Three Penny Records is a cooperative record label started by three alumnx of the MFA in Music Composition at Vermont College of Fine Arts: Jenny Davis (’18), Vanessa Littrell (’19), and Tiffany Pfeiffer Carr (’19). Recognizing the power of music to make change, they aim to improve the music business for independent artists… and change […]
In August of 2019, Sarah LeMieux (’19), was at the post-residency bonfire where she and some friends started talking about ennui and the apocalypse. When she returned home, she wrote a song about the end of the world, called “Goodbye, Paris.” It is now the first single off the aptly named record “Jazz for the […]
In August 2019, the MFA in Music Composition welcomed graduates of the program back to VCFA for our first-ever alumnx event. Twenty alumnx attended, from our very first class to our most recent! Frank J. Oteri and Trudy Chan led a three-day seminar on a range of professional topics, including: self-representation; preparation of both physical […]
It’s been a busy and exciting time for students, alumnx, and faculty of the MFA in Music Composition. Here are some of their recent projects and announcements: Max Johnson (’16) selected as a Roulette commissioned artist for 2019-2020 “Creating complex worlds of sound, bassist and composer Max Johnson challenges his listeners to engage deeply […]
Kyle Pederson ’17 has been awarded the 2018-19 American Prize in Composition for the choral octavos professional division with his pieces “Can We Sing the Darkness to Light?,” “Psallite,” “In the Beginning,” “Stars,” and “A Mighty Fortress Is our God.” All five of Kyle’s winning pieces were influenced in some important way by VCFA. One […]
Megan DiGeorgio, ‘20 was recently selected by Fear No Music, a new music and advocacy group based in Portland, OR, to compose a work based on the 2018 Brett Kavanaugh confirmation hearings. Her composition is part of a commissioning project for vocal chamber music called HEARINGS. When Megan was first presented with the idea of […]
Each residency, students have the opportunity for the music they wrote during the previous semester to be rehearsed, performed, and recorded by one of our ensembles-in-residence. The MFA in Music Composition is excited to announce our Summer 2019 Ensembles: Hub New Music, Kylwyria, and Anna’s Ghost. Hub New Music Michael Avitabile, flute David Dziardziel, clarinet […]
Approximately 2 1/2 years ago, this newly-minted 60-year-old student stood on stage at the Vermont College of Fine Arts to receive his Masters Degree in Music Composition. It was a time of reflection – this was probably the last formal education I would receive. After all, I WAS 60 years old, at a time in […]
David Alm’s (’17) woodwind quintet Oceano was featured in Ecstatic Beasts, a VCFA exhibition that considers our complicated relationship to animals and, consequently, the natural world. Animals are regarded a multiplicity of functions in contemporary human society and culture, serving as pets, food, clothing, medicine, surrogates, life-savers and proxies—to name a few. Their role is hotly contested, as […]
In an article for NewMusicBox, alum Garrett Steele (’16) describes his first visit to VCFA, what made him enroll in the MFA in Music Composition, and why he keeps returning to our immersive week-long multi-genre music composition residencies every semester even though he graduated more than two years ago. Garrett writes: “VCFA is a swirling vortex of bizarre, […]