guest experts
When you attend fresh inc, not only will you be working side-by-side with Fifth House Ensemble members and our composition faculty, you’ll also get to engage with some of the top music professionals and artistic collaborators in our circle. Our guest experts have included graphic artists, marketing executives, theatre directors and renowned composers, leading interactive workshops that will help you to redefine your artistic vision.
DARON HAGEN, COMPOSER & OPERA DIRECTOR
Daron Hagen (b. 1961) is an American composer and sought-after collaborator whose dazzlingly broad stylistic range embraces everything from lush romanticism to abstract electro-acoustic soundscapes. Along with numerous other accolades, including the Guggenheim Fellowship and the Friedheim Prize, the American Academy of Arts and Letters cited in 2014 his “outstanding achievement,” acknowledging with an Academy Award “a composer who has arrived at his own voice.”
The recipient of commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Seattle Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, and others, he has written more than 350 works for the concert stage, including 9 operas (A Woman in Morocco, Shining Brow, Amelia, Bandanna, Vera of Las Vegas), and the forthcoming Orson, which he will also design and direct; 14 concertos (for Gary Graffman, Jaime Laredo, Sharon Robinson), 5 symphonies (Philadelphia, Milwaukee, Oakland, Albany, Phoenix), 22 song cycles (Paul Sperry, Kings Singers, Ashley Putnam); and dozens of chamber, band, and choral works.
Hagen is a frequent conductor, collaborative pianist, librettist, and stage director of his own theatrical works, and has worked with Leonard Bernstein, Ken Cazan, Michael Christie, Lara Downes, JoAnn Falletta, Nathan Gunn, Kate Lindsey, Michael Morgan, Robert Orth, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, and Stephen Wadsworth, among others. A Lifetime Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, a Trustee of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera, and Chair of Composition for the Wintergreen Festival Music Academy, he has served as artistic director of the Seasons Music Festival, and as president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation.
Born in Wisconsin, Hagen studied composition with Ned Rorem at the Curtis Institute and David Diamond at the Juilliard School, then worked extensively as a copyist and editor for numerous concert composers and Broadway shows, including Elliot Carter, Virgil Thomson, Gian Carlo Menotti, and Disney. He taught for a decade at Bard College, and served on the faculties of the Curtis Institute, the Chicago College Conservatory, New York University, and the Princeton Atelier, among others, before turning his attention solely to fulfilling commissions. His music is recorded on Naxos, Albany, CRI, and Bridge. A Manhattanite for 28 years, he and his wife, composer Gilda Lyons, moved Upstate in 2011 to raise their sons Atticus and Seamus.
MICHAEL ROHD, FOUNDING ARTISTIC DIRECTOR, SOJOURN THEATRE
Michael Rohd is founding artistic director of 17 year-old ensemble-based Sojourn Theatre. He recently accepted a Professorship at Arizona State University’s Herberger Insititute for Design & Art, where he, Liz Lerman and Daniel Bernard Romain are launching a think tank/action space called the The Ensemble Lab. He is author of the widely translated book Theatre for Community, Conflict, and Dialogue. He leads the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, where current projects include The Catalyst Initiative, a national program supported by The Andrew Mellon Foundation, and Local Landscapes, through which he is currently collaborating with Arts Councils at the State and Local level around the US.
In 2015, he received an Otto Rene Castillo award for Political Theater and The Robert Gard Foundation Award for Excellence. He was the 2013-2016 Doris Duke Artist-in-Residence at Lookingglass Theater Company in Chicago. Recent/Current projects include leading a two year Sojourn Artist-in-Residence collaboration with Catholic Charities USA poverty reduction sites around the US; a Sojourn partnership with Planning Commissions around the country utilizing civic practice in public engagement settings to help communities deal with difficult conversations and resource allotment; and, collaborating with theaters and universities around the country to mount locally specific projects based on Sojourn’s model performance/engagement process/production How To End Poverty in 90 Minutes.
DANIEL DORFF, VP, THEODORE PRESSER COMPANY, COMPOSER
Daniel Dorff’s music for flute and piccolo has entered the standard repertoire and is frequently performed and recorded worldwide. He has composed 7 commissioned works for the Philadelphia Orchestra’s education department, and the Minnesota Orchestra’s Kinder Konzert series has performed his music over 200 times. His works have been presented by Young Audiences (over 1000 performances), the Atlanta Opera (60 performances), and the Baltimore Symphony (32 performances); on the Chicago Symphony Radiothon, by clarinetists of the Chicago Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic; and conducted by maestros Alan Gilbert and Wolfgang Sawallisch. Dorff has also created arrangements for Sir James Galway and pop musicians Keith Emerson and Lisa Loeb.
Dorff’s teachers included George Crumb, George Rochberg, Karel Husa, Henry Brant, Ralph Shapey, and Elie Siegmeister. He studied saxophone with Sigurd Rascher. Dorff served 1996 2015 as Composer-In-Residence for Symphony in C, in which he played bass clarinet from 1980 through 2002.
Daniel Dorff is VP of Publishing for Theodore Presser Company; a sought-after expert on music engraving and notation, he has lectured at many colleges as well as Carnegie Hall, and advises the leading notation software companies. He serves on the Boards of Directors for the Music Publishers’ Association of the USA, Charles Ives Society, Vincent Persichetti Society, Flute Society of Greater Philadelphia, and has served on the Board of the National Flute Association.
Dorff’s compositions are published by Presser, and recorded on Albany, Bridge, Crystal, Azica, and many other labels.
This workshop will be conducted via Skype.
HUMMIE MANN, EMMY-WINNING COMPOSER, SEATTLE FILM INSTITUTE
Composer Hummie Mann has collaborated with some of Hollwood’s most celebrated directors. His feature film scores have ranged from Mel Brooks’ “Robin Hood: Men in Tights” and “Dracula: Dead & Loving It” to Peter Yates’ “Year of the Comet.” He also scored the children’s film “Thomas and the Magic Railroad”, “Wooly Boys” starring Peter Fonda and Kris Kristofferson and the IMAX digital animated film “Cyberworld 3D”.
For television, he has scored projects for Simon Wincer (the miniseries “P.T. Barnum”), Jonathan Kaplan (the miniseries re-make of “In Cold Blood”), Norman Jewison (“Picture Windows – Soir Bleu”), Peter Bogdanovich (“The Rescuers: Tales of Courage – Two Women”), Joe Dante (“Masters of Horror: Homecoming” & “The Second Civil War”), Jim Abrahams (“First Do No Harm”) and Richard Friedenberg (“Suzanne’s Diary for Nicholas”).
He was awarded his first Emmy for arranging Billy Crystal’s opening number for the 1992 Oscars and a second Emmy for his original score to an episode of Showtime’s Picture Windows series entitled “Language of the Heart.” He has also been honored with a Distinguished Alumnus Award from his under graduate alma mater Berklee College of Music.
He is the creator and lead instructor of the Pacific Northwest Film Scoring Program (currently the music department of the Seattle Film Institute) and has taught film composition courses in Scotland, Denmark and China. In 2010 he ran a film composition workshop at the Dakhla Film Festival in Morocco and Variety Magazine listed him as a “Leader in Learning” in its 2010 Education Impact Report. Last year he received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Salford in Manchester, UK. His thesis title was “The Temporal and Rhythmic Effect on Musical Composition and Form When Scoring Dramatic Moving Picture”.
His latest composing project is the animated feature “Vincent the Artist” for which he is currently writing the songs for the film.
Additional information and samples of his work can be heard at: http://www.hummiemann.com.
This workshop will be conducted via Skype.
AUSTIN WINTORY, GRAMMY-NOMINATED VIDEO GAME COMPOSER
Austin Wintory began his obsession with composing back when he was ten years old, when he discovered Jerry Goldsmith’s scores to Patton and A Patch of Blue. After a busy high school career composing for the student orchestras, Austin went on to study at NYU and USC with composers Morten Lauridsen, Charles Fussell, and Erica Muhl. Never satisfied with working in a single medium, Austin has worked in the concert world, film music, video games, and miscellaneous others.
In March 2012, the PlayStation3 game Journey was released, after three years of work. The game instantly became Sony’s fastest-selling PlayStation title, and the soundtrack album debuted on the Billboard charts higher than any original score in gaming history. In December 2012, more history was made when it was announcedthat Journey had become the first-ever Grammy-nominated videogame score. The score subsequently won an Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences D.I.C.E. award, two British Academy Awards, a Spike TV VGA, and IGN’s “Overall Music of the Year,” along with six G.A.N.G. nominations and host of others. The score features the Macedonia Radio Symphonic Orchestra and a lineup of top soloists (Audio excerpts available here). Orchestral excerpts, and the stand alone mini-concerto “Woven Variations” are currently scheduled for concert performance all over the world.
Austin’s previous PlayStation3 game, flOw, made him the youngest composer to ever receive a British Academy Award nomination, and also won him a wide variety of other game industry accolades including the Game Audio Network Guild’s “Rookie of the Year.” This music, originally entirely electronic and deeply interactive, was re-concieved as an orchestral work which has seen several performances including at the Smithsonian Museum as a part of their “Art of Games” exhibit which opened in spring 2012. flOw is also currently on display at Manhattan’s Museum of Modern Art.
Outside of games, Austin is also very busy working in films and composing / conducting for the concert stage. The Boulder Symphony named Austin theirComposer in Residence in 2011, first premiering the award-winning orchestral/choral work “Gray Rain.”
Austin has also scored over 40 feature films, and his first major film score, for the Sundance Film Festival-winning film Captain Abu Raed, was shortlisted for the 2009 Academy Awards for Best Original Score. Shortly afterward, the Hollywood Reporter named Austin “One of 15 Composers Primed to Join the A-List.” His next major film, Grace, was also a hit at the Sundance Film Festival. Austin’s score (which featured a wild array of custom-recorded sounds such as babies crying and horse flies, in addition to a large ensemble of clarinets at London’s famed Abbey Road Studios), was also highly lauded, earning a notorious Fangoria Chainsaw Award nomination and being cited by “Visions in Sound” (a popular film scoring radio program) as among the Top 10 Scores for 2010.
Passionate about education, Austin is a regular public speaker at schools and events around the world, in addition to pre-concert talks and workshops. He also serves on the Board of Directors for the non-profit Education Through Music – Los Angeles (www.etmla.org).
This workshop will be conducted via Skype.
HENHOUSE PROWLERS, INTERNATIONALLY TOURING BLUEGRASS BAND
Eleven years in the making, Chicago’s Henhouse Prowlers have built a reputation for hard work and non-stop touring, playing music inspired by the roots of bluegrass while branching out into a sound uniquely their own. From lightning fast picking, to sentimental ballads—playing storied original material, traditional songs, and contemporary covers—The Prowlers’ live show leaves no one wanting.
Resting on no haunches, the Prowlers just released a new album “Still On That Ride” in the summer of 2015. Along with their cover of the Nigerian pop hit “Chop My Money,” the album consists of 13 original songs with each member collaborating in contribution. The band is beyond excited to put out their most self-authored work to date!
The boys have worked with the US State Department on four separate trips in ten different countries in Sub-Saharan Africa as well as Russia, and put yet another notch in their European belt this summer, touring all over the Benelux and beyond. Continuing to push the envelope with their highly original songwriting, tight arrangements, and electrifying stage presence–with the bluegrass mantle on their shoulders and the best fans in the world by their side, The Henhouse Prowlers are here to stay for a long, long time.
CLIFF COLNOT, AWARD-WINNING CONDUCTOR, ARRANGER
Cliff Colnot has been principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s contemporary MusicNOW ensemble since its inception. He was principal conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago for twenty-two years and was principal conductor of the University of Chicago’s Contempo Ensemble for fifteen years. Colnot conducts the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra and Wind Ensemble.
Colnot is a master arranger who orchestrated Shulamit Ran’s Three Fantasy Pieces for Cello and Piano, Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival’s Adagio from Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, Schoenberg’s Pelleas and Melisande, and De Falla’s Three Cornered Hat, and for Yellow Barn Music Festival, Ran’s Soliloquy for Violin, Cello, and Piano. He arranged Messiaen’s Chants de Terre et de Ciel for ICE. Colnot re-orchestrated the Bottesini Concerto No. 2 in B Minor for Double Bass. He is regularly commissioned to write works for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Percussion Scholarship Group and has written for many artists, including Richard Marx and Brian Culbertson.
Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and received the Ernst von Dohnányi Certificate of Excellence. He received the Alumni Merit Award from Northwestern University, where he earned his doctorate. Chicago Tribune named Cliff Colnot a 2001 “Chicagoan of the Year” in music, he received the 2005 William Hall Sherwood Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Arts, and he was awarded the 2016 Alice M. Ditson Conductor’s Award.
PAUL WANG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY
Paul Wang is an associate professor in the Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) program at Northwestern University. Paul specializes in marketing strategy and other customer relationship issues. His work addresses the issue of how marketers can take advantage of arts and crafts education to add value to their products and services. The primary focus is on how companies can create stronger relationships with their customers by providing them with benefits that are especially relevant to their specific needs and wants.
He obtained a Ph.D. in communications studies and an M.S. in advertising from Northwestern University.
Kevin Clark is a composer, grantmaker, product manager, and consultant focused on the systems that support artists. As director of platform at New Music USA he led the creation of project grants and the New Music USA platform, and has since consulted with a range of grantmakers and technology organizations. Most recently, Kevin designed the new process for the MAP Fund, which awarded its 2017 round of funding in May.
