Winners:

Jess Hendricks - Dances with Quarks for Bassoon and String Trio
Thomas Metzger - Humoresque for Three Bassoons and Contrabassoon

Honorable Mention:

Christian Morris - Social Media Suite for Bassoon Quartet

Joseph Sabatino - Wallflowers, Darkly for Bassoon, Violin, Viola, and Cello

Premiere:

BCMCC Premiere at Lynn Conservatory’s New Music Festival (Boca Raton, Florida) on January 14, 2020.

About the Composers:

Jess Hendricks (b. 1972) is a composer, theorist, and software engineer based in New England. His compositions have been described as “exhilarating” and “fun to play.” He continued his music studies at the University of Tennessee (M.M. in Music Composition) and the University of Miami (D.M.A. in Music Composition) after receiving his B.A. in Liberal Arts at Western Kentucky University. Recently Dr. Hendricks also received a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Massachusetts.

Hendricks has received performances of his works all over the United States. He has received several awards including being a finalist in the William Lincer Foundation Composition Competition and winning the Philip Slates Composition Contest in 2006. The Concertino for Bassoon and Electronics has received performances by Jefferson Campbell several times after being premiered in Miami, Florida. It has been performed in New York City, Denver, and Texas in the past few years. The Concertino is also featured on Dr. Campbell’s latest recording, “Pocket Grooves”. He has also had his works performed extensively in the New England by ensembles such as the Firebrand Ensemble, members of the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra, and participants of the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival.

For further information, please visit: www.existentialmusic.com

An up and coming composer, Tommy Metzger began his musical journey at the age of 11 studying bassoon in his middle school band. As his education grew, so too did his interest in all facets of music. He began dabbling in composition in high school, and by his freshman year of college he was arranging and composing works for his colleagues with his first public performance in 2015.

Although never formally trained in composition, Metzger draws compositional influence mainly from such neoclassical composers as Jean Francaix, Alexandre Tansman, Victor Bruns, and Eugene Bozza. His style seeks to bridge the gap between the music of the early to mid 20th century and that of the modern day; neoclassical order, balance, and clarity are married with a twist of modern flair. His most recent composition, Humoresque for bassoon quartet, has been selected as the winner of the 2019 BCMCC.

Metzger holds a B.A. in Music and B.S. in Physics summa cum laude from Texas State University and has accepted a research assistantship at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for his M.S. in Architectural Sciences, Concentration in Architectural Acoustics beginning Fall 2019. During his time at Texas State, he studied bassoon with Professor Daris Hale, where he played in multiple TXST ensembles, including the Symphony Orchestra and Wind Symphony. He also studied music history with Dr. Kay Lipton and was awarded “Outstanding Undergraduate Research Paper in Music”. Metzger continues to balance work and responsibilities with his love of musical composition.

Christian Morris is from Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom, though is now resident in the Flanders region of Belgium. He began composing at an early age, with several of his works—Fantasia for Orchestra, Symphony No Strings Attached and Gloria in Excelsis Deo—featuring on television and radio as well as winning several prizes.

Christian specialized in composition at the University of Surrey, graduating with first class honours. From October 2005 to September 2006 Christian studied at Cardiff University, obtaining his MMus in composition with distinction. He was awarded a studentship to proceed to a PhD, which he began in October 2007, studying with Anthony Powers, Arlene Sierra and Judith Weir. He finished this in June 2012.

Recent performances include Djemaa el Fna with BBC National Orchestra of Wales trumpets and friends; Herr ich habe missgehandelt and Chorale from 'Lyra Davidica', both for organ; and choral music commissioned by St. James’s Church, Sussex Gardens, London. The orchestral version of Lyra Davidica was performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and broadcast on BBC Radio. Of Djemaa el Fna Rian Evan wrote in the Guardian ‘As a trumpeter himself, performing in this premiere, Morris’s sympathy for his medium was manifest....[the] final accumulation realised a vivid climax.’

Christian is also active as a writer on contemporary music and as an arranger. He blogs regularly for compositiontoday.com and has written articles for Tempo, Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung and Pauta Journal in Mexico. He has produced hundreds of arrangements, which appear exclusively at 8notes.com.

For further information, please visit: www.christianmorris.net

What we have here is a man.  Not a great man, mind you, but a man who is audacious enough to put black dots on lined paper and call it art. Drawing influence from punk rock, musical theater, the occult, and the lieder of Hugo Wolf, Mr. Joseph P Sabatino's compositional style has manifested as equal parts mixed meter, polytonality, self-righteousness, and other seemingly impressive nouns. He most recently collaborated with (rode the coattails of) doctoral students in creative writing at Florida State by setting several of their poems to music, creating a short song cycle that was performed by a group of four vocalists and five instrumentalists.

According to urban folklore, Mr. Sabatino received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Theory and Composition from Florida State University under the careful tutelage of Drs. Clifton Callender, Paul Richards, and the late Ladislav Kubík, though most sources insist that the entire affair was a "monkey-with-a-typewriter" kind of scenario. He now resides in Los Angeles, California where he enjoys eating garlic bread and staring pensively out of a coffee shop window at a car whose license plate reads "DO IT".

2019 Judges:

Jenni Brandon, composer, BCMCC board member

Caroline Chin, violinist, Bowling Green State University

Elizabeth Crawford, bassoonist, Brigham Young University- Idaho

Kyle Hovatter, composer, BCMCC board member

MaryBeth Minnis, bassoonist, Central Michigan University

Leigh Munoz, bassoonist, GoBassoon Reeds, University of Missouri-Columbia

Christin Schillinger, bassoonist, Ithaca College

Brian Snow, cellist, Bowling Green State University

Xavier Suarez, pianist, BCMCC board member

Eric Van der Veer Varner, bassoonist, Lynn Conservatory, BCMCC Board Member