Composition
Faculty: | Kati Agócs | Robert Cogan | Anthony Coleman | Michael Gandolfi, Chair | John Heiss | John Mallia | Malcolm C. Peyton
Paul Burdick, Computer Music Programming | John Mallia, Electronic Music Studio, Notation | Donald Palma, Composer-Performer Techniques
Download PDF of complete NEC course descriptions
Download PDF of undergraduate program requirements
Download PDF of graduate program requirements
Download PDF of DMA requirements
NEC's Composition faculty emphasize a highly diverse and individual approach to music composition in combination with a thorough and broad-based program of technical and theoretical studies. Our goal is to give you the technical tools and formal clarity to most fully realize your own compositional voice. You will receive intensive, individual one-hour lessons with your studio instructor every week. The faculty is an active, widely performed, and internationally known group of composers who are diverse but complementary in both musical background and compositional style. The composition department also has a visiting composer program in cooperation with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Each year, performance opportunities for student work include seven student composer concerts, four orchestral readings, and performances by NEC Honors Ensembles and the NEC Contemporary Ensemble.
The size and musical scope of NEC's student body fosters cross-fertilization of genre and repertoire. Collaborations often result in student recitals with repertoire supplied by student composers.
Overall, this is a dynamic and vital place to be a composer — embracing the new while absorbing the great musical traditions.
Listen to:
String Quartet in One Movement
by Monserrat Torras '03 MM Composition
Peformed by Jupiter Quartet in Jordan Hall —March 7,2004
Listen to:
String Quartet No.1: Aaponi's Destiny
By Erik Jorgen Jorgensen, BM candidate, currently a student of Lee Hyla
Performed by Parker Quartet in Jordan Hall
—April 11, 2004