JiB 2026 Senior Composer Introduction Series: David Dzubay

This is the first of a series of posts which will be introducing our five senior composers for the 2026 June in Buffalo festival. We at Edge of the Center have sent a few questions to each of the senior composers to help introduce themselves to you, our readers.

We begin with David Dzubay.

EofC Describe the moment when you discovered your calling to music.

Dzubay A moment? That is hard. I was lucky in my high school years to play trumpet in one of the best and oldest youth orchestras - the Portland Youth Philharmonic. Highlights that I'm sure tilted me toward a lasting love for music were playing Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms, Holst Planets, and one year, both Rite of Spring and Daphnis et Chloe on tour to the Spoleto Festival. At the same time, my high school had an incredible arts program, with an hour of trumpet class and an hour or two of jazz ensemble every day. Many fantastic experiences.

EofC This is the JiB year of the composer/conductor. How do composing and conducting relate to each other in your practice?

Dzubay After years as a fairly serious trumpeter, sort of wrapping up playing in the National Repertory Orchestra for two years, composing and conducting took over, and I have always been doing both. My early model was Harvey Sollberger, who was a frequent JIB guest, and I played under his direction for years as a student at IU. Conducting has certainly informed my approach to many aspects of composing, but particularly choice of meters, use (or not) of fermatas, score organization and clarity of intent, strategies for more complex textures, rhythms, balances, etc.

EofC What place does the audience have in your compositional process and what place do they have while conducting?

Dzubay I do want my music to be heard by an audience, so that is important! But, my first audience is myself....I try to write music that is personally compelling, and have to trust that if I'm excited about hearing a piece, at least some others might be. I do think a conductor helps the audience understand the music, not unlike how the conductor leads the way for the musicians. Gestures and expressions at least partly lead an audience through the expressive experience.

EofC How do you approach giving masterclasses?

Dzubay In masterclasses, usually we are reviewing existing work, so it is a bit different than in a lesson focusing on a work in progress. It would be more of a conversation about the piece, identifying aspects that worked well and perhaps some that didn't quite hit the mark, identifying things to keep in mind for the next project, or potentially adjustments that might yet be made to the piece being presented.

EofC How do you approach giving public lectures?

Dzubay I usually try to offer some general information about my process of composition and go through a few specific examples. In a talk for music specialists, I enjoy getting into the nuts and bolts, answering questions, having a discussion. If you mean for a general audience, it would of course be less technical

If you would like to discover some of David Dzubay's music, see the video below!

Solstsice Reed Quintet plays UB composers at Hallwalls

We are quickly approaching the culmination of yet another collaboration between the UB graduate composers and a professional ensemble! The Solstice Reed Quintet will be in Buffalo on Monday, April 6th as part of the Music Department concert series at Hallwalls Contemporary Art Center. The concert will take place at Hallwalls on Monday, April 6th at 7:30 PM.

Reed quintets are a rather new ensemble in the chamber music scene, and one that is growing in popularity. Distinct from a wind quintet (flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon), the reed quintet consists solely of instruments which have reeds, as the name would suggest, while the wind quintet includes other instrument types. The reed quintet was first developed by the Dutch ensemble, Calefax Reed Quintet as recently as 1985! They did this by bringing together oboe, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, and bass clarinet. As with the birth of any new ensemble, the group is obliged to seek composers and arrangers to create a repertoire of pieces for the ensemble to play. It is impressive how quickly a repertoire has come into being, and likewise how quickly the reed ensemble has become an established ensemble within chamber music more broadly. The Solstice Reed Quintet hails from the University of Southern Mississippi, first coming together in 2022. They are firm champions of the unique ensemble, and in their words, their “mission is to present music that challenges, inspires, and offers fresh perspectives on the unique possibilities of this distinct ensemble.” The ensemble has a strong belief in the power of music to build community, and wish to leave a lasting impression on their diverse audiences. They have won a number of competitions, including first prize at the Mississippi Music Teachers Association competition, and were finalists at the North American Saxophone Alliance Flex Competition. Solstice is building a name for themselves, and has a robust schedule of performances at colleges, universities, festivals, and various music venues. This concert will feature new works by Mark Bogacki, Garrison Bouchard-Ferdon, Andres Bonilla Garcia, Sohwa Lee, Thomas Little, Giovanni Maraboli and Jackson Roush. This group of composers comprises both PhD and Master’s students. It is sure to be a memorable night at Hallwalls, again on Monday, April 6th at 7:30, and it is an exciting opportunity to hear a distinct and recent addition to chamber music ensembles!

Spring Festival featuring Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart

Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart

 

We are quickly approaching a not-to-be-missed visit from Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart starting on Wednesday, April 1^st. This visit will mark the opening of our Spring Festival: The Expanded Musical Canon, a series of four concerts and one lecture. The festival’s concerts will include music from the early Renaissance to our current day.  

As of this writing, UB's Birge-Cary Professor of Composition, Ming Tsao, is in Stuttgart, Germany meeting with Neue Vocalsolisten for a performance similar to the one they will give in Buffalo. The next time Neue Vocalsolisten and Ming Tsao are together will be in our own Lippes concert hall for the April 1^st concert featuring his Das wassergewordene Kanonbuch (2016-17) and Immaterial (2021) by Chaya Czernowin. The concert will also feature the UB Chamber Choir under the direction of Claudia Brown performing Johannes Ockeghem’s Missa Prolationum (late 15th-Century) and Ludovico da Viadana’s Exsultate Justi (early 17th-Century), adding a visit from the Renaissance to the concert experience.

This opening of the Spring Festival will be followed on Thursday the 2^nd with an afternoon lecture on the music of Helmut Lachenmann given by our PhD student composers, and then an evening concert by Neue Vocalsolisten performing works from these same UB composers. Will Brobston, Francisco Corthey, Chi-Yen Huang, Jackson Roush, and Maria Lihuen Sirvent have been working with Neue Vocalsolisten for months now preparing the pieces which you will hear at this concert. It is a phenomenal opportunity for our young composers to work with a world-class ensemble and is sure to be an exciting and ground-breaking concert experience.

Barret Ham

The festival continues on Friday the 3^rd with two more concerts featuring a trio of musicians. The reader will be familiar with the brilliant pianist and UB Professor of Music Eric Huebner, and he is joined by cellist Christopher Gross and clarinetist Barret Ham. Gross has been praised by the New York Times for his “lustrous tone”, and is highly active in the New York contemporary music scene – he is a founding member of the prominent Talea Ensemble. Ham is a Lecturer at Boston University and member of the New York Philharmonic. These three musicians will perform Lachenmann, Tsao, and Brahms (yes, Johannes Brahms) over the two concerts on the 3^rd.

Christopher Gross

 

Below you’ll find a complete listing of the events of the festival.

Wednesday April 1
Event: Concert #1
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Location: Lippes Concert Hall
Program: Neue Vocalsolisten & UB Chamber Choir
Missa Prolationum (excerpts) - Ockeghem
Das wassergewordene Kanonbuch - Tsao
Immaterial (excerpt) - Chaya Czernowin

Thursday April 2
Event: Perspectives on Helmut Lachenmann's Allegro Sostenuto
Time: 3:30 p.m.
Location: Baird Recital Hall

Program:

PhD composition students present Lachenmann's Allegro Sostenuto (1988).  

Event: Concert #2 

Time: 7:30PM

Location: Lippes Concert Hall

Program: Neue Vocalsolisten performs UB PhD Student Composers

ah neehat - Jackson Roush

the breath fails, reaching the screaming beneath the rubble - Chi-Yen Huang

Cosas calladas - Francisco Corthey

Imitaciones - Maria Lihuen Sirvent

TERNION - Will Brobston 

Friday, April 3 

Event: Concert #3
Time: 4 p.m.
Location: Baird Recital Hall
Program: Christopher Gross, Barret Hall
Pression - Lachenmann
Dal Niente - Lachenmann
Canon - Tsao

Event: Concert #4
Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Lippes Concert Hall
Program: Christopher Gross, Barret Hall, Eric Huebner
Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Opus 114 - Brahms
Allegro Sostenuto - Lachenmann

Jon Nelson on Why Music Matters Podcast

UB's own Jon Nelson was recently a guest on the Why Music Matters Podcast hosted by Jeff Miers. Miers was the music critic for The Buffalo News from 2002-2023, where he was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 2008. No stranger to podcasting, in his credits is "Gusto Sessions with Jeff Miers" which he co-hosted with Robby Takac of Goo Goo Dolls fame. Miers was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in 2014 as a musician and journalist. Alongside his journalism career, he has been a mainstay in the Buffalo and Western New York music scenes as bandleader and sideman. In 2022 he released his debut solo album Dharma for None. 

 

Check out the interview below: 

 

Slee Sinfonietta to Play Buffalo Composers

  

The Slee Sinfonietta will be performing a potpourri of short solo works honoring composers associated with the city of Buffalo on Wednesday, March 4^th at 7:30PM. This unique concert will feature faculty and student performers from Music Department at UB. The concert will feature a wide array of soloists: hornist Ariel Arney, violist Leanne Darling, cellist and artistic director of the Sinfonietta Jonathan Golove, oboeist Megan Kyle, soprano Tiffany Du Mouchelle, guitarist Sungmin Shin, percussionist Steve Solook, and violinist Melissa White.

Readers of the blog who attended the Morton Feldman @100 festival will be delighted to know that this concert will feature rarely performed shorter works of the venerated composer, including two pieces which each clock in at only one-and-a-half minutes! Rarely will you hear the composer in a more distilled fashion! 

 

Morton Feldman at UB with Creative Associates: Julius Eastman, Jan Williams, William Appleby, David Del Tredici. 1972.

A work of Paul Hindemith will be making an appearance, as the composer did himself at UB at Cameron Baird’s request in 1940. Former faculty composers David Felder and Jeffery Stadelman will also be featured, neither strangers to Slee Hall. Bringing the concert into the Buffalo of today are works by guitarist Sungmin Shin, violist Leanne Darling, and PhD student Jackson Roush. Along with being accomplished composers in their own right, Shin and Darling are also beloved professors in the Music Department. Please join us for this delightful concert!

 

 

 

Slee Sinfonietta Plays Composers of the African Diaspora

    We at the Center for 21^st Century Music would like to send you warm regards on this Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day and announce the upcoming concert by the Slee Sinfonietta featuring music of the African Diaspora. This Wednesday evening, January 21^st at 7:30 in Lippes Concert Hall, the Sinfonietta will be featuring an exiting program of contemporary voices, trailblazers, and under-performed historic masterpieces. Included in the program is Dorothy Rudd Moore, founding member of the Society of Black Composers, whose piece Transcension was written in memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1986 for the recognition of his birthday as a national holiday. 

Dorothy Rudd Moore

 

Also on the concert is Samuel Coleridge-Taylor whose career spanned the previous turn of the century. His Nonet in F Minor from 1894 is a rare dip into late Romanticism by the Sinfonietta. 

 

Samuel Coleridge-Taylor

 

 Coming into this century, Adolphus Hailstork’s Behold, I Build a House (2018) presents Biblical versus sung by baritone Jaman Dunn-Danger, our evening’s conductor, set against marimba played by John Dawson from the Eastman School of Music. Jonathan Bailey Holland’s The Clarity of Cold Air (2013) is a spacious work that may evoke for many the sublime beauty of the winter season. 

 

Below is a recent performance by Slee Sinfonietta.  

 

 

Ticket information is available here. As always, UB students with a valid ID are entitled to one complimentary ticket.

 2026 opens with Feldman@100, a Morton Feldman centennial celebration

 On January 12 and 13, the UB Department of Music and the Center presented two days of outstanding programming in celebration of Morton Feldman's 100th birthday. An internationally recognized figure and giant of post-war American music, Feldman served as Visiting Slee Professor at UB before being named "Edgard Varèse Professor" in the Department from 1973 until his death in 1987. Over the course of five concerts, a lecture and a panel discussion, Feldman's life and music were put into the context of works by composers he esteemed (Xenakis, Webern, Barbara Monk Feldman, and Schubert), as well as those by current UB doctoral composition students, representing the continuing tradition of musical exploration in the Department. An audience that had in some cases traveled considerable distances to attend Feldman@100 was treated to fabulous performances, including of two of the lengthy later works which are too seldom heard in concert in the USA: Piano and String Quartet, with the remarkable Amy Williams and JACK Quartet, and Piano Trio, with the amazing Horszowski Trio. Congratulations to all the performers, many of whom were UB faculty and graduate students, and special appreciation to Music Dept. Chair Prof. Eric Huebner and Birge-Cary Professor Ming Tsao for the tremendous programming work which made the event revelatory on many levels (Also congrats to Ming for the insightful essay he contributed to the program book!).

 Two of the Feldman@100 concerts are streaming on the Center's YouTube channel. The complete program information is here.

     Concert #4: Schubert, Feldman and Monk Feldman

 Concert #5: Webern and Feldman, incl. Rothko Chapel

Happy 100th, Morty! 

For Immediate Release: June in Buffalo 2026 is the Year of the Composer/Conductor

 

June in Buffalo 2026 will run from June 1-7, 2026.

 

 

 

With more than 50 years of history, June in Buffalo is a landmark festival and conference dedicated to emerging and established voices in contemporary music. Hosted annually at the University at Buffalo, it’s widely known as a place composers come to grow, connect and have their work brought to life by top-tier performers and ensembles.

June in Buffalo 2026 is the year of the composer/conductor. Each participant composer will conduct her/his own composition in multiple rehearsals and a performance with the Festival’s resident ensemble, the Slee Sinfonietta. Participants will be mentored in this process by an outstanding and dynamic group of senior figures including Christian Baldini, Jason Thorpe Buchanan, David Dzubay and David Fulmer, each a celebrated leader as both composer and conductor. The number of composers who can be accommodated in such an undertaking is smaller than in a typical year at the Festival, and we are expecting that the application process will be highly competitive.

 

 

As always, participant composers will benefit from the full range of June in Buffalo’s programmatic activities, including masterclasses with senior composers, composer talks, and additional workshops. More recent additions to the JiB curriculum include opportunities to perform an original solo work in an uncurated program and to take part in our “late night” improvisation ensemble.

 

Whether you’re an emerging composer or an established voice, June in Buffalo is your chance to grow, create and connect in a supportive environment. Below you’ll find all the information you need to apply and take part in this transformative experience. June in Buffalo 2026 offers a unique opportunity for composer/conductors to prepare for the important artistic and professional leadership roles which await these most essential figures in the landscape of new music. 

 

How to Apply

Application Deadline:

All application materials and the processing fee must be submitted by February 15. 

Full details will be made available on the June in Buffalo website in early January, and all materials and payments will be accepted through the portals to be found on that website.

Application materials will include:

1. Resume or Curriculum Vitae

2. Performance Proposals and Scores

• Submit one or two proposals for works to be performed by the Slee Sinfonietta.
• Proposed works may include electronic elements.
• Proposals should briefly describe the work, including length, full instrumentation and any technical requirements.
• Proposals of works in progress will be considered.

3. Scores

• Submit scores/drafts of your proposed works for JiB and one or two additional scores showcasing your recent compositional activity.
• For works in progress, please send whatever partial scores or sketch materials you feel will be represent the current state of your work by the Feb.15 application deadline. The deadline for completed scores is April 1. All performance materials including any required score revisions, corrected parts and electronic elements must be received by April 22.
• Audio recordings of works submitted are requested, but not required.

Ensemble Instrumentation:

A maximum of 16 players of the Slee Sinfonietta drawn from the following:

·      Flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, French horn, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass, piano/keyboards, harp and 2 percussion. Proposals for works of this scoring (or smaller) are highly encouraged.

·      Proposals may include saxophone, trumpet, trombone, and/or guitar (electric or acoustic), but the availability of these instruments will be limited.

·      Proposals may also include soprano voice.

·      Standard doublings are available for flute, clarinet, oboe and saxophone.

 

It is possible to apply for Auditor status. Auditors have access to the following:

• Senior composer lectures.
• All rehearsals, workshops and concerts.
• Masterclasses (as observers without presenting their own work).

Fees

·       $25 non-refundable processing fee

·      Participant Tuition: $800

·      Auditor Tuition: $400

Housing Costs

On-campus housing is available for non-UB students. The festival offers up to eight nights of accommodations in University dormitories; the cost for 2026 is currently estimated at $650.00 per participant.

 

 

Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart to come to UB in Spring

 

The Center is proud to announce that Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart will be coming April 1st and 2nd for performances at Lippes Concert Hall which will feature works by Ming Tsao and UB student composers. Neue Vocalsolisten is a renowned vocal ensemble which is dedicated to exploring new frontiers of vocal expression. Their collaborations with composers and artists produce works which map out unheard landscapes of digital media, performance, and theater. This ensemble has worked with some of the most prominent composers of our time including Georges Aperghis, Luciano Berio, Chaya Czernowin, Sara Glojnarić, Sarah Nemtsov, Katharina Rosenberger, Claude Vivier, and Jennifer Walshe.

 

Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart

 

Neue Vocalsolisten will be working with UB’s PhD student composers including Will Brobston, Francisco Corthey, Chi-Yen Huang, Jackson Roush, and  Lihuen Sirvent. They will also be performing Das wassergewordene Kanonbuch by UB's Birge Cary Professor of Music, Ming Tsao and Salvatore Sciarrino’s 12 Madrigali.

Neue Vocalsolisten has been widely recorded by such record labels as col legno, Cypres Records, Edition RZ, Kairos, and WERGO. The ensemble has been the recipient of many prominent awards including the Silver Lion of the Venice Biennale 2021 and the Italian critic’s prize Premio Abbiati 2022. The jury of the Venice Biennale stated Neue Vocalsolisten are an ensemble whose “creative collaboration with some of the greatest living composers has decisively advanced the development of the contemporary a cappella repertoire.”

Below is an example of Neue Vocalsolisten performing Evis Sammoutis's Sculpting Air. 

UB Student Composers at Hallwalls

 

The UB Music Department will be hosted by Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center (341 Delaware Ave) this coming Monday, December 8th at 7:30 PM for a concert of student composer works performed by UB faculty and Buffalo-area musicians. Pianist Eric Huebner, violinists Melissa White and Shannon Reilly, and cellist Jonathan Golove will be playing pieces by Jackson Roush, Andres Bonilla Garcia, Trinity Prater, Lihuen Sirvent, and Thomas Little. In addition, composers Roush and Prater will follow their notated works with improvisations. New to the music department this year is Trinity Prater, who has written about their piece Crisálidas:

 

I wrote Crisálidas earlier in the summer of 2025 in Iowa City, where I had returned for some recuperation after 2.5 years study in Leipzig, Germany. During the study in Leipzig, I had become very close with a classmate of mine, Paula Rocosa Gañez, who was a student in the masters program in piano performance. Paula performed, and still performs, an aesthetically eclectic palette of 20th century composers, such as Hindemith, Debussy, Prokofiev, among several lesser-known 20th and 21^st century Spanish composers. I was always impressed with the distinct approaches she took to each composer, which made any recital of hers an exciting experience of multiplicity: you never knew which Paula you were going to get.  

 

I spent several concerts meditating on the mechanism behind this diversity, and every thought came back to articulation. Paula has, and pianists generally have, an acute, embodied awareness not only of the precise differences between all notated articulations, but also an intuition for which articulations a score was expressively implied to require. This realisation merged with conversations Paula and I had throughout our studies together about our experience of the masters studies as one of becoming, giving rise to feelings of being in a transitory state. The metaphor of the chrysalis (from which the piece takes its title) formed. 

 

The articulatory character of each section of this piece is drawn from imagining an insect's interactions with the walls on the inside of its chrysalis. At the beginning of the metamorphosis, these interactions are more of a variety of tappings, and as the body liquidates, a pressing, or a flowing. The harmonic choices are exclusively intervallic, beginning on a G, and, taking distances in semitones from that G from the distances between "Trues" in a Boolean sieve process. Distances between rhythmic events, including durations, note flurries, and lengths of scrapings on the wire-wrapped strings inside the piano, emerge from the same process as the harmony. 

 

This short piece marks the beginning of my interest in a music which is emergent from a space-in-between. There is so much that happens within a transformation beyond the arbitrary poles of its beginnings and endings.

 

 The concert is free, and a donation to Hallwalls is recommended. Thanks very much to Hallwalls for their continued support of our activities!

Thanks to Jan Jezioro for his excellent preview of June in Buffalo's 50th anniversary season in Buffalo Spree magazine! You can read it here. 

Just 4 more days until June in Buffalo opens with a concert in which a number of our emerging composers perform their own original works. This opportunity for today's performer/composer is a new feature of JiB 2025. It will be held in Baird Recital Hall (250 Baird Hall) on Sunday, June 1 at 6:30pm, and like all the events of this year's festival, it is free and open to the public.

2025 Festival Schedule!

 The 2025 Festival schedule is here! Only 11 days until the festival begins! 

Sunday, June 1

 

Opening concert: Baird Recital Hall, 6:30pm

Participant composers perform their original solo works

Monday, June 2

 

Composer lecture: George Lewis, BRH, 10am-12pm

 

Afternoon workshop/concert: Kyle Hutchins, BRH, 4pm

Sax workshop for composers

 

Evening concert: Lippes Concert Hall (LCH), 7:30pm

Solo works performed by pianist Eric Huebner (JiB composers George Lewis, David Sanford, and Andrew Nixon, along with those of Roger Reynolds, Leah Muir, and György Ligeti)

Tuesday, June 3

 

Composer lecture: Karola Obermüller, BRH 10am-12pm

 

Afternoon Concert: Meridian Arts Ensemble, BRH 4pm

Works by senior and participant composers for brass quintet, including the world premiere of Peter Gilbert’s A Rift Becomes a River and George Lewis’s Tightrope (2023)

Evening concert: Slee Sinfonietta, LCH, 7:30pm

Conducted by James Baker

Large ensemble works by JiB senior and participant composers, including David Sanford’s Chamber Concerto No. 5

Wednesday, June 4

 

Composer lecture: Jonathan Golove, June in Buffalo artistic director, BRH 10am-12pm

 

Afternoon concert: Members of the Slee Sinfonietta, BRH, 4pm

Solos and chamber works by JiB composers

 

Evening concert: [Switch~ Ensemble], Lippes Concert Hall, 7:30pm

Conducted by Wei-Han Wu, with soprano Tiffany Du Mouchelle

Ensemble works by JiB composers, including George Lewis’s Anthem, David Sanford’s Grace Canticles, and Peter Gilbert’s Meditation upon the Awakening

 

Thursday, June 5

 

Composer lecture: Ming Tsao, BRH 10am-12pm

Afternoon concert: [Switch~ Ensemble], BRH, 4pm

Conducted by Wei-Han Wu

Ensemble works by JiB composers, featuring Ming Tsao’s Canon (2001) and Dritte Stimme zu Bachs zweistimmigen Rätselkanons (2023, US premiere)

 

Evening concert: Baird B1, 7:30pm

Composer’s Cabaret Improvisation Ensemble

 

 

Friday, June 6

 

Composer lecture: David Sanford, BRH, 10am-12pm

 

Afternoon concert: BRH, 2-5:30 pm [Note: unusual start time]

A special concert of the music of Morton Feldman

For Christian Wolff, performed by flutist Lihuen Sirvent and pianist James Falzone

 

Evening concert: Meridian Arts Ensemble, LCH, 7:30pm

Works by JiB composers, including David Sanford’s Credo (2021)

 

 

Saturday, June 7

Composer lecture: Peter Gilbert, BRH, 10am-12pm

Closing concert: Slee Sinfonietta, LCH, 2:30pm

Conducted by James Baker, with soprano Tiffany Du Mouchelle

Works by JiB senior composers Ming Tsao, George Lewis, and Karola Obermüller's Bridges to Ruth (2024), along with works by JiB participant composers

 

Reception to follow Slee Sinfonietta concert

 

BONUS CONCERT: Metropolis Ensemble, Silo City, 6pm

New works by UB composers