CLINT NEEDHAM
CLINT NEEDHAM
Clint Needham, born in 1981 in Texarkana, Texas, is currently a Jacobs School of Music Doctoral Fellow in composition at Indiana University. He received his Bachelors degree in composition from Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory and his Masters degree from Indiana University. He has studied with Claude Baker, David Dzubay, Donald Freund, Michael Gandolfi, Per Mårtensson, P.Q. Phan, Sven-David Sandström, Richard Wernick, and Loris Chobanian. Clint has also studied with Robert Beaser, Sydney Hodkinson, Christopher Rouse, and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival as a Susan and Ford Schumann Composition Fellow.
Clint’s music has been performed at various venues across the United States including the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Carnegie Hall’s Isaac Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall, the Green Room in San Francisco, the International House in Philadelphia, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Meadowlark Music Festival, and the Music Educators National Conference (MENC) in Salt Lake City.
Recent performances of Clint’s music have been given by the American Brass Quintet, American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Concert Orchestra, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Ithaca College’s KULMUSIK, New York Youth Symphony, Quintet Attacca, Stanford Wind Quintet, and Symphony in C, among others. Additionally, Clint’s music has been conducted by Ryan Haskins, Syd Hodkinson, Ryan McAdams, Rossen Milanov, Jeffrey Milarsky, David Alan Miller, and Larry Rachleff.
Clint has been recognized with numerous awards including a 2009 National SCI/ASCAP Student Composer Commission, the 2008 Heckscher Composition Prize from Ithaca College, the 2008 Aspen Music Festival’s Jacob Druckman Prize, a 2008 Lee Ettelson Composer Award, a New York Youth Symphony First Music Award/Commission, two ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Awards (2007 & 2009), and the 2007 William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award. In May of 2007, Clint was selected as one of nine composers nation-wide to attend the 16th Annual Underwood New Music Readings by the American Composers Orchestra, where there group read his work Earth and Green. After the readings, ACO named him winner of the coveted Underwood New Music Commission. The commissioned work, Chamber Symphony, was premiered by the group on November 14, 2008 at Carnegie Hall.
Other recent commissions include his Violin Concertino for soloist William Harvey, his second brass quintet entitled Abstract Mosaics for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Faculty Brass Quintet, and a concerto for chamber winds for the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors Commission (NACWPI).
Upcoming projects and commissions include a large-scale work for the Indiana University Wind Ensemble and new chamber works for the Albany Symphony, the Society of Composers (SCI) National Conference, and for the 2009 Composers Conference at Wellesley College, where Clint will be a composition fellow.
Clint is currently an Associate Instructor for the Composition Department at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. His music is published by the Theodore Presser Company. He is also a featured composer in volume IV of the “Composers on Composing for Band” series, available from GIA Publications, Inc. The American Brass Quintet has recorded his Brass Quintet No. 1 “Circus” on their 2007 Summit Records release entitled “Jewels”.
More information about the composer can be found at www.clintneedham.com
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 | 2009: ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Award | | 2009: Composition Fellowship from the Composers Conference at Wellesley College | | 2009: SCI/ASCAP Student Composer Commission | | 2008: Composition Fellowship from the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music | | 2008: Heckscher Composition Prize from Ithaca College | | 2008: Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival | | 2008: Lee Ettelson Award from Composers, Inc. | | 2008: Symphony in C Young Composers’ Competition Award | | 2007: ASCAP/Morton Gould Young Composer Award | | 2007: First Music Orchestral Commission from the New York Youth Symphony | | 2007: Underwood New Music Commission from the American Composers Orchestra | | 2007: William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award | | 2006: Washington International Competition for Composers (2nd Prize) | | 2005: Susan and Ford Schumann Composition Fellowship from the Aspen Music Festival | | 2004: International Trumpet Guild Composition Contest (2nd Prize) |
Radiant Nation for Wind Ensemble (2008) -- 6'30"
2 Picc.(2nd d.Fl.) 2 Fl. 2Ob. E.H.(opt.) Cl.(Eb) 3Cl.(Bb) B.Cl. 2A.Sax. Ten.Sax. Bar.Sax. 2Bsn. Cbsn.(opt.) 4Hn. 3Tpt. 2Tbn. B.Tbn. Euph. Tu. Cb.(opt.) Timp. 3Perc. Hp. Pno.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Premiere Information: (orchestra version) July 30, 2008. Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, conducted by Marin Alsop. Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, Santa Cruz, CA.
Additional Information: Percussion (3 players):
1. Drum Set: kick drum, 3 toms (high-low), hi-hat, splash cymbal, 2 cowbells, triangle
2. Glockenspiel, bass drum, tambourine, tam-tam, china cymbal, medium suspended cymbal, sizzle cymbal, high-pitched brake drum, 2 triangles, police whistle
3. Vibraphone, Marimba, bass drum, bongos, tam-tam, medium suspended cymbal, splash cymbal, shaker
Axioms -- 10'30"
Fl. Cl. Perc. Pno. Vln. Vla. Vcl.
Premiere Information: Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Sydney Hodkinson, conductor, Aspen Music Festival’s Harris Hall, July 14, 2005
Brass Quintet No. 1 "Circus" -- 10'
2Tpt. Hn. Tbn. B.Tbn./Tu.
Premiere Information: Aspen Student Brass Quintet, Aspen Music Festival’s Harris Hall, August 2003
• Recordings
Five Movements for Wind Quintet -- 7'
Fl. Ob. Cl. Bsn. Hn.
Premiere Information: Aspen Student Wind Quintet, Aspen Music Festival’s Harris Hall, August 10, 2007
String Quartet No. 1 “shades of green” -- 17'
2Vln. Vla. Vcl.
Premiere Information: Kuttner String Quartet, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s Ford
Recital Hall, April 2006
Above the Tree Line -- 12'
1 1 1 1 – 1 0 0 0; Perc. Hp. Pno. Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Premiere Information: Indiana University Chamber Players, Charles Latshaw, conductor, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s Recital Hall, April 17, 2007
Chamber Symphony -- 21'
1 1 2 1 – 1 1 1 1; 3Perc. Hp. Pno./Cel. Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra with the generous support of Paul
Underwood and with additional support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Premiere Information: American Composers Orchestra, Jeffrey Milarsky, conductor, Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall, November 14, 2008
Movements:
• I. Hammering Out
• II. Open-ended Echoes
• III. Radiant Nation
• Reviews
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry -- 14'
Solo Bar.; 1 1 1 1 – 1 1 1 1; 2Perc. Hp. Pno./Cel. Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Commission Information: Commissioned by the Indiana University New Music Ensemble
Premiere Information: Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Benjamin Bolter, conductor, Ferris Allen, Baritone, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music’s Auer Hall, April 17, 2008
Earth and Green -- 13'
3 3 3 3 – 4 3 3 1; Timp. 3Perc. Hp. Pno. Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Premiere Information: Aspen Concert Orchestra, Larry Rachleff, conductor, Aspen Music Festival’s Benedict Music Tent, August 13, 2008
Movements:
• I. Enticing Fires
• II. Calm Reflections
Radiant Nation -- 6'30"
2 2 2 2 – 2 2 2 1; Timp. 3Perc. Hp. Pno. Str.
Available from the Presser Rental Library
Premiere Information: Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Richard McKay & Evan Rogister, conductors, Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music at the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium, July 30, 2008
• Reviews
"Clint Needham writes complex and compelling music where every detail is carefully considered."-American Composers Orchestra"Clint Needham knows how to both orchestrate and create a compelling music narrative. His music demonstrates remarkable range and color."-Robert Beaser, The Juilliard School
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"Campaign rhetoric trumpeted by strings and winds? That was Clint Needham's kickoff point for his Radiant Nation, the work Symphony in C played as the prize winner in its Young Composer's Competition. The Texas-born Needham uses no words to capture the spirit of the Obama election, but slyly turns instruments into voices declaiming, snipping and even bloviating on his themes of hope and sardonic comment.
Although his aim was specific, he was doing what composers do, shaping moods and contrasts by graphic and subtle instrumental touches. His piece moves from high strings with quiet piano to a kind of sonic battleground in which lyrical moments survive trombone glissandos and the metrical energy of the orchestra pushes time and color forward.
Needham, a doctoral student at Indiana University, uses a large orchestra with lots of percussion, but his music is transparent as he makes every instrument count. It was easy to smile at this piece, for it captures a sense of giddy overstatement - the stuff of campaign rhetoric - within its below-the-surface dignity."-Daniel Webster, Philadelphia Inquirer"a tight, vibrant work with no fanfares or pomp. It's sure to prompt nodding heads and tapping feet.
Daniel Dorff (Symphony in C’s Composer-in-Residence) praised Radiant Nation, particularly its straightforward drive and overall unity. "It's one story, one trip, one piece of DNA," Dorff said. "It's fresh and spicy, and he really keeps it interesting."-Dave Allen, Courier-Post"The orchestra capped the evening with a speedy but tasteful performance of Clint Needham’s Chamber Symphony. The outer movements were raucous - especially the first, with its heavy brass and cowbell - and framed a reflective middle, titled “Open-Ended Echoes.” Here Needham did away with constant pulse, the hallmark of American Minimalism, and scored a warm, throbbing movement for strings, in which all the principal players gave lovely, resonant solos. Needham said the piece was originally inspired by the 2008 presidential races, and that seemed most appropriate in the third movement, “Radiant Nation,” as speeding phrases played in canon seemed to elbow one another out of the way. Appropriate to the outcome of Needham’s source of inspiration, the piece ended with a big surge and a joyous noise. This composer - ...and this country, our very own radiant nation - is headed for big things."-Dave Allen, Phawker.com
"The concert ended with the Chamber Symphony by Clint Needham, another alumnus of the Underwood readings. Intentionally or not, the title proposed a possible lineage. Whereas John Adams describes his Chamber Symphony as a mix of Schoenberg’s first work by that name and the zany energy of Road Runner cartoons, Mr. Needham’s frenetic, wildly entertaining piece suggests a mix of Mr. Adams’s music, “The Simpsons” and a two-liter bottle of Cherry Coke, consumed in a single gulp."-Steve Smith, The New York Times
Page last updated October 19, 2009
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