Composition Area Faculty
MICHAEL SCHELLE (pronounced "Shelley") was born in Philadelphia, raised in northern New Jersey and graduated from NHR High School (Bergen County, NJ) where, as Captain of the track team, he held the all-state distance records in the javelin, shot put and hammer for three years running. Now, 30+ years running as Composer in Residence and founder of the notorious JCA Composers Orchestra (new music ensemble) at Butler University in Indianapolis, he has been 2X nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music, a finalist for the International Humour in Poetry Competition (Paris), a published author (film music book), and restaurant critic.
Michael Schelle‘s music has been commissioned and / or performed by over 350 orchestras, symphonic bands and professional chamber ensembles across the US and abroad including the Chicago Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Milwaukee Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, the Asian Cultural Symphony Orchestra of America (NYC), the major orchestras of Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, Portland (OR), Dayton, Nashville, Kansas City, Arizona, New Mexico, Honolulu and Springfield (Mass), the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, XTET (Los Angeles), Urban Quartet (Phoenix), Voices of Change (Dallas), SONOR (UC San Diego), the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Eastman New Music Group, the Tokyo to New York chamber music series (NYC, Tokyo) and the Bargemusic series (Brooklyn).
International performances of Schelle’s music include Kammerorchester Basel (Switzerland), the Brno Philharmonic (Czech Republic), the St. Petersburg (Russia) Chamber Orchestra, the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra (Moscow), Warsaw Opera, the Czestochowa Philharmonic (Poland), Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional (Costa Rica), the Koenig Ensemble of London, the Banff Centre (Canada), CoMET (Tokyo), Firenza New Music Festival (Italy), Beijing (China) Opera House, the Zimbabwe Arts Festival, and the Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) Cultural Arts Centre Symphonic Wind Ensemble. In May 2019, Schelle’s opera The End of Al Capone received its Eastern European premiere production in Warsaw, Poland, featuring the famous Polish tenor Jacek Szponarski in the title role.
Dr. Schelle has received composition grants, fellowships, prizes and awards from over 30 prestigious regional and national arts organizations including the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the League of American Orchestras / American Symphony Orchestra League (NYC), American Pianists Association, National Band Association (2012 Revelli Composition Prize), the Welsh Arts Council (Cardiff), the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society Board of Regents, the Confucius Institute, New England Foundation for the Arts, New York State Arts Council, Arts Midwest, Great Lakes Arts Alliance, Indiana Arts Commission and the Arts Council of Indianapolis (Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship (x2).
He has held extended composition residencies at dozens of leading American universities, conservatories and new music festivals across the US, and at Spoleto USA, Wolf Trap, the MacDowell Colony (NH), and many extended residencies abroad – including Visiting Professor at the Kraków (Penderecki) Academy of Music (2017, 2019), at Chopin University of Music (Warsaw, 2017, 2019), The National University of Costa Rica (San Jose), Aichi Prefectural University of Music and the Arts (Nagoya, Japan), Nagoya Imperial University (x2), and in Prague, Vienna, Amsterdam and China (Hangzhou, Beijing, Ningbo, etc. – where his 2002 piano concerto Wright Flight was "on tour" throughout China in 2011 with the South Shore Orchestra (Chicago).
Dr. Schelle holds degrees from Villanova University (B.A. theatre / philosophy), the Hartt School of Music / University of Hartford (M.M. Composition), the Trinity College of Music, London, UK, (diploma, piano), and a Ph.D. (theory / composition) from the University of Minnesota. His composition teachers have included Aaron Copland, Arnold Franchetti, Paul Fetler and Dominick Argento. Schelle’s works are published by MMB Keiser Classical / Hal Leonard, Indiana University Press, European American Music, American Composers Edition (NYC) and commercially recorded by CRS (Philadelphia), Innova (Boston), Albany (NYC/London) and Ablaze Records (Australia/USA). During the summers of 1997 – 2003, Schelle lived in Los Angeles, writing a film music book (The Score, published in 2000 by Silman-James Press, LA, and translated / published in Korea in 2014) – and working on the original scores for such Hollywood blockbusters (?) as G Men from Hell and Bikini Prison.
Professional website: http://www.schellemusic.com/1.html
Music Composition at Butler University: 1980s – present day: upon his arrival at Butler in the 1980s, Michael Schelle inherited one lone wolf composition major – but for the past 30+ years, the department has evolved, developed and maintained a strong national presence, attracting / mentoring a yearly average total of 10-12 undergraduate (BM) composition majors, and 8-10 graduate (MM) composition majors from across the United States, Europe and Asia, the majority of whom have gone on to successful composition careers in concert music, experimental music, academia and / or creating music / sound design for media (film / TV / video games). After Butler, many of our composers have continued their formal graduate school education (MM, DMA, PhD) at prestigious institutions across the US and abroad – often with graduate teaching fellowships – including USC, UCLA, NYU, NEC, UNC Chapel Hill, the Hartt School (CT), Yale University, Duke University, the University of Chicago, Indiana University, Arizona State, Eastman, Juilliard, the Royal College of Music (London) and multiple graduate composers to Uniwersytet Muzyczny Fryderyka Chopina (Warsaw, Poland) on Erasmus international exchange grants.
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Frank Felice is an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: each piece speaks in its own language, and they can be by turns comedic/ironic, simple/complex, subtle/startling or humble/reverent. Recent projects of Felice’s have taken a turn towards the sweeter side, exploring a consonant adiatonicism.
His music has been performed extensively in the U.S. as well as garnering performances in Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, China, the Russian Federation, Austria, the Philippines, the Czech Republic and Hungary. His commissions have included funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Omaha Symphony, the Indiana Arts Commission, The Indiana Repertory Theatre, Dance Kaleidoscope, Music Teachers National Association, the Wyoming State Arts Board, the Indianapolis Youth Symphony, Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma as well as many private commissions and consortia. A recording of electronic and electro-acoustic music entitled "Sidewalk Music" is available on Capstone Records & Ravello records on iTunes, Naxos and other online sites. Scores and other performance materials can be obtained from Mad Italian Bros. Ink Publishing.
Frank began his musical studies in Hamilton, Montana, singing, playing piano, guitar and double bass. His interest in composition began through participation with a number of rock bands, one of which, Graffiti, toured the western United States and the Far East in 1986-1987. He attended Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, the University of Colorado, and Butler University, studying with Michael Schelle, Daniel Breedon, Luiz Gonzalez, and James Day. Most recently he has studied with Dominick Argento, Alex Lubet, Lloyd Ultan, and Judith Lang Zaimont at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, where he completed his Ph.D in 1998. Frank currently teaches as an associate professor of composition, theory and electronic music in the School of Music, Jordan College of Arts at Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana.
He is member of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S., the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, The Society of Composers Inc., and the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers. Residencies include those with the Wyoming Arts Council, and the Banff Centre for the Arts and a number of mini-residencies in universities and high schools throughout the west and mid-west. In recent years he has been in demand as an electric and upright bassist, playing in various rock/funk/prog rock/big bands in the greater Indianapolis area. In addition to musical interests, he pursues his creative muse through painting, poetry, cooking, home brewing, paleontology, theology, philosophy, and basketball. He is very fortunate to be married to mezzo-soprano Mitzi Westra.
http://www.frank-felice.com/
https://soundcloud.com/felice-composer
Composer, conductor, violinist, and violist Richard Auldon Clark is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, Manhattan Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, and the Finger Lakes Chamber Music Festival. A strong proponent of American music, Mr. Clark has performed and/or recorded hundreds of world premiers, and his work has received extraordinary praise in the New York Times, Fanfare, American Record Guide, Washington Post, and dozens of others. Mr. Clark has recorded the music of David Amram, Henry Cowell, Seymour Barab, Lukas Foss, Alan Hovhaness, Otto Leuning, Osvaldo Lacerda, Dave Soldier, Alec Wilder, and many more. An active studio musician as well, Mr. Clark has performed and recorded for Broadway, television, commercial, and film music, including several films for Philip Glass. Mr. Clark’s compositions have been praised in the New York Times and broadcast on NPR stations around the country. With more than twenty chamber works to his credit, Mr. Clark has premiered six new compositions in the past three years at Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall, and in September 2016, his opera Happy Birthday, Wanda June with a Libretto by Kurt Vonnegut was premiered by Indianapolis Opera. A frequent collaborator, Mr. Clark works with dancers, choreographers, and visual artists in the creation of new works. Currently, Mr. Clark is Professor of Music at Butler University where conducts the Butler Symphony Orchestra and Butler Ballet.