Composers

Carol Barnett writes audacious and engaging music. She is known for breaking the mold with meter changes, differing tonal centers, unusual instrument combinations, and her love of fast tempi. Despite these typical thumbprints, Barnett’s works are diverse, uncovering the needs of each piece and each text with her characteristic integrity. Barnett’s varied catalog includes works for solo voice, piano, chorus, diverse chamber ensembles, orchestra, and wind ensemble. 

Deborah Kavasch, BMI composer, soprano, educator, and specialist in extended vocal techniques, has had works commissioned and performed in North America, Europe, the United Kingdom, and China. She has received grants and residencies in composition and performance, was a 1987 Fulbright Senior Scholar to Stockholm, and has appeared in major international music centers and festivals in concerts, solo recitals, workshops, lecture/demonstrations, and television and radio broadcasts since 1981.

Multi award-winning composer and pianist Christopher Jessup is an artist of formidable prowess. Jessup has garnered acclaim for his “imaginative handling of atmosphere” [Fanfare] and his “high standard of technique” [New York Concert Review], cementing himself as one of the foremost composer-performers of his generation.

A native of rural Colorado, Leanna Kirchoff’s music career began in a farmyard, singing her own songs to an audience of family and a few barn cats. Her early musical development also included studying piano and accompanying the choir at her local church. Kirchoff credits these early experiences as the genesis for her work as a composer whose catalog of music has grown to include many kinds of songs, musical theater pieces, sacred and non-liturgical choral music, and operas.

Arizona composer Dr. Anne Kilstofte (Kilz-tofft) spent her early winters in Minnesota amid her mother’s paint tubes and pastels, but her father’s influence also played a role by sharing his recordings, introducing her to a wealth of composers including Shostakovich, Grieg, Beethoven, Saint-Saëns, Brahms, Dvorak, Schubert, and even Big Band to name just a few. This early introduction is her earliest memory of a world where she was encouraged to create and use her imagination. Her use of color and lyricism and her adeptness at writing for voice may stem from this. Critics often mention her writing using “exceptional variety of tone color, conjuring landscapes that are sometimes misty, sometimes luminous, always atmospheric…” (International Alliance for Women in Music).

Composer Karen Siegel creates innovative, engaging, and meaningful choral and vocal works. Hailed as “colorful and at times groovy” (WQXR.org), her works are frequently performed by the New York City-based ensemble C4: the Choral Composer/Conductor Collective, which she co-founded in 2005. Recent commissions include the choral sound installation "Lessons of Stone," for the Astoria Choir at the Noguchi Gallery in Long Island City; and the feminist collaborative work Vision of Flight for the Danish National Girls’ Choir and cellist Henrik Dam Thomsen.

Mark Dal Porto has received numerous commissions with his works receiving hundreds of performances by many instrumental and vocal ensembles throughout the United States and abroad. In 2019, he released Peace, Nature & Renewal¸ a CD featuring some of his orchestral, choral, and chamber works. In the 2013 CODA (College Orchestra Directors Association) International Composition Contest, he was awarded first prize for his orchestral work Song of Eternity. He has also received certificates of excellence in band, choral, orchestral, and chamber music composition from The American Prize organization.

Michael J. Evans is an American composer based in Washington DC. He has recorded with pianist Karolin Rojahn, Sirius String Quartet, Janaček Philharmonic, Moravian Philharmonic. St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, and Kiev Philharmonic. Living in DC has had a profound influence on his music. Many of his works explore, or are inspired by LGBTQ, environmental, and social justice issues. His recent projects are focused on multimedia: combining music, literature, and video.

Sophia Serghi (b. 1972) was born in Nicosia, Cyprus and is now a resident of the United States. She has written works for stage, orchestra, and chamber ensembles, along with her vocal and multimedia works, and her compositions have been performed throughout Europe and the United States.

Richard E. Brown, a native of New York State and has been active as a composer-arranger and music educator for many years. His training includes M.M. and D.M. degrees in composition from Florida State University, as well as a B.A. in music education from Central College, which named him a Distinguished Alumnus in 1983. His principal composition studies were with Carlisle Floyd, John Boda, and Charles Carter. He is a member of ASCAP and is represented in the catalogs of several trade publishers, as well as his personal imprint Dacker Music.

Joseph T. Spaniola is a composer on a passionate quest to engage the hearts and minds of audiences and performers through the communicative powers of music. Spaniola is active as a composer, arranger, educator, conductor, lecturer, producer, clinician, and adjudicator. He has composed works for band, orchestra, chamber ensembles, solo instruments, voice, choir, and electronic tape. His works have received honors from National Band Association, The American Prize, Global Music Awards, Florida State Music Teachers Association, Dallas Wind Symphony, and others.

Paul Paccione was born in New York City in 1952. He studied classical guitar and music theory at the Mannes College of Music (B.M. 1974). While at Mannes, he was influenced by composer Eric Richards to begin compositional study. Subsequently, he began private composition studies with composer Harley Gaber. He continued composition studies at the University of California, San Diego, with composer Kenneth Gaburo (M.A., 1977). He later studied composition with composer/conductor William Hibbard, at the University of Iowa (Ph.D., 1984). 

Nan Avant’s music embraces thematic and rhythmic intentions often reflecting her Latin heritage, encompassing her passion for classical, jazz, world, and ethnic music. Avant’s music has been honored with numerous accolades and awards including her most recent recordings on the Navona Records label with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Zagreb Festival Orchestra garnering her three Silver Medals in the Global Music Awards 2022–2023, The American Prize: Winner – Pops/Light Orchestral Composition 2023, and Winner in two categories of the Clouzine International Music Award 2023.

Liova Bueno's music is performed in concerts and music festivals internationally, from Europe, the United States, and across Canada to countries in Central and South America. He has received commissions from and has collaborated with various ensembles, including Cuarteto de Bellas Artes (Mexico), Vox Humana Chamber Choir (Victoria, B.C.), the Victoria Choral Society (Victoria, B.C.), the London Symphony Orchestra (U.K.), the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), BRNO Contemporary Orchestra (Czech Republic), the Illinois Modern Ensemble (Illinois), the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional Juvenil and members of the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Dominican Republic), and members of the Victoria Symphony.

Barbara Jazwinski’s music has been heard throughout North America, Europe, and the Far East. Her portfolio, influenced by her Polish heritage and by the culture of New Orleans, her home for many years, includes over 100 original compositions in various genres and for many different vocal and instrumental ensembles. She has been commissioned by many artists and ensembles around the world and her works have been presented to critical acclaim at well-known concert series and international festivals. Barbara Jazwinski’s compositions are available on several recording labels, and on websites and radio stations around the world including Navona Records, Vienna Modern Masters, Capstone, Lorelt, Ravello and Musiques Suisses labels.

Timothy Schmalz is a composer with a focus on works for the concert hall and visual media. He has a multi instrumental background, with an emphasis compositionally on orchestral and chamber music. Given that much of his composition work began in media music, Schmalz is multi faceted — encompassing a wide variety of musical thinking and creativity.

Dr. J.A. Kawarsky (b. 1959) is Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton in New Jersey. Kawarsky received his B.M. in composition from Iowa State University and his M.M. and D.M.A. from Northwestern University, where he studied with John Paynter, Alan Stout, and Frederick Ockwell. In 1982, Kawarsky conducted the Opera Company of the Negev Region in Be’er Sheva in Israel. Before coming to Westminster in 1989, he taught at Fort Hays State University, the University of Wisconsin, and Moraine Valley Community College.

Richard Thompson is a performer and composer whose work combines African-American and European traditions. Originally from Aberdeen, Scotland, Thompson made his debut as a pianist at the Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, in 1984. Thompson’s orchestral appearances include concerts with the Orchestra Nova, San Diego, San Diego State University Symphony Orchestra, Glasgow Chamber Orchestra, and Aberdeen Chamber Orchestra.

Jennifer Jolley (b. 1981) is a composer, conductor, and professor. Her work is founded on the belief that the pleasures and excesses of music have the unique potential to engage political and provocative subjects. Addressing a range of topics such as climate change, #MeToo, feminist history, and the abuses of the Putin regime, Jolley strives to write pieces that are equally enjoyable and meaningful.

William White is a conductor, composer, teacher, writer, and performer based in Seattle WA. Equally known for his original music as for his bold interpretations, White is an innovative programmer and conscientious leader in the musical community. His music has been performed throughout North America as well as in Asia and Europe. His music has been recorded on the MSR Classics, Cedille, and Navona Records labels, and he maintains a significant career as a composer of music for the concert stage, theater, cinema, church, radio, and film.