04/20/10// UNLV Music Graduate Receives Prestigious Fulbright Fellowship

Jason Thorpe Buchanan Chosen as Part of Flagship International Educational Exchange program

LAS VEGAS - APRIL 20, 2010 - Jason Thorpe Buchanan, a UNLV graduate student in Composition, was recently awarded a prestigious Fulbright Fellowship to Germany for studies and research at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hamburg, Germany. In addition, he has earned admission to the distinguished Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY as a candidate for the PhD in Composition and also has been granted admission deferral until the Fall of 2011 in order to first complete his Fulbright residency in Germany... (continued here)

__________________________________________________

02/01/10// A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works - TAD Wind Symphony, Tokyo

CD Now Available!

__________________________________________________

06/13/09 // A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works - Tokyo Premiere

My first work for Wind Ensemble received its premiere on Thursday, June 11 by the Tad Wind Symphony, a world renowned ensemble in its 16th season.  I was able to spend 6 days in Tokyo to attend rehearsals and the concert.  The professional group is directed by Japanese maestro Takayoshi "Tad" Suzuki, who resides in the United States and returns to Japan twice a year to conduct the Wind Symphony.  The live performance will be released on their highly regarded CD series "Tad Wind Concert Vol. 7" on the Windstream record label, Japan in late 2009.  You can watch video excerpts of the performance, as well as purchase scores and parts here.

__________________________________________________

05/11/09 // Bye-Bye Bin Laden awarded Best Feature

The animated musical satire Bye-Bye Bin Laden, was recently announced the Best Feature
at the 2009 South Beach International Animation Film Festival.  I worked very hard on this
film during the 2006/2007 year, and you can see from the credits below how heavily involved
I really was in this project!  I am very proud of the film's success, particularly as the first and only feature length animation ever to be made at a university.  This animated musical satire
will be distributed by Cinequest.  View the press release here.

Jason Thorpe Buchanan
Score (Composer)
Music Supervisor
Music Arranger
Orchestrator
Synth Programmer
Lead Music Engineer/Ed.
Sound & Music Mixer
Electric/Classical Guitars
Percussion
Chorus

__________________________________________________

04/17/09 // Pegãna (A Tone Poem for Nine Musicians) Part I of III, premiering late 2009...

__________________________________________________

04/14/09 // A few updates, N.E.O.N. is over, and I am very pleased to say that it was an excellent experience for everyone involved. I was thoroughly impressed by the caliber of each of the other student composers, and the seminars, masterclasses, concerts and lessons felt like a turning point in my philosophy on compositional process. In other news, I was selected to receive several grants and merit scholarships for composition studies and travel to both Brevard and Tokyo from the Brevard Institute, UNLV and Mu Phi Epsilon. Additionally, I was also announced winner of the 2009 Mu Phi Epsilon composition competition, Division II (Graduate) for my Six Shelley Songs which were written last summer.

Here are a few photos of myself and my colleague Brian Penkrot at the N.E.O.N. festival and symposium with guest composers Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon and Augusta Read Thomas.

__________________________________________________

04/02/09 // Well, its practically spring break here in Las Vegas, but my travel plans are rather limited.  Between myself and colleague Brian Penkrot, we've been organizing all of the events for the 2009 Nevada Encounters of New Music Festival, in addition to the poster and program design, rehearsal and volunteer schedules, transportation and equipment. It should be an extraordinary event, with both professional and student composers visiting from many different areas.  I'll be having a new work performed on the 11th at the festival, and then an old (relatively) work for Horn & Electronics performed by UNLV Horn Professor Bill Bernatis performed on the 22nd.  Additionally, I'll be conducting the UNLV Brass Ensemble for the world premiere of Vasava on May 1st.

I was also recently accepted to the six week Brevard Institute of Music and Summer Festival as a composition fellow, and thanks to the generosity of both the institute and UNLV I'll have almost the entire trip including food and housing covered financially. Prior to that, I'll be spending 6 days in Tokyo, Japan to attend rehearsals and the world premiere of A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works. The performance by the Tad Wind Symphony, a professional wind ensemble, will be conducted by Takayoshi "Tad" Suzuki, an incredible musician whom I have great respect for, and the honor of studying with this year.

03/13/09 // Hello again, this has been a whirl wind week for me, and thankfully I've gotten two premieres out of it. Cristina Valdés, pianist, did an excellent job performing the premiere of my first work for solo piano, Karttikeya (Study No. 1). You can find video of her performance on youtube here, and also here with a link to purchase the score.

02/12/09 // Greetings Folks, I have a handful of updates I'd like to post on the site; to begin with, I was recently announced winner of the Cristena Valdes (Guest Artist) solo piano composition competition at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. A solo recital by Ms. Valdes including the premiere of Karttikeya (Study No. 1) will take place at 8pm on March 11 at the BMC Music Center in Las Vegas. The same evening at 6pm, my recent chamber work, Songs of Moonlight & Shadows for soprano, alto flute, cello, percussion and piano, will also be premiered by the NEXTET New Music ensemble at UNLV.

I was also recently selected in the 2009 international call for scores as a participant in the third annual N.E.O.N. (Nevada Encounters of New) Music Festival for the same chamber work Songs of Moonlight & Shadows which will be performed during the festival between April 7-11. Last week on February 4th I had my recent work Five Bagatelles for Horn & Marimba premiered by Ryan Simm, marimba, and Bryce Nakaoka, Horn. You can find the videos here later today on Youtube!

Additionally, Takayoshi "Tad"Suzuki, who will be premiering my work for Wind Ensemble A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works in Tokyo this summer with the Tad Wind Symphony, had asked me last November to compose and conduct a work for the UNLV Brass Ensemble. I finished writing on February 1st and we have already begun rehearsals. I will conduct the premiere performance of Vasava on May 1st in Las Vegas, NV.

Thanks for visiting the site, and be sure to check back soon for more updates!


Recently Completed works:

__________________________________________________

10.28.08 // This Sunday Nov. 2nd, Nicole Yazolino, soprano and Carolyn Grossmann, piano, will perform the world premiere of Six Shelley Songs in Las Vegas, NV. Shortly thereafter, the work will receive its midwest premiere on November 13th in Cincinnati, OH. Recently, my first work for large instrumental ensemble A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works was selected to be performed by the Tad Wind Symphony on June 11, 2009 in Tokyo, Japan.

10.07.08 // Jason Thorpe Buchanan was announced Co-Winner of the International Sterling Achievement Award by Mu Phi Epsilon International Professional Co-Ed Music Fraternity, in addition to winning the Pacific Province Achievement Award.

Four Cionco Songs will be performed on Thursday, October 9th at 7:00pm, UNLV Doc Rando Recital Hall in Las Vegas, NV by Marjorie Klespitz & Michelle Lee.

__________________________________________________

09.08.08 // Hello everyone, I would like to announce two recently completed works, the first a song cycle based on six poems by Percy Bysshe Shelly, the second an arrangement for Brass Ensemble of In Darkness Let Me Dwell by John Dowland. For more information or to order scores, please visit my publishing website http://www.melosmusic.com

Things are going very well here in Las Vegas at the University, and I am looking forward to having several performances and premieres in the coming months. Four Cionco Songs will be performed on Thursday, October 9th at 7:00pm in the UNLV Recital Hall on a new music concert. Six Shelley Songs will be premiered on Sunday, November 2nd at 7:00pm on a new music concert as well. Please check back for more updates soon, I've been very busy!

06.25.08 / Hello all, over the summer, I've been in the process of making revisions to a few of my recent works which will soon be available on the site. Besides working on my piano chops and studying for entrance exams, I've also started my second work for solo voice and piano, a 7 song cycle, setting texts of Percy Bysshe Shelley on common themes. I'm starting to get excited about my move to Las Vegas, however I'm sure it will be absolutely scorching hot when I get there...

__________________________________________________

04.27.08 Here I am again, my senior composition recital has now come and gone. I felt it was very successful and the hours of rehearsals and preperation (not to mention actually composing the music) certainly paid off. I owe so many people thanks for making the concert a success and I hope that everyone out there knows how much it meant to me. Thanks again everyone. In other news, we've pretty much wrapped up "WBIB" and we're now waiting for a distribution deal. I was also asked to compose a brief piece of commercial music for "Eye-Fi", a company which apparently makes wireless SD cards. Next big step, I have an interview for a Graduate Teaching Assistantship at UNLV in 5 days! Wish me luck!

__________________________________________________

01.23.08 / Well, we are now wrapping up music, dialogue and sound effects for "We Bombed in Baghdad". I finished writing the score last week and we will soon be finished mixing and editing everything. I was recently promoted to Music Supervisor for the project and have been overseeing all of the recording and editing. It's a very exciting process and hopefully I'll have a trailer or something to upload sometime soon...

__________________________________________________

12.01.07 / I've finished several projects this past month, including A Zarzuela & Other Lost Works for Wind Ensemble, as well as Four Cionco Songs. I'll be scoring the feature length animated musical "We Bombed in Baghdad" over the course of the next month or so, the animation is looking great and should be finished very soon...

__________________________________________________

08.14.07 / The time I've spent to launch this website has passed surprisingly quickly. I hope to include lots of content in the near future as I wrap up other projects, so please visit regularly as I update the site. I always like to get feedback from people so don't be shy.