From Emmys to Fulbrights: Composer lineup for 2012 ‘New Music Arizona’ Concert announced

Aug. 9, 2012 - PRLog -- (Prescott, AZ) August 4, 2012-Chaparral Arts announces that Daniel Asia, Chris Burton-Jacome,  James DeMars, Roshanne Etezady and Rodney Rogers are the five Arizona composers whose works have been selected to be featured on the sixth annual Chaparral MusicFest ‘New Music Arizona’ Concert. The concert takes place at 3:00 pm on September 9, 2012 at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Prescott, AZ. Tickets for the concert are available online at chaparralmusicfest.org and eventbrite.com; in person at the Prescott Chamber of Commerce, 117 W. Goodwin Street, Prescott, AZ, 86303, or at the door on September 9.

Daniel Asia is one of a small number of composers who have traversed both the realms of professional performance and academia with equal skill. He has been the recipient of the most important grants and fellowships in music including a Meet The Composer/ Reader's Digest Consortium Commission, United Kingdom Fulbright Arts Award Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, four NEA Composers Grants, a M. B. Rockefeller Grant, an Aaron Copland Fund for Music Grant, MacDowell Colony and Tanglewood Fellowships, ASCAP and BMI composition prizes, and a DAAD Fellowship for study in the Federal Republic of Germany. From 1991-1994, Asia was the Meet the Composer/ Composer In Residence with the Phoenix Symphony.
After receiving his BA degree from Hampshire College, Asia received his MM from the Yale School of Music. He is presently Professor of Composition, and head of the Composition Department, at The University of Arizona, Tucson

Composer/conductor James DeMars belongs to a generation that is revealing a new integration of world music with the range, depth and stylistic variety of the classical tradition. His works include concerti for violin, piano, African drum ensemble, pow-wow singers, Native American flute, several cantatas, a requiem mass and an opera. Ensembles that perform DeMars' music include the New York Choral Society, Brooklyn Philharmonic, Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Utah Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic, Phoenix Symphony, California Symphony, and Chicago Sinfonietta. DeMars’ Two World Concerto (1993),  which received two Native American Music Awards and has been performed more than 30 times, led to the 2008 creation of DeMars' inter-cultural opera, Guadalupe: Our Lady of the Roses.  With Native American flutist R. Carlos Nakai DeMars has released four recordings and one book for Canyon Records. DeMars holds a doctorate from the University of Minnesota and currently teaches composition at Arizona State University in Tempe. In 2010 he received the Arizona Artist of the Year Governor's Award.


As a young musician, Roshanne Etezady studied piano and flute, and developed an interest in many different styles of music, from the musicals of Stephen Sondheim to 1980's power ballads and Europop. One fateful evening in 1986, seeing Philip Glass and his ensemble perform on Saturday Night Live sparked her interest in contemporary classical music, as well as her interest in being a composer herself. Her works have been commissioned by the Albany Symphony, eighth blackbird and the PRISM Saxophone Quartet.  An active teacher, Etezady has taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp, Yale University, Arizona State University, Saint Mary's College, and the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. She is currently on the faculty of Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Chris Burton Jácome began playing guitar in 1986 and studied flamenco guitar in Sevila, Spain. He now performs over 200 shows a year, many sold-out,  throughout the US and Canada.
Jácome’s compositions have received critical acclaim from the beginning of his career. The title track “Motivación” from his debut CD Motivacion finished in the Top 10 in the John Lennon Songwriting Contest World Music Category. Jácome’s music can be heard scoring the Emmy Award Winning PBS television special: “Flamenco” and on the popular TV shows “Kyle xy” and “Greek”. In June of 2011, Jácome finished scoring his first feature film, "Just the Vampire Hunter" which was released in early 2012. Additionally, Jácome can be heard as the featured soloist in the movie soundtrack of the feature film, “9/tenths”. Besides touring nationally with his group, The Chris Burton Jácome Flamenco Ensemble, Jácome is the musical director for CALO FLAMENCO, Ballet de Martín Gaxiola- one of the top touring flamenco dance companies in the United States,.

Compositions by Rodney Rogers include both instrumental and vocal music, ranging from works for solo performers to full orchestra. He is the recipient of composition awards from BMI and ASCAP and fellowships from Tanglewood, the MacDowell Colony, and the Yaddo Artist Colony. Groups performing his music include the American Composers Orchestra, Eastman Wind Ensemble, American Brass Quintet, Juilliard Brass Quintet, St. Louis Symphony Chamber Players, Gregg Smith Singers, Tucson Symphony and the Omega Quartet. A recent CD entitled Complicated Optimism contains music for both large and small ensembles. Rogers received his PhD. from the University of Iowa and has taught composition at Louisiana State University, Lawrence University (Appleton, WI) and teaches currently at Arizona State University.

More information about the New Music Arizona concert is available at chaparralmusicfest.org.