Liza White, composer
© David Gottlieb 2011
News:
October 22, 2011: Life in Chicago is underway! It's very busy and exciting - exactly what I was hoping for. I am working on my DM at Northwestern and teaching aural skills there, and having a great experience. I'm also active in the city, teaching composition at Access Contemporary Music and music theory at People's Music School and the Merit School of Music. As for composing, I'm currently working on a song cycle with poetry by David Harris Ebenbach, Erika Meitner, Shenandoah Sowash, and Jeremy Schmidt - all friends of mine and fantastic poets. I'll also be working on a piece for symphony orchestra this year, to be read by the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, as well as a string quartet for the internationally acclaimed JACK Quartet; they will perform it at Northwestern in April.
In other news, I just found out that I'll be back in San Francisco in early December, because my recent piece Groove III, for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano, was chosen in a call for scores by the brand new group Wild Rumpus for their first concert on December 10th! Wild Rumpus has the talent, creativity, and overall potential to become one of the most impressive contemporary music ensembles in the Bay, and I can't wait to hear them play Groove III. Bay Area friends, I hope to see you there!
July 20, 2011: Three days ago, I arrived in Chicago! I have moved here in order to start a Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music this fall. At Northwestern, I will have the opportunity to work with composition faculty members Lee Hyla, Hans Thomalla and Jay Alan Yim, as well as lots of top-caliber performing musicians, and to participate in one of the most exciting regional new music scenes in America. It's great to finally be in my new home city!
Before coming here, I spent the past week at the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, which was held at the University of Missouri, Columbia. As a resident composer at this festival, I enjoyed the great privilege of having a piece performed by Alarm Will Sound! In addition to being one of the world's pre-eminent new music ensembles, AWS are also an amazing bunch of people. They were extremely generous with their time and energy and lots of fun to hang out with. Their performance of the new piece that I wrote for them, Step!, was incredible, and it was truly inspiring to spend a week with them. I also got to work with guest composers Anna Clyne and Roger Reynolds, as well as seven other resident composers. Check out this New Music Box blog post by resident composer Kari Besharse if you'd like to learn more about the festival.
June 22, 2011: I have just returned from two weeks at the New Music on the Point Festival, on beautiful Lake Dunmore in Leicester, VT! It was a really fantastic experience. I got to work with performing musicians Fifth House Ensemble, Jennifer Beattie, and Jillian Zack, study composition with Davy Rakowski and Kathryn Alexander, and become friends with a great group of fellow emerging composers, singers, and instrumentalists. We presented two concerts to enthusiastic audiences in Salisbury and Middlebury, VT, which included premieres of my works Groove III and Labor Day. It was sad to leave! If any NMOP-ers are reading this, I hope we keep in touch. Lots of photos, videos, and commentary on the experience can be found on the Fifth House Ensemble blog and on their facebook page. (There may or may not be a clip of me performing "Ice, Ice Baby" on toy piano...)
Also, yesterday's edition of the Springfield, MA Republican included an article about me! Click here to read it.
October 22, 2011: Life in Chicago is underway! It's very busy and exciting - exactly what I was hoping for. I am working on my DM at Northwestern and teaching aural skills there, and having a great experience. I'm also active in the city, teaching composition at Access Contemporary Music and music theory at People's Music School and the Merit School of Music. As for composing, I'm currently working on a song cycle with poetry by David Harris Ebenbach, Erika Meitner, Shenandoah Sowash, and Jeremy Schmidt - all friends of mine and fantastic poets. I'll also be working on a piece for symphony orchestra this year, to be read by the Northwestern University Symphony Orchestra, as well as a string quartet for the internationally acclaimed JACK Quartet; they will perform it at Northwestern in April.
In other news, I just found out that I'll be back in San Francisco in early December, because my recent piece Groove III, for violin, cello, flute, clarinet, and piano, was chosen in a call for scores by the brand new group Wild Rumpus for their first concert on December 10th! Wild Rumpus has the talent, creativity, and overall potential to become one of the most impressive contemporary music ensembles in the Bay, and I can't wait to hear them play Groove III. Bay Area friends, I hope to see you there!
July 20, 2011: Three days ago, I arrived in Chicago! I have moved here in order to start a Doctor of Music degree at Northwestern University's Bienen School of Music this fall. At Northwestern, I will have the opportunity to work with composition faculty members Lee Hyla, Hans Thomalla and Jay Alan Yim, as well as lots of top-caliber performing musicians, and to participate in one of the most exciting regional new music scenes in America. It's great to finally be in my new home city!
Before coming here, I spent the past week at the Mizzou New Music Summer Festival, which was held at the University of Missouri, Columbia. As a resident composer at this festival, I enjoyed the great privilege of having a piece performed by Alarm Will Sound! In addition to being one of the world's pre-eminent new music ensembles, AWS are also an amazing bunch of people. They were extremely generous with their time and energy and lots of fun to hang out with. Their performance of the new piece that I wrote for them, Step!, was incredible, and it was truly inspiring to spend a week with them. I also got to work with guest composers Anna Clyne and Roger Reynolds, as well as seven other resident composers. Check out this New Music Box blog post by resident composer Kari Besharse if you'd like to learn more about the festival.
June 22, 2011: I have just returned from two weeks at the New Music on the Point Festival, on beautiful Lake Dunmore in Leicester, VT! It was a really fantastic experience. I got to work with performing musicians Fifth House Ensemble, Jennifer Beattie, and Jillian Zack, study composition with Davy Rakowski and Kathryn Alexander, and become friends with a great group of fellow emerging composers, singers, and instrumentalists. We presented two concerts to enthusiastic audiences in Salisbury and Middlebury, VT, which included premieres of my works Groove III and Labor Day. It was sad to leave! If any NMOP-ers are reading this, I hope we keep in touch. Lots of photos, videos, and commentary on the experience can be found on the Fifth House Ensemble blog and on their facebook page. (There may or may not be a clip of me performing "Ice, Ice Baby" on toy piano...)
Also, yesterday's edition of the Springfield, MA Republican included an article about me! Click here to read it.
May 3, 2011: Recently, my piece Babylon, for trumpet and drum set, was selected by the Grammy Award winning New York City-based ensemble Orchestra of Our Time for a studio recording and a possible performance during their 2011-2012 season! I hope to have more information on this soon.
Also, my piece Elegy for brass quintet just won an honorable mention in the 2010 National Association of Composers USA Young Composers Competition! Congratulations to my friends Ryan Chase and Nick Omiccioli, who took first and second place. It's nice to be in good company.
Also, my piece Elegy for brass quintet just won an honorable mention in the 2010 National Association of Composers USA Young Composers Competition! Congratulations to my friends Ryan Chase and Nick Omiccioli, who took first and second place. It's nice to be in good company.
March 31, 2011: It has been a busy month! On March 9th, my new piece Ballad of the Mean Angry Jazz Hater Monster! was premiered by pianist/percussionist Danny Holt at On March 30th at 8 PM, at REDCAT, the Roy and Edna Disney/ CalArts Theater, located in Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. This concert also included works by Oscar Bettison, Sarah Seelig, and Andrew Tholl, as part of Danny's amazing piano/percussion project. He gave an incredible performance of the piece, on one of the most dynamic, entertaining, and well-programmed concerts I've seen in a long time. He also performed the piece, along with Oscar, Sarah, and Andrew's pieces, on March 30th (last night) at the Center for New Music and Audio Technology in Berkeley. And, we just received an American Composers' Forum Subito grant to turn Ballad of the Mean Angry Jazz Hater Monster! into an animated video! Click here for more about Danny's piano/percussion project.
Additionally, on March 7th and 8th, my recently completed piece Let It Begin With Me, for tenor saxophone and electronic percussion, was premiered by saxophonist David Wegehaupt and percussionist Stan Muncy, on recitals at UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technology and Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics. These concerts were recitals featuring David, a virtuoso player who was here from Chicago, as well as his friend and fellow Anubis Quartet member Sean Patayanikorn. In addition to Let It Begin With Me, music by Berkeley composer Heather Frasch and Stanford composers Bruno Ruviaro, Chris Chafe and Rob Hamilton was included.
