COMPOSERS
PAUL DOOLEY
Paul Dooley is one of the most prolific and performed composers in America today. His path has embraced not only his Western Classical heritage, but also a cross-cultural range of contemporary music, dance, art, technology and the interactions between the human and natural worlds. His music has been described as "impressive and beautiful" by American composer Steve Reich.
Dooley’s orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by, among many others, the Nashville Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Macau Orchestra, Pacific Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, United Nations Chamber Music Society, Omaha Symphony, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Radom Chamber Orchestra, Amarillo Symphony, New York Youth Symphony, Aspen Philharmonic Orchestra, Nu Deco Ensemble and Alarm Will Sound, in addition to wind ensembles such as “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, The United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” and the United States Navy Band.
Recent works include Circuits and Skins (2017), an EDM-inspired electronic percussion concerto for Lisa Pegher and the Lansing Symphony, Mondrian’s Studio (2019), for horn and wind ensemble, for Adam Unsworth and the University of Michigan Symphony Band, Manifestos (2019) for the universities of the Big 12 Conference and The Conductor’s Spellbook (2016), an educational, interactive and entertaining work for young audiences, which has received more than 100 performances since its 2016 premiere, originally commissioned by the Naples Philharmonic.
Born in Santa Rosa, California in 1983, Dooley began his musical life listening to Beethoven, Bruce Hornsby, Nirvana and Rush. At the age of 13, Dooley began a long mentorship with singer, songwriter, improvisor and gifted counselor Gary “Doc” Collins. In high school Dooley also studied composition with Charles Sepos, before earning bachelor degrees in mathematics and music composition at the University of Southern California (2002-2007) with Frank Ticheli and Stephen Hartke, and a master and doctorate degree at the University of Michigan (2007-2013) with Michael Daugherty, Bright Sheng and Evan Chambers. A key moment occurred for Dooley in 2010, with his participation in the inaugural Mizzou International Composers Festival. The festival commissioned Dooley's breakout work Point Blank, which was premiered by the new music ensemble Alarm Will Sound.
In 2013 Dooley joined the music faculty at the University of Michigan. He created and directs the Performing Arts Technology department’s annual Computer Music Showcase. He also co-directed the Midwest Composers Symposium and was coordinator of the “ONCE. MORE.” festival, a celebration of the 50 year anniversary of the ONCE Festival of Contemporary Music, and was co-awarded a grant from the Gilbert Whitaker Fund for the Improvement of Teaching.
Dooley’s music is the subject of several doctoral dissertations including: “Paul Dooley’s Masks and Machines: A Formal Analysis and Instructional Guide” by Kevin M. Callihan, University of Kentucky; “MANIFESTOS for Wind Ensemble by Paul Dooley: A Critical Analysis” by Eddie W. Airheart, Texas Christian University; “A Conductor’s Guide and Analysis of Selected Works by Paul Dooley” by Jason Gardner, University of Illinois.
Dooley is a frequent guest of professional orchestras, university wind ensembles and festivals in the United States and around the world. His works have been performed in significant venues including Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royce Hall, Hill Auditorium, the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Schermerhorn Symphony Center, Orchestra Hall in Detroit, Sala Filharmonia Warszawa, Singapore’s Victoria Concert Hall and Chicago’s Symphony Center, and featured on several episodes of NPR’s “Performance Today” with Fred Child.
Dr. Dooley has received a wide range of awards for his work, including both the 2016 Sousa/ABA/Ostwald Award and the 2015 William D. Revelli Prize for Masks and Machines (2015), the 2013 Jacob Druckman Award for orchestral composition from the Aspen Music Festival for Point Blank (2011) and young composer awards from Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) for Dani’s Dance (2007) and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) for Gradus (2009).
Dooley’s recordings can be heard on, among others, Naxos, Equilibrium, Soundset, Mark Records, GIA Wind Works and Block M Records.
CAROL BRITTIN CHAMBERS
Carol Brittin Chambers, composer and arranger, is currently the composer and owner of Aspenwood Music. She lives in San Antonio, Texas, where she is also on the music faculty at Texas Lutheran University, teaching composition and serving as Composer in Residence.
Chambers is commissioned each year to compose and arrange works for concert band, marching band, orchestra, and chamber ensembles. Her concert works have been selected to the J.W. Pepper Editors’ Choice List and the Bandworld Top 100 and have been performed at state educator conferences across the country, including the Midwest Clinic. She was most recently named the winner of the 2019 WBDI (Women Band Directors International) Composition Competition.
Chambers has arranged and orchestrated show music for numerous high school marching bands across the country, as well as The Crossmen DrumCorps. High schools include CT Johnson HS, San Antonio, TX (2020 6A State Champion, 2019, 2016, 2011 BOAGrand Nationals Finalist, 2017 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional, Austin, & Midland Champion, 2014 BOA San Antonio Super-Regional & Houston Champion, multi-year State Finalist), Keller HS, TX (2015 BOA Grand Nationals Finalist, 2017 & multi-year BOA Regional and State Finalist), Broken Arrow Senior High School, OK (2006 BOA Grand Nationals Finals Champion), and Ronald Reagan High School, San Antonio, TX (2005 Bands of America Grand Nationals Semi-Finals Champion), to name a few. In addition to her own shows, she also orchestrates the shows of Aaron Guidry, at www.yataforluda.com.
Before coming to TLU, Chambers taught middle school and high school band and private lessons for many years in the North East Independent School District, San Antonio, TX. She has also consistently performed with groups such as the Mid-Texas and San Antonio Symphonies.
Chambers received a Bachelor of Music Education from Texas TechUniversity and a Master of Music in Trumpet Performance from Northwestern University. She studied under Vincent Cichowicz, Will Strieder, John Paynter, Arnold Jacobs, and James Sudduth. She and her husband Mark have three children: Catherine, Joshua, and Julia.
STANLEY FRIEDMAN
Stanleigh Pohly Friedman (12 August 1884, Albany, N.Y., - 30 September 1960, New York) was an American composer.
Mr. Friedman studied at the Yale University Music School with Horatio Parker and also at the Harvard Law School. While a student at Yale, he was conductor of the school orchestra. After graduation, he performed with the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and the New Haven Oratorio Society and was later president of the Schola Cantorum in New York City.
Friedman was a lawyer by profession, practicing in New York City. However, he is best remembered for a march he composed while a student at Yale: Down the Field (arr Leidzen). It is still widely used as a pep song at universities, colleges, and high schools.
matthew nell
Matthew Nell (b. 19 February 2001) is an American pianist and percussionist composer.
Mr. Nell is studying [2023] at the University of Texas at Austin. His composition teachers include Donald Grantham, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Russell Podgorsek, and Omar Thomas.
In his music, he is most concerned with accessibility, enjoyment, interest, and beauty. Matthew blends conventional and modern techniques in order to write music that strikes a balance between familiarity and novelty, focusing especially on band music and chamber music for winds.
Mr. Nell's composition Strut won the Barbara Buehlman composition prize in 2023.
donald grantham
Composer Donald Grantham is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes in composition, including the Prix Lili Boulanger, the Nissim/ASCAP Orchestral Composition Prize, First Prize in the Concordia Chamber Symphony's Awards to American Composers, a Guggenheim Fellowship, three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, three First Prizes in the NBA/William Revelli Competition, two First Prizes in the ABA/Ostwald Competition, and First Prize in the National Opera Association's Biennial Composition Competition. His music has been praised for its "elegance, sensitivity, lucidity of thought, clarity of expression and fine lyricism" in a Citation awarded by the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In recent years his works have been performed by the orchestras of Cleveland, Dallas, Atlanta and the American Composers Orchestra among many others, and he has fulfilled commissions in media from solo instruments to opera. His music is published by Piquant Press, E. C. Schirmer, and G. Schirmer, and many of his works have been commercially recorded. The composer resides in Austin, Texas and is Frank C. Erwin, Jr. Centennial Professor of Composition at the University of Texas at Austin. With Kent Kennan he is coauthor of THE TECHNIQUE OF ORCHESTRATION (Prentice-Hall).
JACK WILDS
Jack Wilds is a composer and educator whose works have brought him into collaboration with musicians aged 5-95. Ranging from children's choirs to collegiate wind ensembles and professional chamber groups, Jack's music draws on visual art, philosophical and religious texts, poetry, and absolute musical influences to create vibrant works that meet performers where they are while inspiring authentic, artistic music making.
His chamber music has been performed by the Attacca Quartet, the University of Texas New Music Ensemble, the Austin Saxophone Ensemble, and members of the New York Philharmonic and the Atlanta Symphony. His works have also been featured at international festivals and composition workshops including the International Trombone Festival, the Slider Asia Clinic in Hong Kong, the American Trombone Workshop, the International Horn Symposium, New Music on the Bayou and The Wyoming Festival.
A former public school band director, Jack's works for wind ensemble and choir include over 40 publications for developing musicians. His works for wind band are regularly featured on required repertoire lists for festivals on multiple continents and have been performed at the Midwest Clinic and at educator conferences across the United States.
Jack is a lecturer at Texas State University, where he teaches composition, music theory, ear training, and music technology courses. He is also the Co-Director of Music at First Presbyterian Church in San Marcos, a position he has held for 13 years and is privileged to share with his wife Noel. He is an active clinician and adjudicator with regular engagements countrywide.
He has studied composition with Michael Ippolito at Texas State, and Chris Trapani and Donald Grantham at the University of Texas.
Omar Thomas
Described as "elegant, beautiful, sophisticated, intense, and crystal clear in emotional intent," the music of Omar Thomas continues to move listeners everywhere it is performed. Born to Guyanese parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1984, Omar moved to Boston in 2006 to pursue a Master of Music in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music after studying Music Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. He is the protégé of lauded composers and educators Ken Schaphorst and Frank Carlberg, and has studied under multiple Grammy-winning composer and bandleader Maria Schneider.
Hailed by Herbie Hancock as showing "great promise as a new voice in the further development of jazz in the future," educator, arranger, and award-winning composer Omar Thomas has created music extensively in the contemporary jazz ensemble idiom. It was while completing his Master of Music Degree that he was appointed the position of Assistant Professor of Harmony at Berklee College of Music at the surprisingly young age of 23. Following his Berklee tenure, he served on faculty of the Music Theory department at The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Now a Yamaha Master Educator, he is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition and Jazz Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. He was awarded the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award in 2008, and invited by the ASCAP Association to perform his music in their highly exclusive JaZzCap Showcase, held in New York City. In 2012, Omar was named the Boston Music Award's "Jazz Artist of the Year." In 2019, he was awarded the National Bandmasters Association/Revelli Award for his wind composition “Come Sunday,” becoming the first Black composer awarded the honor in the contest’s 42-year history.
Now a Yamaha Master Educator, Omar's music has been performed in concert halls the world over. He has been commissioned to create works in both jazz and classical styles. His work has been performed by such diverse groups as the Eastman New Jazz Ensemble, the San Francisco and Boston Gay Mens' Choruses, The United States Marine Band, the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the Showa Wind Symphony, in addition to a number of the country's top collegiate music ensembles. Omar has had a number of celebrated singers perform over his arrangements, including Stephanie Mills, Yolanda Adams, Nona Hendryx, BeBe Winans, Kenny Lattimore, Marsha Ambrosius, Sheila E., Raul Midon, Leela James, Dionne Warwick, and Chaka Khan. His work is featured on Dianne Reeves's Grammy Award-winning album, "Beautiful Life."
Omar's first album, "I AM," debuted at #1 on iTunes Jazz Charts and peaked at #13 on the Billboard Traditional Jazz Albums Chart. His second release, " We Will Know: An LGBT Civil Rigths Piece in Four Movements," has been hailed by Grammy Award-wining drummer, composer, and producer Terri Lyne Carrington as being a "thought provoking, multi-layered masterpiece" which has "put him in the esteemed category of great artists." "We Will Know" was awarded two OUTMusic Awards, including "Album of the Year." For this work, Omar was named the 2014 Lavender Rhino Award recipient by The History Project, acknowledging his work as an up-and-coming activist in the Boston LGBTQ community. Says Terri Lyne: "Omar Thomas will prove to be one of the more important composer/arrangers of his time."
Jose Ignacio Blesa-Lull
I was born in Llíria (Valencia, SPAIN), also known as the "City of Music". I studied at the Valencia and Castellon's Conservatories where I got my bachelor's degree in five specialities: Conducting, Composition, Musicology, Music Education and Clarinet Performance. Besides, I moved to the US to complete my Master in Wind Conducting at the University of Massachuetts Amherst.
I received several composition awards, including International Soloist and Band Composition Award Ciutat de Llíria, First Prize at the V Galician Band Compostion Contest, International Chamber Music Composition Award “Salvador Seguí”, 2nd Prize at VI Choral Composition Contest “Coral de Cámara de Pamplona”, 2nd Prize at III Iberoamerican Band Composition Contest “Villa de Ortigueira.”
I have also composed under commission of institutions such as Institut Valencià de la Música or WASBE, and bands from around the world.
My music has been played in countries such as Spain, USA, Canadá, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapur, Japan, Belgium, Germany, Portugal, France, Italy, Slovenia, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Ecuador or Mexico.
I have been invited to conduct my own music by bands as Tainan Wind Ensemble (Taiwan) Banda Sinfónica Metropolitana de Quito (Ecuador), Banda Sinfónica de la Universidad de Nariño (Colombia), and Banda de Música de Pontevedra, among others.
Currently, I am the main conductor of the Symphonic Band at Centre Artístic Musical de Bétera (musicabetera.es), and a professional group I founded, Turia Chamber Winds. I am also working on new pieces and teaching at Conservatory Mestre Tarrega in Castellón.
john mackey
John Mackey (he/him) has written for orchestras (Brooklyn Philharmonic, New York Youth Symphony), theater (Dallas Theater Center), and extensively for dance (Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, Parsons Dance Company, New York City Ballet), but the majority of his work for the past decade has been for wind ensembles (the fancy name for concert bands), and his band catalog now receives annual performances numbering in the thousands.
Recent commissions include works for the BBC Singers, the Dallas Wind Symphony, military, high school, middle school, and university bands across America and Japan, and concertos for Joseph Alessi (principal trombone, New York Philharmonic), Christopher Martin (principal trumpet, New York Philharmonic), and Julian Bliss (international clarinet soloist). In 2014, he became the youngest composer ever inducted into the American Bandmasters Association. In 2018, he received the Wladimir & Rhoda Lakond Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He resides in San Francisco, California, with his spouse, A. E. Jaques, a philosopher who works on the ethics of artificial intelligence for MIT, and also titles all of his pieces; and their cats, Noodle and Bloop.
james barnes
James Barnes taught music composition, orchestration, arranging and wind band history/repertoire courses at The University of Kansas. At KU, he served as Staff Arranger, Assistant, and later, Associate Director of Bands for twenty-seven years. Barnes served as Division Director for Music Theory and Composition for ten years. In spring 2015, he completed his fortieth year of teaching at KU.
His numerous publications for concert band and orchestra are extensively performed around the world. His works (including seven symphonies and three concertos) have been performed at such venues as Tanglewood, Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow and Tokyo Metropolitan Concert Hall.
Barnes twice received the coveted American Bandmasters Association Ostwald Award for outstanding contemporary wind band music. He has been the recipient of numerous ASCAP Awards for composers of serious music, the Kappa Kappa Psi Distinguished Service to Music Medal and the Bohumil Makovsky Award for Outstanding College Band Conductors. In 2009, Barnes was awarded the first annual
BMI Award for Excellence in Teaching Creativity from the Music Educators National Conference. The world-famous Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra has recorded three compact discs of his music. Over the years, Mr. Barnes has been commissioned to compose works for all five of the major American military bands in Washington, DC. A recent CD release by the United States Air Force Band features two different works by James Barnes: Dreamers, written to commemorate the 100th anniversary of powered flight by the Wright brothers and Wild Blue Yonder, commissioned to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the United States Air Force. The U. S. Army band recently released a new recording of his Symphonic Requiem (Seventh Symphony), commissioned to commemor-ate the 150th anniversary of the American Civil War. One of his recent works, Escenas de los Aztecas, was the required work at the World Band Competition in Kerkerade, Netherlands during July 2013.
Mr. Barnes has traveled extensively as a guest composer, conductor and lecturer throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Taiwan and Singapore. He has guest conducted in Japan over 35 times. He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Bandmasters Association and numerous other professional organizations and societies.