About the Program
The composition program at the University of North Texas is one of the largest and most diverse in the nation, with approximately 70 composition students and seven faculty members representing a wide variety of compositional aesthetics and approaches. Regular guest composer residencies, visiting new music specialists, and dozens of events each year provide students with a rich educational and artistic experience.
An interdisciplinary center within UNT’s Division of Composition Studies, the Center for Experimental Music & Intermedia (CEMI) provides a unique environment for the exploration of time-based arts and is internationally renowned for its long history of innovation, particularly in the realm of electroacoustic music. Students, faculty, guests, and collaborators from a variety of disciplines engage in research, creation, and performance in CEMI’s six production studios and the Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater.
Music Now is the weekly composition departmental meeting, an open forum for the exchange of ideas and information about the creation, performance, and understanding of recent music. These forums, which are typically scheduled Mondays at 11:00-11:50 am, feature presentations by UNT faculty and students as well as visiting composers, scholars, and interpreters of new music.
Nova is the new music ensemble of the University of North Texas. In keeping with its mission to present a diversity of musical, aesthetic, and cultural experiences, Nova’s repertoire ranges from 20th century classics to works that incorporate the latest musical innovations. Students in the ensemble have opportunities to work with faculty and guest composers and are occasionally joined by faculty and guest performers. Performances and workshops have included music by composition students as well.
The Spectrum concert series features new solo and chamber works for instruments and voices by student composers; Centerpieces concerts feature works created at the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia utilizing new technologies and intermedia.
For additional information about the composition program, including all policies and procedures, please refer to the Composition Student Handbook.
2008-09 Guest Artists:
Lily Maase and the Suite Unraveling
26 Sep 2008
29 Sep 2008
13 - 14 Apr 2009
Upcoming Events:
-
Sep08Music Now
- ColombiAcústica: Electroacoustic Music by Colombian Composers — curated by Camilo Salazar
- The Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater
- 11:00am
-
Sep26Music Now
- Guest artist Lily Maase and the Suite Unraveling.
- The Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater
- 11:00am
-
Sep29CEMI Event
- Guest composer Jeffrey Stolet and new works from CEMI, including a premiere by Cindy McTee.
- The Merrill Ellis Intermedia Theater
- 8:00pm
Recent Student Activities:
Works by the following UNT composers were presented at the 2008 conference of the Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States (SEAMUS) at the University of Utah (April 2008): Nick Bober and Stephen Lucas (Shattered Images),Camilo Salazar and alumna Jessica Leza (Vejez naciente, Naciente vejez), faculty member Jon Christopher Nelson (Just After the Rain), alumni Mikel Kuehn and Elainie Lillios, and former faculty members Butch Rovan
Cantus Curatio (2008) for alto saxophone and piano by doctoral composer Da Jeong Choi was performed by Chiaki Hanafusa and Hsing-Yin Ko for the NASA Biennial Saxophone Conference at the University of South Carolina, Columbia, on 19 April 2008.
Doctoral composition student Dave Gedosh curated a program of electroacoustic music for the Living Arts of Tulsa's "New Genre Festival" on 8 March 2008. Featured UNT composers included Nick Bober, Greg Dixon, Dave Gedosh, Stephen Lucas, Joseph Klein, Andrew May, Jon Nelson, and alumna Jessica Leza. UNT percussionist Julie Licata was featured in two of the works.
On 5 April 2008 Three Pieces on the Shapes of a Pair by doctoral composer Sarah Page Summar premiered at the Campus Theatre in downtown Denton as part of the 2008 Collage Dance Festival. The work was a collaboration with TWU choreographer Lily Sloan and was performed by Ms. Sloan and Emily Lockard with musicians Jon Jackson, Gary Knudson, Tim Mabrey, Laura Nieman, Sarah Summar, and Rachel Yoder.
Pontis (2007) for marimba solo by doctoral composer Da Jeong Choi has received several performances during the spring 2008 semester by UNT faculty percussionist Mark Ford: East Carolina State University (22 February 2008), Messiah College in Grantham, PA (24 March 2008), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (26 March 2008), and Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma (4 April 2008).
Undergraduate composer Kris Peysen’s chamber ensemble piece, Seeker, was selected as the winner of the 9th Annual Russell Horn Young Composer’s Project. In addition to a cash prize, the work was performed by Voices of Change at Caruth Auditorium (SMU campus) on 2 March 2008. Doctoral composer Da Jeong Choi received Honorable Mention in the competition.
In April of 2008, undergraduate composer Chaz Underriner's composition, Rondo for Viola Solo, was premiered at Rice University in Houston by violist Rachel Kuipers. Also during the spring 2008, Chaz composed and recorded improvisatory guitar music for a UNT RTVF master's student documentary, Searching For Juan Carlos. Chaz also composes and performs in an experimental indie-folk band, Baruch the Scribe, that regularly plays in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
Czardas (for erhu and string orchestra), orchestrated and arranged by doctoral composer Jing Wang, was performed by Ms. Wang and the Cobb Symphony Orchestra in Atlanta, Georgia, on 23-24 February 2008.
Greg Dixon participated as a guest composer at Capital University's NOW Music Festival in Columbus, OH, in February 2008. His piece for snare drum and computer, Imprints, was performed at the festival by UNT percussionist Julie Licata.
The interactive composition LÜ (for erhu and msp) by doctoral composer Jing Wang was selected for inclusion in the International Women's Electroacoustic Listening Room Project at California State University, Fullerton, on 1 March 2008.