Chorus Austin: Third Annual Young Composer's Competition winner named

Congratulations to Michael Gaydeski, winner of Chorus Austin’s third annual Young Composers Competition for his piece: Dreams in the Dusk.

Gaydeski began his first serious compositional efforts as a student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania, where he received a bachelor’s degree in music theory/composition. He also holds a master’s degree in music composition and trumpet performance from Oklahoma City University (OCU). His composition teachers include Daniel Perlongo, David Martynuik, Edward Knight and Kris Maloy.

During his time at these institutions, Gaydeski’s music received a number of performances by a diverse array of musicians including the IUP and OCU faculty brass quintets, El Sistema Oklahoma and the OCU Wind Philharmonic. He also has had works performed at the 2015 Oklahoma Music Educators Association convention and the international Saxophone Symposium. Gaydeski currently is an adjunct faculty member at OCU, where he teaches composition and orchestration and is co-faculty advisor of Project 21, the university's student-run organization of composers.

He says about Dreams in the Dusk:

“I first came across the poem “Dreams in the Dusk” while I was searching for texts for a collection of songs. This poem especially resonated with me, and I felt that I could better realize the musical vision I had for the text as a choral work. The basis of the work is an unusual chord that came to me in a dream several years ago: a D major triad underneath an ascending whole tone scale that used the notes A, B, C-sharp, and D-sharp. Though the chord itself is used only once (fittingly on the word ‘dreamland’), the whole tone motive appears throughout the work alongside numerous other examples of word painting.”

Chorus Austin is pleased to present the world premiere of Dreams in the Dusk at our upcoming "Southwest Voices" concerts, scheduled for April 30 and May 1 in Austin.  More details can be found at: chorusaustin.org