Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition
The Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition is a position awarded annually to a major figure in music composition today. The Visiting Professors come to the Ithaca College campus during the course of the academic year to lecture on their music and issues relevant to contemporary composition. In addition, during their time on campus, they hold private lessons with the School of Music's composition majors. Over the year of their professorship, their music is performed and examined by Ithaca College School of Music faculty and students.
The Karel Husa Visiting Professor of Composition for 2011-12 is Melinda Wagner, who will give a talk on Sunday, October 9 at 7:00 in the Iger Lecture Hall (JJWCM 2105). Her composition Little Moonhead will be performed by the Ithaca College Chamber Orchestra conducted by Jeffery Meyer on Monday, October 10 in Hockett Recital Hall. She will return to give a lecture on Monday, April 9, 2012 at 8:15 in the Iger Lecture Hall. The Ithaca College Contemporary Ensemble will be featuring Melinda Wagner’s chamber works on November 29, 2011 at 8:15 and on April 10, 2012 in the Hockett Family Recital Hall.
Melinda Wagner was born in Philadelphia in1957. Her Concerto for Flute, Strings, and Percussion was awarded the 1999 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Since then, she has written Concerto for Trombone for Joseph Alessi and the New York Philharmonic, and a piano concerto, Extremity of Sky, commissioned by the Chicago Symphony for Emanuel Ax, who has also championed it around the world. Ms. Wagner’s chamber works have been performed by the New York New Music Ensemble, Network for New Music, the Empyrean and Left Coast Ensembles, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (Little Moonhead), and other leading organizations. She has been the recipient of coveted awards, such as those from the Barlow Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, and the Guggenheim, Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations. Melinda Wagner has extensive experience working with student composers, having taught at Brandeis University, Swarthmore College, Syracuse University, and Hunter College. She has lectured Yale, Cornell, Juilliard, and Mannes, and has served as Composer-in-Residence at the Yellow Barn Music Festival, Monadnock Music Festival, Wellesley Composers Conference and the Bravo! Vail Valley Music Festival. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, percussionist James Saporito, and their children.
Visit the library's Karel Husa Visiting Professor page.
PAST VISITING PROFESSORS:
2010 - 2011 Steven Mackey
2009 - 2010 Sebastian Currier
2008 - 2009 William Bolcom, Sydney Hodkinson
2007 - 2008 Karel Husa, Joan Tower, George Tsontakis
2006 - 2007 Jennifer Higdon
2005 - 2006 Michael Colgrass
2004 - 2005 Stephen Hartke
2003 - 2004 Robert Beaser
2002 - 2003 Chen Yi
2001 - 2002 Karel Husa
2000 - 2001 Michael Daugherty
1999 - 2000 John Harbison
1998 - 1999 Libby Larsen
1997 - 1998 Tania León
1996 - 1997 Christopher Rouse
1995 - 1996 George Crumb
1994 - 1995 Samuel Adler
1993 - 1994 Jacob Druckman
1992 - 1993 Shulamit Ran
1991 - 1992 Karel Husa
1990 - 1991 William Bolcom
1989 - 1990 Joan Tower
1988 - 1989 John Corigliano
1987 - 1988 Joseph Schwantner
