Rapido Composition Contest

Southwest Region

Voices of Change

Voices Of Change

Founded in 1974, Voices of Change is the new music ensemble of Dallas, Texas. A Pierrot ensemble presents four concerts each year, plus outreach programs for students and adults. The ensemble has hosted 88 composers, presented over 60 world premieres (more than 25 commissioned by VOC), performed music by over 300 composers, and made numerous recordings, including 5 CDs.  In 1999, VOC was a finalist for a Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Small Classical Ensemble. VOC has been awarded the annual ASCAP Award for Adventuresome Programming five times.

voicesofchange.com

SOUTHWEST SEMI-FINALS CONCERT:

Voices of Change Rapido! Semi-Finals

September 29, 2018

Sammons Center for the Arts
Dallas, TX

Southwest Winner: Jason Gerraughty!

 

RAPIDO! TAKE FIVE!!
2018 SOUTHWEST REGION SEMI-FINALISTS:

Jason Gerraughty, Redlands, CA

From an early age, Jason Michael Gerraughty (b. 1982) played brass instruments in community bands, drum and bugle corps, musical pits, and orchestras in small towns throughout New England. These influences solidified a desire to create music of value to both amateur and seasoned listeners. A central tenet of his work is combining innovative approaches to form, color, and texture with a direct and intuitive musical framework. Gerraughty's music produces new and peculiar blooms from its roots in the classical tradition.

Gerraughty has collaborated with prominent musicians and ensembles such as Lucy Shelton, So Percussion, Beta Collide, and Fireworks New Music Ensemble. He has most recently worked with Warren Cohen and the MusicaNova Orchestra as a 2017 Composition Fellow.

Ryan Thomas Johnson, Los Angeles, CA

Ryan Thomas Johnson is a Los Angeles-based composer. Cutting his teeth as a rock keyboardist, he has toured four countries, made numerous recordings, and played in countless venues, primarily as the leader of progressive rock band Überband.

His choral setting of the Wessobrunner Gebet was performed by the Munich Orpheus Choir as part of 2016's Diabelli Competition. Recent years have shown him working as a composer for theatrical productions including Stoneface (Pasadena Playhouse), Watson, and Neverwhere (Sacred Fools Theater). As a music director and live musician, he has worked artists as diverse as singer Sia Furler, DJ Kid Koala, and actors French Stewart and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. He recently composed the musical Deadly which will premiere at the Broadwater Theater in Hollywood in the fall of 2019.

John Ross, Pittsburg, KS

Biography Coming Soon


RAPIDO! TAKE THREE!!
2012 SOUTHWEST REGION SEMI-FINALISTS:

 

ANN GEBUHR - Texas

Ann K. Gebuhr is a composer, music theorist, author and teacher. Her orchestral music has been performed by symphonies throughout the United States and in Germany and Romania. She is a MacDowell Colony Fellow, a Rockefeller Scholar in Residence in Bellagio, and the first woman to be awarded the Creative Artist Award in Composition by the Cultural Arts Council of Houston/Harris County in 1998 and again in 2009. She currently teaches, learns, writes and lives in Houston, Texas.

 

 

 

DREW WORDEN - Arizona

Drew Worden received his Bachelor of Music in Percussion Performance from Northern Arizona University in 2011. During the summers of 2011 and 2012, Drew attended the Sō Percussion Summer Institute at Princeton University where he studied with the four members of Sō Percussion and performed with other percussionists from around the world. He is a founding member of Erasable Color, a new music quartet based in Flagstaff, Arizona. His primary teachers include Keith Kassner, Steve Hemphill, Bruce Reiprich (Composition) and Joel DiBartolo.

 

 

CHARLES ZOLL - Arizona

Charles Zoll is an undergraduate student at the University of Arizona working towards a Bachelor's of Music degree in Composition. His primary teachers include Drs. Craig Walsh and Suzanne Knosp (composition) and Dr. Paula Fan (piano). He has avidly sought out new venues and new players for his compositions, frequently irking others while utilizing the school hallways as his personal scheduling headquarters. Recent projects have included writing for graduate student choreographers, chamber ensembles, and even Chinese folk music festivals. Charles’ primary goal is to pursue a doctorate in composition and, following the models of his professors, he hopes to focus on teaching techniques (in addition to composing) while in academia. As a native Tucsonan, he develops most of his sound with humanity, nature, bicycling, and Barrio politics in mind, and enjoys reinterpreting laughter and speech in music.


 




 

 

 

Ensembles Atlanta Symphony Voices of Change Detroit Chamber Winds & Strings Boston Musica Viva Atlanta Chamber Players