DAN CROZIER, PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION AT ROLLINS COLLEGE
Works by Daniel Crozier have been recorded or performed by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, the New York City Opera, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park, Songfest 2004, and saxophonist Branford Marsalis with the Walden Chamber Players. They have been recorded for release on the Albany, ACA Digital, PARMA, and MARK labels. His awards include a fellowship from the State of Florida’s Division of Cultural Affairs (2007), first prize in Fresh Ink 2004, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra’s commissioning competition for Florida Composers, ASCAP Special Awards annually since 1996, two nominations for awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Grant for his first opera, The Reunion, and first prize in the National Opera Association Chamber Opera competition for his second, With Blood, With Ink. In May, 2010 Anthony Tommasini’s review in The New York Times praised the opera as “Driven by Mr. Crozier’s harmonically lush and lyrically soaring score.” Daniel Crozier serves as Associate Professor of Theory and Composition at Rollins College.
BENOIT GLAZER, COMPOSER AND MUSIC DIRECTOR FOR LA NOUBA
People say that I am the busiest guy they’ve met. I don’t know, I don’t have time to think about it.
The thing is, I have a good job that allows me the freedom to work on projects that I really enjoy, like having concerts in my house, playing music with my family, tinker with new trumpet designs, writing some decent jazz tunes, some mediocre concert music, and the occasional film score, engineering some recordings, teaching jazz band in high school, practicing trumpet, drums, and percussion, learning about music and instrument building, and meeting art lovers.
I believe that art is the highest form of human activity, and that education is the most important endeavor for society.
I dream I could write a concerto for my family, an opera, and that every neighborhood had a place to hear music and see artists at work for free.
www.timucua.com
www.benoitglazer.com
Charles Griffin is the recipient of more than 25 paid commissions that have been performed in 20 countries in such venues as Merkin and Weill Recital Halls in New York, Washington D.C.’s Kennedy Center, the Aspen, Spoleto and Cervantino Music Festivals, and conventions of the World Piano Pedagogy Conference, Percussive Arts Society, American Choral Directors Association and the National Flute Association. His work is included on several CDs and regularly aired on radio stations such as WNYC and WQXR in New York, WGBH in Boston and WHPK in Chicago.
After 5 years living and working in Latvia, he returned to the U.S. in 2010 to take the position of Course Director of Advanced Music Composition in Full Sail University’s MPBS division. An award-winning member of ASCAP and former Director of the NY Chapter of the American Composers Forum, he is a founding member of the Central Florida Composers Forum. He has served on the adjunct faculties of Hofstra University, Columbia University’s Teacher’s College and Nassau Community College. Learn more at http://charlesgriffin.net
SERENA JONES, PIANIST
The child of a philosopher and a creative sage, Serena Jones loves for a living through music.
Serena’s experience is a kaleidoscope of dance, music, and media. She has a bachelor’s degree in Advertising and Public Relations from the University of Central Florida and a degree in Music from Rollins College. She has contributed her skills to organizations such as the Arts & Cultural Alliance and the Bach Festival Society of Winter Park. She is currently an Associate Course Director of Music Theory at Full Sail University. Her primary instrument is piano, though she can occasionally be seen playing the flute and acoustic guitar, and was once a competitive dancer.
When she’s not teaching, composing, or performing, Serena can be found playing fetch with Otto, her eight-pound Shih Tzu, practicing yoga, taking lomographs, diving into a new book, dancing, or doodling. She loves palindromes, Moleskine journals, inspiring documentaries, and changing the world. She believes in practicing productive procrastination. She seeks to become an influential creative activist in education and a more happily imperfect composer and performer.
This year, she aspires to fail harder.
Keith Lay, Composer
Keith grew up in Northeastern Ohio performing and conducting his compositions for symphonic band, piano, jazz orchestra and chamber ensembles. After receiving a Master of Music Composition from the University of Akron College of Music in 1988, his three-fold career focused on concert music composition, commercial music production and university teaching.
In concert music, Keith has won awards, commissions, honors, and performances. The New York Times’ chief classical music critic Antonio Tommasini hailed Keith as “a composer to watch for”. Gramophone magazine described his work, “Earth Caoine”, recorded by Richard Stoltzman and the Warsaw National Philharmonic as “unapologetically emotional”. “…the work’s depth also makes the listener figuratively forget to breathe during the entire 8 minutes and 58 seconds”, claimed the magazine, The Clarinet. His violin concerto “Children on the Playground” was chosen as the Grand Prize winner of the Riverside Competition from over 500 international submissions over 11 previous years for a performance at Lincoln Center.
In commercial music Keith has won national awards for his work as both producer and composer for jingles, television music and library tracks since the 1980s. He has also produced, engineered or supplied liner notes for various classical and jazz recordings since the mid 90s and is a voting member of the Grammys.
Mr. Lay was key in helping Stephen Goldman and the Orlando Philharmonic launch the National Young Composers Challenge, now a major symphonic competition for composers aging 13 to18, and has served them as a teacher and judge each year. Recognized as a leader in education, Keith has been awarded Full Sail University’s top awards for excellence in teaching three times, and twice been awarded a United Arts of Central Florida grant, as well as a Florida Artist Fellowship, a Margaret Jory Fairbanks grant, and a certificate of appreciation from the National Recording Academy. He was key in designing Full Sail’s successful Music Composition online bachelor’s degree program where he serves as the Chair of Music Technology and teaches popular music composition. Mr. Lay is also a founding member of The Central Florida Composers Forum, launched in 2011.
Christopher Marshall is a freelance composer based since 2006 in Orlando where he is Composer in Residence and Adjunct Professor of Composition at the University of Central Florida. Born in Fran
ce, raised in Australia and New Zealand and having lived several years in Samoa, his music moulds diverse influences into a distinctive personal style notable for its lyricism and rhythmic ingenuity.
Prior to his Orlando residency, Christopher was Fulbright Composer in Residence at the Eastman School in Rochester, New York, and befor
e that, Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He holds a Master degree with Honours from the University of Auckland, NZ and a Fellowship in Composition from Trinity College, London. His music – chamber, choral, band and orchestral – is internationally commissioned and has been performed in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Barbican in London.
period in the graphic arts, he refocused his energies on music, completing both Masters and Doctorate studies in composition by 2007.
Robert is an active composer and educator, has released several CDs of original compositions, toured the United States and Europe, and has received a numbe
r of prestigious awards and commissions for his compositions. He has taught university level courses in theory and composition and was the founding Program Director for the Music Production Bachelor of Science degree at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida.
He currently resides on his farm in Virginia with his wife and son and is completely focused on raising goats and composing new music.
REBEKAH TODIA, PIANIST AND COMPOSER
Originally from Miami Florida, Rebekah Todia Grew up in a family where art and music were the main focus in her house hold. Rebekah was the last of five children, her father served as a constant source of inspiration supporting the family as a talented artist and woodworker. While studying art at Miami Dade College, Rebekah’s interest in music was ignited by a course in music appreciation. During her early college years she married her husband Tom Todia, a music engineer and sound designer. Tom supported her every step of the way in getting her career in music off the ground. Together they worked on music projects in recording studios and in the greater Miami area. After their first child was born, they picked up their life and settled in Orlando where Rebekah went on to study music at Rollins College. At Rollins, her main focus was piano performance and music composition. Currently she is working as Associate Course Director of Music Theory at Full Sail University, and is an active member of the Central Florida Composers Forum. Rebekah is presently working on new music and honing her art as a piano performer. She looks to her two beautiful children and wonderful husband for her source of inspiration.TIMOTHY STULMAN, COMPOSER
Dr. Timothy Stulman received his DMA at Bowling Green State University (BGSU) under the tutelage of Distinguished Artist Professor Marilyn Shrude.
He has received numerous honors and awards at both national and international levels. He was recently named winner of the 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance Composition Competition. As winner of the First Music Commission, he was commissioned to compose an orchestral piece for the New York Youth Symphony that was premiered in Carnegie Hall on March 7, 2010. His music has been selected for performance by the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Toledo Youth Orchestra, the International Tribuna Sax-Ensemble in Madrid, and the BGSU Philharmonia. He was a featured composer at University of Central Missouri’s New Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest, the 1st Annual Huntsville New Music Festival, and Juventas New Music Ensemble’s Murmurs from Limbo concert series.
Stulman has also studied with Mikel Kuehn, Wallace DePue, Burton Beerman, and Margaret Brower. Stulman is interested in Eastern aesthetics and studies Chinese religious forms and language. He is fluent in Chinese and has spent two years in the ShangHai area.