Jason Thorpe Buchanan (b. 1986) is an American composer of contemporary concert music.  His work draws from a broad variety of aesthetic genres and influences, and has been described by leading composers in the United States and Europe as "sharply-edged", "shimmering," "attractive," "symphonic," and "ambitious."   Since 2007, he has served as director of the composer's consortium Melos Music, as well as their annual New Music Concert series.   Jason spent 2010-2011 living in Hamburg, Germany, where he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater as a visiting scholar for studies with Peter Michael Hamel, Manfred Stahnke, Georg Hajdu, and Sascha Lino Lemke while conducting research and interviews in regard to compositional process and aesthetics.
   In 2012, his First Study for Alto Saxophone: doublethink, commissioned by Michael Rene Torres, was premiered at the North American Saxophone Alliance biennial conference in Tempe, AZ, receiving the Belle S. Gitelman award from the Eastman School of Music, followed by performances in Rochester and Las Vegas.   The same year a collaboration with MacArthur "Genius" Award winning visual artist Anna Schuleit, First Study for Piano & Electronics: absence, was premiered by Daniel Pesca for the Benson Creative Forum at Eastman.   In 2011 his Berlin Songs, for two singers and mixed chamber ensemble, were performed for a capacity audience at the Akademie der Künste during the Pan-European Fulbright conference in Berlin, Germany under the baton of Thomas Heuser, who commissioned the work alongside the German/American Fulbright Kommission.   An expanded orchestration was later recorded and premiered in the U.S. at the 2nd Annual Melos New Music Concert in San Francisco, conducted by the composer.   This recording later became a finalist in both the "American Prize" orchestral composition competition (2012) and the ASCAP Morton Gould composition competition (2012).
   In 2010 three chapters of his orchestral work - The Gods of Pegãna, was read by the Brevard Music Center Orchestra under the baton of Ken Lam.   The work was later awarded the distinction of finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould composition competition (2011), and Honorable Mention in both the ACF Minnesota Composer's Institute competition (2011) and the ACO Underwood/San Diego readings competition (2012).   Three excerpts from this work in chamber orchestra reduction were later given their premiere public performance with the Sound ExChange Orchestra in collaboration with the University of Rochester Program of Dance and Movement, conducted by the composer.   In 2009, A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works was premiered by the Tad Wind Symphony in Tokyo for an audience of over 800, and recorded with a CD released on the Windstream label in Japan.
    Jason began his studies at age fourteen at the College of San Mateo, CA, later attending San José State University to receive Bachelor's degrees in composition and in music technology, where he was awarded the Outstanding Senior award (2008).   He received his Master's degree from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he taught courses in composition and music theory (2008-10), and was later presented the Outstanding Graduate Student award (2009-10) by both the Music Department and the College of Fine Arts.   He has studied composition with Allan Schindler, Virko Baley, Peter Michael Hamel, Jorge Grossmann, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Pablo Furman, Kevin Puts, Robert Aldridge, and Manfred Stahnke, as well as conducting with maestro Takayoshi Suzuki.
   As a conductor and advocate for contemporary music, Jason is committed to providing opportunities for young composers as a concert curator, where he has premiered and recorded works by living composers such as Daniel Temkin, Tonia Ko, Christopher Chandler, Chin Ting Chan, Tom Brennan, Weijun Chen, and Jennifer Bellor, in addition to his own, with ensembles such as ITCH, the UNLV Brass Ensemble, Nonsemble 6, Ossia, and the Sound ExChange Orchestra.   He has received awards from ASCAP, ACF, MPE, the NEON and Brevard Music Festivals, UNLV, SJSU, the Eastman School of Music, the American Prize, and the Miami Beach International Animated Film Festival as composer and music supervisor for the winner of Best Feature (2009).   During the 2012-2013 academic year, Jason will serve as assistant conductor for Eastman's premiere New Music Ensemble: Musica Nova, with conductor Brad Lubman, as well as coordinator for the Graduate Composers' Sinfonietta, and co-founder/conductor of Eastman's brand new Electroacoustic Initiative, the [Switch~ Ensemble].
  A few of his upcoming compositional engagements include a Horn Concerto commissioned by Michael Walker, a work for 14 musicians and live electronics for the [Switch~ Ensemble], a commission by the Iktus Percussion Quartet in NYC, and a work for Bass Clarinet & String Trio co-commissioned by Madison Greenstone in Rochester and ensemble39 in Philadelphia.   During the summer of 2012 Jason will be attending the Internationale Musikinstitut Darmstadt and an analysis course with Robert Hasegawa during the Agora Festival at IRCAM.   Jason currently studies composition with Allan Schindler and holds a Teaching Assistantship at the Computer Music Center as a Ph.D. student at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY.

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(updated 04.23.12)