Music of the Last Ten Years Course Blog

  Menelaos Peistikos is a Greek composer and pianist currently based in Toronto, Canada. His music is inspired by an extreme variety of musical genres, ranging from baroque and renaissance music to contemporary classical and cinematic music, as well as from folk Greek to Japanese, Tibetan, and Indonesian Gamelan music. Peistikos is also heavily influenced by other artistic disciplines, especially by the oeuvres of Plato, Albert Camus, Friedrich Nietzsche, Alan Watts, and Edward Hopper. For Sun's Light: Molinari Quartet In February 2019, Menelaos won the  3rd Prize  and  1st Prize of Public  at the  7th Molinari String Quartet Composition Competition  in Montreal, Canada, for his string-quartet composition  For Sun’s light . In December 2018, he won the 2nd Prize at the  4th Opus Dissonus International Composition Competition  for solo piano in Brazil for his composition  On the Vision and The Riddle .  On the Vision and the Riddle He is a current student at the University of Toront

When one thinks of contemporary works featuring the clarinet they likely think of the standard Bb clarinet or the bass clarinet. Rarely does one’s mind go towards the E-flat clarinet. Most know the E-flat clarinet as the highest pitched standard clarinet in the orchestra. Though an optional auxiliary instrument, composers such as Berlioz, Strauss, and Mahler wrote famous E-flat clarinet orchestral solos, taking advantage of the instrument’s comic and strident qualities. Recent compositions include the E-flat clarinet in solo and concerto contexts previously unheard of. These compositions require the E-flat clarinetist to perform with the same flexibility and range that clarinetists possess on larger members of the clarinet family. Oscar Navarro’s “III Concerto” for Bb/Eb clarinet utilizes the E-flat clarinet as an extension of the B-flat clarinet, allowing the clarinetist to perform with a widened range of pitch and timbre. Jenni Brandon’s Stardust demonstrates the auxiliary techniques

Dr. Theresa Martin is a composer and clarinetist whose works have achieved international recognition. Martin is influenced heavily by nature and personal musical experiences and as a result these influences can be very apparent in both the names and style of her pieces. Martin first achieved compositional note when she composed a piece for her two clarinet professors Dr. Robert Spring and Dr. Jorge Montilla in 2004. The piece was called solar flare and it was Martin’s conception of what it might be like to pass a solar flare. The piece was recorded by the two teachers and eventually performed at International Clarinet Fest. As a result of this her works have become staples at virtually every clarinet fest since. Much of her works are unaccompanied and have been performed and dissipated to clarinet players from her alma mater Arizona State University. Theresa has also seen some of her works for larger ensembles receive major recognition as well. Recently her orchestral pieces have been

Valerie Coleman is a Grammy-nominated composer and flutist.  She was a founding member of the Imani Winds wind quintet and is a current performer with the harp-viola-flute trio Umama Womama.  She is also currently the Clara Mannes Fellow for Music Leadership at the Mannes School of Music, serving on the flute and composition faculty.  Coleman has appeared with many orchestras, chamber groups, and on many records throughout her career.                                                                             She is also an accomplished composer and arranger.  In 2019 and 2020, the Philadelphia Orchestra commissioned her to arrange Umoja and write “Seven O’Clock Shout,” respectively.  Her piece Umoja has taken many forms, including wind quintet, concert band, and flute choir.  The word umoja is the Swahili word for “unity” and is the word associated with the first day of Kwanzaa.  The piece contains a call and response theme that represents unity in the music.  Seven O’Clock Shout was