Jay C. Batzner (b. 1974) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches music composition and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. In his first year, Jay received two prestigious grants: one to create collaborative works with visual artist Carla Poindexter and the second to initiate electroacoustic music concerts in Orlando. Prior to this position, Jay was an active adjunct professor at several colleges in the Kansas City area while he completed his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory. While at UMKC, Jay received honors including a Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship and a Dean's Doctoral Scholar Fellowship.
Jay's music ranges from instrumental chamber works to electroacoustic compositions. He has participated in numerous national and international festivals including the Wellesley Composers Conference and the International Young Composers' Meeting in the Netherlands. His music is published by Unsafe Bull Music and has been recorded on the Capstone and Vox Novus labels. Jay is a frequent contributor to the new music website Sequenza21.com and a founding member of the composers organization The Collected.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
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8/20/2007
5th Festival of Contemporary Music - final report
The concert Saturday night went well. There was a great variety of pieces, both acoustic and electroacoustic, and everything was well performed and programmed. People seemed to like my piece, but in person everyone seems to like it. I suppose it is better than having people spit in my face. Better they do that when I'm not around...
The concert was at a Community Music Center and the hall was a nice intimate venue. So much of the listening that I do these days is online or on CD and it is refreshing to be in a relatively small space with good performers. The organizers of the festival, Brian Bice, John Bilotta, and C. Michael Reese put together a good show. It is a small festival, two concerts on non-consecutive nights in two different venues. The real strength, I think, is that these concerts happen outside of academic places and in "real" communities.
My non-festival highlight of San Francisco was Amoeba Music. I bought a bunch of great CDs from their used and clearance bin and I look forward to scheduling time to eventually be able to listen to them. How can you go wrong with $4 Druckman CDs and Harbison for $2? They even had Trevor Wishart and Jarvinen discs in the clearance/used bin. All told, I bought 8 CDs and spent just pennies over $40. That was almost worth the trip right there...
It was also great to finally meet/greet Adam Fong, Philip Schuessler, and Phil's friend/composer/bass clarinetist Jon Russell (whose name I forgot in my previous post).
Sidebar: lots of Johns at this shindig per capita. Allemeier, Bilotta, Russell. Just a bit over 20% of the composers. Discuss.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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