Composition Intensive

JUNE 9-16, 2024

The Collaborative Piano Institute is proud to announce the second year of the Composition
Intensive led by Dr. Mara Gibson (Louisiana State University) and Ricardo Lorenz (Michigan State University). This one-week intensive invites composers (undergraduate through graduate level) to broaden horizons and hone their craft through this mix of classes and small group sessions with composition faculty between June 9-15, 2024. Participants will have their compositions critiqued and discussed with distinguished faculty, allowing each composer to grow technically and artistically while creating new music. Innovative programming includes performances by resident performers (CPI pianist and vocalist, and potentially violin) for each composer.  Violin and voice however needs to be a special request that will be determined by institute after application. This program will culminate on June 15 with the final Art Song collaboration participant program.

Each day will begin with a faculty composer presentation in the morning.  After lunch, there will be rehearsals for the Art Song collaboration and masterclasses.  Private lessons with the faculty can be arranged for an hourly fee.  Composers will have an opportunity to write for participants in the vocal and piano institute. 

All materials need to be submitted no later than May 1.  No exceptions.  If you fail to submit by this date, you will forfeit your performance opportunity. 

Check out the testimonials from the 2023 edition here!

Students that participate in our composition intensive will: 

  • Receive a performance of their selected art song composition in collaboration with a
    CPI pianist and vocalist (note, violin option is by special request only – please note
    in application)
  • Receive coachings with the CPI faculty
  • Participate in lectures and masterclasses with Dr. Gibson, other composition faculty,
    and the CPI faculty as well as coaching by notable guests.
  • Attend special topics classes: art song classes, vocal and piano
  • Attend and participate in faculty concerts
  • Explore and get acquainted with new music by faculty and participant composers
  • Tuition: $850 for the seven-day intensive program plus room and board (optional).

What you need to apply:

1. Your résumé and headshot(s) (uploaded in the appropriate boxes in the application form).
2. Two scores and recordings made within a year from the application deadline. 
3. Completed application form.
4. The $55 non-refundable application fee via check, Zelle or Paypal with the email collaborativepianoinstitute@gmail.com  ($55 until April 1st.)

Timeline after application:

  1. Applications received until April 1st.
  2. Acceptances sent out by April 3rd.
  3. Contracts due, voices specs sent to composers April 5th.
  4.  April 15-19th: required composition lesson with Mara Gibson by zoom to reflect progress on composition).
  5. May 4th: group zoom with composers and singers
  6. June 9th (evening): composers arrive on campus for meet and greet.
  7. June 15th: composers depart after final recital.

Faculty Bios

MARA GIBSON

Composer Mara Gibson is originally from Charlottesville, VA, graduated from Bennington College and completed her Ph.D. at SUNY Buffalo. She also attended London College of Music as well as L’École des Beaux-Arts in Fontainebleau, France and the International Music Institute at Darmstadt, Germany. She has earned grants and honors from the American Composer’s Forum; the Banff Center; Louisiana Division of the Arts; Arts KC; the Banff Centre; Meet the Composer; the Kansas Arts Commission National Endowment for the Arts; the International Bass Society; ASCAP, the John Hendrick Memorial Foundation; Virginia Center for the Arts; and Yale University. Recently, she enjoyed a residency at the MacDowell Colony and was awarded an ATLAS grant (32K) through the Louisiana Board of Regents for her bassoon concerto (2021). Internationally renowned ensembles and soloists perform her music throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, Asia, and Europe.  Dr. Gibson has also had performances of her works at prestigious festivals and universities around the country and the world, most notably Mostly Modern Festival, the Bowling Green New Music Festival (Ohio), Amici Della Musica (Udine, Italy), University of Melbourne (Australia), Thailand International Composition Festival (performances in multiple consecutive years), Reaktorhallen (Stockholm, Sweden), Daegu International
Computer Music Festival (Korea) and the Beijing Modern Music Festival. Gibson’s
 music has been described as “shocking, gripping and thought-provoking… conjuring a flurry of emotions” (PARMA recordings).  

She is a regular cross-disciplinary collaborator, having worked with choreographers, visual artists, writers, film makers and musicians.  Her music draws inspiration from a variety of artistic mediums: “haunting and epic with visceral energy.” As Gramophone magazine describes, “repertoire on this recording was mostly inspired by poetry and paintings.  What binds these pieces are Gibson’s concise handling of musical materials and her spectrum of sonic approaches. Sky-born displays a compelling contemporary voice with a restless imagination, able to morph other forms of artistic expression into daring, musical odysseys.”

In 2020-21, Mara’s work was dedicated to her large-scale new bassoon concerto Escher Keys inspired by the work of M.C. Escher; “bassoonists will be thrilled to hear such imaginative new rep for the first time, as it represents a substantial new addition to the repertoire for the bassoon; it is highly inventive and profound.” (50 International Double Reed Society – IDRS, volume 44). The collaboration has recently been declared a semi-finalist for the American Prize. Additionally, she has presented Galatea’s Dream (film version released in 2023), a staged song cycle where
“each song gains its haunting presence through an existential twist. A chilling atmosphere hangs over the performance, and Gibson’s music abstractly engages the three narratives, accentuating their mood of existential isolation, as felt by women.” (Fanfare Magazine). In her most recent work she incorporates extra-musical materials into vocal and instrumental performance, and integrates increasingly challenging subject matter with effective (and often unusual) instrumental and vocal delivery styles; these techniques extend performance practice and portray strong emotional content that defines the heart of her overall concept — the arc of the musical and theatrical development.

Prior to LSU, Dr. Gibson taught as an Associate Teaching Professor at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance for over ten years, where she was founder of the UMKC Composition Workshop and co-director/founder of  ArtSounds . Gibson has also contributed to New Music Box. In fall 2017, she joined Louisiana State University, and in fall 2018, Gibson became Associate Professor of Composition at LSU. She is now area coordinator with tenure and founded the Constantinides New Music Ensemble who had their debut performance at Carnegie Hall in April of 2022.  Since her arrival at LSU, the composition studio has more than doubled in size. Mara was awarded a sabbatical (fall 2023) when she began working on her first opera at the prestigious Moulin a Nef in Auvillar, France.

Ricardo Lorenz

The compositions of Venezuelan-born Ricardo Lorenz have garnered praise for their fiery orchestrations, and rhythmic vitality as well as for raising awareness about global societal challenges that concern the composer. These impressions have earned him two Latin Grammy Award nominations, multiple commissions and performances of his works at prestigious international festivals such as Carnegie Hall’s Sonidos de las Américas, Ravinia Festival, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, France’s Berlioz Festival, Spain’s Festival Internacional de Música Contemporanea de Alicante, the Festival Cervantino in Mexico, Turkey’s Uluslararasi Summer Festival and South Korea’s PAN Music Festival, among others. His orchestral compositions have been performed in the United States by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, New World Symphony, among many others and by orchestras in Venezuela, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Brazil, Sweden, Canada, Israel, Argentina, and the Czech Republic. Between 1999 and 2003, Ricardo Lorenz was Composer-in-Residence of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Armonia Musicians Residency Program and he held the position of Associate Director of the Indiana University Jacob School of Music’s Latin American Music Center between 2003 and 2005. He has received awards and commissions from the MacDowell Colony, National Flute Association, Civitella Ranieri Foundation, Meet-the-Composer Midwest, MetLife Creative Connections, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Concert Artists Guild, Ravinia Festival, The University of Chicago, and the American Bandmasters Association/University of Florida Commissioning Project. His works for wind ensemble have been performed and recorded by numerous band programs across the United States, including Eastman School of Music, University of North Texas, Michigan State University, University of Michigan, University of Georgia, Ithaca College, Northwestern University, University of Illinois at Champaign Urbana, and many others.

Some of Ricardo Lorenz’s works, his musical viewpoint, and his artistic persona have been the bases for articles that have recently appeared in Current Musicology, Naxos Musicology International “Listening to Latin America” Series, and in the textbook Experiencing Latin American Music published by University of California Press.

Ricardo Lorenz is currently Professor and Chair of Music Composition at Michigan State University College of Music has served as Composition Faculty of the Wintergreen Summer Music Academy (Virginia) and as Composer-in-Residence of Music in the Loft (Chicago), Sewanee Summer Music Festival (Tennessee), the Billings Symphony Orchestra (Montana), and the Pan and Young-Nam International music festivals in South Korea. He has adjudicated composition competitions in the U.S., Colombia, South Korea, and the Philippines.

Ricardo Lorenz’s compositions are published by Keiser Southern Music and by Boosey & Hawkes and they can be heard on the following record labels: ECM, Naxos, Albany Records, Arabesque Recordings, Navona Records, Cedille Records, GIA Publications, and Blue Griffin Recordings as well as labels in Turkey, Mexico, Venezuela, and the U.K.

In 2019, Ricardo Lorenz was honored with the Michigan State University César Chávez Community Leadership Award.

He holds a Ph.D. degree in composition from The University of Chicago and a MM degree from Indiana University and studied composition with Juan Orrego-Salas, Shulamit Ran, and Donald Erb. Ricardo Lorenz previously taught at Indiana University, The University of Chicago, and City Colleges of Chicago.