ABOUT
Choral Chameleon is deeply committed to bringing new choral work to life and we are diehard champions of living composers. In addition to cultivating new compositions and arrangements from within the singing membership of the choirs, themselves, as well as during the Summer Institute, there are year-long residencies for composers whose work aligns especially well with the values and mission of the company. The Composer-in-Residence is a position that is filled by invitation of the Artistic Director as needed (usually every two years). During the residency, the composer works closely with the AD in the planning and creation of an entire concert season (1 year - August through June) and writes new works for each concert on that season's program which are based on the overarching themes selected by the AD. The texts for the new compositions are co-selected by both. The resident is present in NYC for the premieres of all the new works, and often gives pre or post-concert talks and Q&A sessions. CIRs have often joined the Institute faculty, and all have continuing relationships with the organization.
Choral Chameleon is deeply committed to bringing new choral work to life and we are diehard champions of living composers. In addition to cultivating new compositions and arrangements from within the singing membership of the choirs, themselves, as well as during the Summer Institute, there are year-long residencies for composers whose work aligns especially well with the values and mission of the company. The Composer-in-Residence is a position that is filled by invitation of the Artistic Director as needed (usually every two years). During the residency, the composer works closely with the AD in the planning and creation of an entire concert season (1 year - August through June) and writes new works for each concert on that season's program which are based on the overarching themes selected by the AD. The texts for the new compositions are co-selected by both. The resident is present in NYC for the premieres of all the new works, and often gives pre or post-concert talks and Q&A sessions. CIRs have often joined the Institute faculty, and all have continuing relationships with the organization.
2018-2019 COMPOSER-IN-RESIDENCE
2018 – 2019
DALE TRUMBORE
Dale Trumbore (b. 1987) has been called “a rising star among modern choral composers” (AXS), and her music has been praised for its “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies” (The New York Times). She is the 2018 recipient of the American Choral Directors Association's Raymond W. Brock Award for her work 'In the Middle'.
Trumbore's compositions have been performed widely in the United States and internationally by ensembles including the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, Modesto Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists. Artist residencies at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Copland House, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, and Willapa Bay AiR have provided some of the most challenging and inspiring composing experiences of Trumbore's life.
How to Go On: The Choral Works of Dale Trumbore, Choral Arts Initiative's album of Trumbore's choral works, debuted at #6 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Chart. Choral Arts Northwest, The Esoterics, Helix Collective, New York Virtuoso Singers, and soprano Gillian Hollis have also recorded works by Trumbore, and her music is available through Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, and MusicSpoke.
As a composer who works frequently with words, Trumbore is passionate about setting poems, prose and found text by living authors to music. She has written extensively about overcoming creative blocks and establishing a career in music in essays for 21CM, Cantate Magazine, the Center for New Music, MusicSpoke, and NewMusicBox. She is currently at work on her first book.
Trumbore holds a dual degree in Music Composition and English from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music degree in Composition from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Morten Lauridsen. A New Jersey native, Trumbore currently lives in Los Angeles, her home of nearly a decade, with her fiancé and their cat.
DALE TRUMBORE
Dale Trumbore (b. 1987) has been called “a rising star among modern choral composers” (AXS), and her music has been praised for its “soaring melodies and beguiling harmonies” (The New York Times). She is the 2018 recipient of the American Choral Directors Association's Raymond W. Brock Award for her work 'In the Middle'.
Trumbore's compositions have been performed widely in the United States and internationally by ensembles including the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME), Inscape Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Master Chorale, Los Angeles Children's Chorus, Modesto Symphony, Pasadena Symphony, and The Singers – Minnesota Choral Artists. Artist residencies at Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts, Copland House, Dorland Mountain Arts Colony, the Helene Wurlitzer Foundation of New Mexico, and Willapa Bay AiR have provided some of the most challenging and inspiring composing experiences of Trumbore's life.
How to Go On: The Choral Works of Dale Trumbore, Choral Arts Initiative's album of Trumbore's choral works, debuted at #6 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Chart. Choral Arts Northwest, The Esoterics, Helix Collective, New York Virtuoso Singers, and soprano Gillian Hollis have also recorded works by Trumbore, and her music is available through Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, and MusicSpoke.
As a composer who works frequently with words, Trumbore is passionate about setting poems, prose and found text by living authors to music. She has written extensively about overcoming creative blocks and establishing a career in music in essays for 21CM, Cantate Magazine, the Center for New Music, MusicSpoke, and NewMusicBox. She is currently at work on her first book.
Trumbore holds a dual degree in Music Composition and English from the University of Maryland and a Master of Music degree in Composition from the University of Southern California, where she studied with Morten Lauridsen. A New Jersey native, Trumbore currently lives in Los Angeles, her home of nearly a decade, with her fiancé and their cat.
Read our interview HERE with Artistic Director Vince Peterson and Dale Trumbore about what you can expect this Season!
Dale's first commission for Choral Chameleon is 'Footnotes to a History of Music', for the Ensemble's 'Storytime' touring program, which debuted at St Barts Chapel on Park Avenue on Tuesday October 9th 2018. There is one more chance to experience it live this Season, on May 4th at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn NY.
Her second piece for Choral Chameleon is 'What Are We Becoming?', for choir and organ and set to texts by poets Abigail Welhouse and Lynn Ungar, will be performed by our Chorus on April 27th & 28th 2019 in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Check out our CONCERTS page for more details.
Dale's first commission for Choral Chameleon is 'Footnotes to a History of Music', for the Ensemble's 'Storytime' touring program, which debuted at St Barts Chapel on Park Avenue on Tuesday October 9th 2018. There is one more chance to experience it live this Season, on May 4th at Holy Apostles Episcopal Church in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn NY.
Her second piece for Choral Chameleon is 'What Are We Becoming?', for choir and organ and set to texts by poets Abigail Welhouse and Lynn Ungar, will be performed by our Chorus on April 27th & 28th 2019 in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Check out our CONCERTS page for more details.
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PAST COMPOSERS-IN-RESIDENCE
2016 – 2017: REX ISENBERG
2016 – 2017
REX ISENBERG
Born in Philadelphia, Rex David Isenberg (b. 1987) began his musical life as a jazz pianist and vocalist before applying his talents as a composer. Described as “fiercely expressive” (Kevin MacFarland, JACK Quartet), Rex’s music has garnered recognition from ASCAP and has been heard on National Public Radio (NPR) and Sirius XM radio as well as at venues including the DiMenna Center (New York City), the Národní Muzeum (National Museum) (Prague, Czech Republic), Escuela Nacional de Música (Mexico City, Mexico), and others around the world. Blending a diverse array of styles, Rex seeks to explore the human experience in his music by revisiting watershed moments in history and infusing them with renewed meaning for contemporary audiences. Rex received his B.A. in Music from Yale University, where he studied composition with Kathryn Alexander, Michael Klingbeil, and Missy Mazzoli. He graduated with a Masters of Music from Manhattan School of Music in 2012, studying composition with Richard Danielpour, and returned to MSM in 2013 to pursue his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the studio of Reiko Fueting.
Recent projects have included Messiahs: False and True, a concert-length oratorio for choir, organ, bass drum, and narrator, commissioned and premiered by Cantori New York in 2015 and narrated by Tony-nominee and Obie-winner Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Wit). Messiahs was reprised in March 2016 by The Cecilia Chorus of New York with two-time Tony Award-winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America) as the narrator. Upcoming events in 2016 also include the release of a studio recording of Das Stunden-Buch: Four Songs on Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke on sTem’s debut album, the premiere of a new work for flute and piano at Spectrum NYC by Isabel Gleicher and Sophia Vastek, and the European premiere of a Hebrew choral work, Ravta et rivam, at the rededication of the Wenkheim Synagogue in Wenkheim, Germany. Rex’s work has previously been performed and recorded by JACK Quartet, Manhattan Saxophone Quartet, Uptown Brass, Washington Square Winds, Cantori New York, MSM Symphony, Yale Concert Band, MIVOS Quartet, sTem, percussionist Ian Rosenbaum, violists Jessica Meyer and Miranda Cuckson, New Triad for Collaborative Arts, the NOW Ensemble, and Gamelan Suprabanggo.
An accomplished singer, Rex has performed on six continents as a member of the Yale Alley Cats and The Yale Whiffenpoofs, America’s oldest collegiate a cappella group. Between 2005 and 2009, Isenberg performed in 31 countries and 25 states, singing for audiences which have included the U.S. Ambassadors to China, Lithuania, and Chile, the Consul General of Mexico, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He wrote dozens of arrangements for both groups, including an arrangement of “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” from The Fantasticks, which appeared on The Whiffenpoofs’ 2009 album Century. Rex is also a performer of Indonesian classical music and a member of Gamelan Kusuma Laras, New York’s premiere Javanese gamelan ensemble, with whom he performed at Lincoln Center’s 2011 White Light Festival and at the Consulate General of Indonesia in New York City in 2012.
Rex was a member of the 2016 faculty of the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute for composers and conductors of choral music.
Find out more about Rex at www.rexisenberg.com
Click here to read an interview with Vince Peterson, Founding Artistic Director and Rex.
REX ISENBERG
Born in Philadelphia, Rex David Isenberg (b. 1987) began his musical life as a jazz pianist and vocalist before applying his talents as a composer. Described as “fiercely expressive” (Kevin MacFarland, JACK Quartet), Rex’s music has garnered recognition from ASCAP and has been heard on National Public Radio (NPR) and Sirius XM radio as well as at venues including the DiMenna Center (New York City), the Národní Muzeum (National Museum) (Prague, Czech Republic), Escuela Nacional de Música (Mexico City, Mexico), and others around the world. Blending a diverse array of styles, Rex seeks to explore the human experience in his music by revisiting watershed moments in history and infusing them with renewed meaning for contemporary audiences. Rex received his B.A. in Music from Yale University, where he studied composition with Kathryn Alexander, Michael Klingbeil, and Missy Mazzoli. He graduated with a Masters of Music from Manhattan School of Music in 2012, studying composition with Richard Danielpour, and returned to MSM in 2013 to pursue his Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the studio of Reiko Fueting.
Recent projects have included Messiahs: False and True, a concert-length oratorio for choir, organ, bass drum, and narrator, commissioned and premiered by Cantori New York in 2015 and narrated by Tony-nominee and Obie-winner Kathleen Chalfant (Angels in America, Wit). Messiahs was reprised in March 2016 by The Cecilia Chorus of New York with two-time Tony Award-winner Stephen Spinella (Angels in America) as the narrator. Upcoming events in 2016 also include the release of a studio recording of Das Stunden-Buch: Four Songs on Poems by Rainer Maria Rilke on sTem’s debut album, the premiere of a new work for flute and piano at Spectrum NYC by Isabel Gleicher and Sophia Vastek, and the European premiere of a Hebrew choral work, Ravta et rivam, at the rededication of the Wenkheim Synagogue in Wenkheim, Germany. Rex’s work has previously been performed and recorded by JACK Quartet, Manhattan Saxophone Quartet, Uptown Brass, Washington Square Winds, Cantori New York, MSM Symphony, Yale Concert Band, MIVOS Quartet, sTem, percussionist Ian Rosenbaum, violists Jessica Meyer and Miranda Cuckson, New Triad for Collaborative Arts, the NOW Ensemble, and Gamelan Suprabanggo.
An accomplished singer, Rex has performed on six continents as a member of the Yale Alley Cats and The Yale Whiffenpoofs, America’s oldest collegiate a cappella group. Between 2005 and 2009, Isenberg performed in 31 countries and 25 states, singing for audiences which have included the U.S. Ambassadors to China, Lithuania, and Chile, the Consul General of Mexico, and Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama. He wrote dozens of arrangements for both groups, including an arrangement of “Soon It’s Gonna Rain” from The Fantasticks, which appeared on The Whiffenpoofs’ 2009 album Century. Rex is also a performer of Indonesian classical music and a member of Gamelan Kusuma Laras, New York’s premiere Javanese gamelan ensemble, with whom he performed at Lincoln Center’s 2011 White Light Festival and at the Consulate General of Indonesia in New York City in 2012.
Rex was a member of the 2016 faculty of the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute for composers and conductors of choral music.
Find out more about Rex at www.rexisenberg.com
Click here to read an interview with Vince Peterson, Founding Artistic Director and Rex.
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FEATHERS IN THE WIND
By Rex Isenberg Premiered November 2016 |
CONCERTO FOR PIANO AND CHORUS (1ST MOVEMENT)
By Rex Isenberg Premiered March 2017 |
2013 – 2014: ADAM WARD
2013 – 2014
ADAM WARD
Adam Ward, an alto in the multi-Grammy award winning ensemble, Chanticleer, is originally from Tecumseh, Oklahoma. At an early age Adam became fascinated with the voice of Patsy Cline and as a child he made a number of television appearances singing Cline’s songs. Mr. Ward began singing countertenor while studying French horn performance at Yale University. There he was also a founding member of the Yale Schola Cantorum. He has since performed as soloist with the International Contemporary Ensemble and was a member of the Choir of St. Mary the Virgin at the famed “Smoky Mary’s” in midtown Manhattan. As a horn player, Adam was a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, winner of the concerto competitions at Yale and Stony Brook Universities, and was a top prize-winner at the Coleman, Fischoff and Yellow Springs national chamber music competitions. Adam holds a BM from Manhattan School of Music, MM from Yale School of Music and additional years of study at the Hartt School, Royal College of Music (London) and Stony Brook University.
For more information about Adam Ward, please visit www.chanticleer.org
WORKS PREMIERED DURING RESIDENCY
ADAM WARD
Adam Ward, an alto in the multi-Grammy award winning ensemble, Chanticleer, is originally from Tecumseh, Oklahoma. At an early age Adam became fascinated with the voice of Patsy Cline and as a child he made a number of television appearances singing Cline’s songs. Mr. Ward began singing countertenor while studying French horn performance at Yale University. There he was also a founding member of the Yale Schola Cantorum. He has since performed as soloist with the International Contemporary Ensemble and was a member of the Choir of St. Mary the Virgin at the famed “Smoky Mary’s” in midtown Manhattan. As a horn player, Adam was a member of the Verbier Festival Orchestra, winner of the concerto competitions at Yale and Stony Brook Universities, and was a top prize-winner at the Coleman, Fischoff and Yellow Springs national chamber music competitions. Adam holds a BM from Manhattan School of Music, MM from Yale School of Music and additional years of study at the Hartt School, Royal College of Music (London) and Stony Brook University.
For more information about Adam Ward, please visit www.chanticleer.org
WORKS PREMIERED DURING RESIDENCY
- Gradus ad Parnassum (Text by Josef Johann Fux) - SATB Chorus, cello, harpsichord, soprano soloist, narrators
- Sonnet 75 (Text by William Shakespeare) - SATB Chorus, tenor soloist, unaccompanied
- Amuse Bouche - SATB Chorus, unaccompanied
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Gradus ad Parnassum - I. by Adam Ward (September, 2013)
Performed by Choral Chameleon: Ensemble |
2011 – 2012: Joseph gregorio
2011 – 2012
JOSEPH GREGORIO
A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Joseph Gregorio is equally at home composing and conducting. Gregorio’s compositions have been commissioned by numerous performers, ensembles, and organizations including Cantus, the American Choral Directors Association, The Esoterics, and the Ives Collective. His music has been broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today and WQXR’s Choral Mix, has garnered prizes in several competitions, and has been performed in the United States and abroad by numerous and renowned soloists and ensembles at such venues as the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, and the Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Gregorio was selected as a 2015 grantee by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music. His music is published by Areté Music Imprints, E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Walton Music, and Imagine Music Publishing, and has been recorded by the choirs of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Concerto Della Donna, the Washington Men’s Camerata, the John Alexander Singers, the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, the Penn State Glee Club, the Rutgers University Glee Club, the Cornell University Glee Club, The Capital Hearings, and Duo Del Sol.
Also active as a conductor, Gregorio is director of choirs at Swarthmore College. From 2011-2016 he directed chamber choir Ensemble Companio, which he founded in 2011 and which won the 2012 American Prize in choral performance. Gregorio has co-conducted the Yale Recital Chorus and the Yale Repertory Chorus, and has guest-conducted the Swarthmore College Orchestra, the Cornell University Glee Club, and the Mansfield University Concert Choir. He served from 2004-2006 as the assistant conductor of the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus, and was assistant conductor of the San Francisco Bach Choir from 2005-2007.
Gregorio has studied composition with Steven Stucky, David Conte, Richard Brodhead, and Matthew Greenbaum, and undertaken additional study with Alice Parker. He holds a M.M. in composition with departmental honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University, and a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University. While at Yale, he studied with Marguerite Brooks and Simon Carrington, and received the Edward Stanley Seder, Richard French, and Hugh Giles prizes in choral conducting; while at Cornell, he was the recipient of the Ellen Gussman Adelson scholarship in music. Gregorio has participated in the Oregon Bach Festival’s Composers’ Symposium and the summer program of the European American Musical Alliance. He was a professor of music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2008-2009. He also taught music theory at Temple University from 2011-2012, where he is presently a candidate for the D.M.A. in composition and was the recipient of a Presidential Fellowship.
For more information about Joseph Gregorio, please visit www.josephgregoriomusic.com.
Choral Chameleon has premiered the following works by Joseph Gregorio:
JOSEPH GREGORIO
A native of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Joseph Gregorio is equally at home composing and conducting. Gregorio’s compositions have been commissioned by numerous performers, ensembles, and organizations including Cantus, the American Choral Directors Association, The Esoterics, and the Ives Collective. His music has been broadcast on American Public Media’s Performance Today and WQXR’s Choral Mix, has garnered prizes in several competitions, and has been performed in the United States and abroad by numerous and renowned soloists and ensembles at such venues as the Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the National Cathedral, and the Basilica di San Marco in Venice. Gregorio was selected as a 2015 grantee by the Ann Stookey Fund for New Music. His music is published by Areté Music Imprints, E. C. Schirmer Music Company, Walton Music, and Imagine Music Publishing, and has been recorded by the choirs of the St. Olaf Christmas Festival, Concerto Della Donna, the Washington Men’s Camerata, the John Alexander Singers, the Philadelphia Gay Men’s Chorus, the Penn State Glee Club, the Rutgers University Glee Club, the Cornell University Glee Club, The Capital Hearings, and Duo Del Sol.
Also active as a conductor, Gregorio is director of choirs at Swarthmore College. From 2011-2016 he directed chamber choir Ensemble Companio, which he founded in 2011 and which won the 2012 American Prize in choral performance. Gregorio has co-conducted the Yale Recital Chorus and the Yale Repertory Chorus, and has guest-conducted the Swarthmore College Orchestra, the Cornell University Glee Club, and the Mansfield University Concert Choir. He served from 2004-2006 as the assistant conductor of the San Francisco Conservatory Chorus, and was assistant conductor of the San Francisco Bach Choir from 2005-2007.
Gregorio has studied composition with Steven Stucky, David Conte, Richard Brodhead, and Matthew Greenbaum, and undertaken additional study with Alice Parker. He holds a M.M. in composition with departmental honors from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, a M.M. in choral conducting from Yale University, and a B.A. magna cum laude in music from Cornell University. While at Yale, he studied with Marguerite Brooks and Simon Carrington, and received the Edward Stanley Seder, Richard French, and Hugh Giles prizes in choral conducting; while at Cornell, he was the recipient of the Ellen Gussman Adelson scholarship in music. Gregorio has participated in the Oregon Bach Festival’s Composers’ Symposium and the summer program of the European American Musical Alliance. He was a professor of music theory and musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2008-2009. He also taught music theory at Temple University from 2011-2012, where he is presently a candidate for the D.M.A. in composition and was the recipient of a Presidential Fellowship.
For more information about Joseph Gregorio, please visit www.josephgregoriomusic.com.
Choral Chameleon has premiered the following works by Joseph Gregorio:
- Look Back on Time with Kindly Eyes (Text by Emily Dickinson) - SSSAAATTTBBB Chorus, unaccompanied.
Click here to purchase the score. - O Magnum Mysterium - SATB Chorus, unaccompanied. Click here to purchase the score.
- Wine Songs - SATB Chorus, harp. Click here to purchase the score.
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Wine Songs, Movement I by Joseph Gregorio (March, 2012)
Performed by Choral Chameleon: Ensemble |
2009 – 2010: Jeffrey parola
2009 – 2010
JEFFREY PAROLA
Jeffrey Parola is an American composer of numerous orchestral, chamber, and choral/vocal works. His music is varied and eclectic, reflecting a wide range of musical influences. Jeffrey’s recent major professional commissions include Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, written for clarinetist Paul Green and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra and conductor Stewart Robertson, which premiered to critical acclaim in Florida in March 2014. this view of life, a piece for chorus and string quartet, was written for Choral Chameleon, directed by Vince Peterson, which premiered in New York City in May 2013. Commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Pacific Serenades, Three Divertimenti for bassoon and string quartet received its premiere performances on 21 & 25 June 2014. Upcoming commissions include a piece for 2 pianos for Hocket in 2015, and a piece for the BluePrint New Music Ensemble, to be premiered in Spring 2016 with Nicole Paiement conducting.
Jeffrey is the recipient of numerous notable honors. In 2009, he was awarded the Jim Highsmith Orchestral Composition Prize for his large orchestral work, The Long Valley, which led to a public performance of the piece by the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, led by Maestro Andrew Mogrelia. Jeffrey received an honorable mention for the 2009 European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) Prize for his work, Sempiterna, a 25-minute pseudo-requiem for a cappella chorus, and three years later, Jeffrey was awarded the 2012 EAMA Prize for The Long Valley. In 2013, Jeffrey was selected by a committee of philanthropists and musicians to receive the Rappaport Prize for Music Composition, which culminated in a commission to write his Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra for the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. In 2014, his 5 Short Pieces for solo piano was awarded the Peter David Faith Endowed Memorial Award in Composition at the University of Southern California. Also in 2014, Jeffrey was chosen to be the recipient of the 2016 Hoefer Prize, the highest award granted to distinguished alumni composers from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Prize involves the commissioning of a new work and a week-long residency at the Conservatory in the spring of 2016, which includes lectures and student mentorship.
A committed educator, Jeffrey serves as an instructor on the faculty at the University of Southern California, where he teaches Aural Skills and Theory. He is a recurring composition faculty member for the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute, which is a New York City-based summer program for composers and conductors, designed to immerse composers and conductors of choral music in real-world, practical learning experiences.
Also an active performer, Jeffrey is an organist, conductor, and vocalist. He is presently the organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Hollywood, and he has sung professionally with several highly acclaimed ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Schola Cantorum San Francisco.
For more information about Jeffrey Parola, please visit www.parola.org
Choral Chameleon has premiered the following works by Jeffrey Parola:
JEFFREY PAROLA
Jeffrey Parola is an American composer of numerous orchestral, chamber, and choral/vocal works. His music is varied and eclectic, reflecting a wide range of musical influences. Jeffrey’s recent major professional commissions include Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra, written for clarinetist Paul Green and the Atlantic Classical Orchestra and conductor Stewart Robertson, which premiered to critical acclaim in Florida in March 2014. this view of life, a piece for chorus and string quartet, was written for Choral Chameleon, directed by Vince Peterson, which premiered in New York City in May 2013. Commissioned by the Los Angeles-based Pacific Serenades, Three Divertimenti for bassoon and string quartet received its premiere performances on 21 & 25 June 2014. Upcoming commissions include a piece for 2 pianos for Hocket in 2015, and a piece for the BluePrint New Music Ensemble, to be premiered in Spring 2016 with Nicole Paiement conducting.
Jeffrey is the recipient of numerous notable honors. In 2009, he was awarded the Jim Highsmith Orchestral Composition Prize for his large orchestral work, The Long Valley, which led to a public performance of the piece by the San Francisco Conservatory Orchestra, led by Maestro Andrew Mogrelia. Jeffrey received an honorable mention for the 2009 European American Musical Alliance (EAMA) Prize for his work, Sempiterna, a 25-minute pseudo-requiem for a cappella chorus, and three years later, Jeffrey was awarded the 2012 EAMA Prize for The Long Valley. In 2013, Jeffrey was selected by a committee of philanthropists and musicians to receive the Rappaport Prize for Music Composition, which culminated in a commission to write his Concerto for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra for the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. In 2014, his 5 Short Pieces for solo piano was awarded the Peter David Faith Endowed Memorial Award in Composition at the University of Southern California. Also in 2014, Jeffrey was chosen to be the recipient of the 2016 Hoefer Prize, the highest award granted to distinguished alumni composers from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. The Prize involves the commissioning of a new work and a week-long residency at the Conservatory in the spring of 2016, which includes lectures and student mentorship.
A committed educator, Jeffrey serves as an instructor on the faculty at the University of Southern California, where he teaches Aural Skills and Theory. He is a recurring composition faculty member for the Choral Chameleon Summer Institute, which is a New York City-based summer program for composers and conductors, designed to immerse composers and conductors of choral music in real-world, practical learning experiences.
Also an active performer, Jeffrey is an organist, conductor, and vocalist. He is presently the organist and choirmaster at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Hollywood, and he has sung professionally with several highly acclaimed ensembles, including the San Francisco Symphony Chorus and Schola Cantorum San Francisco.
For more information about Jeffrey Parola, please visit www.parola.org
Choral Chameleon has premiered the following works by Jeffrey Parola:
- Such Beautiful Things (Libretto by Tony Asaro) - SATB Chorus, SATB soloists, piano four-hands
- Sempiterna - SATB Chorus, unaccompanied (East Coast premiere)
- The Giant Mirror (Text by Federico Garcia Lorca) - SATB Double Chorus, unaccompanied (East Coast premiere)
- Stars (Text by Robert Frost) - SATB Chorus, unaccompanied
- this view of life (Text by Charles Darwin) - SATB Chorus, string quartet
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this view of life by Jeffrey Parola (May, 2013)
Performed by Choral Chameleon: Ensemble |
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