1999-2007 - Music-USA.org

Young Composers Awards, grants from the Paloheimo Foundation and Meet the Composer, and
commissions from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Barlow Endowment for Music
Composition, Stem-Schoenhals Duo, Virginia Music Teachers Association, Oakland East Bay
Symphony, Guild Trio, Southwest Chamber Music, and Dale Warland Singers. His music has
been performed throughout North America and Europe by ensembles such as the Hungarian Radio
Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Omaha, Richmond, Memphis,
and Oakland East Bay Symphonies, Onyx String Quartet, Verdi Quartett, Southwest Chamber
Music, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Continuum Ensemble (UK), Left Coast Chamber
Ensemble, Pone Ensemble, Stern-Schoenhals Duo, and Ensemble Musicattuale (Italy). It has been
broadcast nationally in Canada and Hungary, statewide on Nebraska Public Radio, and on stations
in Charlottesville [VA], Richmond, Austin, Omaha, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San
Diego, and Helsinki. A compact disc featuring his orchestral work, "...the weakening eye of day"
in a live performance by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, is available on the Artisjus label. Mr.
Knell holds degrees from Princeton University (BA), the Juilliard School (MM), and the
University of Texas at Austin (DMA). His principal teachers have included Dan Welcher, Donald
Grantham, and David Diamond.
$even Last Words was composed during the sumer of 2000. It was commissioned by the German
violinist Peter Stein to accompany a display of a series of woodcuts by his father, Rolf Stein. The
work is cast as a series of seven short movements, each of which evokes the spirit of the
corresponding woodcut. The first performance was given on April 1, 2001, in Holzhausen,
Germany, along with an exhibition of the woodcuts. - PK
Patrice Langsdale plays bassoon with many local orchestras in Los Angeles and Orange
. ., . . . . Counties.. While studying..in..Salzburg, she had the opportunity to play with orchestras in Germany :.--. .-
and Austria. She also is a recording musician, composer/artist on the CD "Dreamer", and at
present she and clarinetist Ralph Williams are collaborating on their second CD.
Pianist David Lauren studied with Aube Tzerko at UCLA and with Nadia Boulanger in Paris;
He garnered First Prize in the National Federation of Music Clubs competition and has appeared as
a solo recitalist and with orchestras in various venues around the United States. Currently, he is
using his musical talents in the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Composer Leonard Mark Lewis (DMA, Composition, University of Texas; MM,
Composition, University of Houston) is Assistant Professor of Music at the University of
Missouri-Columbia, where he teaches composition, arranging, orchestration, and music theory.
Lewis, a member of BMI, is the recipient of awards from ASCAP (Morton Gould Young
Composer Award), BMI, Columbia University (Bearns Prize), and Voices of Change (Russell
Horn Young Composers Award). His Concerto for Orchestra, recently chosen for inclusion in the
American Composers Orchestra Whitaker New Music Readings series, was conducted by Dennis
Russell Davies. Compositions by Lewis have been commissioned and performed by pianist James
Dick, oboist Erin Gustafson (principal, Saint Louis Symphony), AURA (University of Houston),
Symposium for New Band Music, flutist Christine Gustafson, University of Texas Composer's
Orchestra, and New Music Camerata (East Carolina University), among others. New Music
Camerata premiered his wind ensemble piece Black Against White Sky at The Kennedy Center in
Washington, D.C., in March 2000. Lewis's main composition teachers were Dan Welcher
(University of Texas) and Carlisle Floyd (University of Houston); he has also worked with several
other leading American composers including David Del Tredici and Tania Leon. In addition to his
compositional activities, Lewis also maintains an active performing career as a pianist and
conductor of new music.