James Syler | |
---|---|
Birth name | James Scott Syler |
Born | Hyde Park, New York | April 7, 1961
Genres | Wind ensemble, orchestra, choral, chamber |
Occupation | Composer |
Years active | 1988–present |
Website | www |
James Scott Syler (born April 7, 1961, from Hyde Park, New York) is an American composer fluent in many genres of music including Wind Ensemble, Choral, Orchestral, and Chamber Music.
A student of Alfred Reed, Karl Korte, and Michael Colgrass, Syler's music is known for its lyricism and drama. His compositional style his highly eclectic, melding techniques ranging from the Baroque and Renaissance to Minimalism. He was the winner of the 1993 National Band Association Composition Award, the 1993 Arnald Gabriel Composition Award, the 2002 American Composers Forum Commission, and received two grants from the American Music Center. He established his own publishing company, Ballerbach Music in 1998, that published the works of more than 20 composers for 15 years.
To date Syler has had over 400 performances of his compositions all over the world and has been in guest residence at more than 25 colleges and universities. He has been the subject of a doctoral dissertation Wind Ensemble Compositions of James Syler and discussed extensively in two others. He was featured in the book A Composer's Insight: Thoughts, Analysis and Commentary on Contemporary Masterpieces for Wind Band; Volume 1 by Timothy Salzman. Syler is currently on faculty at the University of Texas at San Antonio where he teaches composition, orchestration, and music history courses.
Syler was born in Hyde Park, New York and spent time growing up in both New York and Florida. His musical training began at age nine when he joined his elementary school band as a percussionist and continued at age sixteen with piano lessons. [1] He received his bachelor's degree in Music Education from Northern Illinois University in 1983. [2] His Master of Music Degree is in studio writing and media production from the University in Miami, Florida, conferred in 1988. [3] During his time in Miami he met and studied with composer Alfred Reed, an important figure in the wind ensemble world. Though he met and studied with Reed, Syler was mostly interested in film score composing during his time at the University of Miami. In 1991 he continued graduate work at the University of Texas at Austin towards the DMA in Composition. [4] While at Texas Syler studied with Karl Korte. In 1992 Syler decided to leave school and struck out on his own to freelance as a composer. He reached out to Michael Colgrass and they worked together in the summer of 1993 and winter of 1994. From 1995 to 1998, he was on the faculty at Flagler College in St. Augustine, Florida, which he left in 1998. He then was on faculty at Florida Atlantic University from 1998 to 2001. In 2001 he began his current position at the University of Texas-San Antonio. [5]
James Syler is mostly known for his works for wind ensemble but has contributed significant works for orchestra, chorus, and chamber mediums as well.
Hound of Heaven (1988) for wind ensemble won the 1993 Arnald Gabriel Composition Award and the 1993 National Band Association Award. Syler describes it as a "program symphony in six movements" based upon the poem of the same name by British poet Francis Thompson. The story the poem depicts is of God as the loving hound in pursuit of the lost hare; the individual soul. It was recorded in 2008 by the Rutgers Wind Ensemble, William Berz Conductor, and can often be found on programs of the finest collegiate and university wind ensembles every year. Minton's Playhouse (1994) is an eclectic piece that has enjoyed popularity from its conception. Conceived for solo saxophone quartet and wind ensemble, it is also in a third stream style. It has been recorded by the Illinois State University Wind Symphony, Stephen Steele, Conductor in 2002. Minton's Playhouse, Storyville(composed in 1996), and a recent commission Congo Square(composed in 2014), make up the suite Three Places in Jazz. A unique triptych musically painting historically significant places to the jazz canon. Symphony No. 1 'Blue' (1999) is Syler's largest composition. Composed for Soprano, Chorus, and Wind Ensemble, it is a work of considerable substance. The text is original to Syler and is based upon the rebirth of oneself once the pit of despair is reached. Change is inevitable because of this threshold, therefore the previous self can no longer exist. Syler weaves the narrative using the soloist, chorus and ensemble to create unique textures and a powerful composition. The piece was recorded in 2002 by the University of Miami Wind Ensemble, Gary Green, Conductor. The Temptation of St. Anthony, a follow piece to Symphony No. 1 'Blue' for Chorus and Wind Ensemble, was commissioned and premiered by the Texas A&M University-Commerce Wind Ensemble, Phillip Clements, Conductor. Dear Sarah (1998) is for SATB Chorus and piano. This piece is a setting of a letter from the Civil War by Major Sullivan Ballou to his wife who died just days later in battle. The piece has gained significant popularity and is published by Santa Barbara Publishing company as a part of the Jo-Michael Scheibe Choral Series. It was recorded by the University of Miami Chorale in 2002, Jo-Michael Scheibe, Conductor. In 2006 Syler was commissioned by the Houston Chamber Orchestra. The resulting piece was the three movement virtuosic American Dances for string orchestra. 2009 brought a commission from the San Antonio Symphony. The eight-minute energetic and heroic overture Gearbox was born from that commission.
In addition to these collegiate/professional level works, Syler has also contributed four works to an educational series at FJH music. His Country Bandstand, Cantique and Hocus Pocus are all published by FJH and are of moderate difficulty without sacrificing any of Syler's compositional voice. The fourth work, Galop is an edition of Arthur Bird's only work for band, Galop.
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich is an American composer, the first female composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music. Her early works are marked by atonal exploration, but by the late 1980s, she had shifted to a postmodernist, neoromantic style. She has been called "one of America's most frequently played and genuinely popular living composers." She was a 1994 inductee into the Florida Artists Hall of Fame. Zwilich has served as the Francis Eppes Distinguished Professor at Florida State University.
Joseph Clyde Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize.
[James] Clifton Williams, Jr. was an American composer, pianist, French hornist, mellophonist, music theorist, conductor, and teacher. Williams was known by symphony patrons as a virtuoso French hornist with the symphony orchestras of Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Houston, Oklahoma City, Austin, and San Antonio. The young composer was honored with performances of Peace, A Tone Poem and A Southwestern Overture by the Houston and Oklahoma City symphony orchestras, respectively. He remains widely known as one of America's accomplished composers for the wind ensemble and band repertory.
Samuel Robert Hazo is an American composer, primarily of music for concert band.
Frank Ticheli is an American composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and concert band works. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he is a Professor Emeritus of Composition at the University of Southern California. He was the Pacific Symphony's composer-in-residence from 1991 to 1998, composing numerous works for that orchestra. A number of his works have become standards in concert band repertoire.
Michael Charles Colgrass was an American and Canadian musician, composer, and educator. He was an associate composer of the Canadian Music Centre.
Kevin Matthew Puts is an American composer, best known for his opera The Hours and for winning a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for his first opera Silent Night and a Grammy Award in 2023 for his concerto Contact.
Gary Green is an American conductor, specializing in the wind band.
Jo-Michael Scheibe was the former chair of the Department of Choral and Sacred Music at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Following a sabbatical in Fall of 2022, Scheibe retired from his position as Professor of Choral and Sacred Music and was named Professor Emeritus of Music. In April 2023, he was named a 2023-2024 Fulbright Scholar in Ireland. He formerly conducted the USC Chamber Singers. In 2011 he assumed a new post as National President of the American Choral Directors’ Association. No stranger to the ACDA, Scheibe previously served as the organization's Western Division President (1991–1993), as well as National Repertoire and Standards Chairperson for Community Colleges (1980–1989). Ensembles under his leadership have sung at six national ACDA conventions, as well as two national conventions of the Music Educators National Conference, and various regional and state conventions.
Winds of Nagual: A Musical Fable for Wind Ensemble on the Writings of Carlos Castaneda is a 1985 composition for wind ensemble by Canadian composer Michael Colgrass. It has become a standard of the wind ensemble/concert band repertoire. Based on the writings of Carlos Castaneda, the work consists of seven movements.
Thomas M. Sleeper was an American composer and conductor. He was the Orchestra Conductor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida from 1985 to 1993, and Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Frost Symphony Orchestra until his retirement in 2018. He was also the director of the Florida Youth Orchestra from 1993 to 2020.
UFO is a composition written by American composer Michael Daugherty for percussionist Evelyn Glennie.
Robert Houston Bright was a composer of American music, known primarily for his choral works. The best-known of these is an original spiritual "I Hear a Voice A-Prayin'," but he wrote dozens of highly regarded pieces over the course of his career, including a number of instrumental compositions. Bright was, among his peers, well known and respected as a composer, choral director, and professor. He spent his entire academic career in the Music Department of West Texas State College.
Greg Danner is a contemporary American composer, educator, and professional musician. He is currently the composer-in-residence and professor at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, Tennessee. He is the 2010 Composer's Guild Grand Prize winner.
Kathryn Salfelder is a contemporary American composer, conductor and pianist, based in the Boston area. She has received commissions from the Albany Symphony, Boston Musica Viva, United States Air Force Band – Washington D.C., American Bandmasters Association, New York Virtuoso Singers, and Japan Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference (JWECC).
Jerry Junkin is an American conductor of wind bands and educator. Junkin serves on the faculty of the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin where he holds the Vincent R. and Jane D. DiNino Chair for the Director of Bands. He conducts the University of Texas Wind Ensemble and instructs graduate as well as undergraduate conducting courses. Additionally, Junkin has served as the conductor of the Dallas Wind Symphony since 1993.
Jake Runestad is an American composer and conductor of classical music based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He has composed music for a wide variety of musical genres and ensembles, but has achieved greatest acclaim for his work in the genres of opera, orchestral music, choral music, and wind ensemble. One of his principal collaborators for musical texts has been Todd Boss.
Brian Balmages is an American composer, conductor, and music educator. He is best known for composing educational music for wind instruments.
Timothy Kramer is an American composer whose music has earned him a Fulbright Scholarship, an National Endowment for the Arts grant, and a Guggenheim fellowship. Currently Professor Emeritus at Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, he served as the Edward Capps Professor of Humanities at Illinois College, and also served on the faculty of Trinity University as Professor of Music, and is a founding member of the Composers Alliance of San Antonio.