On The Five (A Traffic Opera in One Act) tells the story of a single moment in time observed in four different ways during a traffic jam on the California Interstate 5 freeway. Premiered April 26th, 2016 at Cal State, Fullerton.

Performed by:

Megan Ralston - Soprano/The Mother
Kaleigh Bancroft - Alto/The Actress
Cameron Johnson - Tenor/The Student
Jose Zamarripa - Baritone/The Worker

Clivia Ngan - Flute
David Aguirre - Bb Clarinet/Bass Clarinet
Emily Balderrama - Cello
Elba Palomo - Violin
Kevin Phan - Piano

On The Five (A Traffic Opera in One Act)

recorded by the RTE Contempo Quartet, 07/18

note | 'love reacts only' combines shared materials and trajectories with spontaneous player cues to create complex group gestures, textures, and timbral interactions.

love reacts only | ConTempo Quartet

Geoffery Munger (b. 1988) is a Southern California based composer, multi-instrumentalist, and educator.

 

As a composer, Geoffery strives to combine his experiences, both spiritually and personally, to create music that is meditative, introspective, and organic. Concerned with the idea of a moment and the power of deep listening as a meditative process, Geoffery draws his musical inspiration from small, everyday instances and sounds. He also draws upon his upbringing in a lower-class family on the Mexican border town of Holtville, California where the sounds of mariachi, jazz, and punk rock permeated his youth and influenced his musical palette. Munger has written for a wide range of performance forces from solo pieces to large, staged dramas and strives to meld the world of popular music with concert music.  

 

His music has been performed throughout the United States and was featured at the 2016 Atlantic Music Festival in Waterville, ME. Other commissions and grants include the 2020 Friedman Humanities Grant, 2019 Crotty Endowed Fellowship, 2018 Kenneth Fiske Endowed Fellowship, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity, The Newgate Orchestra, The Kettleblack Orchestra, and the Huntington Beach School District. Munger is currently composing a new musical alongside lyricist Lynne Gross entitled "See Where We Land" that will premiere in 2023. 

 

Munger has amassed over fifteen years of experience as a music educator teaching ages five to ninety-five on a wide range of instruments and voice types. He focuses on two questions when he teaches, “What’s next for music education?” and “How do we listen?” Geoffery strives to help a new generation of musicians to reevaluate the social structures and norms of Western European concert music that has been in place for too long and forge new, unique musical paths. Using music models from as many cultures and genres as possible, Geoffery pushes his students to become total musician-listeners, not just composers, instrumentalists, or singers. Since 2017, Geoffery has served on the faculty at California State University, Fullerton as a lecturer in music composition and theory.

 

Geoffery holds a DMA from Claremont Graduate University where he studied with Dr. Peter Boyer. He received his B.M. in Music Composition from Cal State, Fullerton in 2013, studying with the late Dr. Lloyd Rodgers and received his M.M. in Music Theory and Composition in 2016 from the same institution where he studied with composers, Dr. Pamela Madsen and Dr. Ken Walicki.

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Geoffery resides with his wonderful operatic soprano/librarian wife and three cats in Fullerton, CA where, when he is not teaching or writing music, he enjoys playing video games (particularly Japanese R.P.G.s).

On The Five (A Traffic Opera in One Act)

Geoffery Munger | Composer

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