Composers Festival Spotlight: Daniel Kellogg

The Mizzou New Music Initiative is pleased to welcome Daniel Kellogg as one of the two guest composers for the 2013 Mizzou International Composers Festival.

Kellogg originally is from Wilton, CT and has served since 2005 as assistant professor of composition at the University of Colorado, He has been lauded by the Washington Post as “one of the most exciting composers around – technically assured, fascinated by unusual sonic textures, unfailingly easy to listen to, yet far from simplistic.”

After graduating from the Curtis Institute of Music, Kellogg earned a masters of music and a D.M.A. from the Yale School of Music. He was chosen as Young Concert Artists composer-in-residence in 2002, and also has served as composer-in-residence for the South Dakota Symphony, the Green Bay Symphony, and the University of Connecticut.

Kellogg has had works premiered by the Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, Colorado Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Takács Quartet with the University of Colorado Wind Symphony, Aspen Chamber Orchestra; South Dakota Symphony, the United States Air Force Academy Band, and the choirs of Yale University.

His music has been performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, the Kimmel Center, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, China’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, and broadcast on NPR’s “Performance Today” and “St. Paul Sundays” among others.

Kellogg’s honors and awards include a Charles Ives Fellowship and a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, six ASCAP Young Composer Awards, the BMI William Schuman Prize, and the ASCAP Rudolf Nissim Award.

His extended work Divinium Mysterium was a highlight of eighth blackbird‘s 2004 album Beginnings, and will be performed by the Mizzou New Music Ensemble as part of the “Mizzou New Music” concert on Friday, July 26.

Here’s a time lapse video of Kellogg composing in his studio, with one hour compressed to 60 seconds.

Kellogg’s “Sim Shalom,” subtitled “A Hebrew Prayer for Peace,” sung by the combined choirs at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Kellogg on his beginnings as a composer

Kellogg’s “Canticle of the Earth” for 14 Bassoons, in a world premiere performance recorded in February 2011 by the University of Colorado College of Music Bassoon Studio, directed by Yoshi Ishikawa. The ensemble, conducted by Allan McMurray, from left: Kent Hurd, Yahaira Nieves, Michael Christoph, Amanda Hoffer, Shih-han Chiu, Kaori Uno, Patty Fagan, Michelle Jones, Matt Cullen, Kristen Gogan, Brian Jack, Cody Dean, YoonJoo Hwang, and Ben Cefkin

Kellogg’s “Winter Lullaby: A Dirge” performed by Cornell University Glee Club and Choral Voices of Finland in April 2010 in Abbey Chapel, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA.

An excerpt from the world premiere of Kellogg’s “O Greening Branch,” performed by the Wheaton College Symphonic Band and choirs at the 150th anniversary concert for the college in November 2010.