Composers

Björk Gudmundsóttir

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (b. 21 November 1965, Reykjavík, Iceland) is an Icelandic experimental singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and occasional actress.

At six, Björk enrolled at Reykjavík school Barnamúsíkskóli, where she studied classical piano and flute. After a school recital in which Björk sang Tina Charles's 1976 hit I Love to Love, her teachers sent a recording of her singing the song to the RÚV radio station. The recording was nationally broadcast and, after hearing it, a representative of the Fálkinn record label offered Björk a recording contract. Her self-titled début, Björk, was recorded and released in Iceland in December 1977.

  • During her teens, after the diffusion of punk rock music in Iceland she formed the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot. After a period between 1986 and 1992 with the group The Sugarcubes, Björk moved to London to pursue a solo career, producing most notably the albums Debut and Post.

    In 1999, Björk was asked to write and produce the musical score for the film Dancer in the Dark, for which she also played the lead role. The film received the Palme d'Or at Cannes, and Björk received the Best Actress Award for her role.

    Björk's music has been the subject of much analysis and scrutiny. Critics often agree that she constantly defies categorization in a musical genre. Although she often calls herself a pop artist, she is considered a "restlessly experimental creative force." According to The New Yorker 's Taylor Ho Bynum, "No contemporary artist so gracefully bridges the divide [between music experimentalist and pop celebrity] as Björk." Broadly summarizing her wide-ranging integration of art and popular music, Joshua Offstroff suggested that "there is no better descriptor for what Björk does than artpop."

Henry L. Dorn

Henry Dorn (b. Little Rock, AR). Each of his compositions builds distinct narratives based on lived experiences of being a musician and African American, taking ideas and putting them in places where they do not seem to belong. Dorn has enjoyed performances by noteworthy ensembles across the country, including the Minnesota Orchestra, the Grammy-winning Harlem Quartet, Aizuri Quartet, Argento Ensemble, and the Dallas Wind Symphony.

Beginning August 2023, Dorn will be Assistant Professor of Music, Conductor of the St. Olaf Band at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. He is the former assistant director to the Memphis Area Youth Wind Ensemble, and former director to the Memphis-based Nu Chamber Collective. Dorn has also worked with musicians of the United States Army Field Band, the

  • United States Air Force Band, and has guest conducted the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own.” He’s proud to have received multiple awards for his unique style, including an Inaugural Future of Music Faculty Fellowship from the Cleveland Institute of Music and an ASCAP Foundation’s Morton Gould Young Composer Award.

    Dorn holds two Doctor of Musical Arts degrees – one in wind conducting and another in composition – from Michigan State University and has completed studies at The University of Memphis and at Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University. He has studied conducting with Kevin L. Sedatole, Harlan D. Parker, and Kraig Alan Williams, and composition with David Biedenbender, Ricardo Lorenz, Alexis Bacon, Oscar Bettison, Kamran Ince, and Jack Cooper.

Percy Fletcher

Percy Eastman Fletcher was born in Derby and with a practical experience of playing violin, piano and organ, spent a great part of his life as a West End musical director at various theatres, culminating at His Majesty's from 1915 until his death. One of his earliest successes there was the long-running Chu Chin Chow. His own music covers songs, choruses. and orchestral miniatures and suites. He wrote at least two brass band classics that remain in the repertory, are regularly wheeled out for contests and stand up well against later examples from more distinguished hands. However, the vast majority of his output, apart from the perennial Bal Masqué, remains unheard.

Brant Karrick

Brant Karrick (b. 1960) joined the faculty of Northern Kentucky University in the fall of 2003 as Director of Bands. His prior teaching experience includes nine years at the University of Toledo and seven years of public school teaching in Kentucky. At NKU, he administrates the entire band program including the Symphonic Winds, the Concert Band and the Chamber Winds. He also teaches classes in conducting, instrumental methods, marching band methods, music theory and orchestration. He is also heavily involved in teacher preparation.

  • In addition to his responsibilities at NKU, Dr. Karrick remains active as a guest conductor, adjudicator, clinician, composer, and music arranger. His band compositions have been performed throughout the United States, in Canada, Europe, South Africa, South America, Japan and Australia.

    In the fall of 1991, Karrick entered the Ph. D. program in music education at Louisiana State University, completing the degree in 1994. His prior education includes a Bachelor of Music Education from the University of Louisville which he completed in 1982, and a Master of Arts in education from Western Kentucky University, completed in 1984. Dr. Karrick's musical life has been influenced by many individuals. He studied trumpet with Leon Rapier, music education with Cornelia Yarborough, and conducting with Frank Wickes. His primary composition teachers were David Livingston, Steve Beck, and Cecil Karrick. His professional affiliations include: NAFME, the Kentucky Music Educators Association, Phi Beta Mu, ASCAP, and the College Band Directors National Association. He and his wife Carole, also a band director, reside in Covington, Kentucky. In his leisure time he enjoys golfing, hiking, fishing and traveling.

Jon Bubbett

Jon Bubbett, a native of Dothan, AL, graduated from Dothan High School (1977). He received his BMEd from Troy State University in Troy, AL, in 1981 and his MMEd in 1989 from VanderCook College of Music in Chicago, IL. His career spanned thirty eight years with the last twenty six at Thompson High School in Alabaster, AL. His previous schools were Washington-Wilkes Comprehensive High School in Washington, GA, Demopolis High School in Demopolis, AL and Erwin High School in Birmingham, AL.

  • His bands have performed in a variety of venues across the southeast, most notably the Thompson High School Wind  Ensemble performed for the Music for All National Concert Band Festival in 2011 and again in 2015. The Thompson High School “Marching Southern Sounds” performed in the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade in 2017. The Thompson Wind Ensemble was also selected to perform at the Alabama Music Educators Association In Service Conference (1997, 2009, 2014, 2019), the Alabama Honor Band (2010, 2018), the University of Georgia JanFest (2013), the University of Alabama at Birmingham Honor Band (2016) and the CBDNA / NBA Southern Division Conference (2012). Mr. Bubbett is a seven time recipient of the National Band Association “Citation of Excellence,” as well as a recipient of the NBA Programs of Excellence “Blue Ribbon” Award in 2014. Additionally he received the Phi Beta Mu, Rho Chapter (Alabama) “Bandmaster of the Year” Award for 2015. 

    Numerous times Mr. Bubbett has served as a guest clinician and adjudicator  in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. He has served as a clinician participant for both the Alabama Music Educators Association In-Service Conference,  Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic and has served as the rehearsal assistant for the Music for All Honor Band of America since 2016.

Jorge L. Vargas

Jorge L. Vargas (b.1971) is a Mexican American composer, arranger, and clinician. Mr. Vargas holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education from The University of Texas-San Antonio and a Master’s Degree in Education from Lamar University. He currently teaches at Memorial Junior High in Eagle Pass, TX, where he directs the concert band and the mariachi group, and he coordinates the beginner classes.

Mr. Vargas has written and arranged for concert band, marching band, string orchestra, and mariachi ensemble. Many of his works appear on several state and festival lists. Mr Vargas’ music has been selected to the J.W. Pepper Editor’s Choice list and Bandworld Magazine’s Top 100, and several of his works have been featured at the Midwest Clinic in Chicago.

Mr Vargas was born in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, and currently resides in Eagle Pass, TX, with his wife Adriana, a 5th-grade math teacher.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (7 May 1840, Votinsk, Russia – 6 November 1893, St. Petersburg, Russia) was a Russian composer.

Although musically precocious, Tchaikovsky was educated for a career as a civil servant. When an opportunity for a musical education arose, he entered the nascent Saint Petersburg Conservatory, from where he graduated in 1865. The formal Western-oriented teaching he received there set him apart from composers of the contemporary nationalist movement embodied by other Russian composers, with whom his professional relationship was mixed. Tchaikovsky's training set him on a path to reconcile what he had learned with the native musical practices to which he had been exposed from childhood. From this reconciliation, he forged a personal, independent but unmistakably Russian style, a task that did not prove easy. The principles of Russian nationalist artists were fundamentally at odds with those supporting European traditions, and this caused personal antipathies that dented Tchaikovsky's self-confidence.

  • Tchaikovsky’s works included symphonies, concertos, operas, ballets, chamber music, and a choral setting of The Russian Orthodox Divine Liturgy. Some of these are among the most popular concert and theatrical music in the classical repertoire. He was the first Russian composer whose music made a lasting impression internationally, which he bolstered with appearances as a guest conductor later in his career in Europe and the United States. One of these appearances was at the inaugural concert of Carnegie Hall in New York City in 1891. Tchaikovsky was honored in 1884 by Emperor Alexander III, and awarded a lifetime pension in the late 1880s.

    Despite his many popular successes, Tchaikovsky's life was punctuated by personal crises and depression. Contributory factors included his leaving his mother for boarding school, his mother's early death and the collapse of the one enduring relationship of his adult life, his 13-year association with the wealthy widow Nadezhda von Meck. His same-sex orientation, which he kept private, has traditionally also been considered a major factor, but musicologists now play down its importance.

Jacco Nefs

Jacco Nefs (b. 1971) is a Dutch conductor and arranger.

Michael Markowski

Michael Markowski is fully qualified to watch movies and cartoons. Although he graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in ‘Film Practices,’ his thirst for writing music has always been the more persistent itch.

At Crismon Elementary, he first joined band playing the alto saxophone under Gary Larkins. This was the start of his journey, one that would continue under several notable mentors and music teachers: Dawn Parker (Rhodes Junior High School), Jon Gomez (Dobson High School), Dr. Karl Schindler, Larry Hochman, and Michael Shapiro.

  • In 2006, Shadow Rituals – one of Markowski’s first compositions for concert band – received First Prize in Manhattan Beach Music’s Frank Ticheli Composition Contest. Since those early years, his music has been performed around the world, from the Musikverein in Vienna to the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on the streets of New York City, from the Arizona Musicfest Symphony Orchestra, The Memphis Symphony, The Phoenix Symphony, The Houston Symphony, The Pittsburgh Camerata, to the United States Army and Air Force Bands. He has been the composer-in-residence for the ‘Music for All’ organization (2015), the ‘Mid Europe’ international wind band festival in Schladming, Austria (2013-2018), and frequently visits junior high schools, high schools, universities, and community bands around the country to share stories about his music.

    Still, Markowski continues to grow his craft by pursuing and participating in programs like The Art of Orchestration, the National Band Association’s Young Composer and Conductor Mentorship Project, and the NYU/ASCAP Foundation’s Film Scoring Workshop. As a film composer, Markowski has composed music for several independent projects, most notably Nathan Blackwell’s “The Last Movie Ever Made,” which is now streaming on Amazon Prime and Apple TV. His commercial music can also be heard in various ad campaigns from brands like Chi-Chi’s, Gila River Casino, and Truly Nolan.

    He was invited to join the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop in 2015 as a composer and lyricist where he honed in and explored various songwriting and dramaturgical skills. As an orchestrator, he has prepared charts for conductor Steven Reineke and The New York Pops Orchestra, which have featured stunning vocalists Hailey Kilgore, Derek Klena, Javier Muñoz, Ali Stroker, and Valisia LeKae. Over the years, he’s also been very fortunate to work closely with the talented Jay Klaitz, Paige O’Hara, and the late John Dunsworth.

    Beyond composition, Markowski has occasionally taken on the roles of producer and engineer, collaborating on projects like opera singer Timothy Stoddard’s debut solo album, “Tarot” (2023, Navona Records), and curating his own album of original compositions with the Brooklyn Wind Symphony.

    Michael is a member of ASCAP, the Recording Academy, and currently lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Leroy Anderson

Leroy Anderson (29 June 1908, Cambridge, Mass. - 18 May 1975, Woodbury, Conn.) was an American composer.

Anderson was born to Swedish immigrants. He attended Harvard University where he received a B.A. in Music in 1929, and a M.A. in Music in 1930. He studied toward a Ph.D. in German and Scandinavian languages through 1935 although he never completed his thesis. His composition teachers included George Enescu and Walter Piston. While in school he taught music to undergraduate students at Radcliffe College and was director of the Harvard University Band.

After hearing Anderson's arrangements for the Harvard Band, Arthur Fiedler asked him to make an arrangement of Harvard songs for the Boston Pops Orchestra. This eventually led to Fiedler hiring Anderson as an arranger for the Boston Pops and to the BPO performing original works by Anderson.

  • Leroy Anderson served in the United States Army during World War II as an interpreter and translator for the Counter Intelligence Corps and rose to the position of chief of the Scandinavian Department of Military Intelligence at the Pentagon.

    After the war, Anderson moved to Connecticut with his family where he composed some of his most successful works, including Sleigh Ride (1948). His The Syncopated Clock (1945) was used as the theme show for The Late Show for 25 years and his composition Blue Tango sold over a million copies in 1952. As his compositions grew in popularity, Anderson was engaged as guest conductor of many orchestras across the United States.

    Anderson wrote primarily for full orchestra. Soon after completing each orchestral composition, he would score many of his pieces for concert band and, in some cases, for piano and small ensembles. From 1938 to 1950, Anderson's compositions received their first performance with either Arthur Fiedler or Leroy Anderson conducting the Boston Pops. From 1950 to late 1962 Anderson's compositions received their first performances during recording sessions for Decca Records, conducted by Anderson.

    He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1960.

Elena Specht

Composer Elena Specht writes instrumental and vocal concert music with an emphasis on colorful textures, lively rhythms, and graceful lyricism. Her music is inspired by places, history, captivating questions, visual art, and compelling stories. Elena’s music is enjoyed by both beginning and professional musicians, and it reaches diverse audiences. She writes for a variety of instruments and voices, specializing in music for wind bands.

  • Recent performances and commissions have come from the United States Coast Guard Band, the Flint Symphony Orchestra Brass Quintet, The Penn State Symphonic Winds, the Northern Illinois University Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble. As a part of the University of Colorado’s New Opera Works – Composer Fellows’ Initiative, she wrote libretti and music for two short operas. Other recent projects include Into Her Care, a song cycle for soprano and wind ensemble; Concerto for Audience, for orchestra and audience participation; Pop, for saxophone duo; and Brush Strokes, nine miniatures for flutist James Brinkmann based on his own paintings. Elena also values creating music that is accessible to young and amateur musicians yet rich in quality. To that end, she has written works for middle school, high school, and community ensembles and has regularly arranged and composed music for the Greater Boulder Youth Orchestras Wind Ensemble.

    Elena is a music librarian with “The President’s Own” United States Marine Band, where she prepares music for performances by the Marine Band and Marine Chamber Orchestra and assists with maintaining the music library and historic archives. Elena previously taught music theory and music history at Kalamazoo College as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music. Additionally, she taught music theory, aural skills, and composition at the college level at Michigan State University and the University of Colorado Boulder. She has additional teaching experience in music history, horn, and piano. She has presented research in composition and theory at the Exchange of Midwestern Collegiate Composers Conference, the University of Connecticut Graduate Music Conference, and the Midwest Music Research Collective Conference. She holds a D.M.A. in composition and a M.M. in music theory from Michigan State University, a M.M. in composition from the University of Colorado Boulder, and a B.M. summa cum laude in composition and theory from Vanderbilt University. Her primary composition teachers have been David Biedenbender, Alexis Bacon, Carter Pann, Daniel Kellogg, and Michael Slayton. She studied horn with Leslie Norton.

    Elena’s music is published by Specht Music, and she is a member of ASCAP. She lives in Maryland with her husband, children, and golden retriever. Outside of music, Elena enjoys reading, baking, and spending time her with her family.

Joaquin Turina

Joaquín Turina (9 December 1882, Seville, Spain – 14 January 1949, Madrid, Spain) was a Spanish composer of classical music. Turina's origins were in northern Italy (between Verona, Brescia and Mantova). He studied in Seville as well as in Madrid. He lived in Paris from 1905 to 1914 where he took composition lessons from Vincent d'Indy at his Schola Cantorum, and studied the piano under Moritz Moszkowski. Like his countryman and friend, Manuel de Falla, while there he got to know the impressionist composers Maurice Ravel and Claude Debussy.

In 1908 he married Obdulia Garzón, who was to bear him five children. She was the dedicatee of the Danzas Fantásticas, which he completed in 1919.

  • Along with de Falla, he returned to Madrid in 1914, working as a composer, teacher and critic. In 1931 he was made professor of composition at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. He died in Madrid. Among his notable pupils were Vicente Asencio and Celedonio Romero.

    His works include the operas Margot (1914) and Jardín de Oriente (1923), the Danzas Fantásticas (1919, versions for piano and orchestra), La Oración del Torero (written first for a lute quartet, then string quartet, then string orchestra), chamber music, piano works, guitar pieces and songs. Much of his work shows the influence of traditional Andalusian music. He also wrote a short one-movement Rapsodia Sinfonica (1931) for piano and orchestra. His music often conveys a feeling of rapture or exaltation.

Alfred Reed

Alfred Reed (25 January 1921, Manhattan, N.Y. – 17 September 2005, Miami, Fla.) was an American composer, arranger, conductor and educator.

Born into a family of Austrian descent that cherished music, Alfred Reed began his musical studies at age ten on trumpet, and by high school age he was performing professionally in the Catskills at resort hotels. He served as musician and arrangement during World War II in the 529th Army Air Force Band, for which he created more than 100 works, and following the war was a student of Vittorio Giannini at Juilliard.

He was staff composer and arranger for both the National Broadcasting Corporation and the American Broadcating Corporation. In 1953, Mr. Reed became conductor of the Baylor Symphony Orchestra at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, at the same time completing his academic work; he received his B.M. in 1955 and his M.M. in 1956.

  • His Masters thesis was the Rhapsody for Viola and Orchestra, which later was to win the Luria Prize. It received its first performance in 1959, and was subsequently published in 1966. During his two years at Baylor, he also became interested in the problems of educational music at all levels, especially in the development of repertoire materials for school bands, orchestras, and choruses. This led, in 1955, to his accepting the post of editor at Hansen Publishing in New York.

    In 1966 he left this post to join the faculty of the School of Music at the University of Miami, holding a joint appointment in the Theory-Composition and Music Education departments, and to develop the unique (at the time) Music Industry degree program at that institution, of which he became director.

    With over 250 published works for concert band, wind ensemble, orchestra, chorus, and various smaller chamber music groups, many of which have been on the required performance lists in this country for the past 20 years, Mr. Reed was one of the nation’s most prolific and frequently performed composers.

    His work as a guest conductor and clinician took him to 49 states, Europe, Canada, Mexico, Japan, Australia and South America, and for many years, at least eight of his works have been on the required list of music for all concert bands in Japan, where he was the most frequently performed foreign composer today. He left New York for Miami, Florida, in 1960, where he made his home until his death.

Fred Jewell

Frederick Alton Jewell (28 May 1875, Worthington, Ind. - 11 February 1936, Worthington, Ind.) was an American euphonium player, conductor and composer.

Jewell became interested in music at a young age, learning a number of instruments, including cornet, violin, clarinet, trombone, piano, and calliope. At the age of 16, Jewell ran away from home and joined the Gentry Bros. Dog & Pony Show as a euphonium player. He also played the calliope.

As a performer, Jewell is best remembered as a virtuoso euphonium player. Much of his career was spent playing in or conducting traveling circus bands, including the Gentry Bros. Circus, Ringling Bros. Circus., Sells-Floto Circus, Barnum and Bailey Circus, and Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus.

  • In the off-season he led various theatrical stock company bands, theater orchestras, and church ensembles near his Indiana hometown. From 1917 to 1923 he lived in Iowa and led various adult bands; first in Fairfield, and then Oskaloosa, where he also organized the first high school band in 1919.

    Jewell’s first composition was published in 1897; he eventually started his own publishing company (1920) and in total, composed over 100 marches, along with several overtures, waltzes, novelties, and other works. Returning to Indiana in 1923, he led the Murat Temple Shrine Band of Indianapolis, traveled to Tampa to lead its municipal band for a brief period, and spent the balance of his career leading bands in Indiana and composing music. Highly esteemed by his peers, Jewell was elected to membership in the American Bandmasters Association.

Timothy Rhea

Dr. Timothy B. Rhea is Director of Bands and Music Activities at Texas A&M University.  As Director of Bands, he leads the university band program, serves as conductor of the University Wind Symphony, and coordinates the nationally famous “Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band.”  As Director of Music Activities, he administratively oversees the activities of the jazz, orchestra, and choral programs.  Dr. Rhea is currently in his twenty-ninth year at Texas A&M University.

Dr. Rhea grew up in the music programs of the Texas public schools.  He earned the Bachelor of Music Education with honors from the University of Arkansas as a private conducting student of Eldon Janzen.  He earned the Master of Music in Conducting from Texas Tech University where he studied with the late James Sudduth. Dr. Rhea earned the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting and Composition from the University of Houston.  

  • In 1999, he was awarded the Texas Outstanding Young Bandmaster of the Year from Phi Beta Mu.  In December of 2000, Dr. Ray Bowen, former President of Texas A&M University, presented Dr. Rhea with the President’s Meritorious Service Award to Texas A&M University.  He more recently oversaw the planning and construction of the new Texas A&M University Music Activities Center, which opened in 2019.  In this facility, the Dr. Timothy B. Rhea Concert Rehearsal Hall was named in his honor.  In the spring of 2020, he received the Association of Former Students Distinguished Achievement Award in Administration from Texas A&M University.

    Dr. Rhea was named conductor of the Texas A&M Wind Symphony in 1995.  During his tenure at Texas A&M University, Dr. Rhea has conducted the Wind Symphony for conventions of the Texas Music Educators Association (seven times), the College Band Directors National Association (two times), the Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, the Western International Band Clinic in Seattle, and the American Bandmasters Association (2009 convention host), as well as in settings such as New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Meyerson Symphony Center of Dallas and the Wortham Center of Houston, and on concert tours that have taken the band throughout the state of Texas.  During five European tours Dr. Rhea has conducted the Wind Symphony during performances in Ireland, England, Austria, Germany, Italy, and the Czech Republic.  Under his direction, the Wind Symphony has released several internationally distributed recordings with Mark Records of New York.   In addition to conducting, Rhea maintains a very successful career as an arranger and composer.  His output of compositions and arrangements numbers over 300, with over 50 publications.

    Dr. Rhea’s tenure with the Texas Aggie Band has included performances throughout the United States.  In addition to the Presidential Inaugural Parade in Washington DC and the Texas Governor’s Inaugural in Austin, Aggie Band bowl appearances have included the Holiday, Cotton, Sugar, Independence, Chick-fil-A, Liberty, Texas, Music City, Gator, Belk and Alamo.  Dr. Rhea has served as the music arranger and a drill designer for the Aggie Band for almost 30 years.  The Aggie Band was a recipient of the Sudler Trophy from the John Philip Sousa Foundation during Dr. Rhea’s association with the organization.

    Dr. Rhea maintains an internationally active schedule as conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. He is former President of the American Bandmasters Association, is currently Vice President/Secretary and a member of the Executive Board of The John Philip Sousa Foundation, and was formerly on the Board of Directors of the National Band Association.  Dr. Rhea additionally holds memberships and positions in numerous professionally related organizations.