/Sean Shepherd/ /composer/

Sean Shepherd

/composer/

© 2005-10 seanshepherd.com

from Lumens (0:58)

[click to silence]

/ABOUT/

About Sean

With recent premieres of commissioned works by major ensembles such as the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, composer Sean Shepherd’s music has appeared in celebrated venues across the US and Europe. Engagements include those with the National Symphony Orchestra’s CrossCurrents Contemporary Music Week at the Kennedy Center, the 2008 Aldeburgh Festival, and a portrait concert at the ultra-modern Radialsystem V in Berlin-Mitte, presented by the Berlin Philharmonic’s Scharoun Ensemble, with composer conducting. Oliver Knussen premiered Sean’s Wanderlust in Cleveland in 2009, and Alan Gilbert led the premiere of These Particular Circumstances, commissioned by the New York Philharmonic for the inaugural season of CONTACT!, the New Music Series in April 2010, to positive acclaim.

Sean joins his hometown orchestra, the Reno Philharmonic, as composer-in-residence beginning this season, with a new work appearing on the orchestra’s MasterClassics series and conducted by Music Director Laura Jackson, in March 2011. Also in the 2010-11 season, Knussen continues to champion Wanderlust in upcoming performances with the BBC and New World Symphonies, and new projects include a co-commissioned trio for oboe and strings for the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival and the La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest.

Winner of the 2009 triennial Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Sean was the 2008 Deutsche Bank Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin, and a first-prize winner in the 2005 international Lutosławski Award. He attended the Tanglewood Music Center (2005), the Composition Masterclass at the Aspen Music Festival (2006), the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme (2007) and a Fall 2007 composer residency at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. He has been a top prizewinner in student competitions, including the Palmer Dixon Prize for Outstanding Composition at Juilliard and the Indiana University Dean's Award, as well as awards and commissions from organizations such as the Sue Knussen Composers Fund, ASCAP, the National Society of Arts and Letters, Ensemble X, and the New York Youth Symphony. Recent performances include those with Trio Volans, pianists Aaron Wunsch and Jihye Chang, new music ensembles at the University of Texas and the University of Southern California, the Syracuse Society for New Music, and the Minnesota Orchestra.

Originally from Reno, Nevada, Sean (b.1979) is a 2004 graduate of The Juilliard School, where he earned his Master’s degree as a student of Robert Beaser. He holds degrees in composition (BM) and bassoon performance (Performer Diploma) from Indiana University, where his teachers included Claude Baker and David Dzubay, composition, and Kim Walker, bassoon. He is currently completing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Cornell University as a student of Roberto Sierra and Steven Stucky.

updated 8.10