Lee Actor

Composer and conductor Lee Actor (b. 1952) was one of five composers selected in November 2014 as an “Honored Artist of the American Prize”, the first time this prestigious award has been bestowed.  He has won a number of awards for his compositions, most recently for Dance Rhapsody, winner of the Austin Civic Orchestra Composition Competition and second place winner of the 2011 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Redwood Fanfare, a winner of the 2009 Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra Fanfare Competition, and Concerto for Horn and Orchestra, the First Prize Winner in the 2007 International Horn Society Composition Contest.

Actor’s works have also been finalists in numerous competitions. Divertimento for Small Orchestra was a finalist for the 2016 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Concerto for Piano and Orchestra received a Special Judge’s Citation for the 2015 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra was a finalist for the 2014 American Prize in Orchestral Composition, and String Quartet No. 1 was a finalist for the 2014 American Prize in Chamber Music Composition. Circus Symphonicus was a finalist in the Columbia Orchestra's 2013 American Composer Competition; Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra was a finalist for the 2013 American Prize in Orchestral Composition; Concerto for Violin and Orchestra was a finalist for the 2012 American Prize in Orchestral Composition; Variations and Fugue for Orchestra was a finalist in both the Columbia Orchestra’s 2007 American Composers Competition and the Holyoke Civic Symphony 2005 Composition Competition; and Prelude to a Tragedy was selected as a finalist in the Columbia Orchestra’s 2005 American Composers Competition.

Actor has received commissions from the Palo Alto Philharmonic, the Redwood Symphony, the Mission Chamber Orchestra, the Silicon Valley Symphony, the Saratoga Symphony, the University of South Dakota, the Skaneateles Festival, the South Bay Guitar Society, and the Peninsula Symphony.  His works have been performed by more than 80 orchestras and bands in the United States and around the world.  His first album of orchestral works was released by MMC Recordings in June 2005, which Records International called "...one of the best new symphonic discs to have come our way."  A second album was released by Albany Records in April 2008, featuring Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, which was nominated for 2008 "Best of the Year" classical CD by Classical 94.5/WNED in Buffalo NY.  A third album of orchestral music, featuring Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra and Dance Rhapsody, was released in 2011 by Navona Records, and subsequently named to Audiophile Audition’s list of “Best of the Year Discs for 2011.”  Navona Records released Actor's fourth solo album in February 2015, featuring Concerto for Piano and Orchestra and Symphony No. 3.

Formerly a violinist with the Albany (NY) Symphony Orchestra, Actor has advanced degrees in both engineering and music composition.  He has studied composition with Donald Sur, Brent Heisinger, Charles Jones, and Andrew Imbrie, and conducting with Angelo Frascarelli, David Epstein, and Higo Harada.  Actor was named Composer-in-Residence of the Palo Alto Philharmonic in 2002, following his appointment as Assistant Conductor in 2001, and was Assistant Conductor of the Nova Vista Symphony from 2008 to 2010.

www.leeactor.com

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Peter Greve

Peter Greve was born in 1931 in The Hague (Netherlands). He received musical training in The Hague from Jean Antonietti and Léon Orthel (piano), Theo Laanen (trumpet), Dr Marcus van Crevel (music theory), and later from Willem Frederik Bon (Amsterdam), Myers Foggin (UK), and Terence Lovett (UK) in orchestral conducting. At the same time, he studied at the State University of Leiden (Netherlands), where he obtained M.Sc. (1957) and Ph.D. (1959) degrees in chemistry.

After his studies, he worked as a scientific researcher for Philips-Duphar Pharmaceutical Industry and for the Dutch Ministry of Public Health and Environmental Hygiene, but remained active in music on a part-time basis. From 1981 to 2002, he worked as a consultant for various national and international organizations in East Asia, Eastern Europe, Central America and Arab countries. Since his retirement in 2002, he is fulfilling a wish felt since his early youth and working as a full-time musician: a composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist. He is a member of the Society of Dutch Composers (Nieuw-GeNeCo) and of BUMA/Stemra (Dutch organisation in charge of the collection of music copyrights).

Peter Greve lives in 's-Graveland, a village about 20km southeast of Amsterdam. A more detailed biography and a survey of his compositions and arrangements are given on his website: petergreve.nl

Scores and audio- or videorecords of his works can be downloaded free of charge via this website as well. Parts for performances are for sale through the Foundation "Peter Greve, componist & arrangeur."

Photo: Rik van Linden van den Heuvell

Steven Kennedy

Steven Kennedy resides in New England where he freelances as a film music reviewer/commentator, bassoonist, conductor, and keyboardist.

He has composed two musicals, two symphonies, solo works, and works for chorus, band, and orchestra. He released a solo album of original piano music, “Reflections.” A respected reviewer, his analyses of film and video game music appear in Film Score Monthly, Film Music Review, and on his blog Cinemusical.

Performances the past few years have included selections from his musicals; “Hymn” (Suite for Orchestra), Convergence for Chamber Orchestra, and an arrangement of his “The Night We Danced” for concert band.  His Festival Psalm was a finalist for the ALCM’s Raabe Prize.  As a result of a Kickstarter campaign, a Toccata for Concert Band, and a Pavane for flute/cello and piano as well as chamber orchestra was commissioned. sakennedymusic.com

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Sidney Bailin

Sidney Bailin started composing when he was 6. His first piece was in three-part counterpoint, a fact that he still does not know how to explain.

He learned species counterpoint when he was 10. He entered Juilliard when he was 15, studying piano with Ania Dorfmann and composition with Hall Overton. The following year, he began private piano coaching with Jeaneane Dowis. At the age of 18 he enrolled as a college student at Juilliard, and studied composition that year with Roger Sessions and Otto Luening. Becoming more and more interested in mathematics, the following year he moved to Columbia University, first as a double major in music and mathematics, then dropping the music.

Eventually, Bailin received a doctorate in Mathematical Logic from the University of Oxford. He has since published research papers on computer topics, written an award-winning film script, and been a skydiving instructor. He is now an active karate instructor.

While all this was happening, he was relatively inactive musically. He now thinks of this period as a long exile from music. In 2003 he started composing again, and today he finds himself at the top of his compositional and creative powers.

sidneybailin.com

fightandsound.com

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Allen Brings

A native of New York City, Allen Brings received a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude from Queens College, a Master of Arts degree from Columbia University, where he was a Mosenthal Fellow and a student of Otto Luening, and a doctorate in theory and composition from Boston University, where he was a teaching fellow and a student of Gardner Read. In 1962 he was a Naumburg Fellow at Princeton University, where he studied with Roger Sessions. He has twice served as chairman of the eastern region of the American Society of University Composers and is currently vice president of Connecticut Composers. His published compositions, which include works for orchestra, band, chorus, a wide variety of chamber ensembles, piano, organ, harpsichord, guitar, and voice, have been recorded for Navona Records, Capstone, Centaur, Grenadilla, Contemporary Record Society, North/South Consonance, Arizona University Recordings, and Vienna Modern Masters. A pianist as well as a composer, Brings has performed extensively both in the United States and abroad, especially in programs of music for piano four-hands with Genevieve Chinn, with whom he has recorded for Orion, CRI, and Centaur. He is also co-author of A New Approach to Keyboard Harmony, published by W. W. Norton, and has contributed articles to College Music Symposium, College Music Society Newsletter, Contemporary Music Newsletter, Society of Composers Newsletter, New Music Connoisseur, New Oxford Review, ComposerUSA, sounding board, and Adoremus Bulletin. He is Professor Emeritus of Music at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College of the City University of New York, where he was coordinator of the theory and ear training program, and is a director of the Weston Music Center and School of the Performing Arts in Weston CT, where he teaches piano and theory.

library.newmusicusa.org/allenbrings