wood flute, a Keefe piccolo, an Eva Kingma alto flute, and traversos by Boaz Berney, Rod Cameron, Simon Polak, Keigo Takesa, Giovanni Tardino, Rudolf Tutz, and Martin Wenner. 🌐 Joseph Monticello’s website: https://www.monticelloflute.com/ 📰 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a consultation/lesson with me directly via this link: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad/consultation-lesson

It’s a rare occurrence when all my brothers are in one place. We are in my new production studio at my new house in New Jersey. I hope you enjoy our conversation with the guys in the world I’ve known the longest! 📰 Consider signing up for my MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

Nina Shekhar has recently been named Young Concert Artists’ 2021-23 Composer-in-Residence, which follows my own 2-year residency in this post. Join me as we discover what drives Nina to create music, as well as hear a sampling of her work. 00:00 Introducing Nina Shekhar 08:53 Expressing OCD through “Quirkhead” 13:56 Excerpt from “Quirkhead” 14:55 How did music boxes inspire “hush”? 21:08 Excerpt from “hush” 22:55 Why should we paint our toenails red in “DEAR ABBY”? 27:45 Excerpt from “DEAR ABBY” 31:45 Should contemporary music be fun? (“Turn Your Feet Around”) 38:03 Excerpt from “Turn Your Feet Around” 43:10 Where do you see your work going in 5 years? 49:43 What do you look forward to this upcoming season? 52:27 Closing remarks Nina Shekhar’s website: www.ninashekhar.com 📰 MONTHLY NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a consultation/lesson with me directly via this link: https://calendly.com/saadhaddad/consultation-lesson

James Newton Howard has scored over 100 major films, including "Signs," "King Kong," "Pretty Woman," "The Sixth Sense," as well as this year's "Jungle Cruise" and "Raya and the Last Dragon." Lately, he's been delving into writing music without any picture at all. In this 3-part series, we will dive into James' output for the concert hall, including his orchestral fantasy, "I would plant a tree," "Violin Concerto," and his sextet "They have just arrived at this new level." This discussion was filmed at James Newton Howard's studio in Los Angeles in July 2021.

https://jamesnewtonhoward.com/

Carrie Frey is a New York City-based violist, teacher, improviser, and composer focused on inquisitive collaborations and encouraging creativity in her students. An enthusiastic proponent of new music, she has premiered over 250 pieces. Frey is the violist of the Rhythm Method (“a group of individuals with distinct compositional voices and a collective vision for the future of the string quartet” - I Care If You Listen) and a founding member of string trio Chartreuse and string quartet Desdemona. She has performed with many of New York City’s notable contemporary ensembles, including Wet Ink Large Ensemble, AMOC*, Talea Ensemble, Wavefield, Cantata Profana, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Frey improvises as a member of Simone Baron’s genre-bending Arco Belo ensemble and with electroacoustic trio Hierophant (with Alex van Gils and Alec Goldfarb). Her compositions, described as “a moldering compost heap” (I Care if You Listen), have been performed by the Rhythm Method, Arco Belo, Adrianne Munden-Dixon, and Kal Sugatski. Her debut sonata album, The Grey Light of Day, with pianist Robert Fleitz, was released in 2016, and her first solo album will be released on Gold Bolus in December 2023. Carrie is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory and the Manhattan School of Music Contemporary Performance Program, and is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

🌐 https://freyaviol.tumblr.com/

💿 a chorus like distant screaming: https://youtu.be/paNHWcMPlvQ?si=dKhr80sRBL-XYrq2

💿 Seaglass/Pebble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeVIT8mKhTM

💿 Gone / Back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1661SnhWKvk

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

02:18 “a chorus like distant screaming,” for string quartet

14:35 “Gone / Back,” for string quartet

25:16 “Seaglass/Pebble,” for string quartet

Christian Quiñones is a Puerto Rican composer who explores personal and vulnerable stories through the lens of cultural identity. From sampling to auto-tune, and to interactive multimedia, Christian is interested in interacting with existing music to create intertextual narratives.

Recently Christian was selected as a composer in residence at the Copland House, and as a fellow for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra Workshop, Cabrillo Festival, and the Bang on a Can Summer Festival. In 2020 he was selected for the Earshot Underwood Orchestra Readings where he worked with the American Composers Orchestra. 

He has received commissions from the New York Youth Symphony, Dogs of Desire (Albany Symphony), Transient Canvas, the icarus Quartet, the Bergamot String Quartet, Chromic Duo and the Victory Players where Christian was the 2018-2019 composer in residence. 

His music has been performed by leading ensembles and performers such as Alarm Will Sound, Dal Niente, Hub New Music, Loadbang, Charlotte Mundy, Dither Quartet, Bergamot Quartet, Yarn/Wire, Onix Ensemble, Chromic Duo, Unheard-of Ensemble, Trio Sanromá, Victory Players, Chromic Duo, the American Composers Orchestra, and René Izquierdo.

He obtained his BM in Music Composition at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico, studying composition and orchestration with Alfonso Fuentes, and in 2019 Christian was a recipient of the Graduate College Master’s Fellowship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where studied with Carlos Carrillo and Reynold Tharp. Currently, Christian is a Ph.D. President’s fellow at Princeton University where he studies with Steve Mackey, Donnacha Dennehy, Nathalie Joachim, Juri Seo, and Tyondai Braxton.

🌐 https://christianquinonesmusic.com/

💿 “Hasta que no pueda,” for amplified sinfonietta and sampler: https://on.soundcloud.com/mDPSC

💿 “My voice is a broken chorus,” for amplified soprano and electronics https://youtu.be/RJwd4_F42NI?si=35zzgDTRZeqgfPLj

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

Touch Designer: https://derivative.ca/

🕒 Timestamps 

01:45 “Hasta que no pueda,” for amplified sinfonietta and sampler

21:55 “Artifacts,” for laptop, keyboard, live electronics, and visuals

40:30 “My voice is a broken chorus,” for amplified soprano and electronics [II. waning crescent]

Since his solo debut with the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra at age nine, violinist Timothy Schwarz has had a brilliant career as a soloist, chamber musician, and pedagogue. His many accomplishments include solo and chamber music CD’s under the Naxos, Albany, Centaur and IBM labels. Schwarz served as an Artistic Ambassador for the United States from 1996 – 2001, bringing American music throughout the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. These tours started a decades-long dedication to performing American compositions, with an emphasis on female and minority composers. An avid educator, Schwarz is currently Associate Professor and Head of Strings at Rowan University, President of the New Jersey chapter of the America String Teachers Association, Artistic Director and Founder of Techne Music, and Visiting Professor of Performance at the London College of Music. He owns several fine violins and bows, including a J. B. Vuillaume, a Carlo Antonio Testore, and a Dominique Peccatte.

🌐 https://cpa.rowan.edu/_bios/schwarz-timothy.html

💿 “Fantasia on Lama badaa yatasana,” by Steven Sametz: https://youtu.be/c_K8YBX2JUY?si=O-QJatdCprv1fMCr

💿 “Rhapsody No. 2,” by Jessie Montgomery: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IArdVEniFQ

💿 “Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano,” by Avner Dorman: https://youtu.be/T0_Td4yi554?si=EuX5Ul6dbqdW2pTY

💿 “Darshan,” by Reena Esmail: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrAs8W5eV1E

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

08:54 “Fantasia on Lama badaa yatasana,” by Steven Sametz

18:00 “Rhapsody No. 2,” by Jessie Montgomery

29:50 “Sonata No. 2 for Violin and Piano,” by Avner Dorman

49:40 “Darshan,” by Reena Esmail

The music of award-winning composer Polina Nazaykinskaya is performed regularly in the United States, Russia, and Europe. Her first symphonic poem, "Winter Bells," is in high demand every season by orchestras such as the Minnesota Orchestra and the Russian National Orchestra, among others. ‍ In the 2023-2024 concert season, Polina's orchestral music will be performed by the Utah Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, Grays Harbor Symphony Orchestra, and Maryland Classic Youth Orchestra. In April 2024, Ms. Nazaykinskaya's new ballet for MorDance will be premiered at the Chelsea Factory in New York. In May 2024, Ms. Nazaykinskaya's chamber opera, "Her New Home" will performed at the Garth Newel Center. The 2022-2023 season highlights included the premiere of two new ballets, "The Rising" and "Emily," performed by the San Francisco Ballet and MorDance in New York City. ‍ Polina's collaborators include internationally renowned choreographers Pascal Rioult, Yuri Possokhov, Jonah Bokaer, Morgan McEwen, and Ulyana Bochernikova. Polina works closely with the world's leading conductors, such as Osmo Vänskä, Teodor Currentzis, Fabio Mastrangelo, Sarah Hicks, Toshiyuki Shimada, Lawrence Loh, Hannu Lintu and David Hattner. Polina's compositions are actively performed by internationally acclaimed soloists such as trombonist R. Douglas Wright, violinist Elena Korzhenevich, and pianist Anton Nel. Polina's musical language embodies the diversity of multi-cultural education. She graduated from the Tchaikovsky Conservatory College in Moscow as a composition/violin double major, studying with Konstantin Batashov and Vladimir Ivanov. Polina earned her Masters' and Artist Diploma in composition at the Yale School of Music with Christopher Theofanidis and Ezra Laderman. Currently, Polina is a Doctorate Candidate at The Graduate Center CUNY under the mentorship of Tania León. Polina is an Adjunct Lecturer of Composition at Brooklyn College Conservatory and a Teaching Artist at the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven. 🌐 https://polinacomposer.com/ 💿 “Invocation on Lel,” for chorus and chamber ensemble: https://on.soundcloud.com/nkKok 💿 “Songs for Tasya,” for piano trio: https://youtu.be/blEazGtHNqY?si=9axeCuRLtsfjXGJu 💿 “Fenix,” for orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uWXDsQxAhA 💿 “Nostalghia,” for ballet: https://youtu.be/amEfi7Q1aoA?si=4uWz46vjwCKahes0 📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html 📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 Yale, CUNY Graduate Center, and Tania León 01:27 “Invocation on Lel,” for chorus and chamber ensemble 07:35 “Songs for Tasya,” for piano trio 20:21 “Fenix,” for orchestra 30:53 “Nostalghia,” for ballet

Composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel has been internationally recognized for his creativity, theatricality, and virtuosity. Bermel is acclaimed for music that is “intricate, witty, clear-spoken, tender, and extraordinarily beautiful [and] covers an amazing amount of ground, from the West African rhythms of Dust Dances to the Bulgarian folk strains of Thracian Echoes, to the shimmering harmonic splendor of Elixir. In the hands of a composer less assured, all that globe-trotting would seem like affectation; Bermel makes it an artistic imperative."  (Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle). Bermel and his works have received the Alpert Award in the Arts, Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, the Trailblazer Award from the American Music Center, and the Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Formerly the Artistic Director of the American Composers Orchestra, Bermel is also curator of the Gamper Festival at the Bowdoin International Music Festival. He recently enjoyed a four-year tenure as artist-in-residence at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, and a year as Composer in Residence with the Seattle Symphony. An avid educator, Bermel mentors young composers through ACO’s many educational programs, including Earshot and the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute, and directs the Copland House's CULTIVATE emerging composers institute. He also founded the New York Youth Symphony’s Composition Program, formerly known as Making Score. He has given masterclasses at conservatories and musical institutions around the world, and has led several workshops alongside frequent collaborators Wendy S. Walters and S. Ama Wray.

Bermel holds B.A. and D.M.A. degrees from Yale University and the University of Michigan. Notable among his composition teachers are William Albright, Louis Andriessen, William Bolcom, Henri Dutilleux, and Michael Tenzer. His music is published by Peermusic Classical (Americas, Asia) and Faber Music (Europe, Australia).

🌐 https://www.derekbermel.com/

💿 “Intonations,” for string quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HIPlvYV98Q&list=PLQbBZhbfWFNm3YMztsuR6yWfIvDllBmNe

💿 “Migration series,” for jazz band and orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3b2V2MY1Mc&list=PLQbBZhbfWFNlfuCERWth0jc4PfTvhkoMs

💿 “Mar de setembro,” for vocalist and chamber orchestra: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KW6bl8g5bvc&list=PLQbBZhbfWFNn-iyTkM8AT0I-YcZIuu4xA

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

00:00 American Composers Orchestra 

04:06 Driving Penderecki: https://www.derekbermel.com/blog/2013/9/22/driving-mr-krzysztof

10:27 “Hustle” from “Intonations”

18:54 “Migration series,” for jazz band and orchestra

35:30 “Mar de setembro,” for vocalist and chamber orchestra