Photo by Rachel Watson
Bio
Composer Evan Hause studied composition and percussion at the Oberlin Conservatory (BM '90), the University of Michigan (MM '92 & DMA '96), and the North Carolina School of the Arts ('85-'87) with special studies (through Oberlin Conservatory) at the Schoenberg Institute in Moedling, Austria. His primary composition teachers have been William Albright, Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, Randolph Coleman, Richard Hoffmann and Sherwood Shaffer. He studied percussion with Michael Rosen, Michael Udow, Massie Johnson, and Salvatore Rabbio.
Upcoming events include the world premiere of a new work for large band by the University of Michigan Symphony Band in the Fall of 2010 and the premiere of a new piano solo, Prelude and Toccata by Robert Satterlee. On July 3 his orchestration of the Cuban zarzuela Cecilia Valdes will be premiered at the Granada Festival in Granada, Spain by the Galician Orchestra. December, 2009 saw the release of Spelunk: Premieres for Clarinet by clarinetist Maureen Hurd, which included three of his works. He has been commissioned to write a major new work for the Riverside Symphony in New York City for 2011-12.
Other recent events include the world premiere of Night Voyages by Well-Tempered Keyboards in Tyler, Texas, and of "Passage," an NEA-commissioned work for two vocalists and Chamber Orchestra by the Dogs of Desire based on Henry Hudson's last days set adrift by mutineers (prem. March 6, 2009 in Albany, NY) and the World Premiere of his third opera, Man: Biology of a Fall (Libretto by Gary Heidt) at Kumble Theater in Brooklyn, New York. Earlier in 2007; and Nassau, Vol. 2, a pocket opera about a walk down Nassau Avenue in Brooklyn based on Joyce's and Homer's Ulysses, was premiered by the Dogs of Desire. His Concerto for Electric Guitar and Symphony Band was recently performed at Syracuse University. Struggle (an NEA-funded commission) for solo trombone was premiered at the New York State Museum in Albany. An arrangement for NYC's Alarm Will Sound of the music of Aphex Twin was premiered at the 2005 Lincoln Center Festival (7/24/05) and released on CD. "Acoustica" (Cantaloupe) reached #24 on the Billboard Classical Crossover chart. (See press)
He has received recognition and praise for his opera trilogy, "The Defenestration Trilogy" based on the mysterious deaths of lesser known 1950's American personages. He conducted nine performances of his second chamber opera, Nightingale: The Last Days of James Forrestal at the Present Company Theatorium (NYC) in Spring of 2002. Opera News deemed the work "fresh and dramatic," and The Village Voice called it "powerful and haunting." The final work, Man: Biology of a Fall is based on the last days of biochemist Frank Olson.
Hause was the first Composer-in-Residence of the Carolina Chamber Music Festival and of the Fox River Chamber Music Festival (Wisconsin) in 2003 and 2006, respectively. Two world premieres of chamber music and a concert dedicated in part to his music by NYC's Prism Players were given in 2003. His Spectral Caravan for NYC's Locrian Chamber Players was praised by the New York Times as "most compelling." Further among his many performing credits are a musical directorship from the piano for the Hourglass Group production revival of Mae West's 1926 play, Sex, at the Gershwin Theater, for which he co-composed incidental music with Steven Bernstein.
In 2001, the Albany Symphony commissioned two new works, Trumpet Concerto and a burlesque for voices and chamber orchestra entitled U.S. Lowball (a loving parody of Harry Partch's U.S. Highball). He created two works for the acclaimed Evansville, Indiana-based ensemble, Tales & Scales, one of which was a co-composition and orchestration of an hour-long work (Pandora's Box) by Grawemeyer Award winning composer George Tsontakis.
His music has been commissioned or performed by the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Salt Lake City Contemporary Music Consortium, Albany, Boston, Phoenix, Utah, Louisville, Memphis, Brooklyn and Grand Rapids Symphonies, Oberlin Percussion Group and Contemporary Ensemble, pianist Blair McMillen, bassonist Stephen Walt, Music for Homemade Instruments, percussionist Chris Wabich, Sole Nero, cellist Nathaniel Chaitkin, Infinity Brass, clarinetist Maureen Hurd, and at the Banff Centre for the Arts, CalArts, June in Buffalo, U. S. Marine Corps, the Yellow Barn Festival, and the "Spring in Havana" Electronic Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, as well as at numerous colleges and universities, such as CalArts, Cincinnati Conservatory, and Universities of Florida, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Greensboro, Oklahoma, Iowa and Louisiana. His music has been broadcast by radio stations in Canada, Germany, and the U.S. and his music has been performed in Japan, South Korea, Jordan, Mexico, England, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Thailand, Cuba and Brazil.
Awards include several ASCAP Morton Gould awards, residencies at the Edward Albee "Barn," MacDowell Colony, and Atlantic Center for the Arts (studying with David N. Baker), the Rackham Regents and Dissertation Fellowships of the University of Michigan, the Herbert Elwell Composer Award of the Oberlin Conservatory, the Sanford Scholarship of the North Carolina School of the Arts, a Brooklyn Arts Council grant, and a composition prize from the International Trumpet Guild. He attended the Aspen Music Festival (receiving lessons from Jacob Druckman and Bernard Rands) and June in Buffalo (attending master classes by Milton Babbitt, Lukas Foss, Donald Erb and Roger Reynolds). As a youngster he was the 1985 North Carolina All-State Timpanist for band and orchestra. In 1998 he was nominated for the CalArts Herb Alpert Award. His work is recorded on the Cadence, Cantaloupe, MSR, dAd, and Equilibrium labels.
His uniquely varied activities as a performer further have included: playing guitar, percussion, and piano in various improvisatory groups, such as his group Condensation, conducting the world premiere of Andrew Mead's Concerto for Alto Saxophone and 12 Instruments with Timothy McAllister as soloist, playing electric guitar for Alarm Will Sound and percussion for the S.E.M Ensemble, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra and the Locrian Chamber Players, and numerous performances as solo singer-songwriter across the Midwest and New York City. As an orchestral percussionist/ timpanist he has played in the North Carolina, Winston-Salem, Greensboro, Albany (NY), Charleston (SC), Ann Arbor, Flint (MI) Symphonies and the Long Island Philharmonic among others. His conducting teachers include Peter Perret, Robert Ponto, Robert Spano, and his father, Robert Hause, as well as participation in the Conductor's Institute. He has conducted several works by his composer colleagues, including one of the first performances of Carter Pann's Dance Partita. He has written over 80 rock songs, thirteen of which are found on his 1998 CD release, Adventures of Freddy.
Dr. Hause was Assistant Professor of Theory, Composition, and Percussion at Pittsburg State University from 1996-1999. He also taught percussion at the North Carolina Governor's School West (1991), theory at Concordia College-New York (2003-05), and was a composition/theory teaching assistant at the University of Michigan (1992, '94). He is the Publications Director for the Edward B. Marks Music Company. As a freelance editor/arranger he has worked with Congressional Medal of the Arts awardees William Bolcom and Paquito d'Rivera on published arrangments of their music.