Composers Festival spotlight: Ryan Lindveit

Resident composer Ryan Lindveit comes to this summer’s Mizzou International Composers Festival with a brand new bachelor of music degree in composition from the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music, from which he graduated summa cum laude this spring and was selected as Salutatorian for the class of 2016.

Lindveit (pictured) also was named this year’s “Outstanding Graduate” from the Thornton School of Music and received both the Composition Department Award and the USC Discovery Scholars Prize, a competitive postgraduate grant awarded to ten graduating seniors for the creation of outstanding original work in any discipline.

Raised near Houston, TX, Lindveit has had his works performed by ensembles including the United States Marine Band, USC Thornton Symphony, USC Thornton Wind Ensemble, the Donald Sinta Quartet, the City of Tomorrow, and FearNoMusic, in addition to numerous performances by students.

Earlier this year, he was selected as the winner of a BMI Student Composer Award for “Spinning Yarns” and honored at a ceremony in New York City. Lindveit was a finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award in both 2015 and 2016, and also has received honors and awards from SCI, the American Modern Ensemble, the National Band Association, Tribeca New Music, and more.

In addition to “Spiked,” the piece he composed for Alarm Will Sound to perform as part of the 2016 MICF’s grand finale on Saturday, July 30 at the Missouri Theatre, he also recently has created new works for the Donald Sinta Quartet and the LA-based trombone ensemble Skinny Lips and the Sound Malfunction.

Lindveit currently is taking a gap year, and in the fall of 2017 will begin work on a master’s degree in composition at the Yale School of Music. For more about Ryan Lindveit, you can read a feature story about him published on the USC website here, and listen to his interview last month on KMUC‘s “Mizzou Music” program here. You can hear samples of Ryan Lindveit’s music on his SoundCloud page and via the embedded players below.

“Word Salads – III” is part of a 2015 work for wind quintet, performed here by Stephanie Bell (flute), Sarah Minneman (oboe), Sergio Coelho (clarinet), Emily Schoendorf (bassoon), Matt Otto (horn), and conducted by Ryan Lindveit on April 4, 2016 at the University of Southern California’s Alfred Newman Recital Hall.

“Like An Altar With Nine Thousand Robot Attendants,” was composed in 2015 and is performed here by by the USC Thornton Symphony on October 16, 2015 at Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus.

“Spinning Yarns,” performed by the United States Marine Band conducted by Joe Higgins on June 16, 2015 at the John Philip Sousa Band Hall Marine Barracks Annex in Washington, DC.