Students majoring in theory/composition at Lawrence reap the benefits of a comprehensive course of study that blends these two interrelated disciplines. Intensive coursework in tonal harmony, twentieth-century techniques, counterpoint, form, and analysis complements private lessons in composition, small seminars in orchestration, and frequent colloquia which provide opportunities to share ideas, present works in progress, and discuss a range of technical and aesthetic issues in contemporary music. Once a year, the studio convenes at Björklunden, the university’s residential retreat center in Door County, for an informal weekend of music making, collegiality–and excellent food!
In addition to the regular degree program in theory/composition, the department offers a jazz-emphasis track for students interested in jazz composition. Other possible courses of study include student-designed majors; in recent years, Lawrence students have designed majors in musical theatre, film scoring, and music theory/history.
Theory/composition students enjoy frequent contact with internationally known composers and music theorists; in recent years, Lawrence has hosted such luminaries as composers Samuel Adler, Philip Glass, Gunther Schuller, Michael Torke, Joan Tower, Augusta Read Thomas, Chen Yi, Scott Lindroth, Maria Schneider, and Rodney Rogers; theorists Allen Winold and Janet Schmalfeldt, and composer/theorist Fred Lerdahl. Students also gain first-hand professional experience by participating in regional scholarly societies like Music Theory Midwest, whose annual conference Lawrence hosted in May 2000.
Theory and composition for non-majors
The Department of Theory/Composition also offers a number of courses that serve the needs and interests of non-music majors and of conservatory students majoring in other areas, such as performance or music education. In addition to private and class instruction in composition and music theory for non-majors, the department oversees the core music theory curriculum required of all music majors (First- and Second-year Theory and Analysis) and offers a number of upper-level theory and composition electives.
After Lawrence
Lawrence graduates in theory/composition go on to become composers, arrangers, scholars, and educators. Distinguished alumni/ae include Fred Lerdahl, Fritz Reiner Professor of Music Composition at Columbia University, and Janet Schmalfeldt, Professor of Music at Tufts University. Some recent graduates are listed below:
- Jason Hoogerhyde, C '91, completed the M.Mus. in Composition at Boston University, where he studied with Lukas Foss, and the D.M.A. in Composition at the College-Conservatory of Music of the University of Cincinnati, where his principal teacher was Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. From 1999-2004, Jason served his alma mater as a lecturer in Music Theory and Composition. He is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas.
- Scott Spiegelberg, C '93, received the Ph.D. in music theory from the Eastman School of Music and is now Assistant Professor of Music at the DePauw University School of Music. His current research is in the psychoacoustics of musical articulation. While at Lawrence, Scott completed a double degree, receiving the B.Mus. in Trumpet Performance and the B.A. in Chemistry.
- Brooke Joyce, C '95, received the M.Mus. degree from the Cleveland Institute of Music and is currently a doctoral candidate in composition at Princeton University. At Lawrence, Brooke's senior thesis for the B.Mus. degree was an opera composed to a libretto by Professor Fred Gaines of the Department of Theatre and Drama. Brooke's interest in music for the theater continues, and he recently collaborated on a chamber opera, An Imaginary Line, based on the book Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.
- Javier Arau, C '97, is currently pursuing the M.Mus. degree in Jazz Composition at the New England Conservatory of Music. At Lawrence, Javier was a double degree student, receiving the B.Mus. in music theory/composition and the B.A. in economics. Javier completed both the regular and jazz-emphasis majors in composition, in addition to being an award-winning saxophonist. Currently based in New York City, Javier is active internationally as a free-lance performer, composer and clinician.
- Stephen Rodgers, BA '98, was awarded a prestigious Mellon Fellowship to pursue the Ph.D. in Music Theory at Yale University, where he is currently completing his dissertation, a study of the metaphorical relationship between musical form and literary program in the music of Berlioz. At Lawrence, Steve completed a double major in Music and English; during his senior year, he was invited to read his paper "'This Body that Beats:' Roland Barthes on Robert Schumann's Kreisleriana" at the annual meeting of Music Theory Midwest held at the University of Louisville.
- Zachariah Victor, '99, is a doctoral candidate in musicology at Yale University, where he is completing a dissertation entitled "An Interdisciplinary Study of Vocal Genres and the Pastoral in the Music of Alessandro Scarlatti, 1693-1707."
- René Rusch, C '00, is pursuing graduate studies in music theory at the University of Michigan. At Lawrence, René completed the B.Mus. in piano performance, in which she also pursued secondary interests in music theory and jazz.
- Michael Trinastic, C '02, is currently pursuing the Ph.D. in music composition at Duke University.
- Cara Gruber, C '02, is currently pursuing the Ph.D. in musicology at Yale University. Cara graduated from Lawrence with a degree in piano performance.
Faculty
- Ian Bates
Assistant Professor of Music
Ian Bates is Assistant Professor of Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. He completed his Ph.D. in Music Theory from Yale University, from which institution he also holds Master of Arts and Master of Philosophy degrees. A native of Ontario, Canada, he earned a Bachelor of Music in theory and composition from the University of Western Ontario (UWO) where he was a National Scholar and faculty gold medallist. At UWO, he studied composition with Omar Daniel, Alan Heard, and Peter Paul Koprowski. A pianist, Ian is also an Associate of the Royal Conservatory of Toronto (A.R.C.T.) and studied at UWO with Ronald Turini.
Prior to his appointment at Lawrence, Ian taught at UWO and at Yale. His research interests include 20th-century tonality and modality, theories of harmonic function, music theory pedagogy, and relationships between performance and analysis. His dissertation, supervised by Daniel Harrison, theorizes post-common-practice diatonic harmony and large-scale diatonic relationships in the music of Vaughan Williams. Ian has presented papers at regional and national music theory conferences and his article “Vaughan Williams’ Five Variants of ‘Dives and Lazarus’: A Study of the Composer’s Approach to Diatonic Organization” will appear in the journal Music Theory Spectrum in the spring of 2012.
- John Halvor Benson
Instructor of Music
John Halvor Benson holds the Bachelor of Music degree in music theory and history from the University of Wisconsin - Madison, the Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Minnesota in elementary education, and the Master of Music degree from the University of Washington in music composition. He is a recipient of the Charles Ives Prize from the Institute of Arts and Letters and received a Paul Fromm Fellowship to attend the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood as a Composition Fellow. His compositions include works for orchestra, choir, piano, organ, voice and chamber ensembles. He has seven years of teaching experience in music education and two years of experience as a computer programmer at the University of Minnesota. Mr. Benson joined the Lawrence faculty in 1997 and currently teaches music theory and composition.
Please visit http://www.lawrence.edu/fac/bensonj to hear performances of various compositions.
Contact by e-mail: john.h.benson@lawrence.edu
- Gene Biringer
Associate Professor of Music
Gene Biringer is Associate Professor of Music at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music. Mr. Biringer holds the Bachelor of Arts in Music from Rutgers University, the Master of Music in Composition from the University of Illinois, and the Master of Philosophy and Doctor of Philosophy in Music Theory from Yale University, where his principal teachers were Allen Forte, David Lewin, and Christopher Hasty. His research interests include Schenkerian theory and the music of Arnold Schoenberg. Mr. Biringer has read papers at numerous regional and national music theory conferences, and his writings have appeared in the Journal of Music Theory, Music Theory Spectrum, Notes, and The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.
He is the author of Schenkerian Theory and Analysis: A Bridge from Traditional Harmony, Counterpoint, and Form to Advanced Studies in Tonal Analysis. More recent projects bring together Mr. Biringer's interests in music and contemplative practice.
At Lawrence, Mr. Biringer is co-chair of the Department of Music Theory/Composition and Coordinator of the Music Theory core curriculum (First-and Second-year Theory and Analysis). He also teaches upper-level theory courses, including Analysis of Twentieth-century Music, Counterpoint, and Schenkerian Analysis, and a course on Music and Mystical Experience.
For more information, please refer to Mr. Biringer's web page at http://www.lawrence.edu/fast/biringeg/.
Contact by e-mail: gene.d.biringer@lawrence.edu
- Ann Boeckman
Instructor of Music
Pianist Ann Kohlbeck Boeckman holds the Bachelor of Music Degree magna cum laude in piano performance from Lawrence University and the Master of Arts Degree in piano pedagogy from Western Illinois University. She joined the faculty of the Lawrence Conservatory of Music in 1992 and currently teaches First- and Second-Year Theory and Analysis, Aural Skills, and Basic Keyboard Skills. Ms. Boeckman also teaches middle and high school theory classes for the Lawrence Academy of Music, a division of the Lawrence Conservatory. She has taught piano for the Conservatory (non-majors), the Academy, the University of Wisconsin-Manitowoc, and in her private studio.
Contact by e-mail: ann.k.boeckman@lawrence.edu
- Donna DiBella
Instructor in Music
Donna DiBella teaches courses in ear training and sightsinging. Ms. DiBella holds the B.A. degree in Music and Art from Rutgers University and has pursued post-graduate studies at Westminster Choir College, studying organ with Robert Carwithen and choral conducting with Joseph Flummerfelt. She has been active for many years as a church musician and is an award-winning composer of church music.
Contact by e-mail: donna.j.dibella@lawrence.edu
- David Helvering
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music
David Helvering teaches music theory at the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music, where he has been a member of the faculty since 2003. He received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Arkansas State University, a Master of Music degree in theory and composition from Sam Houston State University, and a Ph.D. in music theory from The University of Iowa. His dissertation, Functions of Dialogue Underscoring in American Feature Film, examines techniques film composers have employed when accompanying scenes with dialogue. Mr. Helvering is currently researching the use of music in early sound film, including the development of mickey-mousing (synchronized, mirrored, or parallel scoring) as a compositional technique as well as the rise of the symphonic film score.
Contact by e-mail: david.helvering@lawrence.edu
- Stephen McCardell
Instructor of Music
Stephen McCardell received Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in composition from Mannes College of Music, where he studied composition with David Tcimpidis and analysis with Carl Schachter. His undergraduate studies included course work at Lawrence University, where he studied composition with James Ming and Steven Stucky. Mr. McCardell's musical background includes owning and operating a digital recording studio, with a focus on digital editing and CD mastering in classical, jazz, and rock styles. His interest in popular music extends to performing and recording on electric guitar and dobro. Mr. McCardell joined the faculty of the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in 1999.
Contact by e-mail: stephen.mccardell@lawrence.edu
- Joanne Metcalf
Associate Professor of Music
Joanne Metcalf has a flourishing international career as a composer and her music has been performed and broadcast in more than twenty-five countries worldwide. She has received commissions from Singer Pur, the Hilliard Ensemble, North Carolina Arts Council, Cappella Nova and the Scottish Arts Council, Canty, the Netherland-America Foundation and Ensemble Hex, Concert Band Director's National Association, Ciompi Quartet, John Potter, and Nancy Zeltsman. Her compositions have been performed by such musicians and ensembles as Christopher Lyndon-Gee, Carole Yahr, Monica Germino, and Early Music Consort of Calgary and have been heard at many prominent festivals and venues, including the Beethoven Festival (Bonn), Cheltenham International Festival of Music, Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Schwetzinger Festspiele, York Festival of Contemporary Music, Hilliard Festival of Voices, Zeltsman Marimba Festival, Washington National Cathedral, Glasgow Cathedral, de IJsbreker, Stedelijk Museum of Contemporary Art (Amsterdam), Westminster Choir College, and the Harvard Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. Il nome del bel fior, which she composed for Singer Pur and the Hilliard Ensemble, has received more than one hundred performances worldwide.
Ms. Metcalf has received awards from the International Association of Women in Music, ASCAP, the American Music Center, Duke University, the MacDowell Colony, and from Copland House, under which she lived and worked in Aaron Copland’s former home near New York City. Her teachers include Scott Lindroth, Stephen Jaffe, and Louis Andriessen, with whom she studied under a Fulbright Fellowship to The Netherlands. She holds a Ph.D. from Duke University and is Associate Professor of Music at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music and Co-chair for Music Composition. Her works are recorded on the Oehms Classics and ECM New Series labels.
Contact by e-mail: joanne.metcalf@lawrence.edu
- Asha Srinivasan
Assistant Professor of Music
Asha Srinivasan is an Assistant Professor of Music at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. Her music has been presented at various national festivals including SEAMUS, June in Buffalo, Spark, and others. She has won the Prix d'Ete competition for her flute piece Alone, Dancing and the Walsum competition for her string quartet Kalpitha, which was premiered by the Left Bank Quartet. In 2006, she won the BMI Foundation's First Annual Women's Music Commission; the commissioned work was premiered by The St. Luke's Ensemble in New York. Recently, she has also had works commissioned by Sequoia Chamber Players and clarinetist E. Michael Richards. Ms. Srinivasan earned two Master's degrees in Computer Music Composition and Music Theory Pedagogy at the Peabody Conservatory, studying with Dr. Greg Boyle, Dr. Geoff Wright, and Dr. Paul Mathews, and she completed her DMA in Composition at the University of Maryland, College Park, under the guidance of Dr. Robert Gibson. As an Indian-American composer, Ms. Srinivasan draws from both her Western musical training and her Indian heritage to create her compositional language.
Contact by e-mail: asha.srinivasan@lawrence.edu
- Matthew Turner
Lecturer of Music
Matt Turner is widely regarded as one of the world's leading improvising cellists. Equally skilled as a pianist, Turner performs in a myriad of styles and has shared the stage in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia with Cape Breton fiddle sensation Natalie MacMaster, avant-garde musicians Marilyn Crispell, Peter Kowald, Guillermo Gregorio, Scott Fields, and John Butcher, as well as country musician Wanda Vick, singer-songwriter LJ Booth, and jazz musician Bobby McFerrin to name a few. He appears on over 100 recordings on Sketch/Harmonia Mundi, Illusions, Music and Arts, Accurate, Polyvinyl, Cadence Jazz and others, recording with jazz violinist Randy Sabien, goth vocalist/pianist Jo Gabriel, singer/songwriters Mark Croft and Tret Fure, punk artist Kyle Fischer, Kitty Brazelton's chamber rockestra Dadadah, alt-country band Heller Mason, and with the Pointless Orchestra.
Turner completed his undergraduate studies at Lawrence University and his Master of Music degree in Third Stream Studies (now the Contemporary Improvisation program) at the New Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Dave Holland, Geri Allen and Joe Maneri, and where he was the recipient of a Distinction in Perfomance Award.
As a leader, Turner's recordings appear on Illusions, Stellar, O.O. Discs, Asian Improv, Penumbra, Fever Pitch, Geode, Tautology and Meniscus Records. Turner is a Yamaha Performing Artist and currently performs and records with Bill Carrothers' Armistice 1918 ensemble and with the Fantastic Merlins.
Contact by e-mail: Matthew L. Turner
The Comp Blog
We'd like to invite you to listen to audio files, read and hear what our students and recent grads are doing, get to know the faculty and their music, and learn more about music composition.
Faculty Websites
- Joanne Metcalf's Music Composition Website
- Asha Srinivasan's Music Composition Website
- John Benson's Music Composition Website
- Gene Biringer's Music Theory Website
- Aural Idiom Drill
