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James Crowley, composition
James Crowley is an American composer whose works have been performed throughout the USA, as well as in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, India, South Africa, South Korea, and Taiwan. His music has been presented by the Minnesota Orchestra, the Eastman Wind Ensemble, Civic Orchestra of Chicago, New Juilliard Ensemble, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, and by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. In celebration of the Lincoln Bicentennial in 2008, the Ravinia Music Festival (Chicago) premiered his work From The Earth (piano trio + narrator) as part of a USA national tour. Other commissions and awards have been received from the Music Teachers National Association, National String Teachers Association, American Music Center, Meet-The-Composer, Racine Concert Band, Duo Montagnard (guitar/saxophone), and Dez Cordas (guitar/contrabass).
Recent commissions and premieres include Impromptu V (solo piano - National Tsing Hua University of Taiwan), L’Extase Langoureuse (soprano and chamber orchestra - University of Iowa), Tarantella (solo marimba - Berklee College of Music), and Into Our Father’s Arms (wind ensemble - Racine Concert Band).
Formerly a staff member of the Lyric Opera of Chicago and Fellowship student at the Aspen Music Festival, Crowley earned his BM from the University of Illinois and completed the MM and DM at Northwestern University. He is Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.
Having studied with composers such as David Liptak, Alan Stout, Jacob Druckman, Earl Kim and Amnon Wolman, his musical voice was also heavily influenced by the works of Alban Berg, Witold Lutoslawski, Luciano Berio, Charles Wuorinen, and Magnus Lindberg.
Sample scores and recordings of his music are available on his YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@crowley6251/videos