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Notes on Contributing Authors:

Ira BRAUS is Associate Professor of Music History at The Hartt School, having taught formerly at New England Conservatory and Bates College. He holds a Ph.D. in musicology from Harvard, a Master’s in piano from SUNY Stony Brook, B.A. and Bac.Mus. degrees from Oberlin College/Conservatory, fellowships at Tanglewood Music Center and Chautauqua School of Music. He has worked in musicology and analysis with Lewis Lockwood, Christoph Wolff, and David Lewin. Among his teachers in piano were Gilbert Kalish, Jack Radunsky, Henry Rauch; in chamber music, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Bernard Greenhouse, Luise Vosgerchian. Braus has written essays spanning Haydn's string quartets to Thelonious Monk's harmonic structures for Journal of Musicological Research, Journal of Music Theory, Brahms Studies, Wagneriana, 19th Century Music, Theory and Practice, Music Perception, Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Coda Magazine, Computing in Musicology.  An alumnus of the Mannes Institute for Advanced Theoretical Studies, he has designed courses for Hartt in the areas of systematic musicology and performance practice. He is presently writing a book on psychoacoustic aspects of music analysis. Since 1990, he has specialized in performance of the German Romantics on period pianos. An affiliate artist of the E.M. Frederick Collection of Historic Pianos (Ashburnham, MA), he has concertized throughout New England on the Collection’s nineteenth-century instruments. Recently he recorded the complete late piano music of Brahms on an 1871 Viennese piano (J.B. Streicher) similar to the composer’s own. A respected vocal accompanist, he has collaborated with such singers as D'Anna Fortunato, Benjamin Bagby, Randall Scarlata, and Janine Hawley. He was rehearsal pianist for both the Glimmerglass Opera and the Chautauqua Opera Workshop.

Albert BREIER was born in Paderborn in 1961 and lives in Potsdam.  His compositions, influenced by Morton Feldman, include four string quartets (1982-2004), Klavierstuecke 1-5 (1983-1986), vocal and ensemble music, and orchestral works, including Verbundene Berge (1992) and Komposition fuer Orchester (2003).  “Der Weg und die Zeit” (2005/6) for chamber ensemble has been released on CD (NCA 60195).  Albert Breier has also published a book on Chinese painting, “Die Zeit des Sehens und der Raum des Hoerens” (Stuttgart: Metzler 2002).  Other CDs of his music can be found on www.albert-breier.de.

David Brynjar FRANZON is an Icelandic composer currently residing in New York. His works have been performed by ensembles such as Avanti, Ensemble Surplus, Ensemble Aventure, Asamisimasa, Oslo Sinfonietta, Ensemble Adapter, Caput, Uusynta, Plus Minus, red fish blue fish, and Inauthentica. His music has been performed at festivals such as Maerz Musik, Global Interplay,  Dark Days of Music, June in Buffalo, Running Hoofs festival, ISCM World Music Days 2006 in Stuttgart, ICMC 2008 and the Sonorities festival in Belfast, and at the 2008 Darmstadt Ferienkurse, where he received a Stipendiumprize for his percussion sextet a Spiral as Seen from the View of a Drum. He holds a doctorate from Stanford University, where he worked under the guidance of Brian Ferneyhough and Mark Applebaum, as well as with Tristan Murail at Columbia University.

Ivan ELEZOVIC (DMA, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) studied composition, music theory, and electronic music at the University of Manitoba, McGill University, and the University of Illinois working with Michael Matthews, Randolph Peters, Zack Settel, Alcides Lanza, Guy Garnett, Erik Lund, and Scott Wyatt. After receiving the Presser Award in 2001, he went to IRCAM, where he studied with Brian Ferneyhough and Marc-André Dalbavie. A year later, he was accepted at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse für Neue Musik, Germany where he worked with Isabel Mundry, Tristan Murail, Robert HP Platz, and Valerio Sannicandro. Dr. Elezovic’s compositional output ranges from acoustic to electroacoustic works including mixed media, and has been recognized by numerous competitions and festivals. In 2005, Dr. Elezovic was awarded an Atlantic Center for the Arts residency, where he worked with Master Artist Larry Austin, and created a new DVD/Audio piece, Mediterranean-Riots-Colors. Recently, his piece The Third Dimension for two violins and two voices of violin performers was published by ERM Media within the “Masterworks of the New Era” project, performed and recorded by members of the Kiev Philharmonic.  After teaching at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Dr. Elezovic is currently employed by Mahidol University, College of Music, Thailand.

Niklas SEIDL was born in Bremen in 1983. He initially had lessons in bass-guitar and cello, later in piano. Since 2003, he has been studying Cello and Baroque Cello in Leipzig and Vienna. As a cellist, he has gained experience in contemporary music through studies with the Klangforum Wien, ensemble recherche, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, Eric-Maria Couturier, Lucas Fels, Sören Fick, and Rohan de Saram. Since 2007, he has also studied composition, currently with Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Although primarily a composer of chamber music, his first access to new music was through writing experimental radio plays. After some recent experiences in Theatre, he is currently working on developing forms of  "sociological" music.

Born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, Scotland, Michael SPENCER studied composition with Graham Hair at Glasgow University where he received an MA in Music and Scottish Literature. Between 1997 and 2002, he completed a MusM and PhD in Composition with Geoff Poole at Manchester University. Since 1998 he has worked privately with James Dillon, on whose work he has published one article and has one forthcoming. In 2003, he received a stipend to attend the Sommerakademie at Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart, where he worked with Chaya Czernowin, Steven Takasugi and Richard Barrett. He has given talks and seminars on his own music and other aspects of new music in France and the USA as well as around the UK. Currently Lecturer in Composition and Critical Musicology at the University of Leeds, Spencer's music has been performed at the Henze Festival (RNCM), St Cyprian's Church (London), The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Instal 2002 (Glasgow), Maxis 2003 Festival (Leeds), in workshops by the Apollo Sax Quartet, Psappha, at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse 2004,  and extensively at Glasgow, Manchester, and Leeds Universities.

 

 

 

          

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