Notes on Contributing Authors:

Trevor BAČA, born outside Los Angeles in 1975, now lives and works in Austin. His concerns as a composer include lost and secret texts; broken and dismembered systems; sorcery, divination and magic; and the effects, action and beauty of light. Works include Lidércfény (2007-08) for flute, violin and piano; and a cycle of works for unaccompanied flute, including Sekka (2006-07), dedicated to Reiko Manabe and premiered at Unerhörte Musik in Berlin, and Čáry (2004-06), dedicated to Carin Levine and scheduled for premiere in Bremen in May 2009. Bača's music has been anthologized as part of Notations 21, edited by Theresa Sauer and available on Amazon.com. Bača is the first-place recipient of the 2008 Jezek Prize in Composition and is currently working on a new commission for the Either / Or Ensemble in New York.

Dániel Péter BIRÓ is Assistant Professor of Composition and Music Theory at the University of Victoria. Dr. Biró completed his Ph.D . in composition at Princeton University in 2004. He was a Fulbright scholar in Germany. He conducted research of Hungarian folk music at the Academy of Science in Budapest and of Jewish music in Israel. Awarded the Hungarian Government's Kodály Award for Hungarian composers, his compositions have been performed at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Austria, at the Bartók Festival in Szombathely, Hungary, at the Klangbiennale in Frankfurt, Germany, at the LITSK Festival for Computer Music in Princeton, U.S.A., and have been broadcast on Swiss, Austrian, German, and Italian State radio. Recent commissions come from the Interart Festival Center, Hungary from the Schlachthaus Theater, Switzerland and from the Stuttgart Opera, Germany. In 2005 he was a fellow at the Mannes intitute for advanced studies in Music Theory. In 2006 he was a featured composer and lecturer at the Darmstadt International Summer Courses for New Music. In the same year Dániel Péter Biró was a faculty fellow at the University of Victoria Centre for Studies in Religion and Society: there he researched early Jewish and Christian chant traditions.In May 2007 his electroacoustic composition Simanim (Signs, Traces), commissioned by the German Radio (HR) and done in cooperation with the Experimental Studio of the SWR, was premiered by members of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is currently working on a composition for voices, ensemble and electronics commissioned by Vancouver New Music.

James ERBER was born in 1951 in London.  Having gained Music degrees at the Universities of Sussex and Nottingham he spent a year studying composition with Brian Ferneyhough at the Musikhochschule, Freiburg-im-Breisgau.   He has worked in music publishing and education. James Erber’s music has been widely performed and broadcast.  It includes Epitomaria-Glosaria-Commentaria for 25 solo strings (1981-84), the Traces cycle for solo flute (1991-2006), the string quartet An Allegory of Exile (1992-94), Das Buch Bahir for 9 instruments (2004-2005) and The Death of the Kings for 11 instruments (2007). Ian Pace’s recording of You done torn your playhouse down for piano and Kate Romano’s recording of Strange Moments of Intimacy for solo clarinet are available on the NMC and Metier labels respectively.  A recording by Franklin Cox of le colonne d’Ercole for solo cello will be released imminently by Centaur Records.

Alexander SIGMAN (1980) is currently in the dissertation phase of the doctoral program in Music Composition at Stanford University, having studied primarily with Brian Ferneyhough. He has pursued further post-graduate study with Chaya Czernowin at the University for Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (2007), and attended the one-year intensive course of the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague (Netherlands) during 2007-2008. This year, he has been awarded a fellowship for a 9-month residency at the Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany). Prior to Stanford, Sigman obtained a BM in Music Composition and a BA in Cognitive Sciences from Rice University.He has received performances at such international music programs and festivals as Centre Acanthes, June in Buffalo, the Darmstädter-Ferienkurse, the Abbaye de Royaumont, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the Society of Composers (SCI) National Conference,the Klangraum-Festival (Stuttgart), and Musica Nova Helsinki. His music has been performed throughout Europe and the US by such ensembles as the Arditti Quartet, les Percussions de Strasbourg, Ensemble SurPlus, Ensemble Inauthentica, and Ensemble Ascolta, as well as soloists such as Magnus Andersson, Jean Kopperud, Eliot Gattegno, and Françoise Rivalland. Sigman’s electroacoustic, video, and multi-media compositions have been featured on programs at the Institute of Sonology (The Hague), DNK-Amsterdam, ICMC, the Sonorities Festival (Belfast), the In-Sonora Muestra (Madrid), and SoundLAB VI (Köln), among others. Since his undergraduate studies, Sigman has received several commissions, awards and grants, including the American Composers’ Forum Encore grant, the Bearns Prize, a Fulbright scholarship to the Netherlands, a Julius F. Jezek commission prize nomination, as well as awards from ASCAP. In June 2007, he was composer-in-residence at the Musiques Démesurées festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Sigman has also authored several articles and papers on various subjects, including a book chapter on music and aesthetics (to be published in an anthology edited by Steven Takasugi) and a study of early Schönberg lieder, conducted at the Schönberg-Center in Vienna. He has presented lectures at numerous conferences and institutions, including Harvard University, the Stuttgart Staatsgalerie, and Aristotle University (Thessaloniki, Greece). Since 2007, Sigman has been Co-Editor of the Search Journal for New Music and Culture and Managing Director of the 12-member Dutch ensemble Modelo62. Supplemental activities include performing (as a pianist and conductor) and engaging in music cognition research.

Claus-Steffen MAHNKOPF:
1962 Born on October 22 in Mannheim
from 1984 Study of Musicology, Philosophy an Sociology at the Universities of Heidelberg, Freiburg and Frankfurt am Main
Study of Composition with Brian Ferneyhough
since 1985 International prizes
since 1986 Performances at international festivals in Europe and the USA
portrait concerts in Mannheim, Hamburg, Freiburg, Damrstadt (Ferienkurse 1992), Stuttgart (1993 and 1996), Bludenz, Munich, Baden-Baden, Rome, Salzburg, Heilbronn, Freiburg, Berlin
1987 Study at the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik Freiburg: study of composition with Klaus Huber and Emmanuel Nunes, study of music theory with Peter Foertig, study of piano with James Avery
1988-94 Faculty member of the Darmstaedter Ferienkurse
1989 Master of Arts degree
Faculty advisor in Philosophy: Juergen Habermas, faculty advisor in Sociology: Ludwig von Friedburg
1990 Gaudeamus Prize (for Interpénétrations
1990-95 Faculty lecturer at the University of Freiburg
1991 Composer-in-residence at the Hamburg Staatsoper
Stipendium from the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung of the SWF
1992 Graduation in composition and music theory
1992-1996 Substitute for professorial position at the Staatliche Hochschule fuer Musik Freiburg
1993 PhD. degree from the University of Frankfurt am Main
1st prize from the Stuttgarter Foerderwettbewerb (for Medusa
1994 Baldreit-Stipendium from the city of Baden-Baden
first book publication
1995 Founding of the Gesellschaft fuer Musik & Aesthetik
1995/96 Stipendium/Residence at the Akademie Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
since 1997 Editor of Musik & Aesthetik
1997/98 Stipendium from the state of Niedersachsen
1998 Siemens-Foerderpreis
Stipendium from the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung of the SWF
1998/99 Stipendium/Residence at the Villa Massimo, Rome
1998-2000 Artistic/musicological advisor at the Staatsoper Stuttgart
1999 Marriage with Dr. phil. Dipl. Theol. Francesca Albertini
2000 Music-theatrical piece Angelus Novus (Munich Biennale)
2001 Begin of the Cooperation with the Experimentalstudio der Heinrich- Strobel-Stiftung des SWR
2002 Founding of the bool series New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century; Stipendium from the Paul-Sacher-Stiftung
2002-2003 Substitute for professorial position at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Freiburg
2003 Stipendium from the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung des SWF
2003-2005 Substitute for professorial position at the Hochschule für Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig
2004-2006 Artistic/musicalogical advisor of the ISCM-Festival 2006
2005 Stipendium from the Centro Tedesco di Studi Veneziani
2005-2009 Member of the jury of the Stuttgarter Kompositionspreis
Since 2005 Editor of sinefonia. Tenured professor for composition at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater "Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy" Leipzig
2006 Book Kritische Theorie der Musik