E-mail: info@composersconcordance.org
Composers Concordance Directors
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PATRICK HARDISH, FOUNDING COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, composer, has had his music performed throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil and Japan. Commissions have come from the Composers Guild of New Jersey, Queens Philharmonia, Adolphe Saxquartette, and the North/South Consonance Ensemble, among others. His music is published by Calabrese Brothers Music, and Deffner Publications and is recorded on Capstone Records (The Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo) and Finnadar (William Schimmel, accordion). Two new Capstone CDs to be released soon by Esther Lamneck, clarinet and The Hoffmann/Goldstein Duo will include two recent works by Mr. Hardish. The composer has been in residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, has lectured and given presentations of his music at New York University and the Governor's School for the Gifted in Virginia, has been guest composer at WNYC-FM, WKCR-FM Radio and Columbia University, has received several awards from Meet The Composer, and has been awarded the Margaret Fairbanks Jory Copying Assistance Program Award from the American Music Center.
He has contributed to MLA's Notes and the New Music Connoisseur magazine where he serves on that magazine's Editorial Board. Mr. Hardish has studied music at the Juilliard School, Queens College of the CUNY (BA), Bennington College, and has done graduate work at Columbia University. Before becoming a composer he played drums professionally for several years in dance bands and to a lesser extent in shows. He also holds a MS degree in information science from the Pratt Institute. He is co-founder and co-director of the Composers Concordance and recently retired from a job as a Senior Librarian with The New York Public Library. More from Calabrese Brothers Music
JOSEPH PEHRSON, FOUNDING COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, composer, (b. Detroit, 1950) has written works for a wide variety of media including orchestra and chamber works. They have been performed at numerous venues including Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York and throughout the U.S., Eastern Europe and Russia. Since 1983, Pehrson has been co-director of the Composers Concordance in New York. He studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan (DMA 1981). Pehrson's teachers included composers Leslie Bassett, Joseph Schwantner, and, informally, Otto Luening and Elie Siegmeister in New York. As of 2008, he has written more than 14 hours of music.Pehrson visited St. Petersburg and Moscow, Russia, in March 2008 for a series of concerts. In St. Petersburg, he participated in a Festival "From the Avant Garde to the Present Day," with a new piece Quixoddities based upon Cervantes' Don Quixote for piccolo and bassoon, performed by Mikhail Pobedinsky with bassoonist Maxim Karpinsky at the "House of Composers" in St. Petersburg (March 19, 2008). Linda Past-Pehrson also danced to three electronic pieces in alternate tunings as part of this festival at the "Smolny Institute." In Moscow, he had five pieces presented at the "Jurgenson Salon" on March 22, 2008: The day before, March 21, 2008, Linda Past-Pehrson danced to six electronic pieces in alternate tunings at the "Fireplace Hall" of the "Central Building for Workers of Art, (TsDRI)."Pehrson has works recorded on Capstone and New Ariel CDs and many pieces are published by Seesaw Music, Corp., now a division of Subito Music. TO JOSEPH PEHRSON'S WEBPAGE
WILLIAM HOLAB,
FOUNDING COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, comes from a long line of Chicago-area plumbers. At the age of 7 he realized that his destiny was not at the back end of a sewer drain, and focused his attention on less odoriferous output.In 1980, while studying composition at Juilliard, Holab began work for Music Publishing Services, an autography firm that prepared high-end engraving for publication. He later moved on to become an editor at C.F. Peters Corp., Director of Publications for G. Schirmer/Associated Music Publishers, Director of Production for Universal Edition, and Director of Sales and Publishing for Schott Music Corp.
During this period the industry converted its various manual methods of music engraving to computer-based notesetting. The first program to be used was Leland Smith's SCORE program. Holab wrote the technical documentation for this program and consulted extensively on its development. Holab continues to consult for MakeMusic (Finale) and Sibelius on the details of plate engraving and how to translate its principles to computer-based note setting.
Trained as a composer at the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School, Holab studied with William Albright, William Bolcom, Curtis Curtis-Smith, and Christopher Rouse. He currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. TO BILL HOLAB'S WEBSITE FOR ENGRAVING AND MUSIC SALES
WILLIAM RHOADS
COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR:
Bill Rhoads has also served the music industry in numerous key artistic and administrative posts and appointments throughout his career, having served as Executive Director for the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, Artistic Director for Vox Nova Media, Artistic Adminstrator for The Hudson Symphony, Executive Board Member for CRI, Artistic Advisor for E.A.R. (Elastic Arts Room), and Honorary Advisory Board Member for The Women's Philharmonic. He continues to be active as panel member, judge and lecturer for numerous organizations serving the needs of composers, educators, and performers, including ASCAP, MENC, MPA, BMI and the League of American Orchestras.
GENE PRITSKER,COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR, Composer/guitarist/rapper Gene Pritsker has written over three hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music, songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles, etc. All his compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles and are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures.
He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation; an eclectic hiphop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble which has recently released a cd on Col-legno Records. Gene's music has been performed all over the world at various festivals and by many ensembles and performers, including the Adelaide Symphony, The Athens Camarata, Brooklyn and Berlin Philharmonic. He has worked closely with Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated such Hollywood movies as 'Perfume, Story of a Murderer' and The International.'
The New York Times described him as "...audacious...multitalented." Joseph Pehrson, writing in The Music Connoisseur, Fall 2001, described Pritsker as "dissolv[ing] the artificial boundaries between high brow, low brow, classical, popular musics and elevates the idea that if it's done well it is great music, regardless of the style or genre." Other organizations he is associated with include: Composers' Concordance, Absolute Ensemble, The International Street Cannibals. Some of Gene Pritsker's music is published by: Falls House Press, Gold Branch Music, Periferia Sheet Music & Calabrese Brothers music and recorded by: Col Legno, Enja, Eutrepe, Wergo and Capstone record labels. For more information and music samples, go to: www.genepritsker.com
DAN COOPER, COMPOSERS CONCORDANCE DIRECTOR: Dan Cooper was born and raised in Manhattan, and educated at Horace Mann, Columbia, NEC, and Princeton. Principal teachers include John Heiss, Steve Mackey, and Paul Lansky, and Cooper's chief mentor was Otto Luening. In 2000, Cooper was the Aaron Copland composition fellow at Tanglewood, where he composed and produced incidental music tracks for several acclaimed Shakespeare and Company productions. In 2004, Cooper's "Hawthorne Fanfare and Meditation" was premiered at Ozawa Hall, at a gala event featuring Mike Wallace, Jane Fonda, David Strathairn, and Marisa Tomei.
As a multi-instrumentalist specializing in 7-string bass guitar and also flute with electronics, Cooper has performed all over the world, perhaps most notably as a member of singer Ute Lemper's trio, including performances at Town Hall, Joe's Pub, The Blue Note, Davies Hall, Chicago Theater, Massey Hall, Sydney Opera House, Royal Albert Hall, Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Staatsoper Berlin, and Bunkamura Orchard Hall, plus broadcasts on NBC, Bravo, BBC, Radio France, and RAI. Cooper endorses Overwater bass guitars of Carlisle, U.K.
Cooper's music has been recognized with awards, commissions, premieres, recordings, showcases and residencies from Albany Records, Albany Symphony, Artists International, ASCAP, B3+, Cary Trust, Circadia, Electro-Music, Empire State Youth Orchestra, Engine 27, Fontainebleau, Imani Winds, International Street Cannibals, Majestic Brass, Meet The Composer, NARAS, New York New Music Ensemble, Palisades Virtuosi, and Sweet Plantain, among others. Cooper is currently on the faculty of the State University of New York/FIT, where he has created new courses in American Music, European-Classical Music, and Latin-American & Caribbean Music. Since 2005, he has also taught Music and Literature classes at the Greenwich House Senior Center. www.dan-cooper.com