University of  Florida,   School of Music

ufmusic.composition(students)

Ph.D.

Russell Brown (MM '04, PhD)

Russell Brown is currently pursuing a PhD in Music Composition at the University of Florida. As a member of the Society of Composers, Inc., Mr. Brown's works have been performed on local concerts, the Region IV conference and the National Student Conference. Mr. Brown also holds an M.M. in Music Composition from the University of Florida, an M.M. in Music Performance from The Ohio State University and a B.M. in Music Performance from Valdosta State University. He regularly performs contemporary music in various chamber groups and is currently a member of the Gainesville (FL) Chamber Orchestra, the Albany (GA) Symphony Orchestra, the Central Florida Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with The Florida Orchestra (Tampa) and the Valdosta (GA) Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Brown's composition teachers include: Dr. Paul Koonce, Dr. James Paul Sain, Dr. Paul Richards, and Dr. Thomas Wells.

Michael Deall (PhD:ABD)

is currently a PhD doctoral candidate. He completed his BM at Ithaca College, Ithaca, NY with a double major in Piano Performance and Music Composition, and his MA at New York University in Composition. Michael's works have been performed overseas in Italy in such cities as Bari, Trani, Rome, Florence & Assisi, many New York venues, The University of Florida, Society of Composers, American Composer's Alliance, The University of Indiana @ Bloomington, the Mahidol College of Music in Salaya, Thailand, Bucharest, Romania, Berlin, Germany and Wroclaw, Poland. Michael will be the Composer-In-Residence at the Constanta International Music Days in Romania where his String Quartet will receive its premiere. [website]

Travis Garrison (PhD)

Travis Garrison is a composer, audio engineer, and electronic musician. His compositions include both purely electronic works for fixed media and interactive works that treat acoustic and electronic instruments and performers as equals. Current research interests include data sonification and computer-based improvisational systems. He holds a BA in Computer Music and Composition from the University of California, San Diego, and an MA in Electroacoustic Music from Dartmouth College. Travis is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at The University of Florida.

Seung Hye Kim (PhD)

a native of Korea, received her BM in piano performance from Seoul National University and MA in electro-acoustic music compositionfrom Korean National University of Arts. Her music and collaborative pieces have been performed in many international festivals such as FEMF, LITSK, SICMF, DINMAF, MODAFE, ICMC, SEAMUS, and SIGGRAPH. Recently, she has completed a collaboratice site-specific performance, "Accented Body", held at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia with over 30 artists from Australia, UK, Japan, and Korea.

Matthew McCabe (PhD)

Matthew McCabe is a 4th year Ph.D. student from Winchester, VA. His travels have taken him to the University of Richmond, Bowling Green State University, and many other places. Currently he is teaching Music 1360, the introductory technology class, and working in the cognitive neuroscience lab of Dr. Jamie Reilly in the department of Communicative Disorders. His dissertation will approach contemporary music through the lens of neuropsychology, and address topics like synaesthesia, sensory integration, expertise effects, and cross-modal perception. [website]

Sean Peuquet (PhD)

Sean is a second-year Ph.D. composition student, originally from Philadelphia, PA. His compositions have been played at the Electronic Music Midwest Festival, ICMC, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, the Boston CyberArts Festival, and the Dartmouth Festival of New Musics, among other spots. Before coming to Florida, he graduated from the Electro-Acoustic Music masters program at Dartmouth College. At Dartmouth, he explored the topic of Discoverable Composition, which deals with the composition of pieces where an audience is not explicitly aware of music happening in their environment. In undergraduate school, at the University of Virginia, he studied music, psychology, and astronomy. [website]

Thomas Royal (PhD)

The music of Thomas Royal is concerned with the dissolution and combination of musical identities by employing both traditional and experimental compositional techniques and technologies. His electronic works often explore humankind's relationship to technology through creative inclusions of the human voice. In addition to this, he has been investigating alternative performance paradigms made possible through the use of custom electronic controllers and novel performance interfaces.

His music was performed at the 2007 conference of the SECL and he has won first prize in the APSU 2007 Young Composer's Competition. His piece Soft Stings of a Cold Dead Image was recently performed at the 2008 SEAMUS National Conference. He earned his B.S. in Music Composition from Austin Peay State University under Jeffrey Wood. Currently he pursues a Masters in Music composition at UNC Greensboro where he studies with Alejandro Rutty and Mark Engebretson.
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Chris Sharp (PhD)

Chris Sharp is a PhD composition student also studying conducting and wind literature. In addition to his graduate teaching assistant duties, he contributes musical arrangements for the Gator Marching Band and the UF jazz bands. He currently has over 100 published works in the catalogs of The FJH Music Company, Alfred Publishing, Jalen/Matrix Publishing, Lorenz Music, Wehr's Music House and Cyberwinds Music. He has served the music field in many capacities, including 13 years as a trombonist for the Walt Disney World Co. and four years as a band director at West Orange High School in Orlando.

Mr. Sharp has served the Disney parks worldwide as an arranger and orchestrator since 1984. In addition, he maintains an active freelance business as a commissioned writer, teacher, adjudicator and clinician. His past clients have included The Boston Pops, Universal Studios, McDonald's Corp., Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, The Dallas Brass, and several service bands including the famed USAF "Airmen of Note". In each year since 2002, Mr. Sharp has had pieces performed at the prestigious Midwest Band Clinic in Chicago. He received ASCAPlus awards for sales of his published works in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. [website]
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Michael Solomon (PhD)

a composer of occasionally compromising, sometimes marketable, and not-too-abstruse modern classical music. A graduate of Stanford University (BA Music Composition) and Queen?s University Belfast (MA Composition), he currently studies at the University of Florida with Paul Koonce, James Paul Sain, and Paul Richard?s. Believing with every fiber of his being in the exploration and development of new ideas, he composes without regard for consistency in medium, duration, form, harmony, rhythm, volume, timbre, expression, or any particular technical/stylistic milieu. He is currently working on a series of tone paeans to his adopted home of Ireland, hovering in the ideological middleground between Ma Vlast and An American in Paris.

Chester Udell (MM '08, PhD)

From the swamps of Wewahitchka, Florida, Chester Udell received his Bachelor of Music/Digital Arts from Stetson University (2005). His work engages issues of interactivity for electro-acoustic performances through the use of alternative controllers, creating electro-acoustic compositions in Csound and supercollider, as well as composing for acoustic instruments. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of Florida.
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Jorge Variego (PhD)

Jorge Elias Variego is a clarinetist and composer. Born in Rosario, Argentina - he received his bachelor Degree from the National University of Rosario and Masters Degree from Carnegie Mellon University - studying composition with Dante Grela and Leonardo Balada, and clarinet with Mariano Frogioni and Michael Rusinek. He was awarded 1st prize in the "Carlos Guastavino" composition contest (Mozarteum Santa Fe, Argentina), 1st prize in the "Jorge Pena Hen" composition contest for youths orchestras sponsored by the Foundation of Youths Orchestras of Chile, Premio Tribunas de Musica Argentina 2007 sponsored by Fundacion Encuentros de Musica Contemporenea, among other distinctions. He is now is pursuing his PhD in Composition at the University of Florida in Gainesville, where he lives with his wife and son.

Masters

Sarah Hersh (MM)

Sarah Hersh, a newly minted Floridian originally from New York, composes primarily acoustic new music. She is interested in exploring the implications of feminism in music and enjoys writing for nontraditional ensembles. She holds a BA in music from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota and is currently pursuing her Master of Music degree in composition at the University of Florida. Prior to coming to UF she worked for the American Music Center. Present and former teachers include Paul Richards, Paul Koonce, Phillip Rhodes, Conrad Cummings, Michael Wittgraf, and Roger Ames. Sarah is President of the UF Chapter of the Society of Composers, Inc.

Braxton Sherouse (MM)

Braxton is busy creating SVN repositories of his SVN repositories.

Undergraduates