Victoria Miningham (USA)


Opera singer, composer, and Arts Activist, Victoria has performed around the world, in Vienna, Prague, and Rome Opera Houses, and in Concert Halls such as Carnegie Hall. She performed as Violetta in “La Traviata,” Mimi in “La Boheme,” Gilda in “Rigoletto,” Countessa in “Marriage of Figaro,” and Fiordiligi in “Cosi fan tutte.” Victoria was heralded by the New York Times for her work as Musetta, conducted by Maestro Vincent LaSelva.


Victoria’s commitment extends from her Youth Advocate work with UNICEF to volunteering with ‘Save the Sound’ to protect our waterways and raising awareness about environmental conservation. She currently serves on the Advisory Board for New York Council, Navy League.

Recognized by the United Nations Chapter of Westchester for her substantial contributions to social change, Victoria is a passionate advocate for leveraging the arts for meaningful impact.

“I believe our voice is the most powerful tool we have. It is my responsibility to advocate for those who are unable to. Every step paves the way for a brighter more inclusive tomorrow.” In her role as an ambassador for youth exchange programs, she resided in Guatemala and ventured to destinations including China and India.

Over the years, Victoria has dedicated her time to supporting humanitarian rights with both the White House and the United Nations ensuring that the voices and concerns of marginalized countries such as Sudan and Burundi in East Africa are not overlooked but brought to the forefront.

Following her recent showcase of ‘The Last Human,’ a ballet highlighting the rich heritage of indigenous communities performed at the Bruno Walter Auditorium in Lincoln Center, Victoria is currently working on her piece “Fall into the Stars” which will premiere this summer in Brasilia by the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra.

Victoria holds a Master of Music in Performance & Composition from The New School and a Bachelor of Arts in Music Management from Manhattanville College, with a background in Opera studies from Juilliard. She further honed her creative writing skills through classes at Harvard and Gotham Writers. Victoria is a proud member of SAG, Equity, and AGMA.

I wrote “Falls into the Stars” with the intention of delving into the concept of parallel worlds and our perception of self. This composition aims to encourage contemplation on transcending our human limitations to grasp a broader, collective purpose as interconnected celestial entities within the vast tapestry of existence.

Olivia Jones (Australia)

Olivia is a composer and clarinettist whose work aims to delve into the experimental and ethereal artistic spaces of sound making. Exploring the ways in which sounds merge and meld to create new timbres, Olivia’s compositions aim to tell stories of the human condition through sound. Their work particularly centers motherhood and aims to draw upon the strong bonds that exist within our shared human experiences.

Olivia’s work has been performed by Neave Trio (Netherlands), Dior Quartet (New York), American Modern Ensemble (New York), Mostly Modern Orchestra (Netherlands), SoundSCAPE New Music Festival (Italy and Switzerland), Ensemble Mise-En (New York) and Horizons Ensemble (Boston). Olivia’s recordings can be found on Spotify, including a duo album of original compositions, Eunoia, with Argentinian vibraphonist Pauline Roberts, and their 2022 solo EP :: mxm :: featuring a suite of original electroacoustic compositions.

As part of their PhD at Melbourne University’s School of Jazz & Improvisation (Australia) Olivia experiments with handmade Arduino synthesisers digitally processed alongside their clarinet, in Ableton. This practice is part of their research on the history and sociology of improvised computer music. In addition to their PhD candidature they hold their Master of Music Performer-Composer from the New School, New York

7. Program Notes

Before There Was Skin explores the idea of a person as home, and the strangeness of being irrevocably separated from that person. The piece was conceptualised during the Pandemic when many of us were separated from those we love. 

There is a strangeness to being physically separated from someone who is otherwise like home. During the Pandemic I was waiting to birth my second child, and coming to terms with the idea of yet another small piece of my heart living and existing outside of my body. 

I built a suite of songs around the concept of mother, a human who is also our original home. I am interested in connections through shared humanity, such as the idea of us all beginning in the same almost silent, dark and safe environment. These concepts are emulated in this piece through a meditative timpani ostinato like the beat of a mother’s heart, shared with the chimes, which also represent the churchly divinity of parenthood. You may hear repeated layered lines from the poem upon which the title was derived in various instruments throughout the piece: “You are the original home,” as well as the line “And before there was skin between us.” 

I hope these concepts draw listeners in and help us better understand our shared humanity. That in these very beautiful and human ways we are all connected in a worldwide community with every person in the world. Their fate is our fate. The capacity for everyone to love and live a full and free life is all of our responsibilities. As for me, I am lovingly connected to every mother, birthing person and parent throughout history, through our shared humanity. This piece is for all of us.

Kim Bowman (Australia/The Netherlands)

 Kim Bowman, born in Margaret River, WA, in 1957, was mostly educated in the Netherlands, where he started art school in Den Bosch at the age of 17. A few immature compositions date from those years, and Bowman also played guitars and drums in several New Wave bands at the time. After graduating from art school, Bowman made some tape compositions in his own studio, using both electronic and concrete sounds as well as self-made percussion and string instruments. He also started studying cello and percussion.

Bowman started composition studies at the Utrecht Conservatorium of Music in 1986 where he also worked in the electronic music studio. He continued his studies at the Rotterdam Conservatorium of Music, where he also added double bass and piano to his curriculum. He graduated in 1993.

Bowman’s works have been performed throughout the world and commissioned and performed by major orchestras and ensembles, such as the Residentie Orchestra The Hague, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Holland Sinfonia, the Sydney Symphony and the Meridian Arts Ensemble New York. Reinbert de Leeuw, David Porcelijn, Etienne Siebens, Lucas Vis and Jac van Steen, among others, have conducted his works.

Since 2005, Kim Bowman has been living in Sydney. He is particularly interested in writing for a large group of instruments . His compositions are generally very dense and hectic; and instruments ‘are treated like a flock of birds or a shoal of fish. The music trips over itself, deranges and occasionally proceeds like a tidal wave’. For several of his works, Bowman has designed additional instruments. For Black Wind, he designed ‘footslaps’ to be played by the string players, and all members of the string orchestra also had a triangle suspended from their desks. At the beginning and end of the piece, Bowman used wind chimes that were accelerated by huge wind fans on either side of the stage.

Occasionally his works tend to incorporate other art disciplines, either by collaborating with other artists, or by including theatrical or visual elements.

In 2008, he started designing sound sculptures for playgrounds and public areas, thus creating a bridge to his earlier training and life as a visual artist. In 2015 his sculptures can be experienced in more than 100 locations throughout Australia, mainly in major cities like Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Cairns, Adelaide and Perth, as well as in rural towns and areas. With the prospect of expanding his market to new Zealand and Europe.

After a contemplative period of about five years, during which only a few works for mainly small ensembles were established, Bowman’s new challenge since 2010 is using visual and mathematical concepts to generate new works. For instance Particles for chamber orchestra, written early 2011, was initiated by quantum particle behaviour.

Bowman is also increasingly challenging musicians to broaden their talents. As for instance in Syllables to Attitudes, a work for 2 female voices and large ensemble, expected to be finished in 2012. In this work Bowman has broken down language in order to avoid meaning and narrative. The conductor plays a metal bucket with pebbles and claps his way on stage and in many ways musicians and singers are strained to go beyond the conventional performance of music by means of expressing themselves in theatrical ways.

Satoru Ikeda (Japan)

  Satoru Ikeda, born in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka prefecture in 1961, studied composition under Hiroshi Otsuki and Shin Sato.

Having got B.A. in Education from Shizuoka University in 1983 and M.M. degree in Composition from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1987, he is currently Musical Director at Shimamura Music Co.,Ltd.

He is a member of Japan Society for Contemporary Music.

Satoru Ikeda has won several awards including the First Prize in « The Music Competition of Japan » in 1988, an award from « Japan Symphony Promotion Foundation » in 2000, Prize for outstanding work in « The Orchestral Song Composition Competition » in 2001, the Third Prize and The Orchestra Award in « International Composition Prize Luxembourg 2004 », the First Prize in « Sogakudo Japanese Lied Competition » in 2004, the « First International Composers Competition for Piano Works “Bell’ Arte Europa” 2005 », « “Kendo Music Composition Competition” for the EXPO Kendo events » in 2005, « Handel-Inspired Chamber Organ Composition Competition » in 2007, « Flute Orchestra Composition Competition » by Japan Flutists Association in 2008, the Third Prize in the « Shakuhachi Chamber Music International Prize 2008 » and « The British Harpsichord Society “Tenth Anniversary Composition Competition” » in 2012.

This is a cyclic work which is motivated by the harmonic series.

The first movement is based on “String Sextet” composed in 2013.

As this sextet is composed with only natural harmonics, to this orchestration, I applied the winds at a one octave lower series of strings.

The second movement is based on an excerpt from “Trio for violin, cello and piano” (2015).

The materials of this movement are natural harmonic glissando and tremolo, and the roar of accord which is applied to the inversion of harmonic series.

The conclusion of the movement and the third movement (Finale) are based on “Brass Quintet” (2011) and the piece for wind instruments (2013) which is a revision of “Brass Quintet”.

“Water Cycle” for orchestra Satoru Ikeda 12/03/1961

Peter Dickson Lopez (USA)

 Peter Dickson Lopez was born in Berkeley, California in 1950. Peter began studying piano at the age of six, but these early lessons ended shortly thereafter because Peter was impatient with the slow pace of the lessons. In fact, he emphatically declared that he wasnít learning anything.

Two years later he resumed his piano lessons with Theodore Gorbacheff, a Russian choral director and piano teacher. Peter studied with Mr. Gorbacheff until the end of high school. During this time, Peter would often attempt to write music snippets emulating the style of the pieces he was studying, and in high school he wrote and improvised music for his jazz trio.


It wasnít until college that Peterís penchant for composition began to take off. However, it was piano that he majored in during his undergraduate years. Peter spent his first year of college in 1968-1969 at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where he studied piano with Edward Shadbolt. Mr. Shadbolt had studied with BÈla BartÛk years earlier in Europe, and from this experience developed a technique of playing which placed emphasis on arm weight, relaxation, and control. At that point in time, this was exactly what Peter needed, and his performance style progressed accordingly. During the year at Stockton, Peter continued to compose piano pieces on his own, quite independently of any courses he was taking. On occasion, however, his interest in composition would get the better of him. At one point in a harmony class, his teacher reprimanded him for turning in an assignment that was too complex to grade! It was also during this year at Stockton that Peter became involved with vocal music, taking voice lessons and performing as a member of the A Cappella Choir. This love of, and participation in, vocal music would become a major factor in Peterís musical aesthetic. In following years, Peter would accompany and conduct choral groups, accompany vocal soloists, and compose for voice. Beyond this, Peterís compositional style is marked throughout by a singing, lyrical quality that is influenced as much by vocal tradition as by composers whom he admires. Peter spent the remainder of his undergraduate studies from 1969-1972 at Cal State Hayward where he performed numerous concerts. At Hayward, he studied piano with Donald King Smith whose technical and musical guidance and attention to detail were of great benefit to Peterís musical training. It was also at Hayward that his love of counterpoint and innate desire for order and structure in his own composition came into clearer focus. Peter had studied the music of J. S. Bach for many years, but the academic disciplines of species counterpoint and analysis helped to bring clarity and refinement to his musical senses.

By his senior year, Peter had already decided to switch his major from piano to composition, and so began the process of applying to graduate school. He was accepted at U.C. Berkeley into the Masterís composition program where Joaquin Nin-Culmell took him under his wing. Peter studied with most of the composition faculty at Berkeley including Joaquin Nin-Culmell, Edwin Dugger, Olly Wilson, and Andrew Imbrie. After earning his M.A. in Music Composition, Peter married his childhood sweetheart, Irene Gee, in the summer of 1974. The next year, the Music Department at Berkeley awarded Peter the prestigious George Ladd Paris Prize for composition, and the year following, Peter and
Irene went to Europe where they lived for two years in Paris from 1976-78. During this time in Paris, Peter composed nearly day and night, besides going to many concerts. During these concerts, he had the opportunity to hear firsthand the music of Xenakis, Messiaen, Boulez, Berio, Stockhausen, and many other
European composers. By the end of this sojourn, Peter had completed a 45- minute work for male voice and chamber orchestra with electronic devices
entitled The Ship of Death, based on a poem of the same name by D.H. Lawrence. This piece turned out to be his doctoral dissertation, and it was subsequently performed in the Netherlands by the Dutch Radio Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Ernest Bour with John Duykers performing the part for male voice.
It was later also performed and recorded by the Arch Ensemble for Experimental Music in Berkeley, conducted by Robert Hughes with Tom Buckner as male vocalist.
Although Peterís early music career had started off well, including a post-doctoral fellowship at U.C. Berkeley, a fellowship at the Berkshire Music Festival (Tanglewood), a four-year part-time teaching assignment at U.C. Davis, a performance at Carnegie Recital Hall in New York and other performances throughout the United States, a performance in Poland, and a recording, Peter was unable to pursue these successes as a composer due to personal and medical reasons. During the time he taught part-time at U.C. Davis from 1982-1986, Peter had become increasingly interested in computers and computer applications in music. At the beginning of that decade, IBM had come out with its original Personal Computer. It so happened that Irene had been using the PC at her work at Pacific Bell, so this presented a perfect opportunity to explore the ìinstrumentî. As is well known, IBM also published the complete assembler kernel for the original PC, so Peter picked up a copy of the source code and taught himself assembler. Shortly thereafter, Peter also learned Forth, a programming language which allowed programmers at that time to write programs using very little memory. Forth also allowed direct access to hardware control, ideal for music applications. Peter developed a music applications development language which he created using assembler and Forth. Features of this language, which he named ELUS, not only included the typical programming control structures and memory management, but also MIDI programming utilities, serial interface programming, and graphics libraries. Although Peter marketed the product nationally, the software never found its market, and he was forced to abandon this project. Eventually Peter was able to find work as an IT consultant which enabled him to deal with those personal and medical concerns. Composition would have to be put on the back burner.

As the confluence of time and seemingly disparate events have a way of conspiring to alter oneís course in life, so it was with Peter in 2008. During the late spring and summer of 2008 Peter took on two piano students from his neighborhood. Fortuitously a neighbor had sent out a request for a piano teacher to the local homeownerís association via a group email. Peter hadnít contemplated starting up his piano studio, but the opportunity presented itself, and as a result he soon had not one but two students. Earlier in the year Peter had also Lopez at his computer music workstation reviewing a score. committed to his mother to present another concert at her residence. As it had been six years since the last concert, it was in fact well overdue. So, Peter also began to practice more regularly and energetically to prepare for the concert that was scheduled in December later that year. It didnít take long for Peter to realize how much he had missed music, music making, and sharing the joy of music with others. Nevertheless, the exigencies of running his consultancy continued to occupy most of Peterís time. Since he had completed a major project for BART in 2006, projects were fewer and harder to land. Then the bottom fell out of the economy in the last quarter of 2008, and Peterís business fell victim to the recession.

The recession, difficulties in business, the unexpected yet reasonable mitigation of those personal and medical factors which initially had denied Peter his lifeís work, and resurgent focus on music combined to form an undeniable mandate in Peterís mind to return to his roots in music: teaching, composing and performing. Beyond
Lopez at his piano reviewing the early, incomplete version of his orchestral work, Embroidery of Imagination this, Peterís family encouraged him to follow his music path. To that end, Peter initiated a multi-pronged strategy during the 2nd quarter of 2009 to once again pursue his lifeís work in music. This strategy entailed such diverse actions as reconnecting with old friends and colleagues in the music world, applying to numerous academic positions, reaching out to local venues and performers for performance and collaborative opportunities, and embarking on an ambitious work plan of music projects which he documented and detailed on his music projects web site. These projects included work on both old and new compositions, engraving and publishing his works, transferring older analogue sound media to digital format for easier distribution, and preparation of a very challenging program for his next piano concert including works of Schubert, Debussy, Villa-Lobos, Scriabin and Lopez. For this program, Peter restarted work on his Moment Pieces for Extended Piano (Piano with Digital Devices) which he had already decided would be one of several volumes of pieces to comprise his Pieces from a Distant Land, Series III. At this time, Moment Pieces is his most extensive work for piano, integrating quasi-mathematical stochasticism, controlled improvisation, computer software technology (for compositional processes, device control, and audio signal processing), and his signature cantabile lyricism. He also began work on orchestrating a very early piano piece, which was a project he had long wanted to pursue, as a kind of ìwarm-upî to the numerous orchestral projects he had left unfinished years ago. Work on all of these projects is ongoing.

Douglas Vuncannon (USA)

  Douglas Vuncannon is a composer, musician, writer and visual artist who has traveled extensively in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. Recent projects include Fukushima Travelogue (2015), a dispatch from the radioactive ghost towns of Japan, and Sabungeros (Cockfighters) (2017), an exhibition of photographs captured in the Philippines between 2014 and 2016.

Vuncannon teaches documentary photography at the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University and plays double bass in a jazz band. He also works as the archival 35mm film projectionist at the North Carolina Museum of Art and holds the position of audio-visual specialist at the Nasher Museum of Art.

Sinfonietta Fukushima is his first completed piece for symphony orchestra.

Sinfonietta Fukushima (2013) is a satirical tone poem written in reaction to the eponymous disaster in Japan. The work is by turns serious and whimsical. It expresses restlessness in mood and tonality, and attempts to balance pessimism with evocations of nostalgia and a searching, clear-eyed resolution.

World premiere.

Paolo Geminiani (Italy)

  Paolo Geminiani Studied composition, electronic music, choral music and choral conducting, and band instrumentation at the conservatoires of Bologna and Modena with Cristina Landuzzi and Lelio Camilleri.

Subsequently he advanced into the Master program at Verona Opera Academy with Azio Corghi, Triennal course degree at ICONS Academy Novara with Alessandro Solbiati, and other courses Franco Donatoni, Adriano Guarnieri.

He has won and received commendations at various competitions including: Gustav Mahler Klagenfurt, Counterpoint-Italy International, Città di Spoleto, Volos International Competition, SuonoSonda, Daegu Contemporary Music Orchestra, Valentino Bucchi Prize, Pierre Schaeffer, Egidio Carella, Antonio Manoni Reggello International Festival, and many others.

His works performed in Portugal, Slovenia, UK, Greece, Ucraine, South Corea, Japan, USA, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Slovenia: Universidade de Évora, Museu Condes de Castro Guimaraes di Cascais, Auditório do Departamento de Comunicação e Arte, Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal), Spectrum, North/South Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie Hall, Lefrak Hall, Steinway Hall, Adelphi University, Spectrum, Columbus State University, ISCM World Music Day Slovenia, Oslo Grieg Festival, etc.

In Italy: MA/IN MAtera INtermedia Festival, Risuonanze Festival, Sulle ali del Novecento, Festival Cinque Giornate, Festival di Bellagio, Rebus Milano, New Made Week, Festival Urticanti, Lucca Chamber music Festival, etc.

Paolo Geminiani
ha compiuto gli studi musicali a Bologna e Modena diplomandosi in Composizione, Musica corale, Strumentazione per banda e Musica elettronica sotto la guida di Cristina Landuzzi e Lelio Camilleri. Parallelamente agli studi di conservatorio ha seguito corsi con Alessandro Solbiati, Franco Donatoni, Adriano Guarnieri e conseguito infine un Master con Azio Corghi. E’ stato premiato e segnalato in vari concorsi nazionali e internazionali: Città di Spoleto, Volos International Guitar Composition Competition, SuonoSonda, Gustav Mahler Klagenfurt, Daegu Contemporary Music Festival, Premio Valentino Bucchi, Florence String Quartet, Firenze Reggello International Festival, Counterpoint International Competition, Rosolino Toscano, Città di Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto, Egidio Carella, Italy Percussion Competition, Antonio Manoni, A.Gi.Mus. Varenna, San Rossore, Assisi Suono Sacro, Paolo Barsacchi, Curci Barletta, Barcellona Pozzo di Gotto e molti altri.
E’ stato selezionato dalla SIMC per il World Music Day 2015 Slovenia e dal CMC Milano per la rassegna ICF Italian Composer Forum 2014 e 2016.

I suoi lavori sono stati eseguiti in sede internazionale: Universidade de Évora, Museu Condes de Castro Guimaraes di Cascais, Auditório do Departamento de Comunicação e Arte, Universidade de Aveiro (Portugal), Spectrum, North/South Chamber Orchestra, Carnegie hall, Lefrak Hall Queens College, Steinway Hall and Legacy Hall, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival (NYC), Columbus State University, Isaacs Auditorium Selingrove (USA), Sauble Beach Guitar Festival
Canada, International Contemporary Music Festival di Deagu, DAMus UNA Sala García Morillo, Festival 9th Annual Sauble Beach Guitar Festival, 49th Festival Musica Nova “Gilberto Méndes” Ribeirão Preto, ISCM World Music Day Slovenia, ecc.

In Italia: MA/IN MAtera INtermedia Festival Festival di Bellagio, Milano Cinque Giornate, New Made Week, MiXXer Ferrara, Rebus Milano, Risuonanze, Festival Camino Contro Corrente Udine, Cluster–Compositori Europei Lucca, Organi Antichi Bologna, Sulle Ali del Novecento Brescia, ecc.

André Picolo Catelli (Brazil)

  BIOGRAPHY
Andre Picolo Catelli was born in 1970 in the cithy of Caxias do Sul, capitl of Italian immigration in Brazil. His father, Mario Catelli, was a violinist in the city’s Municipal Orchestra.


From an early age he became very familiar with classical music, especially opera. He studied piano with the founder of the aforementioned orchestra, Eugenio Coletti, and later at the Music School of Brasilia.


He was self-taught in composition through books and scores of famous composers. He taught piano at Kibbutz Yad Mordechai in Israel in 1992, where he made piano arrangements from various Jewish folk songs.


His orchestral piece “Waltz Fantasy in D minor” was performed  by the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra in 2017.

He graduated as an architect in 1996 and now owns one of the largest offices in the Brazilian capital, Accioly Catelli Associated Architects.

Mauricio Arias (Colombia)

 Mauricio Arias is a musician, composer, pianist and improviser, one of the most versatile Colombian musicians of his generation. He has performed his Rapsodia Camaleónica for Piano, Trumpet and Orchestra with the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia and in Carnegie Hall in New York with the AZLO Orchestra. Mr. Arias was featured as the first Colombian guest artist at the Bogotá International Piano Festival.

Mr. Arias has been featured as a soloist with Orquesta Sinfónica de Colombia, Orquesta Sinfónica de Cuba, Filarmónica del Valle, ASU Symphony Orchestra, Münster Hochschule Orchestra, Sinfónica del Tolima, Joven Sinfónica de Colombia, among others. He has been awarded different prizes at international piano competitions, such as Kingsville Isabel Scionti (Texas, 1st prize), Schmidbauer (Texas, 2nd prize), Peabody Mason (Boston, 2nd prize), Panama (special prize for best Latin American pianist), Cervantes (Havana, finalist). Prior to his studies in the USA, he was the winner of the First National Chopin Piano Competition (2005) and the winner of the UIS National piano competition in Colombia.

Mr. Arias was born in Bogotá, Colombia, where he began his piano studies at age thirteen with Ludmiła Weber, with whom he studied until his graduation from Corpas University. He later studied with Baruch Meir and Robert Hamilton at Arizona State University (MM and DMA). He has participated in courses with Joaquín Achúcarro, Eteri Andjaparidze and Vladimir Feltsman. Mainly a self-taught composer, he studied composition with Rodney Rogers James DeMars. Recent works have been commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia, the University of Florida Symphonic Band and the Bogotá Secretary of Education. As a pianist, he is currently promoting works by Colombian living composers (¡Colombia Viva!) and he is a founding member of the Bogotá Piano Trio.

Mr. Arias is currently professor of piano at the Universidad de los Andes in Colombia. He is also a freelance composer and collaborative pianist.

This piece was commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra of Colombia on 2015 for the celebration of the 100th birth anniversary of José Barros (1915-2007), who was a composer of iconic Colombian popular songs, such as “La Piragua”. After receiving this commission, I started reviewing all those songs that I knew since childhood and found out that many colombian iconic songs (in many genres, such as, vallenato, pasillo, bolero, tango, etc) were written by the same author, José Barros.

For this hommage, I decided to make use of the genre by which by Barros is remembered the most, Cumbia, which is an afro-colombian rhythm from the Caribbean coast (Nowadays, the genre has been “stolen” and you can hear mexican, argentinian “cumbias”, but, the Original cumbia is colombian).

In the orchestral hommage, I decided to reach a point of “evident” cumbia towards the end of the piece, which would transform itself into a joyous and rhythmically-driven finale. The “evident cumbia” melody is the generative material for the whole piece. Before reaching the cumbia point, the motives are deconstructed and transformed into different shapes, rhythms and timbres, such as the English Horn solo near the opening, the minimalistic echoes that follow it, or the percussion lines in the middle of the piece.

Brian T. Field (USA)

Dr. Brian Field’s music is an eclectic fusion of lyricism and driving rhythm that brings together elements of post- romanticism, minimalism and jazz. He has received a host of awards, including the RMN Classical recording prize, the Benenti Foundation recording prize; First Prize, Briar Cliff Choral Music Competition; and First Prize, Victor Herbert ASCAP Young Composers’ Contest among many others.

Dr. Field began his musical endeavors at age eight with the study of piano, and began his first serious compositional efforts at sixteen, earning his undergraduate degree in music and English literature from Connecticut College, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa. At Connecticut, he studied composition with Noel Zahler, piano with the Polish pedagogue Zosia Jazinovich, organ with John Anthony, and harpsichord/figured-bass realization with Linda Skernick.

Devoting himself to composition, Dr. Field continued his musical studies at the Juilliard School in New York City where he was awarded his Master of Music degree. At Juilliard he was a student of Milton Babbitt. From Juilliard, Dr. Field attended Columbia University, earning his Doctorate. At Columbia, he was a President’s Fellow and studied composition with George Edwards and Mario Davidovsky.

Dr. Field’s musical works include music for television and stage; solo acoustic, chamber, ballet, choral, electroacoustic and orchestral works. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States and internationally and are recorded on RMN Classical, Parma Recordings and Ablaze Records.

Compositions by Dr Field have been performed by the Sydney Contemporary Orchestra:

From the Clash of Race and Creed in Sydney International Composers Concerts 2018 – Contemporary Orchestra Music

“A Letter from Camp” A Civil-War Tableau for Soprano and Orchestra in Sydney International Composers Concerts 2020 – Contemporary Orchestra Music

Three Moods for Piano in Sydney International Composers Concerts 2020 – Contemporary Piano Music
Ishtar & Gilgamesh for flute, bass clarinet, duduk, horn, harp, violin, and cello in Sydney International Composers Concerts 2020 – Contemporary Chamber Music

String Quartet No.2 in Sydney International Composers Concerts 2020 – Contemporary String Quartets 2023