Keane Southard is CSMTA 2016 Commissioned Composer

We are pleased to announce that Keane Southard has been named CSMTA's Commissioned Composer for 2016. CSMTA issues an annual Call for Scores and commissions a piece that is premiered during the State Conference. CSMTA Commissioned Composers compete at the national level for the MTNA Commissioned Composer of the year. Mr. Southard composition will be premiered during the annual CSMTA Conference between June 2-4, 2016 at Colorado State University - Pueblo.   

Keane Southard (b. 1987) writes music that is an amalgamation of his many diverse musical influences, from medieval chant to 70's rock, Bach to the Blues, and German romanticism to Latin dance forms. His compositions have been performed by ensembles such as the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Longfellow Chorus and Orchestra, University of Colorado Wind Symphony, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Tesla Quartet, Playground Ensemble, and Ars Nova Singers. His music has been described as “highly-professional and well-orchestrated” (Portland Press Herald). Keane has been a recipient of many awards including the Lee Goldstein Composition Award from Baldwin-Wallace College, the Cecil Effinger Composition Award and George Lynn Prize from The University of Colorado-Boulder, First Prize in the Longfellow Chorus International Composers Cantata Competition, the Charles B. Olson Young Composer Award, and the Ars Nova Singers Colorado Composers Competition. His compositions have recently been performed in Society of Composers Inc. regional and national conferences, College Music Society regional conferences, and internationally in Germany, Brazil, Poland, the United Kingdom, and Romania. He has been awarded residency fellowships at Playa and the Kimmel-Harding-Nelson Center and summer fellowships at the Bowdoin International Music Festival and Northeastern University Fusion Arts Exchange. Keane earned his M.M. in composition at the University of Colorado-Boulder where he served as a graduate assistant in music theory. He graduated Summa Cum Laude with his B.M. from the Conservatory at Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, OH, where he double majored in music composition and music theory with a minor in English literature. His primary composition teachers include Kenneth Girard, Loris Chobanian, Daniel Kellogg, Jeffrey Nytch, Carter Pann, and Richard Toensing, plus additional studies with Samuel Adler, Derek Bermel, João Guilherme Ripper, Brian Robison, and Hillary Zipper. Keane spent 2013 in Brazil as a Fulbright scholar doing research on music education and currently teaches at Bennington College in Vermont.