Announcing June in Buffalo 2023 Call for Applications!

The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music and the June in Buffalo Festival announce the June in Buffalo 2023 call for applications! June in Buffalo 2023 will be fully in-person and take place at the University at Buffalo campus, beginning on Tuesday, June 6, and ending on Sunday, June 11. Please read our tribute to our Artistic Director David Felder, who restarted and reconceptualized the June in Buffalo Festival in 1986, and grew the Festival to become a hub for high-quality and virtuosic contemporary music workshops, lectures, masterclasses, events, and concerts. We extend our gratitude for his leadership of the Festival for 37 years and wish him a healthy and happy retirement. 

This year our Senior Composers will be Ann Cleare, new June in Buffalo Artistic Director Jonathan Golove, Robert HP Platz, Mathew Rosenblum, and Melinda Wagner. Our resident ensembles will be the Arditti Quartet, Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Slee Sinfonietta, Switch~  Ensemble, and Talujon Percussion Ensemble.  

Information on how to apply, and access to the application portal can be found here. Processing fee and application materials must be received by Wednesday, February 1, 2023. Looking forward to seeing everyone in June! 

Irvine Arditti, Brad Lubman, and Ensemble Signal perform David Felder's Jeu de Tarot at June in Buffalo 2019

Announcing Artistic Director David Felder's retirement!

The Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music and the June in Buffalo Festival announce the retirement of longtime Artistic Director, Dr. David Felder. David is stepping down from these positions in conjunction with his upcoming retirement as faculty member at the University at Buffalo, where since 1990 he has held the titles of SUNY Distinguished Professor and Birge-Cary Endowed Chair in Music. Felder’s contributions to contemporary music cannot be overstated, in light both of his internationally recognized status as a composer, and of his tireless work as a mentor, programmer, and builder of structures in support of his avowed mission of promoting contemporary music of the highest quality.  

 

David and Eileen Felder with fellow composer Charles Wuorinen

Following the completion of his Ph.D. in music composition from the University of California at San Diego, Felder taught for several years at Cal State Long Beach, before joining the music department at the University at Buffalo in the Fall of 1985. During his first year in Buffalo, he restarted and reconceptualized the June in Buffalo Festival, which was founded by Morton Feldman in 1975 and ran until 1980. 

Of the many changes that Felder would implement, chief among them was the addition of performances of participant composer works. Whereas in the past, the festival had been focused on the works and ideas of the senior composers, under Felder’s directorship, participant composers now had their works rehearsed, workshopped, performed, and recorded. It is surely no exaggeration to say that many generations of composers have received important feedback from colleagues, peers, and performers, as well as significant exposure for their work, at June in Buffalo. Indeed, David Felder’s support of and advocacy for developing composers can be seen as the defining feature of his work as UB Professor. As a teacher, he has mentored and supervised over 80 Ph.D. composition students from all over the world that have traveled to Buffalo to study with him, with a pedagogical focus on guiding student composers to the self-discovery of an authentic individual creative voice during their degree programs.

In addition to directing the June in Buffalo Festival, in 1996 Felder formed the Slee Sinfonietta, an ensemble comprising virtuosic musicians from the UB music department and around the world. As Artistic Director of the Sinfonietta, he has masterminded nearly three decades of brilliant and innovative programs, featuring conductors and soloists of the first rank and bringing significant, yet most often underperformed repertoire to the public. Additionally, Felder has fostered relationships with ensembles from across the US and Europe, perhaps most notably the Arditti Quartet, with whom the Center has enjoyed a relationship unique among American institutions. The growing vitality and recognition of the resultant relationships, programming, concerts, and innovative music events led to the success of Felder’s efforts to create the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music at the University at Buffalo in 2006, and he has served as the Center’s Artistic Director since its inception. 

David Felder hosting a masterclass at
the University at Buffalo

From 2015 through 2020 he was Co-Director and Co-Founder of a program created and supervised at the request of the UB Provost entitled the Creative Arts Initiative, an innovative artist residency program that brought highly accomplished international artists in a wide variety of disciplines to Western New York for the purpose of creating and presenting new work.

An abbreviated list of the recognition his work as a composer has received includes a Guggenheim Award, numerous fellowships and commissions from the National Endowment from the Arts, two New York State Arts Council awards, two Koussevitsky commissions, two Fromm Foundation fellowships, two awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, two commissions from the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, three years as composer-in-residence with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and much more.

   

David Felder's Netivot, in collaboration with video artist Elliot Caplan, performed by the Arditti Quartet

His scores are published by Project Schott New York, and Theodor Presser, and his multiple composer portrait CDs have been released on Albany, Bridge, Coviello, BMOP/Sound, Mode, and EMF. 

Felder’s compositional output is wide-ranging, including the monumental gesamtkunstwerk and vocal tour de force, Les Quatre Temps Cardinaux; orchestral works such as Die Dämmerungen, A Pressure Triggering Dreams, and Six Poems from Neruda’s Alturas…; concerto-style works such as Jeu de Tarot and Jeu de Tarot 2, Tweener, and Inner Sky; three string quartets; works involving technological elaboration such as the Crossfire series, video collaborations including the Shamayim series, smaller chamber works and solos, works for electronic sound, and many others. By maintaining a unique compositional voice across a diverse array of genres and instrumental forces, Felder’s many contributions to contemporary music repertoire mirror his innovations as a programmer, community and network-builder, and his creative vision for the Center for 21st Century Music, the June in Buffalo Festival, and the Slee Sinfonietta, realized over a 37 year period. Writings, reviews, and discussions of the content, style, aesthetic, and complexity of his musical compositions are plentiful and can be found on his personal website, http://david-felder.com/, where one can also listen to his works, purchase his recordings, or contact his publishers. 

 

Jeu de Tarot, performed by Ensemble Signal with Brad Lubman conducting, Irvine Arditti soloist

We extend our gratitude to this prolific composer of international renown for his incredibly significant contribution to contemporary music in Buffalo, the US, and throughout the world. His successor in the roles of Festival and Center Director is Dr. Jonathan Golove, who offers congratulations and best wishes on the occasion of Dr. Felder’s retirement, and also his deepest personal thanks to David for his long-standing mentorship and support.

Composer Jorge Grossman visits the University at Buffalo on November 17

The Center for 21st Century Music is pleased to announce a visit to the University at Buffalo by composer Jorge Grossman, hailing from Ithaca College where he currently teaches. On November 17th, 2022, he will give a lecture on his own music and give a masterclass to University at Buffalo graduate composers. 

Have a listen to his Siray III Concentric Squares performed by Klangforum Wien:

A little more about Jorge Grossman from his bio:

Jorge Villavicencio Grossmann (b. 1973) is a composer whose music reveals an innately lyrical vein within a texturally and formally complex modernist framework. His musical interests are multifaceted, and his pieces often reflect his passion for revisiting classical models. From hockets, troped passacaglias and variation forms to works for electronics or Peruvian indigenous instruments, his oeuvre is as diverse as his cultural background. The son of a Peruvian scientist and a Brazilian teacher and visual artist of Austrian extraction, he was born in Lima, Peru. When the terrorist organization, the Shining Path, became stronger causing massive unrest in Peru, his family emigrated to Brazil in 1989. Initially intending a career as a violinist, he stopped playing due to the effects of focal dystonia. After moving to the United States in 1998, he completed his graduate degrees studying composition with Orlando García, Fredrick Kaufman, John Harbison and, with whom would become his greatest influence, the American composer Lukas Foss. 

His music has been performed by the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, São Paulo Symphony, National Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina, Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá, Sinf+onica Nacional de Colombia, Peruvian National Symphony, New England Philharmonic, Kiev Camerata, Klangforum Wien, Boston Musica Viva, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Da Capo Chamber Players, Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble Wien®, Seattle Chamber Players, Talea Ensemble, ALEA III and the Amernet, Borromeo, Mivos and JACK quartets. A two-time Fulbright Scholar  (2016, 2022), his awards include a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation fellowship, Fromm Music Foundation Commission, the Aaron Copland Award, Bogliasco Foundation Fellowship, Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a fellowship from Vitae – Associação de Apoio à Cultura. He has been in residence at the Copland House, MacDowell Colony and Atlantic Center for the Arts. He teaches music composition at Ithaca College and is the director of the Ithaca College Contemporary Ensemble. In addition, he is Head of Composition at VIPA, Valencia International Performing Arts Summer Festival.

Composer Sally McCune visits the University at Buffalo on November 3

We at the Center for 21st Century Music are excited to welcome composer Sally McCune to the University at Buffalo on Thursday, November 3rd, 2022, to give a lecture on her own music, and to host a masterclass where UB graduate composers will share their works. She will be here in-person traveling from Ithaca College, where she currently teaches. Have a listen to her High Water Rising for Wind Ensemble (2018), performed and recorded by the University of Michigan Wind Ensemble, with Courtney Snyder conducting, here on soundcloud.

Check out her biography below:

Composer Sally McCune

Born in Detroit, McCune was educated at University of Toronto, California Institute of the Arts, and earned an MFA and DMA from Cornell University. Her principal teachers have included Steven Stucky, Roberto Sierra and Mel Powell. McCune’s music continues to gain national and international recognition with performances across North America and Europe.

Awards include a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Whitaker New Reading Session from the American Composers Orchestra, grants from the New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Fund Creation Grant, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, and the Aaron Copland Recording Fund. She has received numerous commissions, including those from the New York State Music Teacher’s Association, Society for New Music, Cornell University Chorus, University of Georgia Wind Ensemble, Ensemble X, Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Ariadne String Quartet, Eason Trio and Melodia Choir of NYC. Her work is published by G. Schirmer, Hal Leonard and Heritage Music Press.

McCune has taught at Cornell University, Syracuse University and is currently on the faculty at Ithaca College. She has served as guest composer at institutions and festivals including Eastman School of Music, University of South Carolina, The College of New Jersey, South Shore Conservatory, Seal Bay Festival and Songfest and as Composer-In-Residence in regional public schools in Syracuse and Ithaca.

Ensemble Court-circuit residency at the University at Buffalo

The Center for 21st Century Music is excited to announce the return of Ensemble Court-circuit to the University at Buffalo on October 26th and 27th. Court-circuit joined us back in 2018 for a residency where they rehearsed and recorded UB graduate composer works and gave a concert of contemporary music, and we've been looking forward to having them back ever since. 

Court-circuit at the University at Buffalo in 2018
photo credit: Irene Haupt

Some background on them from their website: 

The composer Philippe Hurel and conductor Pierre-André Valade created the ensemble Court-circuit in 1991, following a meeting with the founders of Analix Gallery in Geneva. « Created by a composer for composers », Court-circuit from the outset was a place of experimentation, an art project promoting intense risk-taking in a spirit of total freedom. A strong commitment to contemporary music is the real cement of the ensemble. Court-circuit owes its nervous, rhythmic, incisive identity, as well as its banner-like name, to the musicians and their leader Jean Deroyer, who animate it with determination and virtuosity. A sought- after partner for composers, the ensemble cheerfully plays its role of agitator in the international contemporary scene.

Court-circuit was invited by highly dynamic international programming (Maerzmuzik festivals, Ultima, Printemps des Arts, Musica Electronica Nova, Traiettorie, Gaïda) and haunts the high places of French creation and dissemination: Agora festivals, Manifesto, Novelum, Aujourd’hui Musiques in Perpignan, Messiaen in the Land of Meije, the Reims Opera, the Metz Arsenal, the Caen and Besançon theaters, and the Paris Opera.

Court-circuit is also involved in interdisciplinary projects that go beyond the sphere of contemporary music. After working with the Paris Opera for choreographic creations (Preljocaj, Lagraa),the ensemble had a fruitful partnership with the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord (Paris), where it created two chamber operas (The Second Woman – Grand Prize of Critics 2011 – and Mimi – 2014 – both composed by Frédéric Verrières and staged by Guillaume Vincent, before beginning a collaboration with the Opera Comique (Paris) where it participates in the opera La Princesse légère composed by Violeta Cruz and directed by Jos Houben (premiere in 2017).

In parallel, Court-circuit created several ciné-concerts such as Paris qui dort (a René Clair film, with music by Yan Maresz) and Les hommes le dimanche (a Robert Siodmak film, with music by Alexandros Markeas).

Court-circuit asserts its pedagogic mission by regularly working with the Paris Conservatory and the Ile- de-France conservatories. In 2012, it settled in the Hauts-de-Seine, where it conducts numerous projects with music institutions and national distribution structures.

The ensemble is regularly invited to participate in European programs, like Integra (2006-2011) dedicated to mixed music, and Re: new music project (2009-2011). Court-circuit’s discography features about twenty records that accurately reflect his extensive repertoire: Reynolds, Bertrand, Blondeau, D’Adamo, Fineberg, Grisey, Hervé, Hurel, Leroux, Matalon Monnet, Murail, Schneller, Buchala, Jodlowski…

Named several times “Favorite” by the Académie Charles Cros, these CDs were recognized by numerous awards (Le Monde de la Musique, Diapason d’Or, 10 de Répertoire).

Ensemble Court-circuit

Throughout the day on Thursday, October 27th, they will rehearse and record works by University at Buffalo graduate composers: Francisco Courthey, Lihuen Sirvent, Joel Kirk, and Thomas Little. 

On Wednesday, October 26th, at 7:30 pm in Lippes Concert Hall, Court-circuit will give a concert of contemporary works, including those by UB Distinguished Professor and Birge-Cary Chair in Composition David Felder, as well as by UB Alumna Diana Soh. 

The program is free and open to the public:

Sky Macklay, Fastlowhighslow for vn and pno 

Anthony Cheung, Ebbing Flow for cl, vn, vc, and pno  

David Felder, Rare air for cl and electronics

David Hudry, Impulses for fl, cl, vl, vc, and pno  

Diana Soh, Smaller things for ensemble (version for fl) 

Philippe Leroux, Postlude à l’épais for fl, cl, vl, vc, and pno 

No ticket purchase at the Slee Hall box office is necessary -- just show up and looking forward to seeing you there!

Lukas Foss Centennial Celebration!

The Center for 21st Century Music is pleased to announce our co-production with the UB College of Arts & Sciences Dean Robin Schulze and the UB Department of Music: Lukas Foss Centennial Celebration, Sunday, September 18th, at 3:00 pm in Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall. We are also excited to bring this program to New York City, where we will offer the same program at the Dimenna Center in Midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, October 5th. 

Some background and context about this exciting program has been offered by Prof. Jonathan Golove, UB Music Department faculty specializing in Music Composition and Cello Performance, who will be performing on cello throughout the program:

Lukas Foss, whom we celebrate on the 100th anniversary of his birthyear, was a brilliant, exploratory and multifarious musician. His output as a composer, to say nothing of his efforts as a conductor and pianist, ranged widely over a significant variety of major trends from the second half of the 20th century. In some of those trends, indeed, he can be seen an important pioneer. Today’s program presents by no means the widest possible survey of his output in terms of these compositional directions, but it does offer chamber works from a broad swath of time, with works composed in five decades. These works represent some of his principal interests and stylistic tendencies, including the so-called “Americana” sound from his early period, his take on minimalism in the 1970s and 80s, and his career-long engagement with literary texts. The works are organized in two groupings: the first begins with Americana pieces and concludes with the minimalist-flavored Solo Observed, which itself, in its concluding section, brings back the Americana style decades after he had moved off in other composerly directions. After this grouping of shorter works, we perform one of Foss’s masterworks, Time Cycle, in the chamber version he created following Leonard Bernstein’s triumphant 1960 premiere of the original version for soprano and orchestra with the New York Philharmonic. Of that premiere, critic Allen Hughes wrote, “The composer... has surely produced the most beautiful and most significant work of his career.”

- Prof. Jonathan Golove

Lukas Foss 
photo credit: Irene Haupt

The concert is free and open to the public, please see the complete program below:

University at Buffalo

Lippes Concert Hall

Sunday, September 18, 3:00 pm

https://calendar.buffalo.edu/event/center-for-21st-century-music-lukas-foss-tribute-concert/

Elegy for clarinet and piano (1949, arr. Richard Stoltzman 2014)

Michael Tumiel, clarinet

Michael Serio, piano

Capriccio for cello and piano (1948)

Jonathan Golove, cello

Eric Huebner, piano

Solo Observed (1982)

Eric Hueber, piano

Tom Kolor, vibraphone

Jonathan Golove, cello

Michael Serio, electric organ

Time Cycle (1960) for soprano, clarinet, cello, piano/celesta, and percussion 

Tiffany Du Mouchelle, soprano

Michael Tumiel, clarinet

Jonathan Golove, cello

Tom Kolor, percussion

Eric Huebner, piano

This concert will be performed again on October 5th:

The Dimenna Center 

450 W 37th St, 

New York, NY 10018

Wednesday, October 5th

6:30 p.m. - Viewing of Lukas Foss documentary and performance

8:00 p.m. - Reception with light fare

Admission is free, but registration is required:

https://ubcas.formstack.com/forms/lukas_foss_centennial_celebration_nyc

Arditti Quartet residency at the University at Buffalo

The Center for 21st Century Music at the University at Buffalo is pleased to announce an upcoming residency of the Arditti Quartet during August 19 - 22, 2022. The Arditti Quartet was scheduled to be a resident ensemble at June in Buffalo 2022 where they were to rehearse, workshop, and record the works of June in Buffalo participant composers, as well as give a concert of works featuring the works of June in Buffalo senior composers. Unfortunately, the Arditti Quartet was not able to join June in Buffalo 2022 due to complications of Covid. 

On August 19, the Arditti Quartet will rehearse and record the works of participant composers from the festival, some who will travel to the University at Buffalo to work with the quartet in-person, and some who will rehearse via zoom. 

During August 20 - 22, the Arditti Quartet will join the Slee Sinfonietta to rehearse and record June in Buffalo senior composer David Felder's violin concerto Jeu de Tarot 2, featuring violin soloist Irvine Arditti, which was also postponed from June in Buffalo 2022 due to complications of Covid. Jeu de Tarot 2's predecessor, Jeu de Tarot, was recorded by Irvine Arditti and Ensemble Signal and released on Coviello Contemporary.

The Arditti Quartet with David Felder in Spring of 2018

David Felder Interview and Premiere

 West Coast Premiere: Die Dämmerungen  

University at Buffalo alumnus Christian Baldini made the trek to Buffalo to premiere David Felder's For CW in September of 2021 (details here). Baldini is director of the UC-Davis Orchestra, and in that position will be giving the west coast premiere of Felder's Die Dämmerungen.

UB Alum Christian Baldini

On May 21, 2022, it will be my honor to conduct the West Coast première of Felder’s work Die Dämmerungen with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra at the Mondavi Center. I had the chance of asking David some questions, which he responded to via voice memos, and below is the transcription of these informal but extremely illuminating exchanges.

Christian Baldini: Your music is often inspired by external sources, such as literature, painting, or even a tarot deck of cards. For this piece you utilized poetry by William Carlos Williams, Dana Gioia, and also a quote from Psalm 130, and a direct reference to Nietzsche’s Twilight of the Idols. Can you tell us how this fits into your creative process? Are there any particular ideas that come to mind first, and that inspire you to make references to these works through your music?

David Felder: Each one of the texts is set to instill an atmosphere for each one of the movements. In fact the texts were not picked first, but the music was conceived first. As I began working on the music I started searching for texts that would in some way tie the movements together but also create an atmosphere across the music.

I have a personal relationship with one of the poets. That is Dana Gioia. I have worked with his poetry before. We’ve been associated together and I very much enjoy his poetry. In this poem, he refers to Jacob and the Old Testament story. Jacob’s ladder. The ladder which angels used to ascend and descend to/from heaven.

There is a sadness and lack of awareness in terms of the opportunity. The heavenly and the mundane...

...

CB: To me this piece seems very spiritual. Not only do you have these trajectories of descending and going into the depths of the human soul, but you also have these “impossible distances”, as referenced in the beautiful poem by Dana Gioia. You make a reference to “the Goddess of Dawn and a sense of personal rather than collective place in the second piece. Over the course of the first three of the four pieces the music is quite dark, intense, slow evolving, extremely beautiful and expressive. And in your final movement somehow it all seems to click into place, with bursts of energy that most composers could only dream of. You also make references to the “age of shrill” and the “incessantly repetitive propaganda.” How do all these musical materials come into place for you? How do you balance out purely musical material from all these external elements that are clearly influencing you and inspiring you?

DF: This balance of programmatic and musical elements is always a challenge for any composer. Programmatic ideas come in a pre-compositional way – I know what I want to say and I find the technical means to say that.

Simple binary forms make it much easier for the listener to understand the material presented in the piece – These forms rhyme much like the poets have a relationship in this piece – from a technical point of view, music is meant to complement and reinforce itself through self-similarity.

...

CB: Besides your extremely successful and busy career as a composer you have been a remarkable teacher to so many great composers. Your influence and your legacy mentoring and reaching out to the future generations is invaluable. How have you balanced your life as a Distinguished Professor and Birge-Cary Chair in Composition at SUNY Buffalo, and as the Artistic Director of the “June in Buffalo” Festival since 1985, with your life as a composer?

DF: For almost 50 years I’ve been producing concerts. I felt very strongly that it’s very important for young composers to have their music produced at a very high level.

balance: I’ve never only wanted to do just one thing – It became very interesting and important for me to create musical opportunities for audiences, composers

Now, reverse engineering. There’s been a cost. It’s taken enormous energy to put this into place and maintain it. It comes at some expense to the creative work that you do.

I’m coming now to what I consider to be the end of my creative moment. I recently finished a second cycle of Jeu de Tarot. 14 movements.

After that I’m going to take a hiatus. That hiatus will continue until I have a good idea.

For more of this interview, visit Baldini's blog. 

David Felder For CW

 

 

Alejandro Rutty Residency

Alejandro Rutty’s compositional output includes orchestral, chamber and mixed-media music, arrangements of Argentine traditional music, and innovative outreach musical projects.

A unique feature of Rutty’s music is its affection for textures suggested by modern recording processing techniques, and the use of Tango - a genre he performs as a pianist-and other South American genres as part of the music’s surface.

Rutty’s compositions and arrangements have been played by the Minnesota Symphony Orchestra, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina, National Symphony Orchestra of Brazil, Porto Alegre Symphony Orchestra, New Mexico Symphony Orchestra, Linköping Symphony Orchestra, American Modern Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Red Clay Saxophone Quartet, and the Cassatt String Quartet among other groups. Rutty’s music has been published by Effiny Music, SCI/European American Music, and Ricordi Sudamericana.

Recordings of his music have been released by Navona Records, Capstone Records, Arizona University Recordings, and ERM Media, PAI Records. 

Alejandro Rutty (PhD SUNY Buffalo) is currently Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

June in Buffalo 2022 Senior Composer: David Liptak

We are pleased to welcome David Liptak as one of the senior composers at the 2022 edition of June in Buffalo! 

David Liptak's music has been described as “luminous and arresting,” “richly atmospheric,” and having “transparent textures, incisive rhythms, shimmering lightness.” His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and abroad by the San Francisco Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Group for Contemporary Music, EARPLAY, the Ying, Cassatt, and JACK String Quartets, the Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the 20th-Century Consort, baritone William Sharp, soprano Tony Arnold, and by many other soloists and ensembles. 

In 1995 David Liptak was awarded the Elise L. Stoeger Prize, given by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in recognition of distinguished achievement in the field of chamber music composition. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, both in 2002; he has also received the 2006 Lillian Fairchild Award; and commissions for new music have included those supported by the Fromm Foundation, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation, Meet the Composer, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the California Music Center, and the Hanson Institute for American Music.  Recordings of David Liptak’s music can be found on Bridge, Innova, Albany, Centaur, and other recording labels. 

He is President of the American Composers Alliance, and his music is published by several publishers, including Keiser Classical, Alfred Music - Donald Hunsberger Wind Ensemble Library, and the American Composers Edition. Much of his music written very recently has explored the poetry and magical quality of stars and starlight, imagined and real.  A dedicated teacher of composition students for the past three decades, David Liptak is Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught since 1986.

 Full Biography

 

June in Buffalo 2022 Senior Composer: David Felder

We are pleased to welcome David Felder as one of the senior composers at the 2022 edition of June in Buffalo!

David Felder has long been recognized as a leader in his generation of American composers. His works have been featured at many of the leading international festivals for contemporary music, and earn continuing recognition through performance and commissioning programs. Felder's work has been broadly characterized by its highly energetic profile, through its frequent employment of technological extension and elaboration of musical materials (including his Crossfire video series, and the video/music collaboration Shamayim), and its lyrical qualities.

Felder has received numerous grants and commissions including many composer's awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, two New York State Council commissions, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, Guggenheim, two Koussevitzky commissions, two Fromm Foundation Fellowships, two awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer "New Residencies" (1993-1996), composer residency with the Buffalo Philharmonic, two commissions from the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and many more.

In May 2010, he received the Music Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, a career recognition award. Shamayim was awarded a Silver Medal in Music from the Park City Film Festival in Spring, 2011.

Felder serves as Birge-Cary Chair in Composition at SUNY Buffalo, and has been Artistic Director of the "June in Buffalo" Festival since 1985, when he revived it upon his arrival in Buffalo. Since 2006, he has been Director of the Robert and Carol Morris Center for 21st Century Music at the University. From 1992 to 1996 he was Meet the Composer "New Residencies," Composer-in-Residence to the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and WBFO-FM. In 1996, he formed the professional chamber orchestra, the Slee Sinfonietta, and has been Artistic Director since that time. In 2008, he was named SUNY Distinguished Professor, the highest rank in the entirety of the SUNY system. In 2015 he was named Co-Director of the University at Buffalo's Creative Arts Initiative, a plan to bring major international creative artists to the region as guest artists.

Felder recently released a CD on Coviello Contemporary featuring Jeu de Tarot (2016-2017), a chamber concerto recorded by Irvine Arditti and Ensemble Signal, and conducted by Brad Lubman. The disc also features his string quartet Netivot (2016), recorded by the Arditti Quartet, and Another Face (1987), recorded by Irvine Arditti. His recent orchestra piece, Die Dämmerungen, commissioned by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, will receive its complete world premiere at Kleinhans Music Hall on October 5^th and 6th, 2019, under the baton of JoAnn Falletta.

A dedicated teacher and mentor, he has served as Ph.D. dissertation advisor and major professor for over eighty composers at Buffalo, many of whom are actively teaching, composing and performing internationally at leading institutions. Nearly 900 'emerging' composers have participated in June in Buffalo, the festival Felder pioneered and dedicated to younger composers upon his arrival in Buffalo in 1985. Felder served as Master Artist in Residence at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in February-March, 2010. His works are published by Theodore Presser, and Project Schott New York, and portrait recordings are available on Albany, Bridge, Coviello, BMOP/sound, Mode, and EMF. Two recording projects were recently completed, both of Les Quatres Temps Cardinaux in surround sound, with one being released on BMOP/sound, and the other on Coviello Contemporary.