The 4th Annual John Duffy
Composers Institute
May 12-26, 2008 Old Dominion University, Norfolk
Founded by the Virginia Arts Festival in 2005, the John Duffy Composers Institute is dedicated to the inspiration, creation, and performance of new music by living composers. It is the vision of Institute director and founder, John Duffy to provide gifted young composers the opportunity to create and hear their compositions performed while working alongside senior master composers, singers, pianists and theatre professionals. In 2008, six emerging Composer Fellows will be chosen to work with this year’s Institute staff, to include senior composer John Duffy, vocal coach Patrick Mason, and professional dramaturge/director, Rhoda Levine. Composers Libby Larsen, John Harbison, Robert Ashley and musicians of national prominence will be in residence as Institute clinicians. |
Institute Faculty
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John Duffy, considered “one of the great heroes of American Music,” has composed more than 300 works for symphony, orchestra, opera, theatre, television and film. He is two-time Emmy-winner and the recipient of American Music Center’s Founders’ Award for Lifetime Achievement. Critics call his work, “haunting, memorable, and brilliant.” |
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Rhoda Levine, an acclaimed director, choreographer, writer and teacher has worked on and off-Broadway, in London’s West End, South Africa and the Netherlands. She is the founding director of Play It By Ear, the improvisational opera group at American Opera Projects and currently teaches at Manhattan School of Music and Mannes College. |
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Patrick Mason, currently a voice professor at the University of Colorado-Boulder, is a highly regarded baritone whose collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, Stephen Sondheim, Eliot Carter and George Crumb garnered him rave reviews. Mason’s recordings of standard works and contemporary music create rare artistry and insight. |
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Congratulations to this year's participants!
2008 Composer Fellows
Gustavo Leone
Jorge Muniz
Anthony Suter
Leanna Primiani
William Withem
For complete bio's click here
2008 Singers-in-Residence
Signe Mortensen
Julia Tobiska
Jo Ellen Miller
Kenneth Weber
Charles Stanton
Kerry Jennings
David Kozisek
For complete bio's click here
Registration for 2009 will be taken in the summer of 2008! Check back for updates.
For additional information, please contact Jennifer
Giddens, Institute Coordinator, at (757) 282-2817 or jgiddens@virginiaartsfest.com
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Visiting Composers/Librettists
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Libby Larsen s one of America's most performed living composers. She has created a catalogue of over 400 works spanning virtually every genre from intimate vocal and chamber music to massive orchestral and choral scores. Grammy Award winning and widely recorded, including over 50 CD's of her work, she is constantly sought after for commissions and premieres by major artists, ensembles, and orchestras around the world and has established a permanent place for her works in the concert repertory.
As a vigorous, articulate advocate for the music and musicians of our time, in 1973 Larsen co-founded the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composer's Forum, which has become an invaluable aid for composers in a transitional time for American arts. She is currently completing a book, The Concert Hall That Fell Asleep and Woke Up as a Car Radio and her next major opera work on the play Picnic by William Inge. |
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John Harbison is among America's most distinguished artistic figures. The recipient of numerous awards and honors (including the prestigious MacArthur Foundation's genius" award and the Pulitzer Prize), Harbison has composed music for most of America's premiere musical institutions, including the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, and the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center, and has been composer in residence and guest conductor with many distinguished organizations. He received degrees from Harvard and Princeton, and is currently Institute Professor at MIT and also serves as President of the Copland Fund. His works include four string quartets, four symphonies, a ballet, three operas, a cantata,
and numerous chamber and choral works, more than sixty of which have been recorded on leading labels. |
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Robert Ashley is known for his work in new forms of opera and multi-disciplinary projects. He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1930 and was educated at the University of Michigan and the Manhattan School of Music. In the 1960s, Ashley organized Ann Arbor's legendary ONCE Festival and directed the ONCE Group. During the 1970s, he directed the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, toured with the Sonic Arts Union, and produced and directed Music with Roots in the Aether, a 14-hour television opera/documentary about the work and ideas of seven American composers. He wrote and directed Balseros for Florida Grand Opera, Dust for premiere at the Kanagawa Arts Foundation in Yokohama, and Celestial Excursions for the Berlin Festival and Hebbel Theater Berlin. He is now at work on his next opera, Concrete. |
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