Composer Chats

Harrison J. Collins (b. 1999) began composing at the young age of thirteen. Since then, he has made a name for himself across the United States as a skilled composer. He combines his musical studies in academic settings with years of self-teaching and a strong intuition to write music that challenges and connects to performers and listeners alike.

Their works for wind ensemble, orchestra, and chamber ensembles are published by Murphy Music Press, C. Alan Publications, and more, and have been performed across the United States and internationally. They are a winner of numerous composition competitions, including the Sinta Quartet Composition Competition, the Dallas Winds Fanfare Competition, and the National Young Composers Challenge. Harrison is a proud representative and board member for the Millennium Composers Initiative, through which he seeks to provide opportunities for other composers to grow and reach new heights. In 2022, they founded the Aurora Tapestry Collective with their friends Kevin Day, Josh Trentadue, and Katahj Copley.

Harrison spent several years at Illinois State University, where he studied composition with Dr. Roy Magnuson and Dr. Roger Zare. Harrison currently studies at Texas Christian University with Dr. Neil Anderson-Himmelspach and Dr. Martin Blessinger, where he is seeking a degree in music composition.

https://harrisonjcollins.squarespace.com/

Mark Adler brings to his work as a composer a broad background in both film and music. At age 16 he created an award-winning animated short which the New York Museum of Modern Art acquired for its permanent archive collection. A year later, he was the recipient of an American Film Institute grant for his original screenplay. He studied piano privately for fifteen years, and was initially a music major. His return to music followed graduation from film school at UCLA, where he studied film scoring with David Raksin. In the early '80s Mark played keyboards for a number of groups in Northern California, including a stint with the Heart of Gold Band, fronted by former Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux. (He reunited with Donna in 2004, and has periodically toured with her since.)

The 1980s were a renaissance for documentary film in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mark was soon scoring many of those projects. During this time, he also worked briefly as a music editor for such directors as Milos Forman, David Lynch, and Francis Ford Coppola. (His music editing credits include "Amadeus," "Blue Velvet," and "Godfather III").

Mark's feature film scores include the Oscar-nominated "Food, Inc.," directed by Robert Kenner, its sequel "Food, Inc. 2," directed by Kenner and Melissa Robledo, and "Bottle Shock," starring Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, and Bill Pullman. He has been a regular at the Sundance Film Festival, having scored ten Sundance films over the years. These include the Audience Award-winning Miramax film "Picture Bride." His soundtrack for that film was released by Virgin Records and the Main Title was featured in the soundtrack compilation, "Miramax Films Greatest Hits." Other credits include Paramount Classics' "Focus," based on the novel by Arthur Miller and starring William H. Macy and Laura Dern, with the soundtrack released by Milan Records; the Wayne Wang films "Eat A Bowl of Tea" and "Life Is Cheap"; numerous National Geographic Specials; and four Oscar-nominated feature documentaries.

He won a Primetime Emmy for his work on HBO's "The Rat Pack," which featured Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna and Don Cheadle. Other TV movie scores include Hallmark Entertainment's "Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone," starring Aidan Quinn and Nigel Hawthorne (for which he received a Primetime Emmy nomination), "Flowers For Algernon" starring Mathew Modine, and four Hallmark Hall of Fame productions.

He wrote and produced source music for the Philip Kaufman films, "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" and "Henry and June," and was involved as a producer in the recreation of indigenous Brazilian music for the Saul Zaentz production "At Play in the Fields of the Lord." He composed original music for "The Road To Memphis," directed by Richard Pearce, as part of the Martin Scorsese-produced series, "The Blues." This range of experience has resulted in an eclectic musical style, often drawing on jazz, folk, world music, and traditional orchestral idioms.

Mark is a former vice-president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and is a member of The Academy or Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As a performer, he can be heard playing piano on his scores for "Eat A Bowl of Tea," "Picture Bride," "Focus," "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School," and "The Lost Valentine."

www.markadler.com

The Octopus Project has been releasing joyous party music since 2002, following a musical path that veers through blown-out rock’n’roll, vibrant electronics, surreal pop and expansive psych landscapes. Based in Austin, TX, the group of multi-instrumentalists has released six studio albums, starting with 2002’s Identification Parade. Touring venues and festivals worldwide (Lollapalooza, Coachella, All Tomorrow's Parties) both on their own and as handpicked support for artists as diverse as DEVO and Aesop Rock, they’ve earned a reputation for explosive live shows and immersive audio-visual experiments.

Also active as composers for video games and film, they were awarded the Special Jury Award for Musical Score at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival for their work on the film Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.

Their most recent scoring work includes Damsel (starring Robert Pattinson, dir. by Zellner Bros.), 2021's The Disappearance of Toby Blackwood (dir. by Joe Ahern), the Reading Rainbowdocumentary, Butterfly In the Sky (starring LeVar Burton, dir. by Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb), & the upcoming Zellner Bros. film, Sasquatch Sunset (starring Riley Keough and Jesse Eisenberg), which will premiere at Sundance 2024.

www.theoctopusproject.com

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Dominik Scherrer to the Podcast!

Dominik first won the prestigious British Ivor Novello Award and received a Royal Television Society (RTS) nomination for his riveting score on Ripper Street. He earned two additional Ivor Novello nominations for Amazon’s The Collection and the British crime series Agatha Christie’s Marple.

Dominik recently reunited with the Williams brothers to score Amazon’s thriller series The Widow, starring Kate Beckinsale. He also scored the landmark dramas An Inspector Calls and Monroe.

Equally accomplished in film scoring, Dominik’s credits include The Nine Lives of Tomas Katz for which Dominik won the Best Music Award at Spain’s Estapona Film Festival; Alice Through The Looking Glass starring Kate Beckinsale; Alina Marazzi’s Tutto Parla Di Te (All About You); and Scenes of a Sexual Nature starring Ewan McGregor and Hugh Bonneville. He scored Appetite starring Ute Lemper, and wrote the film’s title song which reached No. 2 on the UK classical charts.

Dominik also created, directed and composed the kinetic opera Hell for Leather, which premiered at Sundance and won 10 awards on the festival circuit.

In addition to scoring film and TV, he produces sound design and composes for fine art installations - most notably for artist Suki Chan - and creates performance music for theatre.

Dominik is a British-Swiss composer and works from his studio in London.

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Jeff Toyne to the podcast!

https://jefftoyne.com

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Steve Danyew to the podcast!

www.stevedanyew.com

teve Danyew’s music has been hailed as “startlingly beautiful” and “undeniably well crafted and communicative” by the Miami Herald, and has been praised as possessing “sensitivity, skill and tremendous sophistication” by the Kansas City Independent.

Danyew (b. 1983) is the recipient of numerous national and international awards for his work, and his compositions have been performed throughout the world in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and the steps of the US Capitol. Danyew’s recent work Into the Silent Land was named the winner of the 2019 Walter Beeler Memorial Composition Prize. Three of his compositions for wind band are featured in Volume 11 of Teaching Music Through Performance in Band (GIA).

In addition to composing, Danyew is a passionate educator who teaches composition lessons through his own private studio. He also teaches courses focused on helping young musicians craft their own creative careers at the Eastman School of Music’s Institute for Music Leadership. He is the contributing author for the 2nd edition of Ramon Ricker’s book Lessons from a Street-Wise Professor: What You Won’t Learn at Most Music Schools (Soundown, 2018). He is also a frequent guest composer and lecturer at schools throughout the United States.

In 2020, Danyew and his wife Ashley created Musician & Co., a new resource that equips 21st-century musicians to be both artists and business owners. The mission of Musician & Co. is to provide an innovative model for bridging the gap between the practice room and a profitable business.

Danyew grew up in New England, playing the saxophone and improvising music on the piano. After a performance of his own work, the South Florida Sun Sentinel proclaimed him a “saxophone virtuoso par excellence, making the instrument sing as well as shout.” Danyew performed as a saxophonist in the University of Miami Wind Ensemble under the direction of Gary Green, and this formative experience led him to begin composing works for wind band.

Danyew received a B.M. in Composition from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami where his primary composition teachers were Scott Stinson and Dennis Kam. He also holds an M.M. in Composition from the Eastman School of Music. Additionally, Danyew has served as a Composer Fellow at the Yale Summer Music School with Martin Bresnick, and as a Composer Fellow at the Composers Conference with Mario Davidovsky.

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Marie Antoinette Douglas to the show!

Atlanta bred composer Marie A. Douglas mixes and layers genres and textures as a means to inject unprecedented relate-ability and excitement into pieces intended for concert stages. Her compositional choices portray her varied experiences creating a product that is highly artistic, gorgeous yet gritty, robust with innovation and familiarity. Marie’s compositions and arrangements have been performed throughout the United States and Canada, she as been noted for the memorable melodies, multi faceted rhythms, compelling textures, and the complimentary orchestrations present within her works.

Marie got her start in the artistic and culturally rich streets in the inner city of Atlanta. Her style reflects that relationship and proximity to “The Culture” and the unique perspective that it affords her. After high school she attended the Historically Black institution Florida A&M University and participated in the famed Marching “100” band. This period further inspired Marie to infuse attributes of her favorite musical genres and cultural staples into her creations intended for concert ensembles.

Douglas’ compositions have included spirituals, body percussion, spoken word, electronic samples and tons of other elements of sound often comprising the sonic phenomena of the African Diaspora in conjunction with winds and or strings and percussion. Lately she has explored the fusion of Hip-Hop and its sub-genre “Trap Music”, a genre that has its roots in Atlanta, with western art music idioms.

A variety of well-known ensembles have worked with Marie and performed her music; The Albany Symphony-Dogs of Desire, University of Central Florida Symphonic Band, University of Alabama-Birmingham Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band, California All-State Wind Symphony, University of the Pacific Conservatory, and many others. In addition to symphonic and chamber works, her catalogue also includes music for film as well as hip-hop and r&b instrumentals.

Recent projects include: serving as arranger, composer, conductor and musical director of the Live Nation/Big Femme Energy Live Experience tour featuring Ambre, Baby Rose, SayGrace and Teyana Taylor; premieres for her new flute concerto in collaboration with conductor, Erin Bodnar and flautist Sarah Jane Young which was selected to be included on a compilation CD released by the University of North Florida Wind Symphony in 2022, her work for symphonic band centering teen mental health entitled I am Enough was premiered by the California All - State Wind Ensemble in Fresno, California. Additionally, Marie completed the 2023 Jemison Visiting Scholar in the Humanities and Composer in Residence at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and arranged on 2022 Grammy Award-Nominated album “Full Circle”.

Among the upcoming performances of her works for the 23’-24' season are world premieres with the University of Georgia Wind Ensemble and the United States Navy Band in Washington D.C. for “SOUL Suite No. 1”, a new piece for wind ensemble as well as a collaboration with the United States Army Soldiers’ Chorus of Washington, DC on a work tilted “Umoja in America”.

Marie serves as an adjunct professor within the Master of Music Technology Program at Southern Utah University where she was awarded the 2022 Influencer Award by the Division of Student Affairs and Professional Development Center. She is pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts in composition and conducting from the University of Memphis, where she studies with Kamran Ince, Mahir Cetiz, and Albert Nguyen.

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Ryan George to the podcast!

RYAN GEORGE currently resides in Austin, Texas where he is active as an arranger and composer. His work, ranging from music for the concert stage to music for marching ensembles is performed regularly throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Ryan completed his first work for concert band in 2007 and since then his works have received performances at the American Bandmasters Association Convention, the MidWest Band and Orchestra Clinic (Chicago), W.A.S.B.E., the Music For All (Bands of America) Concert Band Festival, P.A.S.I.C., Carnegie Hall, the National CBDNA Conference, the CBDNA/NBA Southern Division Conference, The Western Band & Orchestra Clinic (Seattle), and the MidEurope Festival in Schladming Austria. Many of his works, which are aimed at developing performers, have frequented the repertoires of All-State, Region, Inter-Collegiate, and Honor's ensembles throughout the U.S. and Canada. Recent notable performances of Ryan's music have included The "Presidents Own" United States Marine Band (National Tour), the Hiroshima Wind Orchestra (Midwest Band & Orchestra Clinic), The Texas Christian University Percussion Orchestra (PASIC National Convention), The United States Air Force Band (A.B.A. Convention), The Lone Star Wind Orchestra (WASBE), and the Finnish Navy Band. He has received commissions for various ensembles including works for the T.C.U. Percussion Orchestra, The Consortium for the Advancement of Wind Band Literature, The Lone Star Wind Orchestra, and the Wan Quan School in Beijing China.

As a specialist in music design for marching ensembles Ryan's work has been performed by some of the nation's elite programs at state, region, and national venues. His roster of clients include perennial Bands of America (Music for All) regional champions, regional finalist, and Grand National finalist. Some of his clients have included Leander HS (Leander TX), James Bowie HS (Austin TX), Round Rock HS (Round Rock TX), Cedar Ridge HS (Round Rock TX), and the 2018 UIL 6A State Champion Vista Ridge HS (Cedar Park TX). Within the realm of drum corps Ryan is returning for his 8th year as the brass arranger/composer of the Boston Crusaders from Boston, MA. He held the same role with the Academy from Tempe, AZ from 2011-2013.

Ryan is a graduate of the University of Kentucky. He is an ASCAP artist, a member of TMEA, and the American Composer's Forum. His wife Sarah is a producer and talent buyer for internationally recognized music festivals and they are the proud parents of Sophia, Nyla, and Teller.

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Quincy Hilliard to the podcast!

Quincy C. Hilliard’s compositions for wind band are published by several major music publishers, and are performed throughout the world where there are wind bands of British-American instrumentation. His stature as an outstanding composer is apparent as conductors frequently commission him for new compositions.

Dr. Hilliard has been a recipient several times of the distinguished American Society for Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) award recognizing the numerous performances of his works and was chosen as one of a select group of composers to write a piece for the 1996 Olympics. He has also written the music score for a film documentary entitled “The Texas Rangers” for public television. In addition to composing, Dr. Hilliard is invited to all parts of the world to conduct, adjudicate festivals, and demonstrate effective teaching techniques and has written extensively on pedagogical topics in journals and publications.

In the spring of 1997, Dr. Hilliard was appointed by the Governor of Louisiana to the Louisiana Arts Council. Dr. Hilliard is also the president of Hilliard Music Enterprises, Inc., a personal consulting firm that has a corporate board of distinguished music educators. He is currently composer in residence and professor of music theory and composition, and holds the Heymann Endowed Professorship of Music at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.

Join Jason as he welcomes composer Nicole Piano to the podcast this week!

Nicole Piunno (b. 1985) is a composer who views music as a vehicle for seeing and experiencing the realities of life. Her music often reflects the paradoxes in life and how these seeming opposites are connected as they often weave together. Her harmonic language and use of counterpoint mirrors the complexity of our world by acknowledging light and dark, past and present, beauty and brokenness, confinement and freedom, chaos and order, spiritual and physical, life and death.

Nicole holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition and a Master of Music degree in theory pedagogy from Michigan State University. Her composition teacher was Ricardo Lorenz. She earned a Master of Music degree in composition at Central Michigan University, studying with David Gillingham. Nicole earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education and her emphasis was on trumpet. Her music has been performed by “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, the Principal Brass Quintet of the New York Philharmonic, the United States Coast Guard Band, and at many universities and conservatories around the country. Her large ensemble music has also been featured at multiple regional CBDNA conferences, the Midwest Clinic, and numerous all-state concerts.