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Dr. Benjamin Boone
Composer, educator and saxophonist Benjamin Boone, originally from Statesville,
N.C., resides in California, where he is an Associate Professor of Music
at California State University Fresno. Prior to this appointment, Boone taught
at the University of Tennessee where he was one of six faculty campus-wide
to receive the "Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Teaching."
Boone has received musical awards and honors for his compositions from ASCAP (Young Composer Award and ASCAP Plus awards), the International Society of Contemporary Music, the Olympia International Prize in Composition, Billboard Magazine, the National Association of Composers/USA, Meet the Composer/Southeastern Arts Federation, The American Music Center's Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program, the Southeastern Composers' League, the Delius Foundation, the National Flute Association and Boston University.
Recent commissions include Abstrakte Kontakte: Getrennte Aufgaben, for processed saxophone, processed violin/viola and two teams of dancers, commissioned by the A*deVantgarde Festival für Nueue Musik, Munich and the Office of the American Consulate; the world's first Concerto for Baritone Saxophone, commissioned by Brad Hubbard and the Western Piedmont Symphony with funding from the American Music Center's Margaret Fairbank Jory Copying Assistance Program, the North Carolina Arts Council and Meet the Composer/Southern Arts Federation; Alley Dance, commissioned by Concert Artists Guild Competition winners The New Century Saxophone Quartet; Over the Edge, for flute choir, commissioned for the National Flute Association in celebration of their 25th anniversary convention by the Instrument Manufacturer's Association and the Blumenthal Foundation; the saxophone quartet concerto, Vicissitudes, which was premiered at Carnegie Hall by the New Century Saxophone Quartet; The Confidence Man, a musical based on Herman Melville's last novel, for which Boone received a residency at the Fundación Valparaíso in Spain a reading in New York by the Riverside Opera Ensemble; and 9-11: Voices Echo , for wind ensemble, chorus and recorded voices, commissioned by CSUF.
Boone's compositions are published by Latham Music, Alry Publications, Sentinel Dome, Eighth Note Publications (Canada) and Vester Music. Over the Edge is the title track of a National Flute Choir CD (and appears on the Uptown Flutes' CD Flute Renaissance) ; Alley Dance appears on the acclaimed New Century Saxophone Quartet's Channel Classics (Netherlands) CD Homegrown: Commissions, vol. 1 ; Election Year appears on Arizona University Records' CD Millennium Tribute to Adolph Sax, vol. IV ; Drunken Bastards #2 appears on the Electronic Music Foundation's State of the Union, 2001 compilation CD; Buffing the Gut: A Jazz Etude for Solo Cello can be heard on Elizabeth Morrow's Centaur Records CD Soliloquy; Rafflesia appears on Teresa Beaman's Bella Classics CD Flute Flora; Tribute to Debussy's Syrinx: The Wood Nymph of Nonacris appears on Nina Assimakopoulos' Euterpe Recordings CD Arcadian Murmers; Four Corners and Center Stage appears on the Artship Records CD, Benjamin Boone; Psychotherapy: A Sonata for Alto Saxophone will appear on Clifford Leaman's upcoming Equilibrium CD and three arrangements appear on the New Century Saxophone Quartet's Channel Classics CD, A New Century Christmas.
A Fulbright Senior Specialist Fellow to the Republic of Moldova, Boone has also presented guest lectures and master classes at the University of Magdeburg (Germany), the University of Erlangen (Germany), Charles University (the Czech Republic) and the University of Cape Town (South Africa), among others in the US. He has been in residence at festivals and colonies such as Fundación Valparaíso (Spain), May in Miami, June in Buffalo, the Bowling Green New Music Festival and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. He has received fellowships from the Aspen Music Festival Center for Compositional Studies/Advanced Master Class Program, the Aspen Music Festival Jazz Performance Program, "Words and Music," an international composition symposium sponsored by Indiana University and the United States Information Service, the North Carolina Arts Council Composition Fellowship and the Tennessee Arts Commission Fellowship.
In addition to his activities as a composer and educator, Boone is actively engaged in research, which is mentioned in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (under "blue note"). He has conducted extensive research on the fundamental frequency of English speech, viewing speech pitch from a musical perspective. His studies suggest a pitch counterpart to a behavioral phenomenon called rhythmic synchrony.
He has also assisted a biologist with the infrasonic recording of rhinoceros vocalizations in Zimbabwe and Zambia, served as a music business manager in New York City and performed as a saxophonist throughout the United States, Germany, the Czech Republic, Switzerland and France. He performs in Europe with The Transatlantic Reed - String Project, a duo with German violinist Stefan Poetzsch. Their debut Capstone Records CD, Ostwärts - Westwärts, which was co-produced by Bayerischer Rundfunk Studio Franken - Bavarian National Radio, receives regular airplay throughout Germany.
Boone has studied with Bernard Rands, Gordon Goodwin, Charles Fussell, John A. Lennon and Jerry Coker at the University of Tennessee (BM), Boston University (MM) and the University of South Carolina (DMA).