In July 2017, Elizabeth McNutt served on the faculty of the Nirmita Composers Workshop in Bangkok, Thailand, where she worked with composers from six southeast Asian countries.
Alumnus composer Seth Shafer (PhD 2017) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Music Technology at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, beginning in the fall of 2017.
Alumnus composer Ben Johansen (PhD 2012) has been appointed Lecturer in Composition/Music Technology at Baylor University, beginning in the fall of 2017.
Nothing in the Nothingness, an opera by alumnus composer Daniel Zajicek, was one of eight works selected for performance in Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers 2017 program on 4-5 May 2017. As part of the performance, Daniel and his librettist, John Grimmett, will be in residence at Fort Worth Opera for a week of rehearsals and workshopping.
Alumnus composer Joshua Harris (PhD 2013) composed the soundtrack for the film King Rat, which premiered at the Indy Film Fest in Indianapolis in July 2017. The film won the festival's Audience Award. Also in July 2017, Harris' work Aubade for flute and electroacoustic music was selected for performance at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, where it was performed by UNT alumna Wayla Chambo.
UNT faculty artist David Stout, Cory Metcalf and Reilly Donovan premiered a new virtual reality installation titled Vesica Pisces at the CURRENTS International New Media Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico in June 2017.
NoiseFold (UNT faculty artist David Stout and Cory Metcalf) presented The Ten Thousand Things at Southern Oregon University, Oregon Center for the Arts, where they were joined by the Left Edge Collective (former UNT faculty composer David Bithell, trumpet and electronics; and Terry Longshore, percussion) in May 2017.
Alumnus composer Chaz Underriner (PhD 2016) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Digital Arts at Stetson University, beginning in the fall of 2017.
Faculty composer Joseph Klein will be the featured speaker at two concerts by Orchestra 2001 in April 2018, including the Philadelphia premiere of Frank Zappa's The Yellow Shark at The Fillmore Philly in April 2018. This residency was supported by a grant from The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage, and will also include a program of works by Edgard Varèse, Igor Stravinsky, Anton Webern, and Pierre Boulez.
Landscape Series: 1 by alumnus composer Chaz Underriner (PhD 2016) is one of five works selected (out of 288 submissions from composers in 36 countries) as a finalist for the prestigious 2017 Gaudeamus Award in Composition. His work will receive a performance at the Gaudeamus Muziekweek in September 2017, at which time the award winner will be announced.
Alumnus composer Ilya Rostovtsev (MM 2010) has completed his PhD in Music Composition at UC Berkeley (August 2017), and has accepted a position at Microsoft (Seattle, WA) for the position of an Applied Scientist, where he will be working on new music authoring tools.
Faculty composer Joseph Klein will present an academic paper titled "Practical Applications of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson’s On Growth and Form on Musical Materials and Structures" at the On Growth and Form Centenary Conference, 13-15 October 2017 at the University of St. Andrews (Scotland). The paper includes an analysis of three original compositions that are related to Thompson's research: the road in its unfoldings, Occam's Razor, and Interstices. Klein has also been invited to present a lecture on his work at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in Glasgow.
Graduate composer Christopher Poovey's composition Dripstone for baritone saxophone and stereo fixed media will receive its New York City premiere at the 2017 Bushwick Open Studios at MISE-EN_PLACE, which takes place 23-24 September 2017.
Doctoral composer Omar Fraire presented his video installation To be radical is a privilege at the Museo Espacio in the city of Aguascalientes, México. The work was commissioned by the International Festival Ctrl + Ñ in collaboration with the Institute of Culture and the Autonomous University of Aguascalientes, for a collective exhibition from August through September 2017.
In August 2017, Elizabeth McNutt performed three concerts at the National Flute Association Convention in Minneapolis, MN, during which she premiered new works for flute and piano by UNT faculty composers Kirsten Broberg and Jon Christopher Nelson. Dr. McNutt was also a guest artist with the Texas Flute Symposium 2017, where she performed a recital of recent works and led two masterclasses.
Doctoral composer Jacob Thiede received an Honorable Mention from the Flute New Music Consortium in the "Flute and Accompaniment" category for his composition, And Everything In-Between. The Flute New Music Consortium, Inc. is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose members live around the world and perform newly commissioned pieces and outstanding works from the composition competition in individual recitals, as well as at FNMC-organized events at regional and national flute festivals.
Besieged by an Expert Sun, a multimedia work by graduate composer Alejandro Carrillo, has been selected as part of the 39th Manuel Enríquez International New Music Forum in Mexico City. Alejandro will perform the work on 24 September 2017 in the National University’s Contemporary Art Museum.
Doctoral composer Zach Thomas's composition efflux was selected from among more than 1100 submissions for performance at the Mise-En Music Festival 2017 in New York City, 20-25 June 2017.
NoiseFold (UNT faculty artist David Stout and Cory Metcalf) exhibited "Transform Series One," a show of glass sculpture utilizing generative digital techniques to visualize virtual vessels, at the Form & Concept Gallery in Santa Fe (July 2017). NoiseFold's glass plasma sculptures were recently featured in New Glass Review (38), published by the Corning Museum of Glass. This work was made possible by an invitation for a guest artist residency at the Pilchuck Glass School, where Stout and Metcalf worked with two of Dale Chihuly's gaffers to create a large body of work in glass, and taught a class in "Transcoding Glass."
Alumnus composer Daniel Sabzghabaei (BM 2014) recently received a commission from the New York Festival of Song (NYFOS) for a new work for soprano, baritone, and piano to be performed on their Next concert series. The performance will be on 11 December 2017 in NYC at the CUNY Graduate Center inside the Elebash Recital Hall as part of the Bernstein Marathon, celebrating his 100th anniversary.
On 11-12 December 2017, Nothing in the Nothingness, an opera by alumnus composer Daniel Zajicek (MM 2006) and John Grimmet was performed by the Nautilus Music-Theater in Minneapolis/Saint Paul. This one-act operatic monologue chronicles the thought process of a young man trapped in a coma, and explores what it means to be alive and functioning in a vegetative state when consciousness is not possible. It featured Nautilus performers Eric Morris and Cathleen Fuller, with music director Mind Eschendor.
Alumnus composer Daniel Sabzghabaei (BM 2014) was selected as a VocalEssence ReMix Composer Fellow. He will be working with Minnesota's premier choral ensemble VocalEssence and composer mentor Timothy Takach in various workshop sessions on two new commissions for a cappella chorus: one will be premiered in the fall 2017 at the Minnesota ACDA conference, the other at McNally Smith College in the spring 2018.
Alumnus Composer Jonathan Camacho (BA 2008) recently composed the complete soundtrack to the film What Carter Lost, which premiered on ESPN on 24 August 2017 as a part of the Emmy Award Winning 30 for 30 series on ESPN. The film focuses on the 1988 Dallas Carter High School Football team that was featured in the movie Friday Night Lights. What Carter Lost can be seen on rotation on ESPN, as well as on the ESPN App and the ESPN 30 for 30 website.
