OUR COMPOSERS
Jeffery Andler
Jeffery Paul Andler was born in 1954 in Austin, Texas to a military family. Settling in Panama City, Florida, he went on to graduate from the University of West Florida and the New Orleans Baptist Theological seminary, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music education and voice. For 31 years he was primarily involved in church music ministry in Florida, Louisiana and North Carolina. Since 2002, he has led Jeff Andler Ministries. He and his wife Lynne reside in Charlotte, North Carolina where they enjoy their two children and three grandchildren.
Kevork Andonian
Kevork Andonian is a composer, orchestrator, and pianist originally from Ottawa, Canada, currently living in Los Angeles. His compositions and orchestrations have been performed by world-class musicians including the Grammy-nominated Lincoln Trio, members of the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Omaha Symphony, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. His A Longing For Joy for flute and marimba has been released on Naxos. Recently, he has orchestrated music to be recorded for commercial release by the Ulster Orchestra of Belfast under the direction of José Serebrier
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Usman Anees
Usman Anees is a graduate of Trinity College London with a Fellowship in Music Composition and Piano Performance. As a concert pianist, he has recorded the complete 32 Piano Sonatas of Beethoven. His music for piano and other ensembles has been played in Germany, USA, and Asia. His music can be described as a fusion of modes and Raags from his native Pakistan into Western technique of homophony, counterpoint and polytonality.
Laura J.H. Ball
Laura J.H. Ball grew up in the Washington, D.C. suburbs and now resides with her husband on a picturesque farm near Richmond, Virginia. She graduated in 1996 with high honors in Music Composition from St. Andrew's University, and since then has counted as her mentors Her repertoire blends the ancient, impressionistic, and modern.
Jonathan Blair
Jonathan Blair hails originally from San Diego, California, but now lives in Cape Town, South Africa. He studied Composition at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Conrad Susa, and piano with Anna Marie McCarthy and Marc Steiner. He was Composer-in-residence for Journey Community Church from 2012 to 2015 and Music Director for Meridian Baptist Church from 2013 to 2015, as well as at Rubios Dance Studio from 2004 to 2007.
Davis Brown
Davis Brown hails originally from Mississippi, where he was a piano and composition student of Raymond Liebau at the University of Mississippi. Dr. Brown is the composer of two official marches for units of the United States Air Force. He was affiliated with the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra for nine seasons (1998-2007), the last five as composer-in-residence. By day Dr. Brown is a professor of political science.
Werner De Bleser
Werner De Bleser is a composer, conductor, and musician from Antwerp, Belgium. He is the conductor of the Musica con Gioia chamber orchestra and plays in various other ensembles, most notably the clarinet ensemble Klarinata. His compositions are notable for being classical in style yet infused with contemporary composition techniques, such as Fibonacci sequences, fractal equations, and musical elements selected at random.
Malcolm Dedman
Born in London in 1948, Malcolm Dedman studied composition with Patric Standford at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London, in 1973-74. He has a Masters Degree in concert music composition, with distinction, from Thames Valley University, London. He currently lives in South Africa.
Eli Evans
Eli Evans is a “Sunday” composer living near Seattle, Washington. He has written for animated streaming television programs and shorts, as well as the score for The Unseen Realm, a full-length documentary. He writes occasionally on literary topics for Bible Study Magazine. By day he works in computer software.
Victor Frost
Victor Frost took a Masters in composition after having already earned a DMA in piano performance, a good illustration of a life bifurcated between creative and executive musicianship. He has generally chosen to adhere to established genres, finding new things to say in the old forms. Dr. Frost’s principal teachers were Charles Dodge and Myron Fink in composition, George Roth and Jon Klibonoff in piano, Flor Peeters and Calvin Hampton in organ.
Zane Gillespie
Award-winning composer Zane Gillespie, DMA, is Ecumenical Music Director for Little Rock Air Force Base, and Immediate Past Board Member for The College Music Society Southern Chapter. Author of music-theoretical papers published in journals such as College Music Symposium, Dr. Gillespie has presented his research at conferences worldwide. His music has received numerous performances by various ensembles at events like the 8th Annual Belvedere Chamber Music Festival.
Raymond Liebau
Raymond Kurt Liebau is retired from the University of Mississippi, where he taught as a member of the piano faculty for over 30 years. Among his teachers were Ernst von Dohnányi and John Boda. He credits as his major influences the works of George Gershwin and harmonies of George Shearing. Liebau is best known for his choral works, having written extensively for the world-class Ole Miss Concert Singers directed by Jerry Jordan. He hails originally from Florida, but now lives in Arkansas.
Bill Lorraine
Bill Lorraine has a B.A. from the University of Maryland and studied composition and piano under renowned pianist and Julliard music professor Yehuda Guttman. He was a pianist for Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines in Europe for 10 years. He has also performed in Paris, Munich, and his home town of Key West, Florida. Lorraine’s “Hemingway Suite” was performed and recorded by the Old Havana Symphony Orchestra in 2014 and his Asheville Suite was performed by the Charlotte (NC) Civic Orchestra.
Arthur J. Michaels
Arthur J. Michaels earned a bachelor of music degree in music education from the Eastman School of Music and a master of arts degree in teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University. He has taught instrumental music in grades 4 through 12 in New York and in New Jersey. His concert band and string orchestra works have won contest awards and were selected in competition for performances.
Nicolo Piccione
Nicolò Piccione studied piano with Marzia Manno and composition with Salvatore Bellassai, obtaining both master's degrees (in 2015 and 2018, respectively) at the Conservatory A. Scarlatti of Palermo, Italy. He credits Beethoven as his favorite composer and primary influence. Aside from his musical life, Piccione is studying for a Ph.D. in quantum physics at the University of Franche-Comté in Besançon, France.
Mikael Rasmusson
Mikael Rasmusson (b. 1967) is a physical chemist by original training. After nearly four decades of composing informally for chamber groups and orchestra, he began formal studies in composition with Rolf Martinsson of Malmö Academy of Music and obtained degree credentials in 2019. Rasmusson is notable as the co-founder of a performing duo with poet Mikael Rudesjö, to revive melodrama (recitation with music accompaniment) as an art form. The two have performed actively in their native Sweden for 30 years
David Unger
David Unger (b. 1982) studied classical singing and composition at Ingesund College of Music and baroque counterpoint at Uppsala University. As a composer he focuses on art songs, chamber music and choral pieces and has regular performances of his music in Sweden. Unger is also a freelance music critic for local news papers and is a founding member of the Jazz and Chamber Music Society in Mönsterås, where he resides with his family.
David Wolfson
David Wolfson holds a PhD in composition from Rutgers University, and has taught at Rutgers, Montclair State, and Hunter College. He is enjoying an eclectic career, having composed opera, musical theatre, touring children’s musicals, and incidental music for plays; choral, band, orchestral, chamber, art songs, and solo piano; comedy songs, cabaret songs and one memorable score for an amusement park big-headed-costumed-character show. For more information: www.davidwolfsonmusic.net.