Dr. amelia kaplan: Co-Director
Amelia Kaplan is a composer who seeks to create meaning by crafting, juxtaposing, and recontextualizing refined gestures drawn from the riotous mix of sounds and cultures cohabiting in our increasingly fragmented world. In recent years her music has mostly responded to the political and ecological crises beseting our planet which we, as humans, seem to have no will to prevent. Ms. Kaplan has had residencies at Copland House, MacDowell, Ucross, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has received commissions from the International Mise-En Festival, No Exit New Music Ensemble, the Bent Frequency Duo Project, DoublePlay Percussion Duo, Violet, The University of Chicago, guitarist Paul Reilly, and bassoonist Benjamin Coelho, among others. Her works have been performed at international and national conferences, including the Thailand International New Music Festival, SICPP, International Alliance for Women in Music, Wellesley Composers Conference, Gaudeamus, Darmstadt, June in Buffalo, and numerous SCI conferences. Recordings are available on Albany, Ablaze, Centaur, and Navona Records, and her double reed compositions are published by TrevCo Music. Ms. Kaplan holds degrees from the University of Chicago (PhD, A.M) and Princeton University (A.B.), and she received a Diploma di Merito from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana and a Diploma from the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau. She has been on the faculty at Ball State University since 2011, where she is Area Head of Theory & Composition and directs the New Music Ensemble. She previously taught at Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Iowa, and Roosevelt University. For more info: https://www.ameliaskaplan.com
Dr. CHIN TING (patrick) CHAN: Co-Director
Hong Kong-American composer Chin Ting CHAN has been a fellow and guest composer at festivals such as IRCAM's ManiFeste, the ISCM World Music Days Festival, and UNESCO International Rostrum of Composers. He has worked with ensembles such as the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong, Ensemble intercontemporain, Ensemble Metamorphosis, Ensemble Signal, eighth blackbird, Hong Kong New Music Ensemble, Mivos Quartet, and Rosetta Contemporary Ensemble, with performances in more than twenty countries. His recordings are published with ABLAZE Records, Darling's Acoustical Delight, New Focus Recordings, PARMA Recordings, Phasma-Music, and RMN Classical. His scores are available through BabelScores. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Music Composition at Ball State University. He holds a D.M.A. degree from the University of Missouri–Kansas City, as well as degrees from Bowling Green State University and San José State University. www.chintingchan.com
Amy brandon: Co-Director AND FOUNDER
Canadian composer Amy Brandon's pieces have been described as '... mesmerizing' (Musicworks Magazine) and ‘Otherworldly and meditative ... [a] clashing of bleakness with beauty …’ (Minor Seventh). Upcoming 2019-20 events include premieres by Upstream Ensemble and Symphony Nova Scotia (Halifax), KIRKOS Ensemble (Ireland) and Exponential Ensemble (NYC) as well as guitar performances at Winnipeg New Music Festival, the Canadian Music Centre and the centre d’experimentation musicale in Quebec. She has received Canadian and international composition awards from the Leo Brouwer Guitar Composition Competition (Grand Prize) and the Central European String Quartet ('Most Innovative'). She has performed in Canada, the USA, Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, the UK and is currently completing an interdisciplinary PhD in music cognition at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
CONTACT: 21CGuitarConference@gmail.com
TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: michelle LaCour
Michelle LaCour is an ECMA and MusicNL award-nominated audio engineer in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador. After earning a Bachelor of Music in piano and historical musicology from Memorial University of Newfoundland, she went on to complete a Masters of Music in sound recording at McGill University, where she worked as an audio engineer and as a camera operator and director for the Schulich School of Music webcast series. Michelle has worked as a recording, mixing, and mastering engineer for classical and jazz ensembles, folk and pop acts, rock bands, and electronic artists. She has worked as a videographer, producer, and livestream engineer; as a live sound engineer at venues across Eastern Canada; and has held Technical Director roles for various festivals and conferences including the Sound Symposium, Lawnya Vawnya, the Tuckamore Festival, and the 21st Century Guitar. She has worked on a number of films and theatrical productions as a sound designer and composer, and her work as a location sound recordist has taken her all over our beautiful province. Michelle is also an educator, mentoring emerging audio engineers and giving workshops on topics such as location sound recording; music recording, mixing, and mastering; and videography.
jeff seitz
After graduating with an undergraduate degree in Music Engineering Technology and a Master in Music degree from Ball State University, Jeff worked as a freelance engineer at Gaither Studios, Alexandra, IN. Jeff returned to Ball State to work as the Audio/Digital System's Engineer for the School of Music. He worked closely with architects, administration, faculty and audio integrators in the facility design, equipment choice, and system integration of Ball State's eleven studios for music technology in the new Music Instruction Building. Currently, Jeff teaches recording techniques, analog electronics, and studio maintenance as part of Ball State's undergraduate music technology curriculum. In between his system engineering and teaching responsibilities, Jeff engineers a few independent recording projects a year.
dr. michael pounds
Michael Pounds is a professor of music theory and composition at Ball State University, where he teaches composition, acoustics, music perception, computer music, and related courses. His creative interests include electroacoustic compositions with and without instruments, computer-interface performance systems, interdisciplinary installations, instrument design and building, and electroacoustic ensemble performance. Past activities include performances at the Society of Composers, Inc. conferences, the International Computer Music Conference, the national conference of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the US, the MOXsonic festival, and others. In the past he has co-hosted national conferences of SCI and SEAMUS.
Joanne (Annie) King
Joanne (Annie) King is instructor of music at Ball State University and principal harpist with the Muncie Symphony Orchestra. A native of the Midwest, she has performed with orchestras throughout the region and beyond, including Marion Philharmonic, Anderson Symphony, the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and the U.S Army Field Band. She has been a soloist with the Ball State Symphony Orchestra and the Kishwaukee Symphony Orchestra.
Ms. King is an active chamber musician, with a special interest in new music and works that feature unusual instrumental combinations. She has performed works with instruments such as bass trombone, percussion, and steelpan. Ms. King is passionate in her pursuit of undiscovered and underperformed compositions for the harp and actively seeks out opportunities to bring such works to light.
In addition to performing, Ms. King is an enthusiastic teacher. She has previously taught harp at Earlham College and currently maintains a private studio. She has also given demonstrations for Together in Music, an outreach program that strives to bring musical experiences to children and adults in undeserved communities within Muncie and beyond, believing that the harp is an instrument that should be open to all who pursue it.
Ms. King began her studies in harp at the age of four, studying with Geraldine Elliot and later, Brittany Schultz. She earned her Bachelor of Music from Northern Illinois University, where she studied with Faye Seeman. She earned her Master of Music from Ball State University, studying with Elizabeth Richter and is currently a doctoral candidate in Ball State’s Doctor of Arts program, anticipating completion in December of 2020.