Jacob Lehman's General Music Class

The music class's current lessons are a three-lesson unit on the music of Steven Bryant and his three compositions for band and electronics: The Machine Awakes, Ecstatic Waters, and Solace. Hover over the above menu to access the individual lessons. Here's the bio from Steve Bryant's website:

 

Steven Bryant (b. 1972, Little Rock, AR), the son of a professional trumpeter and music educator, composes music across a variety of media and ensembles, ranging from electronic and electro-acoustic works, to chamber music, to works for wind ensembles and orchestras. Steven strongly values music education, and his creative output includes a number of works for young and developing musicians.

 

Steven's music has been performed by numerous ensembles across North America, Europe, and East Asia. He is a three-time winner of the National Band Association's William D. Revelli Composition Award: in 2010 for Ecstatic Waters, in 2008 for Suite Dreams, and in 2007 for his work Radiant Joy. His first orchestral work, Loose Id for Orchestra, hailed by celebrated composer Samuel Adler as "orchestrated like a virtuoso," was premiered by The Juilliard Symphony and is featured on a CD release by the Bowling Green Philharmonia on Albany Records.Alchemy in Silent Spaces, a new large-scale work commissioned by James DePreist and The Juilliard School waspremiered by the Juilliard Orchestra in May 2006. Since its 2008 premiere, his seminal work for large ensemble and electronics Ecstatic Waters has become the most performed work of its kind in the world.

 

Other notable commissions have come from cellist Caroline Stinson (Lark Quartet), pianist Pamela Mia Paul (University of North Texas), the Amherst Saxophone Quartet (funded by the American Composers Jerome Composers Commissioning Program), the University of Texas - Austin Wind Ensemble, the US Air Force Band of Mid-America, the Japanese Wind Ensemble Conductors Conference, and the Calgary Stampede Band, as well as many others. Recordings include multiple releases by Eugene Corporon and the University of North Texas Wind Symphony, the Ron Hufstader and the El Paso Wind Symphony, William Berz and the Rutgers University Wind Ensemble, and Thomas Leslie and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Wind Orchestra. Steven has also created a recomposition of the Iggy Pop and the Stooges song, "Real Cool Time," for the independent Italian record label, Snowdonia, as well as music for portions of the Virtual Space Tour at space.com.

 

Steven is a founding member of the composer-consortium BCM International: four stylistically-diverse composers from across the country. BCM's music has generated a following of thousands around the world and two recordings: "BCM Saves the World" (2002, Mark Custom Records) and "BCM Men of Industry" (2004, BCM Records).

 

Steven studied composition with John Corigliano at The Juilliard School, Cindy McTee at the University of North Texas, and Francis McBeth at Ouachita University, trained for one summer in the mid-1980s as a breakdancer, and has a Bacon Number of 1. He resides in Durham, NC. For more information, please visit his website at http://www.stevenbryant.com.