News

  • Call for Scores winner Bryan Christian's Combination to be featured at nnSF'13

    In Bryan Christian’s Combination, for cello and percussion, the score is generated in real-time based on pitch measurements of metallic percussion instruments chosen by the performer.  

    Composer Bryan Christian (b. 1984) has received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the 59th Festival Les Musicales (2011; Colmar, France), the 19th and 20th Juventus Festivals (2009 and 2010; Cambrai, France), 2011 Monadnock Music in consortium with the Duke University Department of Music, the Ohio Northern University Symphony Orchestra, the Aurora Borealis Duo, pianist Julien Libeer, and famed new music soprano Susan Narucki, among others. Mr. Christian is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Fulbright Fellowship (Full Grant) to Estonia, the BMI Student Composer Award, the Indiana University Dean's Prize in Music Composition, and the William Klenz Prize in Music Composition.

    Mr. Christian is Ph.D. Candidate in Music Composition at Duke University (ABD; expected Spring 2014). For 2013-14, he holds the Julian Price Endowed Graduate Fellowship in Humanities and History to support the completion of his dissertation opera. Mr. Christian was also awarded a 2013 Dissertation Research Travel Award to support his research on the music of Claude Vivier, the subject of his dissertation article. In 2012, he held the Duke University Graduate School Summer Research Fellowship and from 2010-13, Mr. Christian held a Duke University Graduate Fellowship and Teaching Assistantship. From 2007-08 and 2009-10 (interrupted by his Fulbright year in Estonia), Mr. Christian held a Graduate Fellowship and Teaching Assistantship at the University of California San Diego, where in 2010 he was awarded the TA Excellence Award for Superior Teaching Performance.

    Mr. Christian holds degrees from the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (B.Mus. with honors, 2007), University of California San Diego (M.A., 2010), and the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre (M.A., 2009). Mr. Christian has studied composition with Scott Lindroth, Stephen Jaffe, Chinary Ung, Toivo Tulev, Helena Tulve, Sven-David Sandström, Claude Baker, Don Freund, and P.Q. Phan.

    Visit Bryan Christian's personal website.

  • Call for Scores winner Nicholas Deyoe’s wir aber sind schon anders to be featured at nnSF'13

    Nicholas Deyoe’s haunting and introspective wir aber sind schon anders for percussion quartet is an investigation of memory and transformation through carefully sculpted instrumental timbres. 

    Nicholas Deyoe is a composer, conductor, and guitarist born in Colorado and currently living and working in Los Angeles.  Drawn to sounds that are inherently physical, Nicholas strives to create music that engages listeners intellectually and emotionally by appealing to their inner physicality.  His compositions make use of noise, delicacy, drama, fantasy, brutality, and lyricism to create a diverse sonic experience. As a guitarist, Nicholas strives to further the already vast sound world of the electric guitar by experimenting with microtonal tunings, preparation, bows, and beer cans.  He has received commissions from Carnegie Hall, USINESONORE Festival, The La Jolla Symphony, Palimpsest, and several soloists.  His music has been performed in Germany, Switzerland, France, Spain, The Netherlands, Iceland, Japan, and throughout North America.  As a conductor, Nicholas has performed with The La Jolla Symphony Orchestra, Red Fish Blue Fish, Ensemble Ascolta, The Darmstadt Preisträgerensemble, Noise, The University of Northern Colorado Symphony Orchestra, and many ad-hoc ensembles in the United States and Germany.  He holds a Ph.D. in composition from UC San Diego where he studied with Roger Reynolds.  Deyoe’s compositions and improvisations can be heard on Populist, Spektral, and Eh? Records.

    Visit Nicholas Deyoe's personal website.

  • Call for Scores winner Travis Alford's Froschteichmusik to be featured at nnSF'13

    Travis Alford’s Froschteichmusik, for percussion quartet, captures an intricate polyrhythmic evening soundscape from rural North Carolina. 

    Travis Alford (b. 1983) is a composer, trumpet player, and improviser in the Boston area. His music has been widely performed at such venues as the June in Buffalo Festival, the Composers Conference at Wellesley College, New Music on the Point, Symphony Space in NY, the Auditorium Sede Museale di Santa Caterina in Treviso, Italy, and the International Trumpet Seminar in Kalavrita, Greece, by groups including the Meridian Arts Ensemble, Talujon Percussion Group, the Genkin Philharmonic, Wild Rumpus New Music, the East Coast Contemporary Ensemble, L'Arsenale, and members of the JACK Quartet and the New York New Music Ensemble. He has also received awards and grants from the League of Composers/ISCM, ASCAP, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the American Composers Alliance, and the Brandeis Office of the Arts.

    Visit Travis Alford's personal website.

  • Call for scores winner Lewis Nielson's Tocsin to be featured at nnSF'13

    Lewis Nielson’s Tocsin is a percussion sextet with an orchestral scope, inspired by the hopes and tragedies of revolutionary movements. 

    Lewis Nielson (b. 1950) studied music at the Royal Academy of Music in London, England, Clark University in Massachusetts and the University of Iowa, receiving a Ph.D. in Music Theory and Composition in 1977.  His music appears through American Composers Edition and recordings from Albany, Mode, Capstone, Centaur, and Innova Recordings. He has received numerous grants and awards for his works, including from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Delius Foundation, Meet the Composer, NewMusic America, the Georgia Council for the Arts, the Ohio Arts Council, the Groupe de Music Expèrimentale de Bourges in France, the Ibla Foundation, Sicily, and the International Society of Bassists; and more recently as the 2007 Cleveland Arts Prize laureate, in 2010-11 was a prize winner in the BCMCC, the Italy PAS Society, and the Boston Modern Competitions.  Recent commissions include from the JACK Quartet, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, red fish blue fish, Trio Enid, Duo Echoi, Florilegium, Fluidot, Opera Cabal, and Ensemble sans maître. He served as Professor of Music Theory and Composition at the University of Georgia, where he directed the University of Georgia Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, for 21 years.  In 2000, he joined the composition faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music where he is currently Professor of Composition and chair of the Composition Department.

    Visit Lewis Nielson's website.

  • Kristen Klehr appointed Festival Manager for nnSF 2013

    Kristen Klehr has joined the 2013 nief-norf Summer Festival team, and we couldn't be more excited. Kristen actively enjoys a multi-faceted performing and administrative arts career. Her background experience includes Artist Relations and Concert/Special Event Production with The Cleveland Orchestra, Percussive Arts Society, Lev Aronson Legacy Festival, ChamberFest Cleveland, Ohio Arts Presenters Network, Roberto Ocasio Latin-Jazz Project,  Zeltsman Marimba Festival, and the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.

    She received her Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance from Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music in 2010, and is the founding producer for the now annual entrepreneurial concert at BW, “PRISM.” A native of Binghamton, NY, Klehr currently resides in Tallahassee, FL where she is the Orchestra Manager and a candidate for the Master of Arts in Arts Administration degree at Florida State University.

    When not engaged with dynamic music festivals and arts organizations, Klehr enjoys the freelance percussionist lifestyle – exploring new paths with marimba, playing drum set for music theater shows, orchestra subbing, and sharing world percussion with various yoga-synergy studios. She has studied primarily with Josh Ryan and Joel Smales.

  • nnSF'13 joins Chamber Music America's National Chamber Music Month Celebration

    The nief-norf Summer Festival will take part in CMA’s “National Chamber Music Month” celebration, including the following concerts:

    Tuesday, May 28, 2013: nief-norf Summer Festival Opening Concert

    Wednesday, May 29, 2013: nnSF Performance Fellows’ Cabaret Concert

    Friday, May 31, 2013: nief-norf Research Summit Concert: Music & Technology (post-1945)

    Please visit CMA’s listing of other May events, as CMA states: “every NCMM participant plays a part in maintaining the vitality and visibility of the form—helping to ensure that chamber music remains an integral part of America’s musical culture.”

  • nnSF Performance Workshop Deadline Update

    The 2013 nnSF Performance Workshop Early Registration deadline is now Sunday, February 17th. Performance applicants (percussion, piano, & cello) who submit their materials prior to this date will be eligible for the Undergraduate and Graduate scholarship as well as returning alumni discounts. Performance videos are also no longer required.

    Registration will continue beyond February 17th as spots are available, after which a waitlist will be created. Please email performance@niefnorf.org with any questions.

    Hope to see you in June!

    nnSF Team

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