The Finalists

Regional:
Jay Derderian of Portland, OR - “The piece I wish to write for Third Angle is one that explores the idea of emergent musical structure through proportional temporal relationships…The piece won’t have a singular score. Each performer will be given a set of four different parts that they must choose from…Each part will have its own rhythmic and temporal identity.”

Alex LaFollett of Eugene, OR -“I try to bring a visual sense to my music.  Often times, visual stimuli inform my musical ideas, and I often get vivid notions of visuals or senses of character out from the music, while I am composing it…in this way, I almost consider my pieces to be “tone images” of sorts.”

National:
Geoffrey Gordon of Cedarburg, WI - “Abaciscus: The movement titles refer to actual mosaics found primarily in the Villa Romana del Casale and the Piazza Vittoria de Palermo in Sicily, and date from the early 4th century.”

Nick Omiccioli of Kansas City, MO -  “...this work will pick up where my previous quartet, “reach,” left off and will further develop my ideas of canon at different speeds to create a continuous organically evolving sound world.”

International:
Brendan Faegre of The Hague, Netherlands - “I see brilliant developments in contemporary classical music in recent decades, and yet my gateway into music was as a rock/jazz drummer. Just as Hindustani classical music balances the need for intellectual stimulation with the human desire for affecting grooves and melodies, I want to reconcile contemporary classical tools and techniques with my popular music upbringing.”

Julian Day of Sydney, Australia - “I propose to subject a classic string quartet - Schubert’s Quartettsatz in C minor, to a treatment of warping or lateral rethinking via audio playback devices such as CD players, turntables, cassette machines and computer software. The title, ‘Quartz’ references the notion of the string quartet, the fragmenting effect of my approach and also the ‘Quartettsatz’ which itself exists only as a fragment. Art imitating art. Art irritating art.”