In an Iron Composer first, Wei-Chieh Lin withdrew from the competition on Monday. One of the alternates was able to step in at the last minute and take his place on Friday.

Devin Farney, from San Francisco, will round out the field of five composers at Iron Composer. Visit his website to learn more about Devin and to hear more of his music:

Sink or Swim
For Viola, Octave Mandolin, Electric Guitar, Electric Bass, Djembe ad lib, Delay

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…vexed…
Performed by Michelle Kwon, Gretchen Claasen, Esther Rogers, and Lucas Chen, cellos

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Sunny Knable is a Sacramento native who now lives in New York City. In his interview with Joe Drew, he discusses, among other things, his decision to skip graduate school and move to the East Coast.

Interview with Sunny Knable

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Lost Leaves, first movement
Performed by Renee Harris, Cathie Apple, and Tim Stanley

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Sinfonietta for Woodwind Quintet, I. Andante con moto
Performed by Liberace Woodwind Quintet

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American Variations, Var. 7-10
Performed by the composer

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Travis Jeffords is driving to Ohio from Bloomington, where he recently moved with his wife.

In this interview, he talks with Joe Drew about the transition from dry dusty Texas to bright green Indiana. You can also hear a recording of Shot in the Dark, which is Travis’ setting of personal ads from the Austin Chronicle.

Interview with Travis Jeffords

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Shot in the Dark

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John Rot is as close to being a hometown contestant as possible in this year’s competition. He has just started his sophomore year at Oberlin College, which is 25 miles southwest of Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory.

In this conversation with Joe Drew, he talks about how his experience at a composition seminar opened his eyes to the adventurism of contemporary music and irreversibly planted the composition bug in his brain:

Interview with John Rot

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Latency of Influence
Performed by Annie Gordon, flute; Nathan Lesser, violin; Jennifer Bower, piano

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Bill O’Connell will serve as the non-musician judge at Iron Composer on Friday. The 3rd slot is intended as a proxy for the audience, and Bill should serve that role ably, given that his day job is programming Cleveland’s classical radio station WCLV. He also hosts the afternoon drive program on the station.

Iron Composer was highlighted in the Plain Dealer’s roundup of notable classical music offerings this season. 

Read the full article at: http://www.cleveland.com/musicdance/index.ssf/2009/09/northeast_ohios_classical_musi.html

The head of composition studies at the Cleveland Institute of Music Keith Fitch will serve as a judge in this year’s Iron Composer competition. Mr. Fitch has also taught at Indiana University, Bard College, and the Mannes College of Music in New York, where he founded the new music ensemble, CIRCE.

His music has been performed by The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the American Composers Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Christopher String Quartet, and The Cleveland Chamber Symphony. He has enjoyed multiple residencies at The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as at The Charles Ives Center for American Music, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and he has twice served as Resident Composer and faculty at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers’ Forum of the East.

Mr. Fitch currently holds the Vincent K. and Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition and also directs the CIM New Music Ensemble.

Andrew Jamieson is in his senior year of composition studies at Northwestern University. To enter Iron Composer, he submitted a score for audience and orchestra titled Rauha Me, which is deceptively simple.

Joe Drew, from ANALOG arts, spoke with Andrew about how intriguing his submission was. Their conversation ranges from Andrew’s experience at Northwestern, studying with composers like Lee Hyla, to how he expects to handle the unique challenges of the competition.

Andrew graciously provided recordings of some of his music to accompany his interview:

Interview with Andrew Jamieson

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Rauha Me, for chamber orchestra and audience
Performed by Northwestern University Contemporary Music Ensemble; Emanuelle Andrizzi, conductor

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pH-Ann: 2c, for piano
Performed by Maxwell Lee

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Finale from Goldsmith to the Kingdom

WCLV is running a sixty second advertisement for Iron Composer. The music in the background is In the Sky, the 3rd Prize entry from 2007 by David von Kampen:

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Hermes Camacho, Impressions of Wallpaper (1st Prize)

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We’ve added recordings of all 10 entries from the previous competitions to the About page. The 2007 & 2008 contests each get a brief summary, and we’ve added some photos and video as well.

More to come…