Kirsten Broberg
Assistant Professor of Composition
Email: Kirsten.Broberg@unt.edu
Phone: 940-369-7040
www.kirstenbroberg.com
The music of Kirsten Broberg has been performed by internationally recognized ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Crossing Contemporary Choir, the International Contemporary Ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Jack Quartet, Ensemble Dal Niente,the New Millennium Orchestra, the Sonic Inertia Dance and Performance Group, Third Coast Percussion, the University of Minnesota Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Olaf Philharmonia Orchestra. Her music has been heard at events such as Nuovi Spazi Festival at the American Academy in Rome, Italy; the Ensems Festival for Contemporary Music in Valencia, Spain; Sonic Fusion Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland; the International Contemporary Ensemble New York and Chicago ICE Fests; theJune in Buffalo Festival in Buffalo, New York; Sonic Impact at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Illinois; Electronic Music Midwest Conference in Chicago, Illinois; the Sound Field New and Experimental Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois, and the Opera Cabal Multimedia Festival in Chicago, Illinois.
Among Broberg's awards and grants are the Fromm Foundation Commissioning Grant from Harvard University, three Encore Grants from the American Composers Forum, two William T. Faricy Awards at Northwestern University, three Wyatt fund grants from Northwestern University, first place in the Accent '04 International Call for StringQuartets at Cincinnati Conservatory and first place in the University of Minnesota Call for Orchestral Scores. Broberg earned a Bachelor ofMusic degree in music theory/composition and a minor in creative writing from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota in 2001; a Master of Arts in music composition from the University of Minnesota in 2003; and graduated with honors with a doctorate in music composition at Northwestern University. Her primary composition instructors at Northwestern University included Augusta Read Thomas, Jason Eckardt and Jay Alan Yim. She also studied music composition privately with Kaija Saariaho, Tristan Murail and Philippe Hurel in France in summer 2013.
Minnesota Public Radio's Alison Young featured her music in a broadcast and live interview entitled "Kirsten Broberg gets her Big Break" in 2013. Trevor Hunter with the American Music Center released the article and radio broadcast, "Kirsten Broberg in the Abstract" in 2009. Broberg's solo piano piece, "Constellations," recorded by Matthew McCright, was released by Innova Records in May 2009 and her choir piece “Breathturn,” recorded by conductor Donald Nally and the Crossing Contemporary Choir was released by Parma/Navona records 2011. Broberg's Resonant Strands cycle for piano, bowed piano and string quartet recorded by Winston Choi with the Spektral Quartet will soon be released.
Broberg is passionate entrepreneur and advocate for the arts. She co-founded and currently co-directs the Minneapolis-based group Ensemble 61. Broberg also founded the Chicago-based not-for-profit contemporary music group Ensemble Dal Niente in 2004 and served as the Executive Director for six years. She was also the President of the Northwestern University Graduate Music Organization from 2005-2008, theMusic Composition Chair for the 2005 Midwest Graduate Music Consortiumand has served on the Board of Directors for New Music Chicago, the Steering Committee for the Chicago Composers Forum and on the 2006 Northwestern University New Music Marathon planning committee.
Also an accomplished instructor, Broberg has taught undergraduate through graduate level music theory, composition, contemporary music, form and analysis, counterpoint, music history, world music, popular music, jazz music, song writing and music production at institutions such as Northwestern University in Chicago, University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, Saint Olaf College in Northfield. Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago, University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, North Park University in Chicago and the Art Institutes International in Minneapolis. She is currently an Associate Professor of Music Composition at the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas.
Joseph Klein
Chair of Composition Studies
Professor of Composition
Email: joseph.klein@unt.edu
Phone: 940-565-4926
Born in Los Angeles in 1962, Joseph Klein is a composer of solo, chamber, and large ensemble works, including instrumental, vocal, electroacoustic, and intermedia compositions. His music reflects an ongoing interest in processes drawn from such sources as fractal geometry, chaos, and systems theory, often inspired by natural phenomena. His works frequently incorporate theatrical elements, whether as a component of the extra-musical references or as an organic outgrowth of the musical narrative itself. Literature is another important influence on Klein’s work, with recent compositions based on the writings of Franz Kafka, Elias Canetti, Alice Fulton, W.S. Merwin, Milan Kundera, and John Ashbery, among others. Klein’s compositions have been performed and broadcast internationally, and he has been a featured guest composer at academic institutions, performance venues, conferences, and music festivals throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His works have been recognized by such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Composers Forum/Jerome Foundation, the American Music Center, the Gaudeamus Foundation of Amsterdam, and ASCAP. His recorded works are available on the Innova, Centaur, Crystal, and Mark labels.
Klein holds degrees in composition from Indiana University (DM, 1991), University of California, San Diego (MA, 1986), and California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (BA, 1984). His composition teachers have included Harvey Sollberger, Claude Baker, Robert Erickson, and Roger Reynolds. He is currently Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas College of Music, where he has served as Chair of Composition Studies since 1999.
Visit Dr. Klein's personal web site.
Panayiotis Kokoras
Assistant Professor of Composition
Email: Panayiotis.Kokoras@unt.edu
Phone: 940-565-4651
Panayiotis Kokoras studied composition with Yannis Ioannides, Henri Kergomard, and classical guitar with Evangelos Asimakopoulos in Athens, Greece. In 1999 he moved to England for postgraduate study at the University of York where he completed his MA and PhD in composition with Tony Myatt. His works have been commissioned by institutes and festivals such as the Fromm Music Foundation (Harvard), IRCAM (France), MATA (New York), Gaudeamus (Netherlands), ZKM (Germany), IMEB (France), Siemens Musikstiftung (Germany) and have been performed in over 400 concerts around the world. His compositions have received 52 distinctions and prizes in international competitions, and have been selected by juries in more than 130 international calls for scores. He is founding member of the Hellenic Electroacoustic Music Composers Association (HELMCA) and from 2004 to 2012 he was board member and president. Kokoras’ sound compositions develop functional classification and matching sound systems written on what he calls Holophonic Musical Texture. As an educator, Kokoras has taught at the Technological and Educational Institute of Crete, and, the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (Greece). Since fall 2012 he has been appointed Assistant Professor at the University of North Texas.
Andrew May
Assistant Professor of Compostion
Email: andrew.may@unt.edu
Andrew May is a composer and computer music researcher whose music has been performed in Japan, Korea, Singapore, Greece, Switzerland, Germany, England, and throughout the United States. He recently joined the composition faculty at the University of North Texas, where he is also director of the Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia (CEMI). Born and raised in Chicago, May received his PhD from University of California at San Diego, where he studied composition with Roger Reynolds, computer music with Miller Puckette and improvisation with George Lewis. He has also studied composition with Mel Powell and violin with Laura Kuennen-Poper at the California Institute of the Arts, where he received his MFA in composition and violin performance; and with Jonathan Berger, John Sichel, and Deniz Ulben at Yale University, where he received his BA in music (summa cum laude). He studied computer music at the Stage d'Informatique Musicale at IRCAM in 1998.
May has composed for orchestra, chorus, wind ensemble, and diverse other forces; he is best known for chamber music in which some of the performers are computer systems. May's music has been presented widely in festivals and conferences (June in Buffalo, National Flute Association Convention, Third International New Music Festival in Las Vegas, Southeastern Composers' League, Darmstadt Summer Courses, Arcosanti Young Composers' Conference), new music concert series (LA Philharmonic Green Umbrella Series, New Music Circle of St. Louis, Birmingham Art Music Alliance), and music schools (Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Peabody, Curtis, Brown, Dartmouth, Louisiana State, San Francisco State, Sookmyung University). May has presented computer music and research at such venues as SEAMUS National Conferences, International Computer Music Conferences, Third Practice Festivals, Electronic Music Midwest, and Scarborough Electro Acoustic.
May has written pieces for the EAR Unit, SONOR, Canto Battuto (voice and percussion), clarinetist F. Gerard Errante, percussionists Robert Damm, Vanessa Tomlinson, and Brett Reed, flutist Elizabeth McNutt, violinists Jonathan Dubay and Persephone Gibbs, the Third Unitarian Church Ensemble of Chicago, and the Yale Bach Society Orchestra. May's music can be heard on Music from SEAMUS Volumes 9 and 15 and on Elizabeth McNutt's solo CD pipe wrench.
Also a violinist, improviser, and conductor, May has performed in Germany and Switzerland and across the United States, and has been recorded on CRI. He is co-founder of the contemporary mic presenting organization Atomic Clock Music Events, and serves as Americas regional director, Secretary, and Treasurer for the International Computer Music Association. May's work has been supported by grants from the American Music Center, the Center for Research and Creative Work at the University of Colorado, and numerous commissions.
