The Portfolio Composer

Alf Bishai is a composer/music director in New York City. He has taught classical theory and ear training at NYU since 2001. During his masters degree, Alf experienced the standard existential crisis many young composers face. He dove into film and church music as a career while trying to crack the code on classical composition. He eventually wrote a book on the paradigms of classical music culture. He is the founder of a composition venture called The Ear, which launches in October.

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In this episode Alf discusses the importance of writing music that lots of people love, and more!

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Dale's compositions have been commissioned, awarded and performed by ensembles including ACME, Center City Opera Theater, Choral Arts Initiative, The Esoterics, Inscape Chamber Orchestra, the Maryland State Boychoir, New York Virtuoso Singers, The Singers - Minnesota Choral Artists, and VocalEssence. She is currently Composer in Residence for Nova Vocal Ensemble.

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In this episode Dale discusses how you should grow your career with focus and clarity.

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Jessica Rudman is a Connecticut-based composer and teacher whose music unifies extended techniques with clear melodic development and narrative structures to create a unique and personal emotional expression. She is currently the Chair of the Creative Studies Department and the Director of the Young Composers Project at The Hartt School Community Division. She is also an active music theorist and an arts advocate, currently serving on the board of the Women Composers Festival of Hartford.

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In this episode Jessica discusses taking risks, making it happen, and more.

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Winner of the ABA Ostwald award and three-time winner of the NBA Revelli Award, Steven Bryant’s music for wind ensemble has reshaped the genre. A prolific composer, his substantial catalogue of music is regularly performed throughout the world. Recently, his Ecstatic Waters was premiered by the Minnesota Orchestra to unanimous, rapturous acclaim.

“His compositional virtuosity is evident in every bar.” – John Corigliano

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In this episode Steven discusses the benefits of launching a career through a niche ensemble and more!

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Named as one of National Public Radio’s listeners' favorite composers under the age of 40, Joel Puckett is one of the most performed composers in America. Hailed by the Washington Post as "visionary," Mr. Puckett believes in the life-changing power of music to heal and provide comfort to those who need it.

Minnesota Opera recently announced it has commissioned Puckett for, "The Black Sox Scandal," a full-length opera with a libretto by Academy Award Winner, Eric Simonson about the rise and fall of the 1919 Chicago White Sox. "The Black Sox Scandal" is a tragic tale of mythic proportions, ripe with greed, power, romance, and redemption, all set against the backdrop of America’s favorite pastime and will premiere in the 2018-19 season.

Puckett’s music, which has been consistently awarded and recognized, was recently selected by Chorus America and the American Composers Forum as the recipient of the Dale Warland Singers Commission for a partnership with Philadelphia’s premier chamber choir, The Crossing.

Joel has received numerous awards from organizations such as the American Composers Forum, BMI, Chorus America and the American Bandmasters Association. Currently on the classroom faculty at the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University, he holds advanced degrees from the University of Michigan. His music is represented worldwide by Bill Holab music.

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In this episode Joel discusses how the composer and balance all the responsibilities of life.

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Joseph Summer began playing the French horn at the age of seven. While attending the Eastern Music Festival in North Carolina at age thirteen he was fortunate to be allowed to study composition with the eminent Czech composer Karel Husa. Two years later he was accepted at Oberlin Conservatory, graduating with a BM in Music Composition in 1976. Recruited by Robert Page to teach at Carnegie Mellon University, Joseph spent two years teaching music theory before leaving to pursue composition full time.

In 1981, with assistance from the National Endowment for the Arts, The Tenor’s Suite, Summer’s one act tragedy based on The Tenor by Frank Wedekind was produced in Philadelphia, fully staged through a piano reduction. This lead to Summer creating the Contemporary Opera Company of America. The company, over a two year span, concentrated on producing operas by living American composers, including Summer’s own Hippolytus, with fully staged double piano reduction performances in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.

For the next twenty years Joseph Summer concentrated his efforts composing a series of comic operas based on the bawdy stories of Boccaccio’s The Decameron. These consist of four completed works: And The Dead Shall Walk The Earth; Courting Disaster; Their Fate In The Hands Of The Friar; and Gianetta. The fifth in a projected cycle of seven: Also Known As is currently in progress.

In 2003 Summer founded The Shakespeare Concerts, which has presented more than forty compositions from Summer’s ever expanding collection of settings of the bard’s ever living texts, which he titles The Oxford Songs, (titled thus due to Summer’s support of Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, as the likely identity of the author also known as William Shakespeare.) In addition to the individual scenes, sonnets, and songs from Shakespeare collected in the aforementioned collection, Summer completed the opera Hamlet, in 2006; and is currently finishing a chamber opera setting of The Tempest.

Besides his vocal compositions; Summer’s works include chamber music and a concerto for the instrument of his youth: French horn: The Silver Swan, which won the 1980 National Federation of Music Clubs’ Orchestral Composition Contest. Recordings of Summer’s music are available on Albany Records and Parma. His previously released recordings include settings of Shakespeare for voice and piano on What A Piece Of Work Is Man; voice and sundry chamber ensembles on Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer’s Day (which also contains the string quintet Dance Of The Mechanics); voice, piano, and cello on So Many Journeys (which also includes Summer’s cello sonata: Twenty Variations on a Theme from the Hebdomad); and most recently: The Garden Of Forking Paths, his string quartet based on the short stories of Jorge Luis Borges.

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In this episode Joseph Summer discusses how to use non-profit 501(c)3s as a vehicle to produce concerts of your own music and more!

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Julianna’s debut album, Something Peculiar, was produced by Jeff Lynne (Traveling Wilburys, ELO), who met Raye through her cousin, composer, Michael Kamen. Lynne was so taken by her voice and songs, he offered to produce Julianna’s album. Signed to Warner Brothers by Lenny Waronker, Something Peculiar met with great critical acclaim. It was described by Spin magazine as “a pop rock diamond in the rough… Raye’s luminous voice and cinematic tales of love, dreams and life carry the day.” Something Peculiar was also voted one of NPR’s top ten records of the year.

In addition to singing on multiple Rufus Wainwright releases, Raye can be heard on Ryan Adams’ Gold, Demolition and 48 Hours and is featured on Van Dyke Parks’ tribute to Haruomi Hosono, Yellow Magic and the first single from his own project, Dreaming of Paris, Robin Danar’s Altered States, and singer/songwriter AM’s Side by Side. She can also be heard on Joe Cocker’s Hymn for my Soul, Tift Merrit’s Bramble Rose, Scott Thomas’ Lovers and Thieves and The Best is Yet to Come a tribute to Cy Coleman, in the company of Fiona Apple, Missy Higgens and Patty Griffin.

Julianna’s songwriting credits include collaborations with Rufus Wainwright, Ryan Adams, Ross Godfrey (Morcheeba), Joe Pisapia (KD Lang collaborator and producer), Courtney Jaye, Composers Michael Kamen and Paul Haslinger and writer/director Rod Lurie. Her years as a staff writer at Chrysalis Music also yielded many great collaborations with top charting Nashville and London based writers too numerous to name. One of her collaborative efforts, One Way Conversation, can be heard on the 2013 Courtney Jaye release produced by Mike Wrucke (Miranda Lambert.)

Raye’s music has been featured in many films and TV shows. Some highlights include Leaves Before Autumn from her Dominoes release, in Justin Timberlake’s In Time, Dewberry Wine, also from her Dominoes release, in the Charlize Theron film The Burning Plain. Director Rod Lurie asked her to co-write two songs, Land of Quiet Poems and Every Eden for his 2007 release, Resurrecting the Champ, starring Josh Hartnett and Samuel L Jackson (which she performed at the Sundance Film Festival). Holding All My Love for You, a song she co-wrote with composer Michael Kamen, is heard over the end credits to the Kevin Costner directed film, Open Range, starring Costner, Robert Duvall and Annette Bening. This wide range of styles represents Raye’s tremendous adaptability as a writer.

Says Raye, “I’ve spent a lot of my time in the music business searching and experimenting. I feel fortunate to have had that opportunity because of all the wondrous places I’ve been led. I’ve been exposed to an incredible diversity of experience and opportunities and I look forward to wherever my musical journey takes me next.”

In this episode Julianna Raye discusses how composers can use mindfulness to prime the mind for creativity.

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In this episode's Engraver's Minute Nels teaches us about score indications. You can read more and see examples at the Engraver’s Minute website.

Composer and multi-instrumentalist Angélica Negrón was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1981 and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Interested in creating intricate yet simple narratives that evoke intangible moments in time, she writes music for accordions, toys and electronics as well as chamber ensembles and orchestras. Her music has been described as “wistfully idiosyncratic and contemplative” (WQXR/Q2) and “mesmerizing and affecting” (Feast of Music) while The New York Times noted her “capacity to surprise” and her “quirky approach to scoring”.  She was recently selected by Q2 and NPR listeners as part of “The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40” and by Flavorpill as one of the “10 Young Female Composers You Should Know”.

Angélica has been commissioned by MATA Festival 2011, Choral Chameleon, janus trio, pianists David Friend and toy pianist Phyllis Chen (for the “Look and Listen Festival 2011”), among others, and she has curated concerts for El Museo del Barrio (Composers Now Festival), MATA Interval Series and Pregones Theater.   Her music has been performed by TRANSIT Ensemble, Cadillac Moon Ensemble, Cantori NY, Face the Music, Iktus Percussion Quartet, NYU Symphony Orchestra and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, and she has written music for documentaries, films, theater and modern dance. She frequently collaborates with the experimental theater company from Puerto Rico Y No Había Luz writing music for their plays, which often incorporate puppets, masks and unusual objects.

A long time member of the Puerto Rican underground music scene, Angélica is a founding member of the electro-acoustic pop outfit Balún where she sings and plays the accordion and violin. With her project Arturo en el Barco she concentrates on working with lo-fi ambient compositions and has released albums on Observatory (Austria) and Carte Postale Records (Belgium).

Angélica received an early education in piano and violin at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico where she later studied composition under the guidance of composer Alfonso Fuentes. She holds a master’s degree in music composition from New York University where she studied with Pedro da Silva and is currently pursuing a doctorate in music composition at The Graduate Center (CUNY), where she studies with Tania León.  She has received grants from Meet the Composer (MetLife Creative Connections Program), Foundation for Contemporary Arts (Emergency Grants) and the National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, among others.

Also active as an educator, Angélica is currently working as a teaching artist for New York Philharmonic’s Very Young Composers and The Little Orchestra Society’s Musical Connections Program, and recently co-founded with Noraliz Ruiz the Spanish immersion music program for young children ¡Acopladitos!. She has contributed as a writer to the International Alliance of Women in Music Journal and the British magazine The Wire. Angélica was a composer fellow at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival 2011 and was recently selected as a featured Ableton Live artist.   Her music is published by Good Child Music.

In this episode Angélica discusses niche marketing and self-promotion for the composer, and more!

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Recent and upcoming projects include Holographic,  a full length album commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra / Liquid Music, MASS MoCA, the Baryshinikov Art Center and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Out on New Amsterdam Records in January 2016 the album is co-produced with Paul Corley (Oneohtrix Point Never, Ben Frost, Tim Hecker) and includes the Bang on a Can All-Stars, Mantra Percussion, Lucky Dragons, and Mivos Quartet among others. Other projects in the works are a new piece for string quartet and electronics commissioned by the German festival Donaueschinger Musiktage for the Calder Quartet; a new work for MOMA Ps1 featuring Caroline Shaw (Roomful of Teeth) and Olga Bell (Dirty Projectors); appearances at the San Francisco Symphony Soundbox series, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW series; a consortium commission for 20 percussionists; a new piece for the Bang on a Can All-Stars through their People’s Commissioning Fund; a score for the surrealist indie film Elixir (a 2015 Berlinale selection); Cycles, a full-length ballet score commissioned by Georgia Tech's Sonic Generator ensemble and the GLO ATL dance company; and a film score for The Color of Time, featuring James Franco, Jessica Chastain and Mila Kunis.

Over the past few years, Daniel has worked with ensembles such as the American Symphony Orchestra, Albany Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, eighth blackbird, Calder Quartet, New York Youth Symphony, So Percussion, Bang on a Can All-Stars and collaborated with artists such as Julia Holter,  Laurel Halo, and Son Lux.

Daniel is also co-founder and co-curator of Sound / Source, an electronic and electroacoustic music festival held at MOMA Ps1. Born and raised in Paris, Daniel recently graduated from the Yale School of Music and is a recipient of three ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers awards, as well as grants from the Barlow Foundation, New Music USA, the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Jerome Foundation. He has been called one of his generation’s "imaginative, skillful creators" (New York Times) making work that is "provocative and surprising" (NPR) and "beautiful...original" (Pitchfork).

In this episode Daniel Wohl discusses team building, collaboration, forming consortiums, and more!

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Conductor/Composer Anthony J. Maglione is a graduate of Westminster Choir College of Rider University, East Carolina University, and the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the Director of Choral Studies at William Jewell College, Director of the Greater Kansas City AGO Schola Cantorum, Director of Music at Gloria Dei Lutheran Church, and Conductor Emeritus of the Freelance Ensemble Artists of NJ, a symphony orchestra based in Central NJ.

An active composer, Anthony’s choral works are growing in popularity and are published on GIA’s “Evoking Sound” choral series.  In the last five years his music has appeared at state and national level conventions, on TV, video games, and has been recorded on the Gothic Label. During the 2009-2010 academic year, he was the “Featured Composer” for the choirs of the New England Conservatory.  In 2014, Anthony was a semi-finalist for the American Prize in Composition, choral division and, recently, Anthony was commissioned to compose a large scale work for the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in 2018.

Anthony has made numerous guest conducting/clinician appearances and has prepared ensembles for such esteemed conductors as James Conlon, James Jordan, David Newman, Donald Neuen, and Alex Treger. Ensembles under his leadership have performed nationally and internationally at renowned concert venues including Disney Hall in Los Angeles and Carnegie Hall in New York City.

In this episode Anthony discusses the best practices on getting your score into conductor's hands.

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