Larry Bitensky
Encyclopedia
Larry Bitensky is an American composer
who has written for a variety of genres, including piano
, chamber ensembles
, orchestra
, and wind ensemble.
and an MM in composition at Ithaca College
. His primary composition teachers include Steven Stucky
, Dana Wilson
, Roberto Sierra
, and Karel Husa
. He also studied piano with Stephen Drury
at the New England Conservatory of Music
where he earned a B.M. in piano performance.
Bitensky's music has been described as "extraordinary sensitive and beautiful" and "speaking directly from the heart" and his works have been performed throughout North America
and Europe
.
He is currently the Charles T. Hazelrigg Associate Professor of Music at Centre College
in Danville, KY
, where he teaches music theory
, composition, aural skills, and world music
.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
who has written for a variety of genres, including piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, chamber ensembles
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
, orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
, and wind ensemble.
Biography
Bitensky earned a DMA in composition at Cornell UniversityCornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
and an MM in composition at Ithaca College
Ithaca College
Ithaca College is a private college located on the South Hill of Ithaca, New York. The school was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music. The college has a strong liberal arts core, but also offers several pre-professional programs and some graduate programs. The college is...
. His primary composition teachers include Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
, Dana Wilson
Dana Wilson
Dana Richard Wilson is an American composer, jazz pianist, and teacher. Wilson currently resides in Ithaca, New York.Wilson's music has been commissioned and performed by such ensembles as the Chicago Chamber Musicians, Detroit Chamber Winds and Strings, Buffalo Philharmonic, Memphis Symphony,...
, Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra is a composer of contemporary classical music.Sierra studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany...
, and Karel Husa
Karel Husa
Karel Husa is a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition...
. He also studied piano with Stephen Drury
Stephen Drury
Stephen Drury is an American pianist, conductor and electronic musician.Drury has performed and recorded a range of compositions by classical and contemporary composers including Igor Stravinsky, Charles Ives, John Cage, Frederic Rzewski, and John Zorn...
at the New England Conservatory of Music
New England Conservatory of Music
The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts, is the oldest independent school of music in the United States.The conservatory is home each year to 750 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate studies along with 1400 more in its Preparatory School as well as the School of...
where he earned a B.M. in piano performance.
Bitensky's music has been described as "extraordinary sensitive and beautiful" and "speaking directly from the heart" and his works have been performed throughout North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
.
He is currently the Charles T. Hazelrigg Associate Professor of Music at Centre College
Centre College
Centre College is a private liberal arts college in Danville, Kentucky, USA, a community of approximately 16,000 in Boyle County south of Lexington, KY. Centre is an exclusively undergraduate four-year institution. Centre was founded by Presbyterian leaders, with whom it maintains a loose...
in Danville, KY
Danville, Kentucky
Danville is a city in and the county seat of Boyle County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 16,218 at the 2010 census.Danville is the principal city of the Danville Micropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Boyle and Lincoln counties....
, where he teaches music theory
Music theory
Music theory is the study of how music works. It examines the language and notation of music. It seeks to identify patterns and structures in composers' techniques across or within genres, styles, or historical periods...
, composition, aural skills, and world music
World music
World music is a term with widely varying definitions, often encompassing music which is primarily identified as another genre. This is evidenced by world music definitions such as "all of the music in the world" or "somebody else's local music"...
.
Chamber Works
- What Winter Dreamt
- From those Beginning Notes of Yearning
- Fanfare
- The Other Side
- Awake, You Sleepers!
- One for Two
- Then the Letting Go
Wind Ensemble Works
- We Tread and Go
- The Closing of the Gates
- Hadra
- Awake, You Sleepers!
- One for All
- To Touch the Sky
Piano
- From the Corner Room
- The Alchemy of Solitude
- Scent of the World We Gave Up
- Rapture
- Vocalise
- Shouts and Murmurs, Books 1 & 2
- One for Two
Vocal
- Mishb'rey Yam
- Vayashav Hamal'ach
- The Drift of Things
- Doctor Knickerbocker and Other Stories