David Maslanka (born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and now living in Missoula, Montana) is a composer who writes for a variety of genres, including works for choir, concert band, chamber ensembles and orchestra. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and Europe, and he has received three National Endowment for the Arts Composer Awards and five residence fellowships from the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Best known for his highly acclaimed wind ensemble compositions, Maslanka has published nearly 100 pieces, including eight symphonies (six of them for concert band), nine concerti, and a full Mass. His compositional style can be rhythmically intense and extremely complex, yet it also possesses at points an underlying delicate beauty. He is a composer who works from a meditative standpoint of spiritual inspiration, and this gentle, warm spiritual quality can be felt throughout his music. Watch the Amethyst Saxophone Quartet perform Fanfare/Variations on the chorale melody 'Durch Adams Fall' (Through Adam’s Fall), the last movement of Maslanka's Recitation Book (2006) . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Kile Smith, based in Philadelphia, has collaborated with the Renaissance music ensemble Piffaro and the modern music choir The Crossing to create his Vespers (2008), just out on the Navona label and selling well at local concerts by both groups. According to David Patrick Stearns (Philly.com), "Smith's music suggests a state of being that many people aspire to: His Vespers is a sanctuary, a refuge from life. His use of musical antiquity - Piffaro's Renaissance instruments - is about cheery, primary colors. The relative lack of emotional complication might suggest his is a more lightweight piece. Listen closely, though, and the spiritual solidity of his music is full of distinctive rewards." Check out more about Kile Smith's Vespers and listen to excerpts from the new Navona recording . . . it's our FEATURED RECORDING for the week.

Winner of the 2006-2007 Rome Prize, Ken Ueno, is a composer and vocalist whose wide range of innovative works have been thrilling audiences around the world. Informed by his experience as an electric guitarist and overtone singer, his music fuses the culture of Japanese underground electronic music with an awareness of European modernism. He engages with multiple modes of music making: as a composer of acoustic works, as an electronic musician, and as an improviser specializing in extended vocal techniques. Hear a performance of Ueno's Ga-uah-Chon-Ch-cha (A Song of the Rapture) (2006) . . . one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS this week.

Paul Witney is a composer, musician and educator, in demand both nationally and internationally. He has studied with some of Australia's finest contemporary Composers, including Nigel Butterley and Michael Smetanin. His works have been performed by many leading Australian and International ensembles including Australian Symphony Orchestras, The Song Company, Generator, and The Zurich Ensemble for New Music. Witney was awarded the 2MBS Young Australian Composers Award for his composition Zero Through Nine (1997). He has also been active in continuing to compose for young musicians. His association with various national and international musicians has resulted in performances of his works in the Ukraine, Canada, USA, Holland, Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney, and his interaction with local and Indigenous Australians has lead to exciting developments as many of his new works have an Indigenous focus and historical inspiration. Listen to a performance of Witney's Zero Through Nine . . . this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.

Explore, Listen and Enjoy!
Vinny Fuerst
Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music