Making Waves: Young composers at UB earn acclaim

The students, from the U.S., Argentina, Israel and Korea, all came to UB to study under composer David Felder. Felder, chair of the Department of Music and director of the Composition Program, has a distinguished international reputation in new music composition. He directs the annual JUNE IN BUFFALO Festival and Conference for emerging composers at UB.

Eric Oña of Buenos Aires, Argentina, is one of two composers selected this month from an international field of more than 400 candidates to receive a commission from the Ensemble Inter Contemporain, a performance group now in residence at IRCAM, the world-renowned Parisian institution for the research and performance of new music.

Oña recently completed two other distinguished commissions, one from the Stuttgart Opera and another from the Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, the premier new music performance ensemble of the Netherlands. Oña recently recorded for German Radio in Cologne, and last summer made his conducting debut with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.

Amy Williams of Buffalo has received a nomination for the prestigious Charles Ives Award of the American Institute of Arts and Letters. A visiting faculty member this spring at Bennington College, Williams' recent composition for string quartet received rave reviews in the German publication Neue Zeitung. She is the daughter of Jan Williams, a percussionist with an international reputation in new music performance and a UB emeritus professor of music.

The work of Eliav Brand of Tel Aviv, Israel, has been singled out in publications ranging from "20th Century Music" to the daily newspaper of Bremen, Germany, as the most accomplished work presented among the 60 new compositions performed during the 1996 JUNE IN BUFFALO Festival. Brand's composition, "Studies of Fragmenting VII," was referred to by German critic Hans-Theo Wohlfahrt as "stunning, ecstatic and groundbreaking."

Soo Ran Jeong of Korea has received the first honorable mention in the International Composers' Competition sponsored by Holland's Gaudeamus Foundation. Her prizewinning work, the percussion quartet "Cell," was premiered in Buffalo by the Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble. In recognition of her award, Jeong has received a commission for a new work for chamber orchestra that will receive its premier performance in Amsterdam in the fall.

Jonathan Golove of Los Angeles, a Woodburn Fellow at UB, recently completed a commission from the Amherst Saxophone Quartet that will receive several performances this spring. Golove is a cellist who frequently performs in the cello section of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra.