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(b San José, Aug 24, 1943). Costa Rican composer, ethnomusicologist and baritone. He obtained a teaching diploma and the BA at the University of Costa Rica Conservatory, with singing as his special subject. During 1975–6 he lived in Paris, where he studied singing at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Musique, Gregorian chant and choral conducting at the Catholic University and ethnomusicology at the Sorbonne. He taught at the Escuela de Artes Musicales of the University of Costa Rica (1976–90; director of the Escuela, 1983–7; dean of the fine arts faculty of the university, 1987–91). In 1994, with the painter Ronald Mills, he co-founded the Centro de Investigaciones y Documentación de Musica y de Artes Plásticas, researching the traditional music of Guanacaste and Limón provinces and of the Costa Rican indigenous people, conducting field studies in Costa Rica, Guatemala and Mexico, making recordings, publishing books and articles, and holding lectures and seminars....

(b Sibiu, Nov 3, 1940; d Munich, May 27, 2006). German composer of Romanian birth. He studied the piano, the organ and theory privately with Franz Xaver Dressler in Sibiu (1950–58). From 1959 to 1964 he studied composition with Toduta at the Cluj Academy of Music where, after receiving his diploma, he remained to teach composition and music theory. In 1969 he moved to the Federal Republic of Germany to teach at the Robert Schumann Conservatory, Düsseldorf (1969–72) and attend the Darmstadt summer course (1969). He was appointed to teach theory and composition at the Munich Musikhochschule in 1972, becoming professor of composition there in 1976. His awards included the composition prize of the Prague Spring Festival (1966), the Stuttgart Stamitz prize (1970), the city of Stuttgart composition prize (1971), the Stroud Festival composition prize, the Hitzacker prize (...

(Hans)

(b Mannheim, March 4, 1928). American composer and conductor of German birth. Both of his parents were musical, his father being a cantor and composer of Jewish liturgical music. The family came to the USA in 1939 and Adler attended Boston University (BM 1948) and Harvard University (MA 1950). He studied composition with Aaron Copland, Paul Fromm, Paul Hindemith, Hugo Norden, Walter Piston and Randall Thompson; musicology with Karl Geiringer, A.T. Davison and Paul A. Pisk; and conducting with Sergey Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center. In 1950 he joined the US Army and organized the Seventh Army SO, which he conducted in more than 75 concerts in Germany and Austria; he was awarded the Army Medal of Honor for his musical services. Subsequently he conducted concerts and operas, and lectured extensively throughout Europe and the USA. In 1957 he was appointed professor of composition at North Texas State University, and in ...

(b Montevideo, August 4, 1940). Uruguayan composer, musicologist and teacher of Armenian parentage. He studied composition with Tosar (1955–7, 1966–9), the piano with Adela Herrera-Lerena (1945–59), conducting with Jacques Bodmer (1966–9), musicology with Ayestarán (1964–6) and electro-acoustic techniques with Henry Jasa (1961–3). In Buenos Aires he studied at the Instituto Torcuato di Tella with Gandini and Kroepfl (1969), in Venice with Nono (1970), at the Darmstadt summer courses with Ligeti, Aloys Kontarsky, Xenakis, Globokar and Christian Wolff (1970, 1974), and at various of the Latin American Courses for Contemporary Music with Mumma, Rabe and others (1971–89).

Aharonián has been influential as a teacher and as an organizer of activities in music and music education both in Uruguay and abroad. His teaching specializations range from composition, choral conducting and organology to analysis, musical folklore and music and society; he has taught mainly at the Uruguayan National University and the National Institute for Teacher Training, as well as privately. An assiduous participant and lecturer in seminars and workshops in Europe, the Americas and the Philippines, he has been a member of the executive committee of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music and of the presidential council of the ISCM, and the executive secretary of the Latin American Courses for Contemporary Music. He has received numerous awards from Uruguay and other countries for his work as a composer, musicologist and choral conductor, and commissions from France, Poland, Sweden and Germany....

(b Oruro, Aug 12, 1950). Bolivian composer. He left Bolivia for Rome at the age of 19 to study composition with Ravinale at the Conservatorio di S Cecilia (1969–77) and with Donatoni at the Academia di S Cecilia Academy (1979–80). He also trained in conducting at the Conservatory (1979–81). Apart from a brief sojourn in Belgium, where he worked as a pianist for the choreographer Maurice Béjart (1977–8), he has remained in Italy, holding teaching posts (from 1980) at the Conservatories of Pesaro, S Cecilia (Rome), Pescara and (from 1995) Perugia. He has also lectured in various Latin American countries, including Bolivia and (regularly since 1994) Cuba. In 1983 he became director of the ensemble Nuove Forme Sonore, based in Rome.

Alandia has retained an aesthetic allegiance to his Bolivian roots: the orchestral work Sajsayhuaman (1980...

(b Peja, Kosovo, Nov 19, 1982). Kosovar Albanian composer. In 2001 he finished at the Prenke Jakova music high school in Prishtina and then continued studies in the Academy of Music, branch of General Musical Pedagogy, in the University of Pristina, Kosovo. He completed his pedagogical studies in 2005 and his compositional studies in 2009. He finished his postgraduate studies in music theory and pedagogy in 2010, and in composition in 2011.

Since 2010 he has worked as a regular assistant in the Faculty of Musical Art, Prishtina, in harmony and orchestration. His works have been performed by renowned local and international instrumentalists. Of special significance are his orchestral works which have been awarded many prizes.

He is a regular member of the composers’ society in Kosovo. His works have been performed abroad by groups such as the Fegus String Quartet from Slovenia. He participated in the Fellonica festival and Concerti d’Altamaraca festival in Italy in ...

(b Palma de Mallorca, Aug 24, 1931; d Madrid, October 29, 2006). Spanish composer. He began his musical studies at the Barcelona Conservatory with Gabriel Gálvez, Luis Millet, Juan Pich Santasusana, Joan Gibert Camins, Joaquín Zamocois and Eduardo Toldrá, and later removed to Geneva to broaden his training. His tireless professional work extended beyond composition to directing various musical and ballet groups, orchestration, performing as a pianist, music criticism on radio and television, and teaching. He taught composition and fugue at the Seville Conservatory until 1971, then composition at the Madrid Conservatory until his retirement in 1997.

Alís’s works number about 200 and comprise a wide variety of genres. Many of them were commissioned by various official organizations. Among them are the orchestral Sinfonietta, Música para un festival en Sevilla, Homenatge a Antoni Gaudí, Seis remembranzas a Eduardo Toldrá and Rêverie, all of which bear witness to his mastery of orchestration, tone-colour and intensity. Equally well known are his pieces for piano, his choral pieces and his string quartets. In addition to his serious music, he composed, orchestrated and conducted commercial and incidental music for publishing houses, CDs, theatre, radio, television and the cinema. A member of various juries of international competitions, he was made Commander of the Imperial Hispanic Order of Carlos V and received numerous honours and prizes....

(b Lisbon, May 21, 1940). Portuguese composer and conductor. He began his music studies with Marina Dwander, Artur Santos and Joly Braga Santos. In 1959 he completed his higher degree in piano studies with Campos Coelho at the National Conservatory, Lisbon. In 1960 he was awarded a grant from the Instituto de Alta Cultura to study piano with Schiske at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik. While there he also studied with Wladyslaw Kedra and Dieter Weber. He also studied composition with Cerha on a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. He was the cultural attaché in Vienna (1974–81) and founded the Almeida-Pluhar-Marinoff Trio in 1983. He lectured both at the University of Oporto and at the House Museum of A’lvaro de Campos.

Almeida is a versatile artist whose activities range from improvisation to television scores, film-making, fiction and essay-writing. He has a wide public following within Portugal and distances himself from the institutional circles of Portuguese composition. His extensive output is somewhat uneven. Although the dominant idiom in his compositions is a wide tonality, with visible influence from Stravinsky, Hindemith, Eisler and Prokofiev, he often uses more modern means such as electro-acoustics....

(b Detroit, MI, April 13, 1953). American composer and pianist. As a teenager, she studied piano with Pearl Roberts McCullom. She received bachelor and master’s degrees in music composition at Wayne State University, studying with James Hartway. In 1983, she became the first female African American composer to receive the DMA in composition from the University of Michigan, where she studied with William Bolcom, Eugene Kurtz and Leslie Bassett. She also worked in electronic music with George Wilson for several years.

Alston taught briefly at Wayne State University (1983), Oakland University (1987), and Eastern Michigan University (1988). In 1991, she rejoined the faculty at Oakland University, where she is an associate professor in music composition. Her music has been performed in the United States and abroad. Alston’s Four Moods for Piano and Three Rhapsodies for Piano were selected for New York premieres by the North/South Consonance Ensemble. ...

(David )

(b London, April 6, 1967). English composer, teacher and writer on music. While still at Westminster School he began studying privately with John Lambert, continuing at the RCM, where he took the BMus. He then studied with Goehr at Cambridge. He also attended the Contemporary Composition Course at the Britten–Pears School in 1992 and was Britten Memorial Fellow at Tanglewood in 1993, profiting from the guidance of Knussen. From 1994 to 1996 he was Constant and Kit Lambert Fellow at the RCM, where he was later appointed a professor of composition. He is also active as a broadcaster and writer, contributing to such periodicals as Tempo and The Musical Times.

Although he has followed the progress of his British peers with close sympathy, Anderson's initial enthusiasms were for such continental radicals as Xenakis, Vivier and the ‘spectral’ composer Murail (with whom he also took lessons) and for the various folk musics of eastern Europe. His early compositions tended to be study pieces, each concentrating upon a single technique – melodic decoration, for instance, or overtone-derived harmony. These he has mostly withdrawn, but the concerns they focussed have continued to evolve and interact in his published output....

(b Chicago, IL, Oct 13, 1967). American composer, pianist, and educator. Applebaum grew up in a musical family in Chicago. His father, Bob Applebaum, a high school physics teacher, studied classical music and composes. Applebaum graduated from Carleton College (BM 1989); his senior thesis took him to Mexico City to interview Conlon Nancarrow. He received his Masters (1992) and his Doctorate (1996) in composition from the University of California at San Diego (UCSD), studying with Brian Ferneyhough, Joji Yuasa, RAND STEIGER, and ROGER REYNOLDS. He taught at USCD, Mississippi State University, and Carleton College before his current faculty position at Stanford University, where he also serves as the founding director of the Stanford Improvisation Collective.

Applebaum’s solo, chamber, choral, orchestral, operatic, and electro-acoustic work has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Africa, and Asia at numerous new music festivals. His music is mercurial, highly detailed, disciplined, and exacting, but it also features improvisational and whimsical aspects. As such, he is considered as much in the experimentalist camp exemplified by composers such as Cage and Zappa as part of the European modernist lineage represented by his principal teacher Brian Ferneyhough. He has drawn inspiration from jazz pioneers and maverick composers such as Nancarrow and Partch, who found it necessary to use or invent unusual instruments to realize their artistic visions....

(Eugene)

(b West Hempstead, NY, April 26, 1956). American music educator, choral arranger, editor, and conductor. He was a member of the American Boychoir (1969–71), and received degrees from St Olaf College (BM 1978), the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (MM 1980), and Michigan State University (DMA 1987). He was on the summer faculty of the American Boychoir School and now serves on the Board of Trustees. He taught at Calvin College (1980–90) before becoming the fourth conductor of the St Olaf Choir and the Harry R. and Thora H. Tosdal Endowed Professor of Music (1990–). Armstrong is the editor for Earthsongs publications and co-editor of the St. Olaf Choir Series. He chronicled the history of the St Olaf Choir in his doctoral dissertation. He is featured on an instructional video for adolescent singers, Body, Mind, Spirit, Voice (2002...

(b nr Vorkuta, Russia, Aug 3, 1944). Russian composer . He trained in Leningrad as a violinist and composer at the Special Music School attached to the Conservatory (1958–63) and then at the Conservatory itself (1963–8; postgraduate studies 1968–71) in the composition class of V. Salmanov. He has taught in both establishments. In 1974 he moved to France where he studied composition with Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire (1974–8), and at the musicology faculty of the Sorbonne (1984–5). Since 1991 he has been Professeur-animateur of the national music school at Notre Dame de Gravenchon and since 1994 he has also taught analysis at the Rouen Conservatoire.

A prolific composer, Arzumanov’s moral and religious quests are reflected in his continuous search for new styles and genres. He has studied the music of Mahler, Shostakovich and the Second Viennese School, the music of ancient civilizations, pop music, and the church canticles of the Orthodox tradition, and willingly uses their forms and devices in his works in his efforts to find a spiritual kinship with distant epochs and peoples. The piano cycle ...

(b Ísafjörður, Oct 11, 1928). Icelandic composer, teacher and critic. He graduated in 1955 from the Reykjavík College of Music, where he studied the piano with Árni Kristjánsson and theory with Victor Urbancic. Further composition studies were undertaken at the RSAMD in Glasgow (1955–6) and at the Guildhall School of Music in London (1965). In 1961 he received a teacher's diploma from the Reykjavík College of Music. Ásgeirsson has conducted various choirs, and became the principal music critic of Morgunblaðið in 1970. Formerly president of the Icelandic Composers' Society, he has taught at various institutions and is currently professor at the Icelandic Teachers' College.

His works are mainly traditional in style though he has written a few serial compositions. He is particularly interested in reviving Icelandic folksongs and dances and has set related folk poetry found without music; he has also served as music director for productions of the ancient dances by the National Dance Company. In ...

(Banning)

(b New York, May 13, 1933). American composer, jazz researcher and teacher. He studied composition with E.B. Hill and Richard Hoffmann at Oberlin College (BA 1958, BM 1958) and with Sessions, Earl Kim and Babbitt at Princeton University (MFA 1960, PhD 1971). He began his teaching career at Princeton (1961) and held positions at Oberlin (1961–5) and several other schools before joining the faculty of UCLA in 1967. In 1969 he became coordinator of the UCLA electronic music studio and in 1980 he was made a full professor. Since 1952 he has been active as a producer of New Orleans jazz recordings. His writings include contributions to Perspectives of New Music (on Schoenberg), The Music Review (on Beethoven) and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Ashforth has received particular notice for his electronic works. Byzantia: Two Journeys after Yeats (1971–3) is panoramic in dramatic effect, with mosaic-like juxtapositions of electronic, acoustic (voice, traditional instruments) and natural (flowing water, bird calls) sounds....

(Issac)

(b Seattle, June 27, 1953). American composer and conductor. He studied composition with Stephen Albert, Ronald Perera and Randall McClellan at Hampshire College (BA 1975). His teachers at Yale University (MM 1977) included Druckman and MacCombie (composition), and Arthur Weisberg (conducting). He also studied composition with Schuller at the Berkshire Music Center (1979) and with Yun at the Berlin Hochschule für Musik (1980). He served on the faculty of the Oberlin Conservatory from 1980 to 1986. A UK Fulbright Arts Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship (1987–8) enabled him to work in London from 1986 to 1988, where he was a visiting lecturer at City University. He joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 1988. He has conducted the university-based Arizona Contemporary Ensemble, founded and co-directed the New York contemporary music ensemble Musical Elements (1977–) and served as composer-in-residence for the Phoenix SO (...

[Gedé ]

(b Kaliungu Kaja, Denpasar, 1955). Balinese composer, performer, teacher and musicologist. Born into a musical family, he is the brother of I Komang Astita and the cousin of Wayan Sadra and I Wayan Yudana, all well-known composers. He has taught composition and gamelan performance at the Sekolah Menengah Karawitan Indonesia and Sekolah Tinggi Seni Indonesia in Bali since 1981. He is a graduate of these same institutions (1974 and 1980 respectively) and also holds a graduate degree (SSKar) from the Institut Seni Indonesia in Yogyakarta, as well as an MA in ethnomusicology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, where he wrote his thesis on Balinese gambuh drumming under the direction of Mantle Hood (1991). He directed the Balinese gamelan programme at the University of Maryland while a student there (1988–91), and since that time has taught gamelan at the University of Montreal (...

(George)

(b Birmingham, Oct 5, 1938). English composer and teacher. He studied at the Birmingham School of Music, at the University of York as a postgraduate, and privately with Mellers for composition. He was appointed lecturer in music at York in 1964 and became professor of music at the University of East Anglia in 1974. While pursuing his academic career he has directed the Tudor Consort (which he founded), the English Baroque Ensemble, the York University Choir and Chamber Choir, and the Aldeburgh Festival Singers (1975–88). He has appeared as a guest conductor at several choral festivals in the USA and Italy.

Aston's compositional output is dominated by his church music. However, it was with Five Songs of Crazy Jane (1960) that he first attracted attention. During the following decade he set secular texts for chorus and composed a children's opera, Sacrapant the Sorcerer (...

(b Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, Oct 27, 1952). Bulgarian composer, pianist, harpsichord player, and pedagogue. He graduated in piano (under Prof. Sturshenov) in 1977 and in composition under Prof. Hadzhiev. He continued with postgraduate studies under Yvonne Lefébure, Zuzana Růžičková (1983), and Milan Schlechta (1977). He is a prize winner from the A. Casagrande International Piano Competition in Terni, Italy (1976), and holder of the third prize in the piano duo category (1980). He is a keen performer of 17th- and 18th-century music as well as of 20th-century works.

He is a professor of composition (2000) and has also served as Dean of the Faculty of Instrumental Music at the National Music Academy in Sofia (1993–9). He is a composer with an individual style in the sphere of tonal and modal experimentation that combines folklore and features of the contemporary instrumental score. His Piano Concerto no.2 was awarded a prize at the New Music Festival in St Petersburg (...

(b Belgrade, Feb 10, 1927; d Belgrade, Oct 13, 2009). Serbian composer and music critic. He studied composition with Milenko Živković at the Academy of Music in Belgrade, graduating in 1955, and at the Accademia Nazionale di S. Cecilia in Rome (1967–8). He was a conductor of the choral society Napredak (1953–5), and then taught at Stanković music school (1955–66) and at the Music Academy (today Faculty of Music, 1966–96). As a music critic, he collaborated with various newspapers (Borba, Naša borba, Politika, Večernje novosti) and translated several books. He received awards from Udruženje kompozitora Srbije (‘the Association of Serbian composers’) and Yugoslav Radio, and received the Vukova nagrada. He followed the aesthetic of Stevan Mokranjac and his own professor Živković. His lyric music, predominantly choral, is distinguishable by his afinity for humour, both in his choice of lyrics and the musical means. He uses verbal punning (...