Chester Biscardi (b. Kenosha, Wisconsin, October 19, 1948; nicknamed Chet) is an Italian American composer and educator.
He received a B.A. degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1970); he studied during 1969–1970 at the University of Bologna and the Conservatorio di Musica "G. B. Martini"; he received an M.A. in Italian literature from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1972); he received an M.M. in composition from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (1974); he received a M.M.A. in composition from Yale University (1976); and he received a D.M.A. in composition from Yale University (1980).
His composition instructors have included Les Thimmig, Mario Davidovsky, Robert Morris, Yehudi Wyner, Krzysztof Penderecki and Tōru Takemitsu.
He has been a member of the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College since 1977. He is openly gay. [1]
Biscardi's music has been released on the Albany, American Modern Recordings, Bridge, CRI (New World Records), Furious Artisans, Intim Musik (Sweden), Naxos, New Albion, New Ariel, North/South Recordings, Perfect Enemy Records, and Sept Jardins (Canada) labels.
Chen Yi is a Chinese-American composer of contemporary classical music and violinist. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts (M.A.) in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. Chen was a finalist for the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for Music for her composition Si Ji, and has received awards from the Koussevistky Music Foundation and American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from The New School and in 2012, she was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association. She was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2019.
Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.
Luca Lombardi is an Italian composer.
Éric Gaudibert was a Swiss composer.
Hendrik Pienaar Hofmeyr is a South African composer. Born in Cape Town, he furthered his studies in Italy during 10 years of self-imposed exile as a conscientious objector. While there, he won the South African Opera Competition with The Fall of the House of Usher. He also received the annual Nederburg Prize for Opera for this work subsequent to its performance at the State Theatre in Pretoria in 1988. In the same year, he obtained first prize in an international competition in Italy with music for a short film by Wim Wenders. He returned to South Africa in 1992, and in 1997 won two major international composition competitions, the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition of Belgium and the first edition of the Dimitris Mitropoulos Competition in Athens. His 'Incantesimo' for solo flute was selected to represent South Africa at the ISCM World Music Days in Croatia in 2005. In 2008 he was honoured with a Kanna award by the Kleinkaroo National Arts Festival. He is currently Professor and Head of Composition and Theory at the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town, where he obtained a DMus in 1999.
Sean Hickey is an American composer and record label executive, born in 1970 in Detroit, Michigan, and currently based in New York. In 2022, he was appointed Managing Director of Pentatone.
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