Spring 2013 concert:
Maurice Duruflé
Requiem op. 9
For mezzo-soprano, baritone, choir, organ, and orchestra
Commissioned in 1947 by the French music publisher Durand, this requiem is written in memory of the composer's father. This composition is considered Duruflé's masterpiece
The three top-ranked works from our national Young Composer Competition.
Costas Dafnis (b. 1989 Athens, Greece) is a composer of vocal and instrumental music based in the United States. He has been awarded by New Music USA, The American Prize in Choral Composition, and International Music Prize and is a founding member of Noisi Paintr.
For more information, visit CostasDafnis.com
Michael Schachter (b. 1987 in Boston, MA). In his youth he studied classical piano with Faina Kofman, jazz piano with Dick Odgren, and composition with Alla Elana Cohen. He earned his BA in Music from Harvard University, where he studied composition and orchestration with Julian Anderson, Elliott Gyger, and Michael Gandolfi. After graduating, he traveled to Chennai, India on a John Knowles Paine Fellowship, where he studied Karnatak music (the classical tradition of South India) with Karaikudi S. Subramanian. He is currently working towards the Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he has studied with Bright Sheng, Paul Schoenfeld, and Evan Chambers. Michael is also quite passionate about teaching. He maintains a private piano studio in Ann Arbor, and he has taught various courses at Michigan, including keyboard harmony, aural skills, and composition for non-majors. Outside music, Michael loves reading, philosophizing, grumbling about politics, playing and watching sports, and cooking.
Keane Southard (b. 1987) writes music that is an amalgamation of his many diverse musical influences, from medieval chant to 70's rock, Bach to the Blues, and German romanticism to Latin dance forms. His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Longfellow Chorus and Orchestra, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Tesla Quartet, Playground Ensemble, Encore Wind Ensemble, and Ars Nova Singers. His music has been described as “highly-professional and well-orchestrated” (Portland Press Herald). He has been a recipient of many awards including the Lee Goldstein Composition Award from Baldwin-Wallace College, the Cecil Effinger Composition Award and George Lynn Prize from The University of Colorado-Boulder, First Prize in the Longfellow Chorus International Composers Cantata Competition, and the Charles B. Olson Young Composer Award. His compositions have recently been performed in Society of Composers Inc. regional and national conferences, College Music Society regional conferences, and internationally in Germany, Brazil, Poland, and Romania. He has been awarded residency fellowships at Playa and the Kimmel-Harding-Nelson Center. Keane earned his M.M. in composition at the University of Colorado-Boulder where he served as a graduate assistant in music theory. His composition teachers include Kenneth Girard, Loris Chobanian, Daniel Kellogg, Jeffrey Nytch, Carter Pann, and Richard Toensing. In 2013, Keane will spend the year in Brazil as a Fulbright scholar doing research on music education.
Concert soloists: