Composition
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"I really think it's important to link music theory with the practice of music. I'm actively playing as a hornist, and equally actively creating contemporary concert music as a composer. In the classroom we'll do a counterpoint assignment together on the board. I'll start by putting something up, then have everybody in the class contribute a measure or two, eventually leading up to writing a whole exercise. By the end, when I play what we've written out of thin air on the piano, there's a real feeling of accomplishment."
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Allen LeVines, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Composition Department
"I try to help students become aware of how much there is out there in any given field. In the orchestration courses I teach, I have a listening list, and students take an exam based on that listening list at some point during the semester. The list is long; it might be a hundred pieces or more. . . . There is a sense in which it is asking too much—to be able to identify any of the pieces from 30-second excerpts. On the other hand, if students take the assignment seriously and listen to half a dozen to a dozen pieces a day—just getting to know some of the themes in the piece—perhaps they will realize what they may have thought was a lake of music is really an ocean, or several oceans."
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- B.A., Harvard University
- M.S., D.M.A., the Juilliard School
- President of Rhythm, Rhyme, Results, an educational rap music company
- CEO and creative director of Belvedere Productions, a music production company specializing in educational materials
- Guest conductor with the New York Philharmonic; the Cleveland Orchestra; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; the National Symphony (Washington, D.C.); the symphonies of San Francisco, Toronto, Houston, and Dallas; and the Boston Pops
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Vuk Kulenovic, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Composition Department- M.A., Belgrade Music Academy
- Former professor of composition and analysis, Belgrade Music Academy
- Compositions include over 100 works for symphony orchestra, solo instruments, chamber ensembles, choral and vocal pieces, ballet, and scores for film and stage music
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James Reyes, Associate Professor
DEPARTMENT : Composition Department"Our courses are designed to give students a foundation in classical music and theory, and in conducting. These are skills they learn that they can apply to all kinds of music, both classical and pop. They're learning something about themselves in terms of leadership and in terms of how they present themselves in front of people. I always tell them that these are basic people skills as well as specifically musical skills they're learning."
Read More- Undergraduate work in film scoring, Berklee College of Music
- Graduate studies in classical composition and music theory, Boston University
- Commissions and performances from many professional solo artists and performing ensembles, including the New Millennium Ensemble, Alea III, Boston Composers String Quartet, Tapestry, Krousis, Pandora's Vox, Ives Quartet, Seraphim Singers, as well as on National Public Radio and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
- Cofounder of Crosscurrents, a new music platform dedicated to performing the works of young and emerging composers
- Copresident of Composers in Red Sneakers
Ronny Feldman, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Composition Department- B.F.A., Boston University
- Conductor and cellist, Berkshire Symphony Orchestra, Boston Conservatory Orchestra
- Member, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Orchestra
- Recipient of two ASCAP Awards for Adventuresome Programming
- Conductor of performances with the Boston Symphony, Boston Pops, St. Louis Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, and Quebec Symphony
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Scott Fessler, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Composition Department"In the composition courses I teach, we're dealing with a body of knowledge that dates back a couple of centuries, so I try to show the connection to more recent compositions. 'Over the Rainbow,' for example, fits into an eighteeth-century European structure almost perfectly. After we analyze it in class, I make the point that it's one of the most commercially successful pieces of songcraft that has ever been created. We start talking about why that's true, and that its elements, in terms of organization and melody, are also true for a Beatles tune or a piece by Bach. Those all have universal elements of construction that are effective and timeless."
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George Monseur, Professor
DEPARTMENT : Composition Department- B.M., Arizona State University
- M.M., New England Conservatory of Music
- Conducting studies with Leopold Stokowsky, Leonard Bernstein, Leon Barzin, and Attilio Poto
- Appearances with Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, National Radio/Television Orchestra of Athens, National Symphony of Costa Rica, and International Music Festival of Caracas