John Mackey is a composer currently based in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  He's also lived in New York, Austin, Los Angeles, and Ohio, but he prefers not to talk about Ohio.

As a frequent collaborator, John has worked with a diverse range of artists, from the Santa Clara Vanguard Drum and Bugle Corps to choreographer David Parsons, from the Alvin Ailey Dance Company to the US Olympic Synchronized Swim Team. (The team won a bronze medal in the 2004 Athens Olympics performing to Mackey's work for clarinet and percussion, "Damn.")

John has served as a Meet-The-Composer/American Symphony Orchestra League Composer In Residence with the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphony and with the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer In Residence at the Vail Valley Music Festival in Vail, Colorado, and in 2005, at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music.  He returns to Cabrillo this summer for  performances of his trombone concerto, "Harvest," conducted by Marin Alsop, with trombonist Joseph Alessi of the New York Philharmonic.

John holds degrees from The Juilliard School and The Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with John Corigliano and Donald Erb, respectively.

To entertain himself while procrastinating on commissions, John enjoys photography and road cycling (but not at the same time). You can hear his music and see his photography (mostly of food, and the backs of conductors’ heads) on his website: www.ostimusic.com

"Whitacre is that rare thing, a modern composer who is both popular and original"
- The Daily Telegraph, London

Eric has inspired millions as composer, conductor, innovator, broadcaster and charismatic public speaker. His compositions rank among the most popular and frequently performed of the early 21st century, their reach broadened since 2010 by the extraordinary success of his online Virtual Choir project. Light & Gold, his first album as composer and conductor, won the 2012 Grammy® Award for Best Choral Recording and instantly topped the US and UK classical album charts.

Born in Nevada, he discovered a passion for choral music while studying at UNLV and he began composing soon after. He went on to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York under John Corigliano. Many of his choral compositions, Cloudburst, Lux Aurumque and Sleep among them, have entered the standard choral repertoire and his orchestral music has been performed by some of the world’s most distinguished orchestras both sides of the Atlantic. Eric is currently Composer-in-Residence at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University, UK.

A distinguished speaker, Eric has been invited to address the UN Leaders Programme, give the closing plenary at Davos World Economic Forum and to speak for UNICEF and Google among others. He has appeared twice on the main stage at the global TED conference in Long Beach CA, earning standing ovations on both occasions. Recent Virtual Choir projects include ‘Glow’ written for the Winter Dreams holiday show at Disneyland© Adventure California and the Virtual Youth Choir, in association with UNICEF, which premiered at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. Broadcast live to 119 countries worldwide, Eric made his iTunes Festival debut with his professional choir in 2014, inviting multi award-winning composer and conductor Hans Zimmer to join him on stage. The performance was consequently released as a live album. Eric returned to the Minnesota Orchestra for a second residency in 2015 culminating in three performances at Orchestra Hall.


Jesse Kaiser (b. 2000) is a composer, conductor, violinist, and vocalist based in South Carolina. His music spans diverse styles and ensembles, with recent works including "Full fathom five," a miniature setting of "Ariel's song" from Shakespeare’s "The Tempest," and "Un flambeau, Jeannette, Isabelle," a Christmas anthem based on the traditional French carol.

He is the founder and artistic director of the Jesse Kaiser Ensemble, a professional choir in Columbia, South Carolina, known for eclectic, high-level performances. He also serves as a cantor and choral scholar at the Basilica of St. Peter and regularly performs with the South Carolina Philharmonic.

Kaiser studied at the University of South Carolina School of Music with John Fitz Rogers, Fang Man, David Kirkland Garner (composition), and Ari Streisfeld (violin). He participated in the Brevard Summer Music Festival, where he studied violin with Margie Karp and performed under conductors Ken Lam and Keith Lockhart, and he performed at the ACDA Southern Division (2016) and National (2017) conferences under composer/conductors Christopher Aspaas and Eric Whitacre, respectively. He received the John Lawrence McElyea Scholarship in 2020 for his musical contributions to the USC School of Music, and was a finalist for the 2021 Creativity in Music Awards for his electronic music installation "Information Alpha."

Outside of music, he enjoys time with family and friends, cooking, working on his studio, and watching his favorite YouTube creators.

Hailed as "extremely moving" by New Music Box and "especially sweet" by the Austin American Statesman, the music of Joel Love (b. 1982) explores an eclectic mix of genres, from short video pieces to works for chamber and large ensembles.

Contemporary Performer-composer
MSM contemporary performance program 2021
Blackbox Ensemble
NYC

Official Website:

http://jakerunestad.com


About Jake:

Award-winning composer Jake Runestad (b. 1986) is noted for his versatility and wide range of expressive capabilities with music driven by soaring melodies, driving rhythms, and lush textures. Considered “highly imaginative…with big ideas” (Baltimore Sun) and “stirring and uplifting” (Miami Herald), Jake has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles such as Seraphic Fire, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, VocalEssence, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, the Cincinnati Vocal Arts Ensemble, Cantus (Minnesota), and the Rockford Symphony Orchestra.

Jake Runestad holds a Master’s degree in composition from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University where he studied with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Kevin Puts. He has also studied extensively with acclaimed composer Libby Larsen. Mr. Runestad currently lives in Minneapolis, MN and his music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and JR Music. Find out more at jakerunestad.com

The Soundcloud account of desktop publishing company, Novus Music Publishing, Inc.  All of our composers compositions are reposted and featured here!

Ola Gjeilo was born in Norway in 1978 and moved to the United States in 2001 to begin his composition studies at the Juilliard School in New York City.

Ola is an exclusive Decca Classics artist, and his Decca choral albums include “Ola Gjeilo”, “Winter Songs” & “Dreamweaver”, featuring Tenebrae, Voces8 and the Choir of Royal Holloway, as well as the solo piano albums “Night” & “Dawn”. His global streams have now surpassed 250 million.

For more information, please visit olagjeilo.com, or find Ola on his social media profiles.

Truth into emotion. Emotion into music. Music into emotion. Emotion into truth. Done perceptively, this cycle never ends. As a writer and lover of both vocal and instrumental idioms, Daniel Elder (b. 1986) delights in crossing the boundaries of these worlds to create music that speaks outside its niche. Asked of his style, Daniel’s goal is simple: “In my writing I seek to avoid the common focus on 'my voice'—rather I attempt to tap the emotions a poet once put into words, or to tell a story with no words at all through the complex feelings of orchestral color. Through the pursuit of emotion I chase truth. The notes are merely the language.” Emerging from rural Georgia Daniel's music quickly attracted the attention of renowned American choral directors and catapulted him to the international stage within three years of writing his first work. His catalogue is printed by Carus Verlag, Edition Peters, GIA Publications, Hal Leonard, Walton Music, Wingert-Jones Publications, and self-published through J.W. Pepper and SMP Press.

Jesse Kaiser is following