Michelle McQuade Dewhirst

Michelle McQuade Dewhirst received a BM in horn performance from Ithaca College and completed the A.M. and Ph.D. in music composition at the University of Chicago. Her principal composition teachers have been Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska, Greg Woodward and Dana Wilson. Her music has been performed at numerous festivals and conferences,including a Summer 2007 residency as an Associate Artist at the Atlantic Center of the Arts. Michelle's work has been performed by such ensembles as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Pacifica String Quartet, eighth blackbird and the New York Miniaturist Ensemble. Her work "sky is falling in" for flute, horn and percussion was recently released by horn player Kent Leslie on his CD With every leaf, a miracle. She has taught at the University of Chicago, Oberlin Conservatory and ConcordiaUniversity (River Forest, IL), Daley College in Chicago, and is currently Assistant Professor of Music at UW-Green Bay where she primarily teaches music theory and history. Michelle is a founding member of the Chicago Miniaturist Ensemble and "a very small consortium" (www.very-small.org) and has received the ASCAPlus Grant numerous times. Her work is published by JOMAR Press.

Vox Novus is calling for one-minute pieces composed for 15-Minutes-of-Fame: Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, horn in F to be performed at the March 11, 2012 Composer's Voice concert in New York City. This concert is to celebrate Women's History Month and targetted to women composers. The one-minute solo horn pieces are to be written specifically for this project, which will be performed by horn player and composer Michelle McQuade Dewhirst. All works must be 60 seconds or less. Extended techniques for horn are strongly encouraged.

15 one-minute selections for Michelle McQuade Dewhirst

  • Daybreak

    Adrienne Albert

    Award-winning U.S. composer Adrienne Albert (ASCAP) has had her chamber, vocal, orchestral and wind band works performed throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Australia, Europe, Thailand, South Africa, South America, and China. Ms. Albert has received grants and awards from the NEA, ACF, Rockefeller Foundation, MTC, Subito and ASCAP Awards. Please visit: http://www.adriennealbert.com ; email: adrienne@adriennealbert.com.

    Daybreak for horn in F was written specifically for Michelle McQuade Dewhirst and the "15 minutes of Fame" project. As I greet the day each morning, the horn is the best instrument I can think of to suit the breaking of day, the dawning of a new tomorrow and the greeting of each morning.

  • Music in Miniature

    Emanuela Ballio

    Emanuela Ballio (Milan-Italy-1968). At the age of 22 she graduated in Composition with top marks from "G.Verdi" Conservatory in Milan under the guidance of U.Rotondi. She awarded an advanced diploma in Composition with F.Donatoni at the "Accademia S.Cecilia" in Rome. She teaches Composition at "L.Marenzio" Conservatory of Brescia. She has obtained many honours both in international and national composers' competition. Her works have been played in concerts and festivals all over the world.

    Taking as a starting point the traditions of her teachers, Emanuela Ballio's style goes on to develop a language that does not aim so much at audience communication as at the elaboration of the language of the sounds themselves, finding synthetic solutions to express purely musical ideas

  • Contact Call

    Michelle McQuade Dewhirst

    Some scientists have theorized that the human act of humming originated as a mechanism to maintain audio contact with other members of a social group. So I guess this "contact call" makes us friends, right? Hi. Nice to meet you.

  • Cirrus for solo horn

    Julie Harting

    Julie Harting ( D.M.A Composition, Columbia University) has been described by Steve Layton (sequenza21.com) as having "… a wonderfully distinct voice." Her tuba quartet Catacombs of Light premiered at the ISCM World New Music Days in Croatia last April. Her works have been performed in London and throughout New York.

    Gazing out the window as the train meanders along the Hudson River, the wispy, cotton candy strands of cirrus clouds adorn the cold, blue sky. Cumulus clouds gather but abruptly dissolve. In this piece, I use the natural overtone series, quarter tones and half-valved pitches to re-imagine this ephemeral vision.

  • Prague shout

    Eliska Cilkova

    Eliska Cilkova is czech composer. She studied composition and orchestral conducting in Prague (JJ Conservatory, BcA. Borivoj Suchy, MgA. Michal Macourek). After that she continued her composition studyies in Vienna (Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst, Univ.-Prof. Reinhard Karger,) and in Bratislava (the Academy of Performing Arts, Mgr. Art. L'ubica Cekovska)

    Prague shout is a piece which was written specially for this project and this amazing performer. Because of my foreign studies I went home after very long time. I have realized how I miss Prague. So I started to compose this piece which is called Prague shout!

  • Dorota Dywanska

    Erit Hora

    Dorota Dywanska studied Composition and Theory of Music in Chopin University of Music in Warsaw in the class of prof. M. Borkowski. Music for voice and instruments is main part of her creativity. The themes of the music are: woman, children, ancient and modern traditions that mirrors in poetry she conveys to sounds: Text of Pyramid, Sapho to Austrian, expressionist poet Georg Trakl.

    Erit Hora The 6th Satire of Horace: Hoc erat in votes: modus agri non ita magnus "This is what I prayed for - a piece of land not very large, where there would be a garden, and near the house a spring of ever-flowing water, and also a bit of a wood. More and better than this have the gods done for me. I am content. Nothing more do I ask …"

  • Calling

    Pat Hanchet

    Pat composes, teaches strings and composition and plays in local ensembles. She writes vocal and instrumental music, for soloists to large groups, for beginners to advanced performers, for almost any instrument or voice to electro-acoustic music. She is published and has had her music played both locally and abroad.

    My starting point was to try to write something for natural horn as an outdoor instrument of communication, so I began and ended the piece with the simple call (soh - mi). Then I decided to introduce some echo effects and some rumbustious activity in the middle.

  • Echoi

    Dorothy Hindman

    Echoi (2011) for horn solo is an extremely quiet work that exists within the overtones of the horn timbre. From explosive initial outbursts, imaginary resonances of the sound remain, exposing hidden melodies. Echoi was written for Michelle McQuade Dewhirst. Dorothy Hindman's music is regularly performed throughout the world. She teaches at the University of Miami and Florida International University Schools of Music, hosts the Po Mo Radio show featuring classical music written since 1980 on WVUM, 90.5 FM Coral Gables, and reviews for South Florida Classical Review.

  • Altered

    Pamela J. Marshall

    Pamela J. Marshall's commissions include South Beach Chamber Ensemble, Master Singers of Lexington, MA, Green Mountain Youth Symphony, Assabet Valley Mastersingers. Recent projects: Poetry-Inspired Solos for various instruments; and the Art-Poem-Music collaboration. She plays freestyle improv with the Vortex Series in Boston and leads improvisation workshops. www.spindrift.com

    "Altered" exploits the horn's close-together harmonics with alternate fingerings and many notes from the same fingering, and explores different textures of glissandi - slow half-valve slides, loud rips and quick falls. An intimate sense of exploration alternates with occasional ff blasts.

  • A Shinto Prayer for Peace

    Jean Milew

    Jean Milew holds a Ph.D. in composition with a minor in ethnomusicology from the University of Chicago, a master's degree from the University of Southern California, and a bachelor's degree from Mount St. Mary's College. She currently resides in Illinois with her husband and four children.

    How to make a minute meaningful.../ Contemplate peace, not just for those around us or of similar belief.../ for all our brothers and sisters. / The test is a Shinto prayer offered during the first World Day of Prayer for Peace in 1986, / where religious leaders gathered, representing 43 world religions. /

  • The Dance of Oya

    Nova Pon

    Nova Pon writes concert music and music for media, and completed her formal training at the University of Calgary. Her music has been performed in Canada, the USA, Austria, and Thailand. Right now she composes full-time, on an acreage in the Canadian Prairies, with her composer husband and two singing cats.

    In Yoruba mythology, Oya is the warrior-spirit of the wind, lightning, fertility, fire and magic. As she dances, tornadoes and hurricanes are produced by the whirling of her skirts. She is seen as the spirit of change, transition, and the chaos that often brings it about.

  • Taming the Wild Beast

    Alyssa Reit

    For more than 30 years Alyssa has worked as an independent performer, composer and arranger. She completed her Bachelors and Master's degrees at the Juilliard School as a student of the late Marcel Grandjany. As a harpist she has performed with institutions ranging from the world renowned vocal quartet Anonymous 4, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Metropolitan Opera, to contemporary music groups and traditional Irish bands; she has played in such well known, diverse venues as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Tully Hall, BAM, the Public Theater, and the Kitchen.

  • COLORED MUTATIONS

    Lina Tonia

    Lina Tonia, was born in 1985, in Greece. She studied composition in Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and completed a PhD in composition in Edinburgh University. She has 66 works some of them awarded in International Competitions. She is a member of International Alliance for Women in Music.

    The piece COLORED MUTATIONS was written for Vox Novus and tried to discover a large range of techniques of horn. It gives an atmospheric sound through the use of trills, air sounds and small glissandi.

  • BLUE

    Dafina Zeqiri

    Dafina Zeqiri (b. April 1, 1984, Prishtina) is a Kosovar composer of orchestral music, chamber music, and choral music that has been performed in Europe and elsewhere.Ms. Zeqiri studied music composition with Mendi Mengjiqi at the University of Prishtina, graduating in 2007. Her master's-degree work was with Jana Andreevska at Ss. Cyril and Methodius University of Skopje. In 2009 she founded the organization Kosovar Women in Music, NEO MUSICA, and became a member of the International Honour Committee of the Fondazione Adkins Chiti: Donne in Musica. Among her honors are three awards in the Çesk Zadeja competition for young composers in Tiranë (diploma of encouragement, 2002, for Dialogue; Third Prize, 2003, for Sonata for Flute and Piano; Special Prize, 2005, for Variazione per archi), a diploma as an Eminent Student from the University of Prishtina (2005–06) and Third Prize in the pre-art competition for young composers in Zürich (2008, for Around),won the Theodore Front Prize the International Alliance for Women in Music.

    BLUE - is written especially for project of Vox Novus, Composer's Voice concert in New York City, dedicated Michelle McQuade Dewhirst, horn in F. Blue is a short piece with colour of blues (blues scale). In this composition seems the use of extended techniques as is the use of the air only, play and sing simultaneosly, glissando, bouche, ouvert, cuivre, etc.

  • A Poem,

    Zhang Zeyi

    Zhang Zeyi, Chinese Female Composer, now study at Shanghai Conservatory of Music for PhD. She had composed many works with different genre and style except opera.

    A Poem, for solo horn, had been written in December, 2011. It derived from a love poem which from the composer. In the work, the composer established a fresh theme, with the diversity of timbre all based on the performance technique, to develop the work,

Concert Dates

  • March 11, 2012 - New York City