Previous Commissions
Derek David
Derek David is a composer, conductor, and music educator based in Boston, Massachusetts. His dramatic and vibrant music has been performed in both Europe and the United States and has received great recognition from audiences and critics alike. Since his first String Quartet (2011) – described as “a true musical jewel of the 21st Century (Sabino Pena, classiquenews.com) – Derek has been the recipient of the EAMA Nadia Boulanger Institute Prize (2011), the Morton Gould ASCAP Award (2011), first place in the 2015 American Prize in Composition–Chamber Music, and the 2018 SFCM Hoefer Prize.
He has been commissioned by the Juventas Ensemble, SAKURA Cello Quintet, Del Sol Quartet the Verona Quartet, the Sonica Quartet, The Sounding Board, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Derek is currently the musical director and conductor of ‘A Besere Velt’ - אַ בעסערע װעלט, one of three choirs in the world dedicated to the performance and preservation of Yiddish repertoire.
Derek studied composition at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music and received Masters and Doctoral degrees from The New England Conservatory. Previously a Teaching Fellow at Harvard University and five-time recipient of its Distinction in Teaching Award, he is now Lecturer in Music at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His areas of interest extend to Medieval theory and musicology, the Beatles, and music of the Yiddish world.
Sarah Gibson
Sarah Gibson was our featured composer for our 2024 season.
Sarah Gibson was a Los Angeles based composer and pianist whose works draw on her breadth of experience as a collaborative performer. Her compositions reflect her deep interest in the creative process across various artistic mediums—especially from the female perspective.
She has received a Copland House Residency and commissions from the League of American Orchestras and the Toulmin Foundation, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Tanglewood Music Center, Aspen Summer Music Festival & School, Grossman Ensemble, and Seattle Symphony, among others.
Gibson’s music has been described as “expansive” (LA Times) and has been performed by the BBC & Los Angeles Philharmonics, Atlanta, Seattle, and New Jersey Symphonies, Jennifer Koh, Departure Duo, HOCKET, and at various venues across the United States and in Europe. As a pianist, Sarah has performed with many of these ensembles as well as with Wild Up, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and the Atlanta Symphony where she debuted under the direction of Donald Runnicles in 2005.
Sarah is co-founder of the new music piano duo, HOCKET, which has been lauded as "brilliant" by the LA Times' Mark Swed, and is a core artist for the inimitable Los Angeles Series, Piano Spheres. HOCKET has held residencies at Avaloch Farm Music Institute and received grants from the Earle Brown Music Foundation and the Presser Foundation. HOCKET has performed at such festivals as the MATA Festival, the L.A. Philharmonic's Noon to Midnight, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, and the Other Minds Festival.
Sarah received degrees in Piano and Composition from Indiana University and the University of Southern California. She is Assistant Director for the esteemed Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program and Assistant Professor in Composition/Theory at the California State University, Long Beach Bob Cole Conservatory of Music where she also directed the New Music Ensemble.
Theo Chandler
Theo Chandler is a Houston-based composer of concert music and stage works. His music finds inspiration in the nuances of instrumental idiom, as well as the dramatic potential of soloistic outpourings within ensemble settings. Chandler is a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award, SCI/ASCAP Graduate Commission, American Prize for Vocal Chamber Music, Lili Boulanger Memorial Fund Award, Charles Ives Scholarship from the Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Graduate Music Award from the Presser Foundation. Chandler has received commissions from the New York Youth Symphony First Music Program, Tanglewood Music Center, Utah Arts Festival, Les Délices, Maryland Chamber Winds, and others. He was selected as a winner of Juilliard's Orchestra Competition, Juilliard's Gena Raps Competition, the New Juilliard Ensemble Competition, the Maryland Wind Festival Call for Scores, and was runner up for the Red Note New Music Festival Chamber Music Competition.
Chandler has been a fellow at the Cabrillo Festival Composers Workshop, Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme, Mizzou International Composers Festival, Tanglewood Music Center, Copland House Cultivate, and Aspen Music Festival. He has been the Composer in Residence for the Maryland Wind Festival, Young Artist Composer for Da Camera, Emerging Composer Fellow for Musiqa, Composer in Residence for Les Délices, Young Composer in Residence for the Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, and participated in the I-Park Composer + Musicians Collaborative Residency with Akropolis Reed Quintet.
Chandler holds degrees from Rice University (DMA), The Juilliard School (MM), and Oberlin Conservatory (BM). His composition teachers include Pierre Jalbert, Shih-Hui Chen, Karim Al-Zand, Anthony Brandt, Melinda Wagner, Samuel Adler, Steven Stucky, Lewis Nielson, and Dan Tacke.
Alishan Gezgin
To hear some of Alishan’s music, you can check out his SoundCloud.