Riad ABDEL-GAWAD* (2005) — (b. 1965) Currently the Whittlesey Chair, visiting professor at the American University of Beirut (Lebanon), Riad ABDEL-GAWAD, has degrees in composition from Harvard University, (Ph.D. 1995), the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, (M.M. 1990) and the University of Southern California (B.M. 1987). He studied with Luciano Berio, Klaus Huber, Bernard Rands and Frederic Rzewski.

Since graduating from Harvard, he has researched traditional art music, especially as related to theory, composition, ethnomusicology, and performance. For many years, he studied and performed with Abdo Dagher, master and legend Arab violinist who excels in the taqsim (improvisatorial genre) of traditional Arab music. Since 2001 Mr. Abdel-Gawad's musical transcriptions have been published by International Opus in Philadelphia: The New Sufi Arab-Egyptian Art Music — Abdo Dagher, which are indigenous musical compositions, aurally transmitted first hand to Mr. Abdel-Gawad.

His works also have been broadcasted worldwide on radio, as well, he has received numerous awards, fellowships, grants, and honors including from ASCAP, the Belgian American Education Foundation, BMI, The MacDowell Colony, and the Royal Netherlands-Holland Government.

In addition to Mr. Abdel-Gawad's activities as a composer, he has performed as a violinist: at festivals; on film, television, and CD recordings; on tours, and in performances in Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and the United States.

He has taught at Harvard University, the Akademie Schloss Solitude, (Germany) the American University in Cairo (Egypt), and Academy of Arts-Cairo, Conservatory of Music.

"After the Light" for kayagûm, alto flute, and vibraphone
(CrossSound 2001 Commission)

John Luther ADAMS (2001) — From his home in Alaska, John Luther Adams has created a unique musical world grounded in wilderness landscapes and indigenous cultures, and in natural phenomena from the songs of birds to elemental noise. His music includes works for orchestra, small ensembles, percussion and electronic media, and is recorded on Cold Blue, Mode, Cantaloupe, New World, New Albion and other labels.

He is the author of Winter Music (Wesleyan, 2004), and his writings have appeared in numerous periodicals and anthologies, including The Best Spiritual Writing (Harper Collins, 2002) and The Book of Music and Nature (Wesleyan, 2000).

Adams has worked with many prominent performers and venues, including Bang On A Can, Other Minds, Almeida Opera, Steven Schick, the California E.A.R. Unit, FLUX Quartet, the Paul Dresher Ensemble, Percussion Group Cincinnati, the Sundance Institute and Arena Stage. He has received awards and fellowships from Meet the Composer, the National Endowment for the Arts, Lila Wallace Arts Partners, the Rockefeller Foundation, Opera America, and the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts.

JLA has served as composer in residence with the Anchorage Symphony, Fairbanks Symphony, Arctic Chamber Orchestra, Anchorage Opera, and the Alaska Public Radio Network. He has taught at the University of Alaska, Bennington College and the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and has served as president of the American Music Center.

Articles about John Luther Adams and his music appear in The New Grove Dictionary of Music, Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Music and Musicians, American Music in the 20th Century (G. Schirmer), Music in the United States (Prentice Hall) and The Avant Music Guide (Japan).

Keiko ABE (2000) — writes of her piece: "Flutes and drums echoing from a distant summer festival, the sound of my wooden clogs clacking along an empty street-- the sounds and memories of my childhood, linked with traditional children's songs, are constantly in my mind. I have tried to portray these songs not just as melodies providing fond memories of the past but as my own music, music of great vitality with its roots in the search and the present." Keiko Abe was born in Tokyo and studied piano, composition, xylophone and marimba as a child. At the time she began her studies in the 1950s, the marimba was regarded as an amature folk instrument. "There were almost no works for marimba in the classical repertoire, and so I had to begin my career as a performer by creating the works myself." Her compositions and performances introduced new techniques and a level of virtuosity that helped spawn a new, classical and contemporary style of marimba music. Donald P. Berger from the Japan Times made the following comment in 1969: "She was able to create a very musical effect upon an instrument that in itself is probably one of the least expressive."

"Sequenza XIII" for accordeon ("Chanson") (CS00)

Luciano BERIO (2000) — (b. 1925) born into a musical family in 1925 in Oneglia, Italy, is one of the most important composers and musical thinkers of the second half of the 20th century. A major force in the development of new music since 1950, he has produced a body of works that embrace a wide range of interests, genres and techniques and reflect his continuing exploration of the human voice, the virtuoso capabilities of solo instruments, the orchestral idiom, music theater, and the digital processing of sound. In addition, Mr. Berio's interest in re-examining the music of the original domains of Western culture, in particular the voice, has resulted in his transcriptions of works by many composers ranging from Monteverdi to Mahler, as well as in several pieces based on sketches or unfinished works by such composers as Mozart and Schubert. Luciano Berio's life-long literary interests, particularly twentieth century modernism and postmodernism, have led him to work in close contact with some of Italy's greatest literary minds: Italo Calvino (who wrote the text for two of his stage works), Edoardo Sanguineti and Umberto Eco. Of the same generation as Stockhausen and Cage, Berio pioneered modernism in music and the use of electronics to explore new musical frontiers. He has employed a myriad of idioms and techniques during his long and prolific career, specializing in works for the voice, "chance" music, serialism, electronic music, and virtuoso pieces he calls "Sequenza." In Modern Music and After, a quote by David Osmond-Smith differentiates Luciano Berio's perception of indeterminacy from that of John Cage. He refers to Berio's works as works which: "although physically completed, are nevertheless 'open' to a continuous germination of internal relations that the spectator must discover and select in the act of perceiving the totality of stimuli." This form of indeterminacy is bought about by ambiguity of both verbal and musical languages and by avoiding finality in any statement. Luciano Berio is currently ending a position as Distinguished Composer-in-Residence at Harvard University.

Volker BLUMENTHALER* (2000) — Excerpt from "Music at the End of Utopia," by Jörg Krämer" (Bavarian Broadcast 1998): ". . . The power of utopian ideas seems to be less powerful today. In 'post-modern' times, such ideas come to be considered ideological relics of the great 'meta-narrations' (J. F. Lyotard) of history. Of course no music, if it is to be more than a functionally acustic background, could exist without utopian ideas; all serious music builds up counterworlds, and rises up into new orders. The work of Volker Blumenthaler circles round these relationships. His music neither follows the paths of established trends of New Music nor the 'post-modern triviality of anything goes.' In his own way Blumenthaler stands against the decay of utopian ideas of society and culture. . . . Nevertheless elements of those ideas will sustain these moments of decay and unravel and gradually take on a structural significance. They manifest themselves in the form and the order of the work of art . . . ."

"La Violetta" (2000) for bass clarinet solo (CS01)

Konrad BOEHMER (2001) was born in 1941 in Berlin. He studied composition with Gottfried Michael Koenig (1959-61) and philosophy, sociology and musicology at the University of Cologne, writing his doctoral thesis on the theory of open form in new music ("Zur Theorie der offenen Form in der neuen Musik," 1966). From 1961-1963 he was active at the electronic music studios of the WDR (West German Broadcasting Company) in Cologne. In 1966 he moved to the Netherlands and worked until 1968 at the Institute of Sonology at Utrecht University. He then became music editor of the Dutch weekly newspaper Vrij Nederland and in 1972 professor of music history and new music theory at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where since 1994 he has been director of the Institute of Sonology.

In the 1970’s and ‘80’s he was repeatedly guest professor at the “Latin-American Courses for Contemporary Music”, as well as extensively in the USA and Europe. - His composition “Information” was presented with the Dutch AVRO-award (1966) and the electronic work “Aspekt” was awarded the first price of the Vth Paris Biennale in 1968. His music drama “Doktor Faustus” was awarded the Rolf-Liebermann prize in 1983. In 1985 the City of Rotterdam awarded him the “Pierre-Bayle-Prize” for his writings on music and musical life.

His works include concert music (chamber and symphonic), music theatre and electroacoustic music. Boehmers works have been featured at the following festivals and organisations: Musik der Zeit (WDR, Cologne), Domaine Musical (Paris), Radio Télévision Belge (Brussels), Österr. Rundfunk (Vienna),Tage der Neuen Musik (Hannover), musica nova (Bremen), Gaudeamus Music Week (Hilversum), Allgemeines Deutsches Musikfest (Munich), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), ORTF (Paris), Théatre National de l’Opéra (Paris), Centre Pompidou (Paris), Nationale Opera (Amsterdam), Nat. Opera België (Brussels), UNM Festival (Albuquerque), Donaueschinger Musiktage, Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Stadsschouwburg (Rotterdam), Festival International de Musique Expérimentale (Bourges), Hamamatsu Festival (Japan), Helsinki Festival (Finland).

Henri BOK (2001) — devoted his life to the bass clarinet, inspired as an adolescent by the great Eric Dolphy. He has been a promotor of the bass clarinet and its repertoire for more than 25 years, both as a performer and a teacher. Since 1981 he is Professor of Bass Clarinet at the Rotterdam (Superior) Conservatoire, where the unique bass clarinet program attracts students from all over the world. 

Henri Bok invented unusual, but very effective new chamber music formations, such as Duo Contemporain (bass clarinet and marimba/vibraphone), Duo Novair (bass clarinet and accordion), Bass Instincts (bass clarinet and bass oboe) and Clarones (with Luis  Afonso "Montanha".

Hundreds of new compositions have been written for and dedicated to Henri Bok by renowned composers from all over the world. He is often invited to give concerts and masterclasses in Europe, North & South America, Australia and Asia. 

Henri Bok has recorded over 20 CDs, has written articles for many important music magazines and is the author of the standard work for his instrument: "New Techniques for the Bass Clarinet".

 "Divertimento d. C." for flute, euphonium, violin, and viola
(CrossSound 2000 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Martin BRODY* (2000) — a native of Elgin, Illinois near Chicago, played the cello and piano from an early age and went on to study music and literature at Amherst College and Yale University. After a stint as a professional rock musician, he began an academic career which has continued to the present. He is currently Catherine Mills Davis Professor of Music at Wellesley College, where he has been on the faculty for 20 years. Brody's works have been supported by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard, the MacArthur Foundation Touring Commissions, the National Endowment for the Arts (under both its artists fellowships and opera/musical theater programs), the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Massachusetts Council for the Arts and Humanities, and most recently, the Guggenheim Foundation among others. He has also written extensively about contemporary American music for such journals as Perspectives of New Music, Musical Quarterly, and the Journal of Music Theory. Active as an advocate of modern and contemporary music, Brody has served as a director of the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center, the Boston Musica Viva, and Art of the States (WGBH). He is also president of the Stefan Wolpe Society and a co-founder of the seminar for music and culture at the Harvard Center for Literary and Cultural Studies. Brody has has also composed extensively for television and film, where his credits range from the PBS series, "Frontline" to such movies as John Sayles's "Brother From Another Planet." Lately, Brody has been particularly interested in musical theater and has written two chamber operas. One, "The Crab," is a fairy tale adaptation of a 17th c. Japanese Kyogen play translated by Carolyn Morley.

"Wind Prints" for sheng, vln, vcl, bass, fl, ob, cl, bsn, trp, tbn
(CrossSound 2005 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Writing for mandolin, 2 vn, vcl, cl, tbn, cauyak
(CrossSound 2006 Commission — in residence in Anchorage)

Matt BURTNER* (2005, 2006) — (b. 1970) a native of Naknek, Alaska, studied philosophy, composition, saxophone and computer music at St. Johns College, Tulane University (BFA 1993), Iannis Xenakis's UPIC Studios, the Peabody Institute of JHU (MM 1997), and Stanford University's CCRMA (DMA 2002). At Stanford he studied and worked closely with Max Mathews, Jonathan Harvey, Brian Ferneyhough and Jon Berger. In 2005 he has been an Invited Researcher at IRCAM in Paris, Artist in Residence at the Cite International des Arts, and Composer-in-Residence at Musikene.

Matthew Burtner’s music has been described by The Wire as some of the most "eerily effective electroacoustic music;” and 21st Century Music writes "There is a horror and beauty in this music that is most impressive." First prize winner in the Musica Nova International Electroacoustic Music Competition, Burtner's music has also received honors and awards from Bourges, Gaudeamus, Darmstadt, Prix d’Ete, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, Luigi Russolo, American Music Center, Hultgren Biennial, and others. His music has been commissioned by Spectri Sonori , Musik i Nordland, Phyllis Bryn Julson and Mark Markham, the Peabody Trio, Augsburg Kulturburo der Stadt, Heidelberg Ministerium of Arts/ Trio Ascolto, and Ensemble Noise among others.

Burtner's instrumental and electroacoustic music explores ecoacoustics, interactive media, extended rhythmic, and noise-based musical systems. His music has been recorded for DACO (Germany), The WIRE (U.K.), Centaur Records (USA), Innova (USA), and the Euridice Label (Norway). Two solo CDs, Metasaxophone Colossus (2004) and Portals of Distortion (1999) are available from INNOVA Records. His original computer music research is presented regularly at international conferences, and has been published by journals such as Organized Sound, the Journal of New Music Research and the Leonardo Music Journal. He has been composer-in-residence at Musikene in San Sebastian, Banff Centre for the Arts, Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, and the IUA/Phonos Institute in Barcelona.

Burtner is currently Assistant Professor of composition and computer music at the University of Virginia where he is Associate Director of the VCCM Computer Music Center. Since 1999 Burtner has developed the Metasaxophone, a project involving imbedded computer systems and augmented performance. Paul Wagner of the Saxophone Journal has described the metasaxophone as "a new instrument with new and exciting textures for the saxophone world... the music is as mysterios and fascinating as the instrument itself," and Scram Magazine writes ""If Burtner’s saxes were flesh, they’d be bionic: wired for feedback loops and computerized programs...Burtner explores the outer edges of live performance potential."

"Du Bai"(Monologue) (2003) for sheng solo (CS05)

Xiaoyong CHEN (2005) — was born in Beijing, China in 1955 where he began his studies in composition at the Central Conservatory from 1980 to 1985. These studies were continued in the class of György Ligeti at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg until 1989. Xiaoyong Chen belongs to a small group of young Chinese composers who have in recent times attracted a great deal of attention in Europe, in Asia, in the USA and in their native country. Already in 1987, his First String Quartet was premiered at the Donaueschinger Musiktage. Chen received the Composition Prize of the Forum Young Composers of the West-German-Radio (WDR) in 1992, the Kaske Prize Munich in 1993, and the J. S. Bach Prize awarded by the Hamburg Senate in 1995. Chen has worked with prominent orchestras and ensembles such as the South-west-Radio and TV (SWF) Symphony Orchestra Badeb-Baden, the KBS Symphony Orchestra (Seoul), the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Hamburg, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Orquestra Gulbenkian (Lisabon), the Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt, the London Sinfonietta, the Auryn Quartet, the Arditti String Quartet, the Ensemble 2e2m in Paris and so on. He has worked intensively with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmpnie Bremen since 1994. His work has been performed at many important festivals in Donaueschingen, Berlin, Cologne, Leipzig, Dresden, Munich, Hamburg, Hannover, Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Manchester, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, etc. Chen lives in Hamburg where he continues to develop his own personal musical language.

"Double Concerto" for sheng, bassoon, vln, vla, vcl, bass, fl, ob, cl, trp, tbn, euphonium (CrossSound 2005 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Il-Ryun CHUNG* (2005) — (b. 1964) was born in Frankfurt/M., the child of Korean parents. From 1967 to 1971 he lived inSeoul/Korea. Chung’s musical development began rather late, at the age of 16, when he taught himself to play the guitar. In 1984 he went to Berlin, where he found his first teacher and supporter, Carlo Domeniconi. From 1989-1995 he completed his studies in composition at the Berlin University of Arts (HdK Berlin) with Prof. Jolyon Brettingham-Smith.

A further encounter of great significance was his acquaintance with the Korean master drummer Kim Duk-Soo,who introduced  Chung to Korean percussion music and thus made a  lasting impression upon Chung’s rhythmic perception. In 2000-2001 he worked on a concerto for Korean percussion ensemble, known as Samulnori, and Orchestra

From the very beginning, the collaboration between composer and interpreter has been central to the working out of Chung’s compositions, which despite acute concern for idiomatic instrumental writing always place the highest technical demands upon the performers. In 1992 he received a composition stipend from the the Berlin Senate and 1993 he received a composition commission. 1994 he was awarded at the Berlin Festival for Guitar an Chamber Music, for his Movement in Circles II for flute and Guitar. In 1997 and 2003 the Berlin Senate again gave him composition commissions.

Concertizing as solo guitarist, chamber musician, and drummer for traditional Korean Music remains an integral part of Chung’s musical life. In 1997 he founded together with the violinist Matthias Leupold "Duo Saitenwege" for Violin and Guitar. In the year 2001 he founded together with Jocelyn Clark the Ensemble "IIIZ+" for contemporary and classical Asian music. Il-Ryun's music is recorded on Kreutzberg Records.

Dan COLEMAN (1999) has received many honors for his music, including the 1998 Whitaker Commission from the American Composers Orchestra, the 1997 Victor Herbert/ASCAP award for his Sonata in Two Acts, a 1996 grant from Commissioning Music/USA (a partnership between the NEA, Meet The Composer and the Helen F. Whitaker Fund), and the 1995 Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. From 1994-1996, Dan was the first Composer-in-Residence of Young Concert Artists, and was commissioned to create new works for artists on their roster. As Composer-in-Residence of the Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra since 1993, Dan has received five premiere performances by the Boston-based ensemble. Other residencies have included Music From Angel Fire (New Mexico) , the Yellowstone Music Festival (Montana), and the Seattle Chamber Music Festival. Dan has been commissioned to create new works for the Dallas Symphony, the New York Chamber Symphony, the New York Youth Symphony, the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, the Banff Centre, and the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Dan Coleman's music for theater and for dance has been composed for venues such as Playwrights Horizons and the Pennsylvania Ballet. Active in the recording industry, Dan Coleman has written arrangements for Geffen Records' artist Lisa Loeb. Dan studied composition with Stephen Albert and Robert Beaser at the Juilliard School, George Crumb and Jay Reise at the University of Pennsylvania, and William Bolcom and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music School. His music has been recorded for Albany Records.

"Variations on a Summer Day" for soprano and chamber ensemble
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

"Lint" for vla, vcl, fl, bari sax, 2 tbn on a film by Roald Simonson
(CrossSound 2002 commission — in residence in Sitka)

"Albion's Shore" for piano solo (CrossSound 2003 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Paul COX* (2000~2003) (b. 1969) — born and raised in Sitka, Alaska, received B.M. in percussion performance in 1992, from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Michael Rosen. He pursued additional study at London's Royal College of Music, Rice University, the Aspen School of Music, and Yale's Norfolk Chamber Music Festival. In addition, he holds a Certificate in Non-Profit Management from Case Western Reserve University. An avid composer, his Percussion Quartet No. 1 was premiered by the Oberlin Percussion Group in 1996. Two new works, Totems (a trio for three marimbas) and Manhatta for solo percussion and film, will be premiered at the Cleveland Museum of Art on May 12, 2000. In addition, Cox has given lectures at the Cleveland Institute of Music, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Cleveland Orchestra on topics ranging from Mendelssohn's watercolors to John Adams' latest piano concerto. Since 1996, he has been the assistant curator of musical arts at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where he contributes to the production of more than 60 concerts a year. Among his many pastimes are sea kayaking, hiking, chess, gardening, and traveling. He is married to Kirsten Docter, violist of the Cavani String Quartet.

"Chant" for 3vn, vla, vcl, bass, 2 fl, soprano, hrn, trp, euph, perc, mandolin, and prepared piano
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

""Baracolle" (1999) for vln, vla, vcl (CS05)

Marti EPSTEIN* (2001, 2005) — Marti Epstein started studying composition in 1977 with Professor Robert Beadell at the University of Nebraska. She has degrees from the University of Colorado and Boston University, and her principle teachers were Charles Eakin, Joyce Mekeel, and Bernard Rands.

Marti was a fellow in composition at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1986 and 1988 and worked with Oliver Knussen and Hans Werner Henze. As a result of her association with Henze, she was invited by the City of Munich to compose her puppet opera, Hero und Leander, for the 1992 Munich Biennale for New Music Theater. She was on the jury for the 1994 Biennale.

Marti has received commissions from Sequitur New Music Ensemble, the Fromm Foundation, guitarist David Tanenbaum, the American Dance Festival, the A*DEvant-garde Festival of Munich, tubist Samuel Pilafian, flutist Marianne Gedigian, the New England Brass Quintet, Boston Conservatory, Boston University Marsh Chapel Choir, pianist Kathleen Supove, and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston. Her music has been performed all over the United States and in Italy, Germany, and China. In April 1998 the San Francisco Symphony under the direction of Alisdair Neale presented the premiere performances of Marti's orchestral work, Celestial Navigation.

Marti's music has been recorded by pianist Kathleen Supove, guitarist Ulf Golnast, and the University of Iowa Brass Quintet. She was a resident at the MacDowell Colony in 1998 and in 1999. She was a recipient of a 1998 Fromm Foundation Commission, and she won the 1998 Lee Ettleson Composition Prize.

In September 1999, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt premiered Print, an orchestral work Marti composed in the spring of 1998. In February 2000, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston premiered Twylle which they commissioned from her. In August 2001, the CrossSound Sinfonietta of Juneau (Alaska) premiered Chant, a work comissioned by the CrossSound New Music Festival.

Marti Epstein is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music, where she has taught harmony, counterpoint, and composition since 1991. Marti is currently a co-director of the Boston new music ensemble, Extension Works.

"The Eternal Return" vor 2vln, vla, vcl, fl, ob, cl, hrn, trp, euph, drum kit, vib, git for video of Matt Marello
(CrossSound 2002 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

The music of C. P. FIRST* (2002) has been praised by critics around the world as "dizzyingly seductive" (Chicago Sun-Times), "concise and forceful" (Philadelphia Inquirer ), "real beauty" (Vienna Times, Austria), and "astonishingly complex and virtuosic" (Seen and Heard, England). First pursued composition studies in Chicago where he studied with Jack C. Goode, Stephen Syverud, Alan Stout, and at the University of Chicago with Pulitzer -Prize-winning composer, Shulamit Ran. He then earned a doctorate degree in composition from Northwestern University. His compositions have garnered numerous prizes, awards, and honors including winner in the American ISCM National Composers Competition, winner of the Concurso Internacional Composicion de Musical Spain (String Quartet), the Fourth Annual International Spectri Sonori Competition (finalist), first prize in the 12th Annual National Association of Composers, U.S.A. Competition, the American Composers Forum Sonic Circuits Competition (1998 and 2000), three National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Awards,ASCAP Standard Awards for ten consecutive years, ASCAP Young Composers Awards, first prize in the ACM Orchestra Composition Competition of Chicago, first prize in the Padrone-Kantscheidt Competition, first prize in the William T. Faricy competition, the Alabama State Council on the Arts Composition Fellowship, and the National Symphony Orchestra Commissioning Competition (finalist).

His music is published by MMB Music Inc., Apoll Editions Austria, European American Music Distributors, Freeland Press, and the NACUSA Graphics Series. His works are recorded on the Capstone and Apoll labels. He has received commissions from the Lark Quartet, the Vienna Saxophone Quartet, Dimitris Marinos and Commissioning Music /USA, Paul Bowman for the Darmstadt Tage fur Neue Musik 2000 Festival, the University of Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Raimundas Katilus,MTNA Commissioning Award, Christine Rutledge and Boyd Jones, Kurt Fowler, and Davis Brooks of the New York Chamber Symphony and Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center. His biography is published in Who's Who in America and the International Who's Who in Music-Cambridge, England. In 1998, he was one of three nominees for the distinguished Cal/Alpert Award in Music.

From 1990 to 1995 he taught composition and theory at Northwestern University and has taught at DePaul University and the American Conservatory of Music. Currently he is Associate Professor and Chair of Theory and Composition at the University of Alabama. Since 1992 he has served as the Artistic Director of The Chicago 21st Century Music Ensemble.

"Six Processions for Six Hands" for piano six hand
(CrossSound 2003 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Kiyoshi FURUKAWA* (2003) lives in Tokyo, where he was born in 1959. He studied composition under Yoshirou Irino in Japan, under Isang Yunat the Academy of Arts in Berlin, and under György Ligetiat the Academy of Music and Theatre in Hamburg. Furukawa began working with electronic media in 1984, and has since then conducted research in institutions including the Computer Music Center of Stanford University where he was guest composer in 1991, and the ZKM Institute for Art and Media Technology in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 1992, he founded the Music Media Lab in Hamburg. Deploying the chaos theory and interactive technology, as well as consistently carrying forward the linkage of music and computer-generated images and animations, Furukawa 's pieces far surpass the classical applications of music electronics. In acoustic music media, Furukawa's pieces unleash the positive, creative abilities of people (composer, musician, audience) working together to make art in collaboration with each other. Furukawa's awards and scholarships include the Ensemblia award in Moechengladbach (1983), the PRISMA Prize, Hamburg (1990), Siemens Project Scholarship (1992-3), North German Radio (NGR) Music Prize (1994), etc. Dividing his time between Germany and Japan, he is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Fine Arts: Inter-Media at the Tokyo National University for Fine Art and Music. Kiyoshi Furukawa was introduced to the CrossSound directors by 2002 CrossSound composer Toshiro Saruya (Dawn Pink, 1999, 2002).

Alexandra GARDNER* — is a composer and sound artist making music for performance and concert settings, dance, video, theater and installations. She works with acoustic instruments, electronics, environmental sounds and found objects to create aural landscapes of evolving sonic textures. Her compositions have been presented internationally at festivals and performance spaces including the Aspen Music Festival, Atlantic Center for the Arts, Akiyoshidai International Art Village, Centre de Cultura Contemporania de Barcelona, the Florida and Santa Fe Electroacoustic Music Festivals, Franklin Furnace, American Visionary Museum, The Mid-Hudson Art and Science Center, and The Smithsonian Institution. Alex's music has received awards from the American Composers Forum, ASCAP, the MacDowell Colony, Meet the Composer, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Montgomery County Arts Council and the Peabody Conservatory of Music. She studied music composition at Vassar College (BA 90), the California Institute of the Arts and The Peabody Conservatory of Music (MM97). A trained percussionist, she has studied orchestral, West African and Latin percussion, and performed in drumming ensembles, as a dance accompanist, and with a salsa band. Currently Alex lives and works in the Washington, DC area.

"Réflexions, Rose Nord" (1991~6) for bass clarinet and vibraphone (CS01)

Anthony GILBERT (2001) was born in London in 1934. Initially a translator and interpreter by profession he came to composition late, studying first with Mátyás Seiber, then with Anthony Milner and Alexander Goehr at Morley College, London, and later with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood. He first attracted public attention in the 1960s with a series of brilliant virtuoso works for small ensembles, performed in the international festivals. Notable among these are Brighton Piece and Nine or Ten Osannas, the latter now commercially available on CD, and, for members of The Fires of London, Spell Respell for Basset Clarinet and Piano, and The Incredible Flute Music. During this time he began a close association with Schotts publishers, working his way up from warehouseman to Chief Editor of contemporary music and Head of Production. Leaving London for the North of England in 1970, first as Granada Arts Fellow at Lancaster University and then to teach Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music, he devoted the next ten years to writing larger works. These included an acclaimed Symphony, Ghost and Dream Dancing for orchestra - in effect a second Symphony - and two operas: The Scene-Machine for Staatstheater Kassel and The Chakravaka-Bird, a BBC Jubilee commission specifically for radio transmission. Among works for contemporary chamber orchestra, his Crow Cry for the London Sinfonietta and Towards Asâvari for solo piano and chamber orchestra, a BBC commission for Peter Lawson and the Manchester Camerata, attracted particular attention and now available on an NMC CD. During the 1980s, largely as a result of extended periods of work in Australia where he headed the Composition Department at the New South Wales State Conservatorium, he focused once again on compositions featuring solo performers - of these, Moonfaring for cello and percussion has been particularly often performed as a concert piece and with dancers, and is now available on a CD of works performed by Psappha, Manchester’s leading contemporary ensemble. Beastly Jingles, the first of a trilogy of works based on an imaginary Chinese bestiary from J. L. Borges, has been recorded by Jane Manning and Jane’s Minstrels on the NMC label. A good deal of his work during the late 80s was for the virtuoso recorder player John Turner, and included the extraordinary concerto Igorochki, now out on CD. From this period also date Dream Carousels for wind, Gilbert’s most-performed work, also on CD, and the beautiful orchestral song-cycle Certain Lights Reflecting, both inspired by writings of the Tasmanian poet Sarah Day. Certain Lights was premièred by the late Susan Chilcott and the CBSO, has been performed by Merlyn Quaife and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, and is to be issued in March 1995 on an NMC CD in a superb performance by Susan Bickley and the BBC SO conducted by Andrew Davis.

This productive decade also included a second and a third String Quartet. The latter, commissioned for the Arditti and subtitled super hoqueto 'David', is another frequently-played work, now commercially issued on CD. In the 1990s Gilbert again concentrated on virtuoso pieces, this time featuring percussion. Ziggurat, for percussion and bass clarinet, commissioned by the Duo Contemporain, made a particularly strong impression. Further architecturally-inspired works followed, notably a series relating to the great rose windows and labyrinth of Chartres Cathedral: Réflexions, rose nord, Sinfin and Worldwhorls, also for the Duo Contemporain, and Os for oboe and vibraphone, commissioned by Melinda Maxwell. The major work of the 1990s has been his highly-acclaimed Violin Concerto On Beholding a Rainbow, commissioned by the BBC and first performed in January 1999 by Anthony Marwood and the BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Rumon Gamba. A more recent performance is also due to be released on CD in 2005 by NMC. His last work of the decade was Vers de Lune, a song-cycle for Alison Wells and Psappha to words by Aloysius Bertrand. Since then a short work for string orchestra, Another Dream Carousel, has been completed for the Northern Chamber Orchestra for their 2000-2001 season, and a longer one, Sheer, for the English Chamber Orchestra for 2004-5. Further string works this decade include a fourth String Quartet and most recently Palace of the Winds for 11 string soloists, commissioned by the Goldberg Ensemble for their 2004 Contemporary Music tour. Unrise for 10 wind was written as a substantial birthday gift to Timothy Reynish in recognition of 25 years of fine performances, and Rose luisante for the brilliant young accordionist Milos Milivojevic. A song-cycle to Spanish texts, Encantos, has just been completed for the soprano Marie Vassiliou and Endymion.

Throughout his professional life, Gilbert has been closely involved in the promotion of performances of new music, with several long periods on the committees of the Society for the Promotion of New Music, the ICA Music Section, the British and Sydney Sections of the ISCM and the New Music Panel of North West Arts. He was Founder Member, Chairman and Artistic Director of New Music Forum, Manchester, and Founder and Artistic Director of AKANTHOS, the new music ensemble of the RNCM.

Until his retirement at the end of 1999 Anthony Gilbert was Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Elliott GYGER* (1999, 2000) — was born in Sydney, Australia in 1968, and began writing music at about the age of ten. His composition teachers have included Ross Edwards and Peter Sculthorpe. He completed a Bachelor of Music in composition at the University of Sydney in 1989, graduating with 1st Class Honours and the University Medal. He is in his second year of studies for a Ph.D. in Composition at Harvard University. Elliott has taken part in numerous composition schools and workshops, including the Melbourne Summer Music School for Advanced Musical Studies (in 1988) and the National Orchestral Composers School (in 1990 and 1993). He was the Australian representative at FORUM 96 in Montreal, where his work A wilderness of mirrors, for solo E flat clarinet and ensemble, was awarded third prize. Other important works include the music theatre piece The Hammer That Shapes(1989), Ficta(1994) for vocal sextet, and La mer aux miroirs creves (1996) for nine players. Elliott's music is frequently performed by ensembles throughout Australia. The first performance of Deep and dissolving verticals of light was given by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in May 1997, and Crossbow, commissioned to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, was premiered in April 1998. The Sydney Childrens Choir has toured his work I am not yet born (1995) in Europe and Asia, and recorded it for CD. His most recent project was a collaborative work with visual artist Joe Felber on the writings of Ad Reinhardt, 25 Songs, for which he created a 21-minute "score" for prerecorded voices. It is currently on display at the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, before touring to Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide and Singapore.

"Sir Donald" for kayagûm, baroque cello and ch'anggu
(CrossSound 1999 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

"Strands" for koto and trombone (1997) (in residence in Sitka)(CS00)

"Small Craft" for vln, fl, vla, euphonium
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

"Fünf Szenen" (Five Scenes)(1986) for vibraphone solo
(in residence in Ketchikan)(CS01)

"The Displacement Map" for 2 vln, vcl, fl, ob d'amore, hrn, flügel hrn, euph, koto, git on video by Theo Lipfert (CrossSound 2002 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

"Characters from Stroller White's Gold Rush Days: Gussie Lamore, Nosey" for 2 sop sax, snare, and hurdy gurdy (CrossSound 2003 Commission – in residence in Juneau)

"Klanott and the Land Otter People — a SE Alaskan P'ansori" on a story by Brett Dillingham and libretto by Chan E. Park for p'ansori singer, zheng, 3 vn, cl, bass cl, hrn, and timpani (CrossSound 2005 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Writing for mandolin, kayagûm, bass, flute, cauyak
(CrossSound 2006 Commission — in residence in Anchorage)

Stefan HAKENBERG* (1999~2003, 2005~6) (Juneau) (1960) was born in Wuppertal, Germany, and attended the conservatories of Düsseldorf and Cologne, where he studied composition with Hans Werner Henze. At Harvard, he studied with Mario Davidovsky and Bernard Rands. Other grants and fellowships brought him to the summer festivals in Tanglewood, Aspen, and Fontainebleau, to the artists' colonies "The MacDowell Colony" in New Hampshire, "Yaddo" in Saratoga Springs, and the "Atelierhaus Worpswede" in Lower Saxony. The Endowment for the Arts in North-Rhine Westfalia has sponsored his work repeatedly. His compositions include works for a wide variety of media, from solo chamber music, to stage works, to interactive multimedia installations. His contributions to Hans Werner Henze’s ?Alternative Cultural Projects? led to the development of his own projects such as Der Kinderkreuzzug for the Opera of Cologne. Amongst the presenters of his music are "The Chicago 21st Century Music Ensemble," "Arcadian Winds" from Boston, the "Ensemble Phorminx" from Darmstadt, "The New Millennium Ensemble" from New York, the "Bangkok Saxophone Quartet," "Duo Contemporain" from Rotterdam, "UnitedBerlin," the "Heidelberger Sinfoniker," and the "Gürzenich Orchester der Stadt Köln," conductors like Jeffrey Milarsky, Morris Rosenszweig, Richard Pittman, George Tsontakis, Johannes Stert and Markus Stenz. Composing in collaboration with amateurs, and the integration of players from the folk music world or of non-western background are particularly important aspects of Hakenberg’s creative thought. His ?Musical Picture Books? are examples of his capacity for formal innovations and his work as a whole is an ongoing reflection on the musical inventions and forms of the artistic behavior of his peers who he comes across along an international career that brought him from Europe to Harvard University, to the Asian mix of cultures in Seoul, to creating new music in Alaska’s capital city. Additional information, including full bibliography and sound clips, are available online at http://stefanhakenberg.com.

Hans Werner HENZE ( CrossSound’s 2003 program "SeaBoard Alexander" will present a composer-approved and endorsed premiere of an arrangement of the aria "Nocturnal Serenade" from the opera The English Cat (1983) for piano four-hand and mezzo-soprano (arrangement by Martin Zehn — see below)):

Hans Werner Henze is among the most prolific and successful of contemporary German composers. Hans Werner Henze was born on 1 July 1926, and grew up first under the Weimar Republic and then under Germany’s Fascist dictatorship, living in the provinces and in 1944/45 serving in the German armed forces, which by then were in retreat and on the point of total surrender. He resumed his music studies at the end of the war, and throughout in the years of Germany’s post-war reconstruction worked in Heidelberg and Darmstadt, and subsequently at the theatres in Konstanz and Wiesbaden. His first composition, a chamber concerto, was performed in 1946.

In the 1940s and 1950s Henze’s output included works in both contemporary and more traditional forms, including opera and ballet. After Henze moved to Italy in 1953, his music became more expansive, sensuous and lyrical and he produced a sequence of operas (König Hirsch, 1956; Elegy for Young Lovers, 1961) and cantatas (Kammermusik, 1958; Cantata della fiaba estrema, 1963). The climax to this period came with a rich and elaborate but also dynamic treatment of The Bacchae in the opera The Bassarids (1966), followed by a period of self-searching; that was externalized in the Second Piano Concerto (1967).

During the late 1960s and 1970s Henze also continued his exploration of orchestral works in such pieces as Heliogabalus imperator (1972) and Tristan (1974), and continued to reinterpret old musical models (Aria de la folía española for chamber orchestra, 1977). Later works, including the opera The English Cat (1983) and the Seventh Symphony (1984), embody the synthesis of traditional and contemporary forms, and lyricism and structure that characterize Henze’s best work.

Between 1972 and 1996 Hans Werner Henze also left his mark on the world of European music through his activities as a teacher and for many years taught composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Salzburg Mozarteum, the Musikhochschule in Cologne and at the Tanglewood Festival. During this period he was also involved in youth music and in working with young musicians, two activities that led to the founding of the Cantiere at Montepulciano (Siena), the Deutschlandsberg Jugendmusikfest (Styria) and the Munich Biennale for New Music Theatre.

The 1990s have also seen the composition of four symphonies, nos. 7 to 10, all of which belong to the nineteenth- and twentieth-century German symphonic tradition in terms of their length and demands. All have enjoyed great international acclaim. No.’s 7 and 9 were commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic, no. 8, by the Boston Symphony Orchestra and no. 10, by Paul Sacher. This last-named work received its first performance at the 2002 Lucerne Festival with the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle.

Martin ZEHN* was born in Berlin. At the age of fourteen, he became a young student of Professor Gediga at the Cologne Musikhochschule, where he also eventually studied composition with Bojidar Bimov. After matriculation he was awarded a German People’s scholarship. In 1984, he began twin courses in Munich: composition with Wilhelm Kilmayer, and piano, first with Alfons Kontarsky and later with Karl-Hermann Mrongovius. Later, he completed his keyboard studies in Dresden as a master-class pupil of Amadeus Webersinke. Martin Zehn has won numerous prizes in international competitions, including the first prize in the national German university competition in 1990, the first prize in the Carl Maria von Weber Competition in Munich, and the Premio Jan in Spain. He was awarded scholarships from the German Music Council and from the cities of Munich and Dresden. In Vienna he was awarded the second prize in the 1993 Beethoven Competition, together with an extra prize for the best interpretation of contemporary music. With concert agencies in Germany, Italy and Spain he has built a career both as a soloist and in chamber music.

"The Raven Suite" for bari sax, trp, hrn, tbn, tba on a story by the Tongass School of Arts and Science under the direction of Keith Smith
(CrossSound 2005 Commission — in residence in Ketchikan)

Fred HO* (2005) — (New York) is a Chinese-American baritone saxophonist, composer, writer, producer and leader of the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and the Monkey Orchestra. Since graduating from Harvard University with a Bachelor's degree in sociology in 1979, he has developed an "Afro Asian New American" multicultural music that weaves together the most soulful and transgressive forms of African American music with the musical influences of Asia and the Pacific Rim. Over the last twenty years Ho has written over a half dozen operas, music/ theater epics, cutting edge multimedia performance works, martial arts ballet, and oratorios. Ho has received numerous awards, including three Rockefeller Foundation Multi-Arts Project grants (1999, 1998, 1991); two National Endowment for the Arts Fellowships (Opera/Musical Theater, 1994 and Jazz Composition, 1993); a 1988 Duke Ellington Distinguished Artist Lifetime Achievement Award from the Black Musicians Conference, and many others.

Sanjo for kayagûm and ch'anggu (CS99)

HWANG Byung-Ki (1999) composer and kayagûm master graduated from Seoul National University with a degree in law in 1959. In 1951 he entered the National Classical Music Institute as a researcher specializing in kayagûm performance and composition where he studied with such noted teachers as Yongyun Kim, Yundok Kim, and Sanggon Shim. Between 1965 and 1973 he won the National Traditional Music Competition three times, the Korean Cinema Music Award in 1973, In 1990 he was named Performing Artist of the Year by the Korean Critics Association for his work in exchange of North and South Korean musicians, and in 1992, he won the Chung'ang Cultural Prize. He has performed and recorded extensively in Europe, Japan, the United States, and Southeast Asia since 1964. In addition to composition and performace, he has taught in the music departments of Seoul National University, the University of Washington in Seattle, and Ewha Women's University where he is presently a professor. Dr. Hwang is also a member of the Intangible Human Cultural Assets Committee, and is the president of the Korea Chapter of the International Society for Contemporary Music.

"Sonata Lumierre Du Soleil" for violin solo
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Hiroko ITO* (2000, 2001) — was born in Japan. She studied composition under Mario Davidovsky, Stephen Mosko, Mel Powell and Bernard Rands. She also studied Gagaku with Suenobu Togi at the University of California in Los Angeles. Following receipt of her undergraduate degree in literature in Tokyo, Hiroko earned a Master's degree in composition and conducting from the California Institute of the Arts and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in composition at Harvard University. One of her most recent performances was in Halifax, England, directed by Shakuhachi virtuoso Elizabeth Bennett. Ito's current interest includes a composition for an ensemble using non-western instruments and European orchestral instruments. She is also working on a reference addressing problems and issues associated with composing and performing works for such an ensemble. The project with CrossSound satisfies her strong interest in the topic. She is currently writing a dissertation, while teaching at Asahi Gakuen in Los Angeles. She is also an active performer of Gagaku in Southern California.

"Iphigenia Terrea" for soprano, narrator, piano 6 hand, and Greek chorus
(CrossSound 2003 Commission)

"Primion Beta" (1993) for bassoon solo (CS05)

For Alexandros KALOGERAS* (2003, 2005) — (b. 1961) the flexibility and vast imagination of traditional folk players, the mysticism of Byzantine music, and the ritualistic and dramatic character of ancient Greek theater have been a point of departure for most of his works. Born in Athens, Greece, in 1961, he pursued studies in piano, theory, voice and choral conducting at the National Conservatory of Athens, and later he studied composition at Boston University and Harvard University from where he graduated with a Ph.D. in May 1995. Primary teachers have been Theodore Antoniou, Bernard Rands, John Harbison and Donald Martino. He has worked on Computer Music with Mario Davidovsky, and at the Media Lab of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with Barry Vercoe. Additional studies in France (with Olivier Messiaen, Luigi Nono and Toru Takemitsu), Germany (Darmstadt) and Russia.

His work includes pieces for solo instruments, chamber music, orchestra, chorus, music for the theater, as well as electronic and computer music. He has received many commissions by organizations in the United States and Europe, where six of his works have been awarded first prizes in composition competitions. Each season his music is featured in concerts and broadcast by stations of many cities, some times as diverse as Boston, New York, Chicago, Memphis, Athens, Rio De Janeiro, Milan, Amsterdam, St. Petersburg and Tokyo. He is a frequent guest of festivals in USA, Europe and Russia, where he has presented approximately 50 lectures on the contemporary music scene in the United States, Greece and other parts of the world. His music has been published by several houses including BMG and Ricordi.

Mr. Kalogeras currently teaches music at Harvard University and Berklee College of Music in Boston and at the National Conservatory in Athens.

"The Story of Rain" on a story by John Straley for vla, fl, cl, tbn, tba, perc (CrossSound 2005 Commission — in residence in Sitka)

Cecilia Heejeong KIM* (2005) — was born in Seoul in 1968 and graduated from Yonsei University, where she received her Bachelor's degree in musical composition in 1990. Upon graduation Kim moved to Philadelphia where she studied with Joseph Castaldo and began experimenting with multi-media works at the University of the Arts. She received her M.M. and Ph.D. in Music at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied with George Crumb, James Primosch and Richard Wernick. In 1996 Kim moved to Boston for post-doctoral study at Harvard University, and is currently a professor in composition at Sang Myung University in Seoul. Her music has been performed in Korea, France, Hungary and the U.S. Her interests cover various fields, which have led to her involvement in multimedia works and film and modern dance productions. Kim has won many competitions, including an award from The 26th Canadian International Annual Film Festival. Last year one of her pieces was selected to officially represent the 2002 Pusan Asian Games.

"The Oort Cloud" for pipa, kayagûm, marimba, trombone, and bari sax
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Sitka)

Born in Tokushima, Japan in 1962, Yuriko Hase KOJIMA* (2001) holds BFA in piano from Osaka College of Music, BM in composition from Boston Conservatory, and MA and DMA (2000) in composition from Columbia University. She studied composition with Tristan Murail, Jonathan Kramer, John Clement Adams and Isao Matsushita; computer/electronic music with Brad Garton and Art Kreiger; piano with Niels Ostbye and Jung-Ja Kim, among many others.

As a student, she was given many awards and prizes, including Summa Cum Laude with Arthur T. Whitney Award for Highest Scholastic Achievement and Roger Sessions Composition Award from Boston Conservatory, and Andrew Mellon Fellowships and Rapaport Composition Prize from Columbia University, where she taught music courses until 1998. In 1997, she was nominated for a composition award by American Academy of Arts and Letters, which she gave up because of her visa status in the US.

Her music expands from contemporary European musical idiom to Asian musical aesthetics, combining instruments from different part of the world, including forefront computer music techniques. Her works have been broadcasted by NHK-FM, Japan, and presented at various international festivals and conferences, such as ISCM World Music Days in Luxembourg, ACL Asian Music Week in Yokohama, International Computer Music Conference in Greece, Fontainebleau Summer Music Festival in France, First International Guitar Festival in Mexico, performed by ensembles such as Ensemble Modern (Germany), Pearls Before Swine Experience (Sweden), and North/South Consonance (USA).

Ms. Kojima has been a member of International Computer Music Association and Japan Federation of Composers, by whom her piano trio has been published (JFC-9807). Since 1999, she has been a faculty member at Toho Gakuen College School of Music and Senzoku Gakuen College in Tokyo, and continues composing and doing researches on musical aesthetics.

12 selections from "Jatékók" (Games)(1973) for piano four hand: Playing with Infinity (version A), Hommage a Verdi, Staggering, Meandering Tune, Twittering, Hoquetus (the piece), Silence, Furious Chorale, Fog Cannon, Hand in Hand, Dot and Spot, Prelude and Waltz (CS03)

György KURTÁG (2003) is one of Hungary’s two most important contemporary composers, together with György Ligeti. Kurtág was born on February 19, 1926 in Lugos, Romania, and began to study piano and composition in 1940. He moved to Budapest in 1946, where he studied composition, piano, and chamber music at the Liszt Academy of Music. A year-long stay in Paris in 1957-58 profoundly influenced his musical development. While in Paris Kurtág was a student of Marianne Stein and took classes with Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud, and through them was also strongly influenced by the Vienna School (Arnold Schoenberg et Anton Webern) and the Gruppen of Karlheinz Stockhausen. Kurtág was professor of piano and later of chamber music at the Academy of Music from 1967 until his retirement in 1986, and continues to teach piano and chamber music privately.

Kurtág produced his first numbered Opus - a string quartet (Opus 1) - upon his return from Paris in 1958. The works presented in Opus 1 to 6, a group which also includes a wind quintet and solo piano pieces, illustrate how much Kurtág had learned in Paris. Short, expressive, highly-concentrated musical themes suggest the early Webern, while the themes’ rhythmic liveliness owes much to Olivier Messiaen's theatrical concept of rhythmic cells as "personnages," which Kurtág would have learned about through his analysis classes with the older composer.

Kurtág wrote Games for piano four hands (1973) after a period in which he had difficulty composing. The work is the first in which the influence of Milhaud, whose classes Kurtág attended in Paris, emerges fully. Games was initially commissioned and conceived as pieces for children, which added to their liberating effect on the deeply serious and critical Kurtág. He developed them into a unique blend of musical diary, analysis (of the works of other composers such as Bach) and also compositional workshop. Many of the ideas generated in Games formed seeds for larger works in the ensuing years 1975-1979.

Since the beginning of the 1980s Kurtág has worked in a number of idioms, creating works for solo voice, choir, and chamber ensembles. Until the composition of his orchestral work, "Stele" (Opus 33), during his period as composer-in-residence with the Berlin Philharmonic from 1993 to 1995, Kurtág produced only works for solo instruments and small ensembles. These pieces, many of them very short, reveal his intent to express as much as possible within deliberate limits. Kurtág is especially interested in the possibilities of the human voice, in which he sees an instrument with new possibilities beyond its habitual narrative or operatic roles.

Bun-Ching LAM* (2000) — was born in the Macao region of China in 1954. She began studying piano at the age of seven and gave her first public solo recital at fifteen. In 1976, she received a B.A. degree in piano performance from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. She then accepted a scholarship from the University of California at San Diego, where she studied composition with Bernard Rands, Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, and earned a Ph.D. in 1981. In the same year, she was invited to join the music faculty of the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, where she taught until 1986. A winner of the Rome Prize (1991), Lam has also been awarded first prizes at the Aspen Music Festival, the Northwest Composer's Symposium, and the highest honor at the Shanghai Music Competition, which was the first international composers' contest to take place in China. She has also been a recipient of grants and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Commissioning Program, New York Foundation for the Arts, King County Arts Commission and Seattle Arts Commission. She was in residence at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Study and Conference Center. Most recently, she received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council for a three -month study trip to Japan, and the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her current projects include the chamber opera "Wenji" supported by the International Collaborative Project of Meet the Composer, and commissions from Chamber Music America and the New Jersey Symphony. Ms. Lam's orchestral works have been performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Albany Symphony, Women's Philharmonic, Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Holland, and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta. Her compositions have been featured in music festivals around the world such as the Bang on a Can (New York), New Music America (Los Angeles), Tokyo Summer Festival, Pacific Sounding (Japan), Hong Kong Arts Festival, ISCM World Music Days (Hong Kong), Steirische Herbst (Austria), and the 24 Heures Communication (Belgium). She was a composer in residence at the America Dance Festival, the Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East. She is currently on the Board of Director for the American Composers Orchestra, and has served on the Advisory boards of the New York Foundation for the Arts, Composer's Forum and the Pauline Oliveros Foundation. In 1997, Bun-Ching Lam taught at Bennington College in the Spring Semester, and served as a Visiting Professor in Composition at the School of Music, Yale University in the Fall. She now lives and works in New York. Her music has been recorded on CRI, Tzadik, Nimbus, Koch International Classics, Sound Aspect and Tellus.

Allen LARSEN (2003) — (1975-2003) For Allen Larsen – born and raised in Ketchikan, Alaska – music was an important part of his life from an early age. He listened to his mother and her friends, active in the local folk-music scene, play traditional Irish and American music during informal living-room jam sessions. Although he opted for classical music, studying piano, and then trombone with Roy McPherson, his early roots in traditional music provided an important foundation in his later development as a composer.

Allen became interested in composition while playing trombone in high school band, experimenting with pieces for concert band. After graduating from Ketchikan High School in 1993, he went on to study composition with Barbara Jazwinski at Tulane University in New Orleans, where he received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Attending graduate school at Michigan State University, he studied composition with Jere Hutcheson, and computer music with Mark Sullivan. He received his Master of Music degree from Michigan State in 2001.

Mr. Larsen has recently returned to Ketchikan, and is now an active composer. Like many other small Alaskan communities, Ketchikan has an important tradition of community music, where amateur and professional musicians contribute to a rich and vibrant artistic scene. Continuing in this tradition, Larsen is writing music for local musicians and ensembles. He strongly believes that musicians of all ages and skill levels should be able to participate in the creation and performance of contemporary music, and that composers should not focus on writing strictly for virtuosi or professional ensembles, but also take time to contribute to the musical life of communities like Ketchikan.

"Texture Mapping" for kayagûm and string quartet on a video of Claudia Essinger (CrossSound 2002 Commission — in residence in Juneau)

Yunkyung LEE's* (2002) music takes various forms depending on the conception, site, and material of each work. Her sound installation work often focuses on the space itself as an important musical element. Yunkyung Lee studied composition at Yonsei University, (B.A), electro-acoustic music at the Manhattan School of Music in New York (M.A.), composition at the Hochschule der Kuenste Berlin, and movement at the Rubin Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. She is also active as a performer, especially as a member of the experimental pianists group PIO (Piano Inside Out) with Reinhold Friedl and Michael Iber.

"Exabruptos 3" for bassoon solo - world premiere (CS05)

Peruvian composer Pedro MALPICA started his formal musical training as a guitar major, first at the Conservatorio de Lima and later at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico , where he studied guitar performance, music education, and composition, earning his bachelor's degree with honors. Subsequently, he pursued masters and doctoral studies in composition at Boston University , working with Lukas Foss and Theodore Antoniou. In 2001 he received the Roberto I. Ferdman Scholarship by Pro Arte Musical, and in 2003 he was elected as a member of the Society of Pi Kappa Lambda, the National Music Honor Society of the USA.

Pedro is currently pursuing further graduate studies in composition with Christopher Rouse at The Juilliard School , where he has been awarded The Piser Scholarship.

Recent commissions include ALEA III, bassoonist Janet Underhill, Tres Americas Project, percussionist Alex Lipowski, and Boston University Productions.

Pedro's music has been performed by ensembles such as the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the renowned contemporary ensemble ALEA III, and The Ikarus Chamber Players, in venues such as the Tsai Performance Center, Tufts University, Alice Tully Hall (Lincoln Center), Paine Hall (Harvard University), Paul Hall and Morse Hall (The Juilliard School), as well as in Canada, Peru and Puerto Rico. During the following months Pedro's music will be performed at The Juilliard Theatre, at the Sala de Niños Cantores in Mexico, at the 2005 CrossSound Festival in Juneau and Sitka (Alaska) by Bassoonist Janet Underhill, in Canada by cellist Julia MacLaine, in Taiwan by clarinetist Chiu-Yuan Chen, in Greece, and at the III International Contemporary Music Festival in Lima, Peru, in November 2005.

Pedro is a cofounder of áltaVoz, a consortium of five Latin American composers engaged in the promotion of contemporary art.

". . . there is none like thee among the dancers . . . " fo kayagûm, vla, fl, ch'anggu (CrossSound 1999 Commission — in residence in Juneau) (CS05)

"Two Songs" for soprano, koto, marimba, trombone, bari sax
(CrossSound 2000 Commission — in residence in Sitka)

Cord MEIJERING* — (1999, 2000, 2005) (b. 1955) Dutch composer, was born in Esens, Germany, and lives now in Darmstadt. He studied guitar under Olaf Van Gonnissen, and composition under Dietrich Boekle and Johannes G. Fritsch. From 1983 to 1986 he was a member of Hans Werner Henze's master class; he then completed his studies as a master student under Hans Juergen Wenzel at the Academy of Arts in East-Berlin where he was awarded a stipend. In 1985 he received a prize at a composing competition in Stuttgart for his orchestral composition the voice of the winter. In 1987 he received a commendation at the international composers' competition "Hambacher Preis" for the string trio "...bewegt..." ("...moved...") and in 1996 the "Bad Homburger Foerderpreis" for the composition Nights of 1990. In 1991 Meijering was awarded a scholarship by MacDowell Inc. New York for a stay at Peterborough, N.H. His compositions have been performed at Festival de Tardor Barcelona (Spain), at the Steirischer Herbst Graz (Austria), at the Festival d'Evian (Swizerland), at the Frankfurt Feste, at the Internationale Ferienkurse fuer Neue Musik Darmstadt (Germany), at the Guggenheim Museum New York, at the CrossSound Festival Juneau and Sitka (Alaska) and other places. Meijering wrote compositions for orchestra, chamber music, dance theater, film music (for Sharon Greytak's The Love Lesson, New York 1995, shown at the Museum of Modern Art, at Lincoln Center New York, Los Angeles Film Festival and other places).

"The Greening" for 20-string koto solo (1967) played by 21-string zheng (CS05)

MIKI Minoru — was born in Tokushima, Japan in 1930 and graduated from Tokyo National University of Music a composition major. He founded Pro Musica Nipponia in 1964 and served as Artistic Director for 20 years, leading the contemporary Japanese instrumental world and producing over 160 performances abroad in his efforts to internationalize traditional Japanese instruments. Among his acclaimed works are Paraphrase After Ancient Japanese Music, Convexity, Four Seasons, Hote, Concerto Requiem, Ki-no-Kane, and many others. His four record phonograph album "The Music of Minoru Miki" took the Grand Prize in Japan's 1970 National Arts Festival.

In a parallel with this movement, Miki invented 20-string koto(two years later became 21-strings) with Keiko Nosaka in 1969. He composed variable pieces for this instrument, but main solo works are Tennyo, Venus in Spring and Autumn, From the East and 20 Ballades for koto solo including Hanayagi (Greening). His next four record album "Minoru Miki- Keiko Nosaka/Music for 20-string koto" won the Prize of Excellence in 1979 Festival.
He composed Kyu-no-Kyoku (Symphony for Two Worlds), commissioned by the Leipzig Gewandhous Orchestra for its bicentennial celebration and world premiered in 1981 conducted by Kurt Masur (American premiered by the New York Philharmonic in 1994). Thus completed Eurasian Trilogy (Jo-no-Kyoku, Ha-no-Kyoku, Kyu-no-Kyoku) which links Japanese instruments with a symphony orchestra.

In 1993, when Orchestra Asia was founded by Japanese-Chinese-Korean instruments, he was installed as Artistic Director and composed Folk Symphony "Den-Den-Den", Loulan as a Dream, Pipa Concerto, Soul 2000 and Rainbow Overture. Its Japanese instrumental section has started independent activities as ORA-J in 1998 under Miki's direction and already had eleven regular concerts. Also he founded Asia Ensemble in 2002 organized by the most excellent soloists of each Asian traditional instruments. The ensemble started by Miki's new piece Origin for Erfu, Shakuhachi, Pipa, Koto and Da-Sanxian, and in each autumn had concert tours in Japan.

He also wrote cinema scores like well-known L'empire de sons.

In 1996, Miki published a book "The Theory of Composing for Japanese Instruments" (Its Chinese translation published in 2000). Also a book "During completion of the opera The tale of Genji " including 60 essays published in 2001, “Minoru Miki, the Road with 21-string Koto” published in 2004.

He awarded the Cultural Prize of Tokushima Prefecture in 1991, an honorable Purple Ribbon Metal in 1994 and the Order of the Rising Sun in 2000..

Miki is a visiting professor of the Tokyo College of Music, and the Shikoku University. Management: Japan Arts

Writing for 2 vn, vcl, fl, cl, tbn
(CrossSound 2006 Commission — in residence in Anchorage)

Philip MUNGER (Wasilla)* — was born in 1946 and studied composition at Oberlin Conservatory and at the University of Washington. After working in Seattle, he has lived in Alaska since 1973. Munger has sought to address concerns about environmental, humanitarian and social issues in a number of his compositions. He has spoken and written widely on these issues. He has received many prizes and other honours. His works have been performed at the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Juilliard Institute, Cornish Institute, Warsaw Conservatory, the National Gallery, the National Cathedral and several other notable venues. His most recent award, from the service organization Bugles Across America, was in January 2005, for his composition Shards, honouring America’s Afghanistan and Iraq Wars’ dead, for which he was awarded their “For Valor” decoration. The Guardian writes of a recent sold-out performance of Munger's Op. 75 in London's Royal Court's Jerwood Theatre, "Theatre can't change the world. But what it can do, when it's as good as this, is to send us out enriched by other people's passionate concern." He is currently teaches at the University of Alaska Anchorage and plays trombone in the UAA Wind Ensemble.

"June Music 1981" for vn, vcl (CS06)

Onute NARBUTAITE (Lithuania 1956) — is the most prominent Lithuanian woman composer. The recipient of numerous national and international awards, Onute Narbutaite's works are constantly performed at concerts and festivals in Sweeden, Germany, Poland, The Netherlands, Denmark, Turkey, the US, Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Canada and Japan.

Onute Narbutaite studied early on with Bronius Kutavicius, and in 1979 she graduated from the Lithuanian State Conservatoire (present the Academy of Music) where she studied composition with Prof. Julius Juzeliunas. In 1979-1982 she lectured on music theory and history at the Lithuanian State Conservatoire in Klaipeda, and since 1982 she has lived in Vilnius as a freelance composer.

The first works by Onute Narbutaite appeared together with the wave of "new romantics," which distinguished themselves by "open emotions and a diary-like manner of speaking." "June Music 1981" for violin and cello is among these early pieces. The composer writes that she is "attracted by a complete, let's call it - 'classical' shape of music, where a great role belongs to form, certain aestheticism and a sense of taste and limit".

The majority of the works by Onute Narbutaite can be characterized by the words of the Latvian composer Imants Zemzaris: "Finished work with the charm of a sketch." The ornaments of her "open work" submit to the deep flows of music and catch the listener together with them. The Polish musicologist Danuta Mirka has aptly noted that Narbutaite's music is "radiating with subtle lyricism and testifying to an extraordinary sensitivity of the author, as well as to the discipline directing the repetitive-permutational flow of masterful sound constructions."

"Phoenix" for bari sax solo and voices (CS01 PII)

Composer and saxophonist NODA Ryo (2001) — (PHOENIX - FOR BARI SAX SOLO) - was born in 1948 in Amagasaki Japan. He studied with O. Kita and A. Sakaguchi in Japan before he moved to the United States to study saxophone with Fred L. Hemke and composition with W. L. Karlins. From the U.S. he moved to the Bordeaux Conservatory in France where he studied with Jean-Marie Londeix and M. F. Lambezat. Prizes include a laureate from the Osaka College of Music, a Premier Prix for his work on the saxophone, and the Prix d’Honeur from the City of Bordeaux, in addition to the SACEM Prize for composition. Noda has written several chamber works and continues his career as a performer with concerts in Europe, the USA and Japan, with a ?resolutely contemporary reperoire.?

"The Great Secret Lies" for pipa, kayagûm, marimba
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Sitka)

Karola OBERMüLER* (2001) — was born in 1977 near Darmstadt, Germany. From the age of six, she took music lessons at the Akademie für Tonkunst Darmstadt, first on piano, then on cello, and later in composition and theory. She also studied ear training with cord Meijering. In 1996 she passed her Abitur (the equivalence of A-levels) at the Lichtenbergschule Darmstadt and began to study composition at the Meistersinger-Konservatorium Nürnberg with Volker Blumenthaler resulting in such pieces as Streichquintett 1997 (String quintet 1997) for two violins, viola, violoncello and double-bass and Fünf Wutfetzen (Five scraps of fury) for piano solo (1998). From 1997-98 she also studied philosophy at the ?Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Obermüller participated in Tage Neuer Musik 1999 (Festival of Contemporary Music) in Nürnberg with the first performance of her Mini-Opera Mein Name ist Urlappi (My name is Urlappi). Since then she has written ...incalzando... for cor anglais and organ (1999/00); Musik für Blockflöte, Harfe und Cembalo (Music for recorder, harp and harpsichord) (1999/00); Five scents of RED for orchestra (2000); and Einseitige Dialoge (one-sided dialogues), three songs based on poems by Gabriele Strassmann for mezzosoprano and piano (2000).

Bernard RANDS* (2000) — (b. 1934) — Through some ninety works composed for a wide range of performance genres, Bernard Rands is established as a major figure in contemporary music. The originality and distinctive character of his music have been variously described as "plangent lyricism" with a "dramatic intensity" and a "musicality and clarity of idea allied to a sophisticated and elegant technical mastery" - qualities he developed from his early studies with Dallapiccola and Berio in Italy. Born in England in 1934, Rands emigrated to the United States in 1975 since when he has been honored by awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters; the Guggenheim Foundation; the National Endowment for the Arts; the Barlow, Fromm, and Koussevitzky Foundations; the Pew Trust and the Carey Trust among others. Recent commissions include orchestral works for the Suntory concert hall in Tokyo; for the New York Philharmonic's 100th anniversary; the centenary of Carnegie Hall; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Internationale Bach Akademie, Stuttgart. Other recent commissions have resulted in works for the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, the Dale Warland Singers, Chanticleer, the Mendelssohn Quartet and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra; the Boston Symphony Orchestra for a 'cello concerto for Rostropovitch in celebration of his seventieth birthday; from the Philadelphia Orchestra; the B.B.C. Symphony Orchestra; the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and from Meet the Composer for a consortium of orchestras and soloists. In addition to his own frequent appearances on the podium, Rands' music has been conducted by many including Boulez, Berio, Maderna, Marriner, Mehta, Muti, Ozawa, Rilling, Salonen, Sawallisch, Schiff, Schuller, Schwarz, Silverstein, Sinopoli, Slatkin and von Dohnanyi. He has been guest composer at many international festivals around the world and Composer in Residence at the Aspen and Tanglewood festivals. From 1989 to 1996 he was Composer in Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rands' work Canti del Sole, premiered by Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, was awarded the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His orchestral suites Le Tambourin won the 1986 Kennedy Center Friedheim Award. In the academic world, Rands has held fellowships and professorships in the universities of Wales, York, Brasenose College Oxford, Princeton, Yale, the University of California, Boston University and The Juilliard School. He was the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music and the Walter Channing Cabot Fellow at Harvard University until 2005.

"Harald and the Purple Crayon" for bass clarinet, 2 trp, horn, tbn
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Ketchikan)

Carl SCHIMMEL (2001) — I grew up in Wakefield, Rhode Island, and attended Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, where I received a degree in Mathematics and Music. My master's degree I obtained in 1999 from Yale School of Music, where I studied with Ezra Laderman, Martin Bresnick, Evan Ziporyn, and Ned Rorem. I lived in New York City for three years and went back to school in 2002 at Duke University, where I have studied with Anthony Kelley, Syd Hodkinson, and Scott Lindroth. My goal is to write music that people really care about -- themes addressed in my work include humor and mathematics.

Burkhardt SöLL (2001) (b. 1944, Marienberg Westerwald, Germany) is composer and painter. In his native country he studied music, composition, conducting, pedagogics and visual arts. Since 1977 he lives and works in Leyden, the Netherlands. Also, he is a teacher at the Utrecht Academy of Arts.

Söll has written a great diversity of works: children's songs, chamber music, operas and music for film and theater. For a long time his works were inspired by paintings. Thus he composed Victory Boogie-Woogie in the late eighties, after Mondriaan's painting with the same name. In this piece, written for the orchestra De Volharding, Söll has also elaborated a little tableau by Jan Steen.

During the last nine years Söll composes according to a self-invented system which has the natural growth of plants as a basis. "Plant growth can be expressed in numbers: those numbers I use to attain structure in my works. Additionally, I try to describe in my pieces what the beauty of a plant does to me."

Listeners will not hear anything of those complicated numbers, but this way the beauty of plants is expressed even better. Examples of "plant art" are Gouden regen (1989) for bass clarinet, Judaspenning (1992) for alto saxophone and vibraphone, and Amorphophallus(1993). The last work, written for the Selmer Saxophone Quartet, is about the so-called penis plant, that blossoms once every thirty year in an ultimately spectacular manner.

Söll has a special favour for dark sounds. Especially bass clarinet, cello, viola and trombone appeal to him. In his piece for two pianos, Schwarz und Weiß sind alle Farben zugleich, dark sounds play an important role. "The piece starts with high tones in the right hand. Those are light colours. Then a percussive part follows in which low and dark tones are introduced. The work is very rythmical: I use the piano as a percussion instrument."

Burkhardt Söll's work is published by Tonos Musikverlags GmbH in Darmstadt, Germany.

SARUYA, Toshiro (1999, 2002) — received a scholarship to study composition and conducting with Vincent Persichetti and others at the Julliard School where he received a master's degree after graduating from Keio University with a degree in Law. In 1988, during his fellowship in composition from the Koussevitsky Music Foundation, Saruya studied with Hanz Werner Henze and Oliver Knussen at the Tanglewood Music Festival. Soon after, his Two Million Light Years of Loneliness was played at Carnegie Hall and his Fiber of The Breath was performed by the Orchester der Beethovenhalle Bonn and the NHK Symphony Orchestra conducted by Oliver Knussen. In 1992, Saruya participated in the Munich Biennial (International Festival for New Music Theatre) and received the BMW Theater Prize. In 1993, he was awarded both the Idemitsu Music Award and the Akutagawa Award for Music Composition. In 1995 his piece Projection Orbit was performed by Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, the recording of which on the Deutsche Gramophon label won the Japan Record Academy Award. During the same year Saruya received the 43rd Otaka Prize for his Fractal Vision written for the Kyoto Symphony. In 1996 Boston Symphony conductor Seiji Ozawa commissioned him to write The Tale of Beatrix Potter which was premiered in the Saito Kinen Festival. In 1997 Saruya took over the position of the late Toru Takemitsu as director of the Yatsugatake Kougen Music Festival. Most recently, the London Sinfonietta premiered Saruya's Flair of the Seeds in the Spirit Garden Festival.

The music of SAWAI, Tadao (2000) — (1937- 1997) - SANKA (Song of Praise) for koto solo - "is dramatic and intense, yet with an element of lightness intertwined, leaving the listener spiritually refreshed" writes Elizabeth Falconer. Sawai has received numerous awards for his performances, recordings, and compositions, and has performed extensively in Japan and abroad, including North America, Germany, France, Yugoslavia, and the Netherlands. He has composed over 70 pieces for the koto, and while some combine koto with various instruments, from shakuhachi and shamisen to violin and soprano, for the most part he has focused on the koto and bass koto, looking at the instruments from many different angles, working with them as solo and small ensemble instruments of their own merit. Perhaps his most significant contribution was a technical one: he brought western levels of precision to tuning and rythmn, popularized a range of innovative techniques which increase significantly the tonal possibilities of the koto, and raised the bar in the training and evaluation of teachers of the instrument.For the koto world, struggling to find a meaningful niche in postwar Japan, this has been more than a blessing. It has helped to keep koto alive. Sawai wrote for beginners as well as advanced performers. His pieces demonstrate not only his creative genius and compositional skills, they demonstrate his appreciation for writing music that fit the performer. He always wrote with the distinct personalities of the performers in mind, be they amateur or professional. Sawai's most recent recordings include a CD of his works entitled "Sanka" (Song of Praise) on the Kyoto Records label (KYCH-2010) with English and Japanese liner notes; and "Koto Music: Tadao Sawai Plays Michio Miyagi," a Playasound production that includes liner notes in English, French and Japanese (PS 65180). Sawai Tadao, master of the Japanese koto, founder of the Sawai Koto School, prolific composer, teacher, and visionary leader in the world of Japanese music, died in 1997 the age of 59.

"Suite for Four" for vcl, fl, ob, trp (CrossSound 1999 Commission — in residence in Juneau) (CS05)

Oliver SCHNELLER — (1999, 2005) — (b. 1966) born in Cologne, Oliver Schneller studied history, political science and musicology at the University of Bonn while pursuing private studies in composition with Friedhelm Aufenanger. From 1990-91 he worked for the Goethe Institute in Kathmandu, Nepal on a project to support local music cultures. From 1994-96 he studied composition with Lee Hyla and Pozzi Escot at the New England Conservatory in Boston. In 1996 Schneller moved to New York where he was in charge of the Computer Music Studio at the Graduate Center of CUNY before beginning his doctoral studies with Tristan Murail at Columbia University which he completed in 2002. From 2000 to 2001 he lived in Paris as a Reid Hall Fellow and participant of the cursus annuel de composition et d'informatique at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou. Masterclasses with Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann, Brian Ferneyhough, George Benjamin and Vinko Globokar provided important orientations.

The music of Oliver Schneller has been performed at international festivals including Agora Paris, Musica Strasbourg, Tremplins Paris, Les Musiques Marseille, Acanthes Avignon, ICMC 2002 Göteborg, ICMC 2003 Singapore, Maerzmusik Berlin, IFNM Darmstadt, Ars nova Rottenburg, Wintermusic Berlin, Alternativa Moscow, Indaba Grahamstown, Tanglewood Music Festival, Washington Square Chamber Series, Aspen, June in Buffalo, as well as at the "Frankfurt 2000" concerts of the Ensemble modern and the "Millenium Stage Series" at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.

He has received commissions from the Tanglewood Music Center/Fromm Foundation, Radio France, MATA New York, and ensembles such as musikFabrik (Cologne), the Nouvel Ensemble Modern (Montréal), KNM Berlin, the CrossSound Music Festival Juneau the Antares Ensemble through the Meet The Composer/Arts Endowment program, and from Ircam to write a piece for the Ensemble Intercontemporain and the "Timée", a newly developed electroacoustic spatialization system.

His compositions have been performed by Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, musikFabrik, Speculum musicae, Ensemble Mosaik, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Ensemble Courage, the Whitman String Quartet, the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, Ensemble Ohrwald, and have been broadcast on American (NPR, WQXR), British (VCH London), French (Radio France) and German (SWR, HR, NDR, SFB, Deutsche Welle) stations.

In 2001 he was a Visiting Composer at the Festival of Contemporary Music at Cincinnati College Conservatory and in 2002 a featured composer at Festival Résonances in Paris.

Awards include two ASCAP prizes, the Paul Fromm Award of the Tanglewood Music Center, the Robert Starer Prize, the Boris Rapoport Award for Composition, a Presidential Fellowship from Columbia University, a residency at the Maison-Heinrich-Heine in Paris, the 1999 Commissioning Prize of the National Flute Association, a Fellowship at the International Artists' House Villa Concordia in Bamberg and a Meet the Composer Grant from the New England Foundation for the Arts for his string quartet Joyce Paraphrases.

As a saxophonist Schneller has worked with musicians such as Lukas Foss, John Zorn, Steve Drury, John Harbison, Bernhard Lang and has been part of ensembles such as the George Russell Big Band, the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the Gustav Mahler Youth Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and a soloist with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra in Tan Dun's Red Forcast.

Oliver Schneller currently lives in Berlin where he teaches a seminar on "Acoustics and Psychoacoustics for Composers" at the University of the Arts (UdK). From 2006-2007 he will be a fellow in composition at the Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo in Rome. Since 2002 a growing interest in international and interdisciplinary music projects has led him to the conception and organisation of several events.

Kurt STALLMANN (2001) obtained his Ph.D. in Music Composition from Harvard University where his primary teachers included Mario Davidovsky and Bernard Rands. He has freelanced as a pianist, served on the faculty at the Boston Conservatory where he developed a course relating music and choreography, and founded the electronic music studio at the Longy School of Music. Groups throughout the United States including the New Millenium Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, Cleveland New Music Associates, and the Aspen Contemporary Chamber Players have performed his music. As a fellow, he has attended the Aspen Music Festival and the Wellesley Composers Conference. Recently completed work includes Episodes for String Quartet (winner of the Blodgett Competition) premiered by the Mendelssohn String Quartet and a work for interactive electronics on the Composers in Red Sneakers series. He looks forward to writing a new work for the CrossSound Festival in Alaska (summer 2001).

"Vertical Features Remake I" for mandolin and tin cans
(CrossSound 2001 Commission — in residence in Ketchikan)

Ken UENO (2001) — Ken Ueno is a composer who actively involves himself in a wide range of activities in order to evangelize for modern music. Informed by his experience as an electric guitarist and overtone singer, his music fuses the culture of Japanese underground electronic music with an awareness of European modernism. In an effort to feature inherent qualities of sound such as beatings, overtones, and artifacts of production noise, Kenís music is often amplified and uses electronics. The dramatic discourse of his music is based on the juxtaposition of extremes: visceral energy versus contemplative repose, hyperactivity versus stillness. As DJ Moderne, he hosts and produces a weekly live half-hour public access television show devoted to introducing new music and new music composers and performers to the public at large. As a vocalist, he has developed a technique for singing multiphonics and overtones.

Ensembles and performers who have played Kenís music include the Bang on a Can All-Stars, eighth blackbird, Frances-Marie Uitti, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Dogs of Desire, the American Composers Orchestra (Whitaker Reading Session), the New York New Music Ensemble, and the So Percussion Ensemble. Recently, Kenís music has been performed at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Hopkins Center, and at the Norfolk Music Festival, where he was guest composer/lecturer. Kenís piece for the Hilliard Ensemble, Shiroi Ishi, continues to be featured in their repertoire. Last summer, he attended the one-month composition and computer music course at IRCAM.

Awards and grants that Ken has received include those from the Fromm Music Foundation, the Aaron Copland House, Meet the Composer (3), the Belgian-American Education Foundation, Sonic Circuits X, First Prize in the 25th ìLuigi Russoloî competition, and Harvard University. During the 2003-2004 season, he served as the first composer-in-residence for the Boston-based group, the Radius Ensemble. Projects for the upcoming season include commissions for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (a concerto for sho and orchestra), the Rosa Ensemble (Holland), the Rel’che Ensemble (Philadelphia, in cooperation with WHYY Radio and the Rosenbach Museum), and a piece for the Prism Quartetís 20th anniversary.

A former ski patrol and West Point cadet, Ken holds degrees from Berklee College of Music, Boston University, the Yale School of Music, and is a PhD candidate at Harvard University. He is a co-founder/co-director of the Minimum Security Composers Collective and is the vocalist in the experimental improvisation group Onda.

Currently, he is an Assistant Professor and the Director of the Electronic Music Studios at the University of Massachussetts Dartmouth. In this capacity, he is rebuilding the studios, redesigning the electronic music curriculum, leading a laptop ensemble and creating a weekly composition seminar. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor at the Berklee College of Music.

"Spirit of the Bamboo" for sheng solo (world premiere) (in residence in Junea) (CS05)

WU Wei (2005) — (b. 1970) in Jiangsu Province China, started studying the mouth-organ, or sheng, at the Art Academy of Nanjing at age 15. Continuing his studies from 1989 to 1993 at the internationally renowned Conservatory of Shanghai, he went on to win prestigious national and international competitions for traditional Chinese music. In 1993 Wu Wei joined the Chinese Music Orchestra of Shanghai with which he recorded several CDs and toured throughout China, Japan, USA and Europe, opening his ears to non-Chinese musical traditions. His first projects with European musicians in Shanghai acquainted him with the practice of jazz und new music.
 
In 1995, Wu Wei arrived at Academy of Music Hans Eisler Berlin, Germany, on an national German artist-scholarship (DAAD), where he broadened his music horizons by studying western jazz-traditions and colaborating with musicians of various cultures and musical styles. Scholarships and awards in Germany include a scholarship of the Berlin Senate in 1999, a scholarship of the F.N.S. (1998-2000), first price in the music-competitions „Musica Vitale" in 1996 and 2002, and the German Folk Prize "Global Root" in 2004.

Having appeared in important festivals all over the world as a soloist, including as a guest-soloist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Kent Nagano, the New Philharmonie Westfalen under GMD Samuel Bächli, and the Munich Symphony under Heiko Mathias Foersterthe, since 2002 Wu Wei has had several important premiers of new works by composers including the concerto for sheng and chamber orchestra by Helmut Zapf, and in 2003, another concerto for sheng and orchestra by Enjott Schneider. All together, from 1998 to 2004 he took part in more than 50 premieres of contemporary compositions with, e.g. John Cage, Aton Josef Riedl,Enjott Schneider, Helmut Zapf, Jörg Widmann, Chico Mello, Gunter Baby Sommer, Fabio Nieder, Jörg Herchet, Daniel Ott, Xiao Yongchen, Qu Xiaosong, Tan Dun, Qin Wenchen, Chen Yi,Tomi Raisanen ,Artjom Kim, Ryota Mikami,Toshiya Wantanabe,Wolfgang Heisig, Volk Staub, Gern Colemann, Christian Utz etc.

In addition to the music of others, Mr. Wu also creates his own music, developing a new sound-language for Chinese instruments, which reciprocally has opened new dimensions in new music.  For years he has searched for his own musical language. Experimenting on Chinese instruments with a history of three-thousand-yearshe has found hidden sounds out of which he has tried to create new sound-worlds with his own musical expressions and sound-colours. 

ZHANG Yan (1946-2003) was born in Shanghai in 1946, and entered the middle school affiliated with the Shanghai Conservatory to study piano at age 11. Her family could not afford a piano, so her teacher allowed her to practice on the school's pump organ after classes. When she first heard the sound of the zheng at age 14, she immediately told her teacher that she wanted to switch her major from piano to the zheng. Zhang entered the college program of the Shanghai Conservatory in 1963. In addition to her zheng and piano studies, she also took up the harp. Carrying the playing techniques of one instrument over to another gave her unusual flexibility in developing her own innovative techniques, particularly for the zheng.

Then came the Cultural Revolution in 1966, when China's traditional arts were all condemned as belonging to the corrupt feudal culture. Schooling and studies were virtually halted nationwide. Zhang "hid under blankets in a basement to secretly practice and listen to records of outstanding musicians." Her teacher, Wang Xunzhi (Wang Changyuan's father), for whom she had the highest respect and admiration, died in prison at this time. She learned later that three years after she left the mainland, the Public Security Bureau sent a letter announcing that her Wang had been rehabilitated, and admitting that his death had been a grave error. "My teacher was not an outstanding performance musician, but he had a very open, creative, and synthesizing mind. He would invite guest musicians of every imaginable style and inclination to the conservatory to perform and exchange ideas with the students," she says.

Richard Nixon's visit to China signaled a turning point in the Cultural Revolution, when artists were returned a limited degree of freedom. Zhang was an officially designated "cultural ambassador" whose job it was to cultivate international friends through her art. Nixon and former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were two of many foreign heads of state she played for. She also had the opportunity to perform in over 20 different countries, including the U.S.

Zhang is especially famous for her part in the development of "double zither" playing. The first zither, with 25 strings and tuned in the pentatonic scale, ha