RIRE 2020
June 26th-28th
We are pleased to announce the following Composers for the 2020 Rhode Island Recording Ensemble Summer Workshop:
Brett Abigana
Brett Abigaña's music has been performed throughout the world, and his music has been commissioned and performed by numerous performers including The United States Navy Band, flutist Hilary Abigana, ALEA III, The Afiara String Quartet, The Webster Trio, The Fourth Wall Ensemble, The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers' Chorus, and The Cape Cod Symphony Orchestra.
He has written a wide variety of music including chamber music for strings and winds, song cycles, and numerous pieces for orchestra and symphonic band, including several concertos. He has gained a reputation for writing expressive, colorful music, and is much in demand as a guest lecturer, clinician, and conductor.
Dr. Abigaña completed his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees at The Juilliard School where he studied with Samuel Adler and Robert Beaser, and received his Doctorate of Musical Arts from Boston University where he studied with Samuel Headrick and Richard Cornell. Other studies include composition, harmony, and counterpoint with Narcis Bonet, Michel Merlet, and Philip Lasser at La Schola Cantorum in Paris, as well as conducting with Judith Clurman, and ear training with Mary Anthony Cox.
Dr. Abigaña is proud to be on faculty at Boston University Academy, and is also Director of New Music at World Projects, an international tour and festival company as well as new music publisher. His large ensemble music is published by World Projects.
James MacDonald
James MacDonald is a composer based in Columbus, Ohio. His works have been performed at Society of Composers Inc. conferences, the National Student Electronic Music Event, the Concrete Timbre Inc. Salon concert series, New Music Collective at Ohio State concerts, and more. He was the Composer-in-Residence with The Ohio State Symphony Orchestra during the 2015-2016 school year, where he premiered his composition Shift for Orchestra. During his graduate studies, he frequently collaborated with artists and dancers to create new and interesting works, such as providing music for a geodesic dome installation and performing electronic music alongside dancers equipped with motion sensors. He most recently premiered Study in Rain and Light, a concert-length multimedia work for quadraphonic sound, four projectors, and lights in the Motion Lab at the Advanced Computing Center for the Arts and Design (ACCAD) at Ohio State. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from Ohio State, where he studied under Dr. Thomas Wells, and received his Bachelor of Music from Capital University, where he studied under Tony Zilincik, Stan Smith, Dr. Dina Lentsner, Dr. Rocky Reuter, and Dr. Vera Stanojevic.
Nicholas Tran
Nicholas Tran is a first-generation, Vietnamese-American composer. He began musical studies in sixth grade on the trumpet, eventually picking up piano, and slowly moving into composition. In 2016, he began studying with Gerald Levinson in Pennsylvania. Tran transferred to the Boston Conservatory in 2017 where he studied with Marti Epstein, Curtis Hughes, and, currently, Tina Tallon.
Recently, Tran has primarily been working on his graduation recital, which includes a trumpet concerto and reed quintet. Tran is set to collaborate with the Mivos Quartet this year, as well as Boston Musica Viva. His music has received recent performances by the Boston Conservatory Composer’s Wind Ensemble, Composer’s Orchestra, and the ContraBand ensemble.
Tran’s music is often inspired by sociopolitical issues and topics, as evidenced in his recent pieces such as Red Rainbow, Scarlet Mirage, and Remembering In & Staying Out. He aspires to become an educator and believes that art is a necessary component of healthy communities.
Meet Our Conductors
Kaitlin Bove
Kaitlin Bove is Director of Bands and Assistant Professor of Music at Pierce College in Puyallup, Washington. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Wind Conducting from University of Kentucky where she was a conducting student of Cody Birdwell and a teaching assistant with the wind band program. In March 2019, she was honored to premier her wind transcription of Caroline Shaw’s Partita for 8 Voices as part of her lecture conducting recital with the University of Kentucky Wind Symphony and University of Kentucky Choristers.
Dr. Bove is from Lafayette, California and earned her Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Education from the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California where she studied with Eric Hammer. She served as Director of the Pacific Pep Band from 2007-08 and held the position of Graduate Assistant of Bands during her master’s coursework. In addition, Kaitlin served as the Interim Director of the University Concert Band in Spring 2012.
Kaitlin held the position of Director of Bands at Payson High School and Director of Bands and Orchestras at Mt. Nebo Junior High School in Payson, Utah. In this setting, she has instructed courses in band, orchestra, marching band, jazz ensemble, AP music theory, guitar, folk music, musical theater, and mariachi. In 2015, the Payson High School “Pride of the Lions” Marching Band earned Region 1A 1st in Utah State with the field show, “TRASH!”, featuring Kaitlin’s original music, drill, and concept design.
For over a decade, Dr. Bove instructed musicians in the Laney Summer Music Program at Laney College in Oakland, California where she worked with the band, orchestra, jazz, and choral tracks. From 2011-2016, Kaitlin directed the band and orchestra sessions of the program.
Dr. Bove is a member of the National Band Association, College Band Directors National Association, and Women Band Director International. She served as editorial assistant for the NBA’s most recent Selective Music List (2018).
Kaitlin is founder of the And We Were Heard initiative which matches underrepresented composers of wind band literature with volunteer ensembles in order to generate quality recordings of the music of diverse compositional voices. Information about this program can be found at andwewereheard.org
Kaitlin’s professional interests include working with diverse student and community populations, cross-curricular collaborative experiences, and relevancy and shifting priorities in the 21st century music classroom. In her free time, Kaitlin enjoys cooking, hiking, podcast bingeing, and spending time with her two Pugs.
Brian Cardany
Dr. Brian Cardany is the associate director of bands at the University of Rhode Island where he conducts the Concert Band and URI Alumni Wind Ensemble, directs the athletic bands, and teaches courses in music education. He is the faculty sponsor for the Theta Upsilon chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, coordinator for the URI Southern New England Honor Band, and conductor of the URI Commencement Band. In the greater music community, Cardany is Conductor and Music Director for both the American Band of Providence (established in 1837) and the Ocean State Pops Orchestra. He also directs the South Kingstown Community String Orchestra, and has served as conductor for the South County Chamber Orchestra in Narragansett, RI each summer since 2010. Since its founding in 2013, Cardany has been the conductor for the Rhode Island Recording Ensemble, an organization that supports the work of aspiring composers through recordings and clinics at URI. Cardany is an active guest conductor, clinician, and adjudicator. In addition to frequent engagements in New England, he has been invited to guest conduct ensembles in New York, Maryland, Arizona, and California. His scholarly activity includes presentations at the MENC Eastern Division Conference and the Midwest International Band and Orchestra Clinic in Chicago, and he has served as a research associate for several volumes of the Teaching Music through Performance in Band series (GIA Publications). Cardany began his career teaching instrumental music at public schools in Virginia and Maryland, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Education from James Madison University, and both Master’s and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in Music Education from Arizona State University. His affiliations include the College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA), the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE), the National Band Association (NBA), the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), and the Rhode Island Music Education Association (RIMEA).