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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1/11/2008
Still get excited
You know what? I still get excited when things go my way. That might sound like the most obvious statement I could make, but it is really true. The rejection letters don't bother me so much (depending on the letter some are more troublesome than others) but when something clicks, I'm flyin' high.
For example, yesterday I got a phone call from Shawn Galvin who is the principle timpanist for the Navy Band. He is going to play the solo part of my Concerto for Timpani at the CMS SuperRegional Conferense at LSU next month and needed the part to practice. Well, I haven't heard anything official from CMS yet, but I'm really stoked about it. A performer contacts me out of the blue and wants my music? That is still squarely in the "awesome" column of my book.
I know some composers who don't get that excited about performances of their pieces in certain venues. Or others that grow tired of having so many performances of certain works of theirs. I must say that I hope I never feel that way. While I'm no superstar getting performances every other day, I am getting some cool opportunities and exciting performances on an almost regular basis. And they always fire me up. I hope they always do.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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