COMMISSION PROJECTS
LISA NEHER
Small Ways | for flute, clarinet, piano + soprano
commissioned by Alma Ensemble
world premiere | fall 2024/spring 2025
New music powerhouse Dr. Lisa Neher (pronouns: she/her, last name pronounced "NEER") is an award-winning composer, mezzo-soprano, and actress on a mission to transform audiences through sound, story, and vulnerability. Described as a “maestro of beautifully wacky noises” (Oregon ArtsWatch) and a composer of “varied and imitable” vocal lines (Contemporary Classical), Lisa writes music inspired by female athleticism, the tender love of friends, the ambiguities of death, and the eerie mystery of deep ocean life. Praised as “a small woman with a very big voice” and “especially alive” (Oregon ArtsWatch), Lisa captivates audiences as a performer with her electrifying dramatic commitment and unforgettable vocal colors. She is President of New Wave Opera, a contemporary opera company based in Portland, OR.
Lisa’s compositions include solo and chamber music for instruments and vocal works in the operatic, song, and choral genres. She is Composer-in-Residence for the Beaverton Community Band. Her particular passion for text and poetry has led to works such as her chamber operas Sense of Self, about a triathlete struggling with a breast cancer diagnosis and White Horizon, about a nineteenth-century Arctic expedition gone wrong. Lisa's major song cycle, No One Saves the Earth from Us But Us speaks the the urgency of the global climate crisis. Her commissioners include Third Angle New Music, Third Angle New Music, Opera Elect, Opera Theatre Oregon, Coe College Symphony Orchestra, Kirkwood Community College Choirs, the Glass City Singers, tenor Zach Finkelstein, pianist Michael Kirkendoll, and flutists Rose Bishop and Hal Ide. Lisa was selected to be part of the inaugural year of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music. Lisa is a member of the Iowa Composer’s Forum, Cascadia Composers, the National Association of Teachers of Singing, and ASCAP.
MICHELLE MCQUADE DEWHIRST
Illuminate | for flute, clarinet, piano + string quartet
commissioned by Alma Ensemble
for Alma Ensemble + Sound Impact
world premiere | june 1, 2022
more information about the world premiere + tickets can be found here!
MICHELLE MCQUADE DEWHIRST
blur.
commissioned in 2021 | by alma ensemble
world premiere | january 30, 2021
performance at radford university | march 15, 2022
livestream link available here.
DEBORAH BAKER MONDAY
Deborah Baker Monday (ASCAP) is a retired string educator after completing a 25-year tenure in the award-winning Logan City, Utah orchestra program. She received her B.M.E. Magna Cum Laude, from Florida State University an emphasis in string education. She was awarded an academic fellowship to attend the University of Alabama where she received her M.M. in Composition. During that time, she was a bassist with the Meridian Symphony and the Tupelo Symphony Orchestra. She continued her studies at Louisiana State University where she received the Chancellor’s Award to participate with the LSU Symphony Orchestra under the direction of James Yestadt. She studied theory and composition with Harold Schiffman, John Boda, Frederic Goossen, Paul Hedwell, and Dino Constantinides. Ms. Monday continued to be an active bass performer when she moved to Utah. After completing the coursework and passing the written and oral portions of the doctoral exams, she was hired to teach in the Logan City School District as a low string specialist.
Throughout her tenure with Logan and beyond, she pursued her interest in composition and arranging for educational strings and became published. Ms. Monday has over 135 original and arranged works with seven publishing companies. Many of her published works have been honored as J.W. Pepper Editor’s Choice selections. They have been selected for many state required music lists for festivals and contests. She has received awards for Outstanding Elementary Educator and Superior Accomplishment from UtahASTA and UtahMEA respectively. In 2006 and 2011, Ms. Monday was the winner of the UtahASTA Composition Contest. Serving as a composer and arranger of educational music has been a rewarding part of her career while she and her husband Bill, have raised four amazing children.
Ms. Monday has presented at many state music conferences throughout the United States, as well as numerous national ASTA conferences, The Midwest Clinic, and the prestigious Ohio State String Teacher Workshop. She is active as a clinician, guest conductor and adjudicator, and has numerous commissions for her work. Her studies in composition and experience in string teaching combine to make her one of the leading contributors to the repertoire for young string players.
“Welcome the Light!” for young string orchestra, with optional flute, clarinet, and piano is complete The new work was premiered April 4, 2022 by William Fleming and Patrick Henry High School Orchestras at the Taubman Museum of Art in Roanoke, Virginia.
Read Ashley Feller’s article about the project in the ‘Roanoker Magazine’ here!
EMILY LAU
Composer, singer, and performance artist Emily Lau (b. 1984) fuses elements of ancient music with contemporary techniques to tell unique aural and visual stories. Through the process of music-making and sharing, she fosters social and personal conversations that inspire compassion and actions, especially in the realms of homelessness, LGBTQ rights, gender issues, and prison reform.
Critics have described her compositions as "haunting" and "emotional" (BBC Radio), her singing as "striking" (Cleveland Classical), and the shows she has produced as "magical" and "imaginative" (BMI). As singer and director, she has toured domestically and internationally with various ensembles. Since 2011, her compositions have been heard on network TV shows, NPR, and concert series of GRAMMY-winning ensembles such as Conspirare and True Concord.
Emily is the founding artistic director of early music ensemble The Broken Consort, co-founder of Disobedient Femmes, and a board member of Early Music America. In Portland, she tours and records with Cappella Romana and directs chamber ensembles at Big Mouth Society. She holds an M.Mus. in Early Music Performance from Longy School of Music of Bard College.
The world premiere for Emily’s new work
SPEAK | LISTEN: Ain’t I a woman?
is in the works for Spring 2023. Details coming soon.
KAKIA GKOUDINA
Composer. Sound Designer. Collaborator.
Kyriaki Gkoudina is a graduate student in Composition at Michigan State University. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Film Studies in Aristotle’s University of Thessaloniki (2015) with specialization in Film Music, while studying Harmony and Counterpoint of the 16th Century and Baroque in a private conservatory. She has directed various short films and a documentary that was successfully projected in the 18th International Thessaloniki Documentary Festival at 2014.
The Alma Ensemble will perform the world premiere of this new work, entitled ‘Penthos’ on June 23, 2020 at the Kerrytown Concert House in Ann Arbor, Michigan. More details of the concert can be found here. The world premiere of this work has been postponed due to COVID-19.
The following links are for artists, organizations, educators, composers, and performers who continue to inspire us through their work:
Valerie Coleman, flutist and composer