New American Works: 1991

The Composers and Writers:

Hayes Biggs was born in Huntsville, Alabama in 1957 and raised in Helena, Arkansas. He hold degrees from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee and Southern Methodist university. His teachers have included Mario Davidovsky, Jack Beeson Fred Lehrdahl, Donald Erb, Marvin Lamb and Don Freud. Mr. Biggs has been a Fellow in compostion at the Composers’ Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley, at the Tanglewood music Center, at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and at the MacDowell Colony and the Millay Colony for the Arts. In addition, Mr. Biggs has received several grants from meet the Composer.

Chris DeBlasio is author of a musical and an operetta: Instant Lives, based on the poetry and prose of Howard Moss, and A Murder is Foretold, suggested by an Oscar Wilde story, with libretto by Sharon Holland. He has received commissions for vocal and instrumental music from Trinity Church, Union Theological Seminary, the New Orleans Gay Men’s Chorus, and others. He provided scores for the OOB and OB plays Stray Dog Story and Night Sweat at the Meridian Theater, Adam and the Experts at the 3-Dollar Bill Theater, and has served as composer-in-residence for the Williamstown Theater Festival’s Second Company. He created arrangements for the late Martha Schlamme, and has arranged and conducted at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park, the Chelsea Theater Center, and Mabou Mines.

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