William F. Rayer is a retired music teacher having taught music for 28 years in the Mayfield School System. His undergraduate degree is a B.A. in Music Education from Kent State University. He has a Master of Arts degree in Music Composition from Cleveland State University where he studied music composition from Bain Murray and Rudy Bubalo. He was a member of the Cleveland Composer’s Guild From 1974 to 1980 but became inactive to raise a family. He re-activated his membership to the Cleveland Composer’s Guild in June of 2008. He has written many compositions which have been performed by area orchestras and bands including the Ohio Chamber Orchestra, Lakeland Civic Band, Lakeland Civic Orchestra as well as local high schools and junior high schools.  In the spring of 2007 the Lakeland Civic Orchestra premiered his work “Pluto, Requiem For A Dead Planet” which was inspired by a Newsweek article of the same name. He performs regularly as the principle trumpet of the Lorain Community Orchestra under the direction of Dr. Robert Beckstrom. In the past he has performed with the Lakeland Jazz Band, Lakeland Concert Band, and the Lakeland Civic Orchestra. He performs solo and duo acts of popular music at area nursing homes and plays in the Broadale Brass Sextet led by John Simna. He has completed a novel with an accompanying compact disc of original music written by him for the novel called The Reach Beyond Tomorrow which is currently in the hands of the Two Harbors Publishing Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Events for William F. Rayer

Greater Cleveland Flute Society: 7:00 pm, Composers Connection Concert, First Unitarian Church of Cleveland, 21600 Shaker Blvd., Shaker Heights, 44122. Performing my latest flute work called: Night Trains for Flute Choir

Catalog of Works

Catalog

Her music offers a unique way of listening and enjoying American Contemporary Music. Centered in American and European Classical elements, she fashions music that reaches into the rich resources of American traditions and music that draws on ethnic and international materials. She started her compositional achievements after winning second prize in the Ithaca College High School Choral Competition, 1988. Later, she was commissioned by the Cleveland Women’s Orchestra to compose an orchestral piece for the Celebration of the Centennial of the Chicago World Fair Exposition in 1993. The concert occurred at the Cleveland Art Museum, 1993, titled “Salute to the Arts”.

She was one of the finalists in the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s African American Composers Competition and Conference. Her piece “Celebration” was performed by the Detroit Symphony on a concert series program with Leslie Dunner, conductor. The piece was later performed by the Columbus Ohio Women Symphony, Victoria Bond, conductor and the Dallas, Texas Symphony, Leslie Dunner, conductor.

Her composition for Soprano, Narrator and Orchestra, “Give Birth to the Dream” from Maya Angelou’s poem “On the Pulse of Morning” was commissioned by the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra and performed on the Martin Luther King Concert at Cuyahoga Community College, Metro Campus, Cleveland Ohio where Dolores White was assistant professor of music for many years. The piece, “Give Birth to the Dream” was performed by the Cleveland Institute of Music Orchestra the following year on their Martin Luther King Concert.

The Cleveland Chamber Symphony performed her piece “Crystal Gazing” with Edwin London, conductor, at Cleveland State University, Oberlin College Music Series and several area churches in Cleveland. The Cleveland Chamber Symphony has many Cds, “The New American Scene No. 2″ features the works of Five Outstanding African American Composers which includes Dolores White’s “Crystal Gazing”.

Her string quartet, “Two Violins, Viola and Cello in Three Movements” is on the Cleveland Composers Guild latest CD titled Telling Tales, Albany Label. Her piano Piece “Toccata” is included in Dark Fires, a CD of piano selections composed by African American composers perform by Karen Walywn, Albany Label. Several of her choral selections were performed by the Gregg Smith Singers on a New York City Concert and the Robert Page Singers performed several of her choral selections at Cleveland State University and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

She is a contributor to the Two Volumes book titled “Black Women in Amercia, a Historical Encyclopedia”, published by Carlson Publishers, 1st Edition, 1993, Darline Hines. She received the YWCA Certificate of Achievement for Professional Career Women, 1989; while assistant professor of music, Cuyahoga Community College. In 1990s, Santiago de Cuba, participated in Music and Dance seminars with Cuban musicians and dancers. At the Faculty Symposium, 1990, “Partnership in the Arts” she gave a presentation on, “History of the Cleveland Orchestra” that was published in the Cuyahoga Community College Symposium Booklet that year. She was selected to attend the June in Buffalo, New York Workshop/Conference (2000) with Donald Erb, George Crumb, Bernard Rands, Charles Wuorimen. In May, 2001, she attended the Inter-American Conference on Black Music Research sponsored by the Center for Black Music Research and the Twenty-Seventh Annual Conference of the Society for American Music in Port of Spain, Trindad & Tobago. In 2002-3, MasterWork Chorale of Toledo, Ohio commissioned her to write two short choral numbers for their December Series Program. The Cleveland Fortnightly Musical Club and Cleveland Composers Guild commissioned her Chamber Ensemble composition for Four Clarinets & Violin, Cleveland Institute of Music, 2003. She has done research on Afro-Cuban Music and Culture and given presentations on the topic at John Carroll University, Cuyahoga Community College, Western & Eastern Campuses and Cleveland State University. While she was assistant professor of music at Cuyahoga Community College, Metro Campus, she received several Bascom Little grants to promote Contemporary American Chamber Music programs at the College.

Willis Music Company, Boston Music Company, Cuyahoga Community College Press, Southern Illinois University Press have published works of Dolores White and she is included in several of Helen Walker-Hill books and publications on African American Women.

She is a member of ASCAP and has received many ASCAP awards. Also, she is a member of Delta Sigma Theta, American Music Center, OMTA, The International Alliance of Women in Music, Cleveland Oberlin Alumni Club, Center for Black Research, Chicago Music Association and NANM (National Association of Negro Musicians). In November, 2008, she presented “Living Portriats” performance/recital of Contemporary Chamber Music of Dolores White & Hale Smith at Sherwood Conservatory of Music at Columbia College, Chicago, Illinois.

In May, 2009, she was a presenter at the Feminist & Music Theory 10 Conference at the University of Greensboro, North Carolina. The presentation was on Twenty First Piano Literature of Dolores White. The presentation was on Twenty First Piano Literature of Dolores White.

In July, 2009, she was a presenter at the 90th Anniversary of NANM in Chicago, Illinois. The presentation/performance was on Twenty & Twenty-First Century Art Songs of Dolores White and Hale Smith (fourteen art songs). The presentation/performance was reviewed by the New Amsterdam Newspaper and was given an excellent review. Performers were : Kimberly Jones, soprano, Cornelius Johnson, tenor and Dianna White Gould, pianist.

Her music has been performed at contemporary music festivals around the U.S. and in Europe, including the Society for Composers, Inc., the Composers’ Conference, Arcosanti, Gaudeamus, Darmstadt, Logos-Blad, Festival at Sandpoint, June in Buffalo, and others. Ensembles and musicians who have performed her work include The California EAR Unit, The Meridian Trio, The Purchase Percussion Ensemble, DoublePlay Percussion Duo, The Contemporary Chamber Players, The Nez/Wolfe Duo, The Pacifica Quartet, Roy Poper, James DeSano, Benjamin Coelho, Annette-Barbara Vogel, and many others. Her solo bassoon work BLOW can be heard on the Albany Records label (Bassoon Images, TROY608) and the score can be purchased from TrevCo Music.

Ms. Kaplan has been supported with residencies by the MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She has received grants from Oberlin Conservatory, the University of Chicago, ASCAP, and has been nominated three times for the American Society of Arts and Letters.

Amelia Kaplan completed her Ph.D. in Music Composition at the University of Chicago as a Century Fellow, where her primary teachers were Shulamit Ran, Marta Ptaszynska, and Ralph Shapey. She worked with Azio Corghi at the Milan Conservatory on a Whiting Dissertation Fellowship, and also received a Diploma of Merit from the Accademia Musicale Chigiana while studying with Franco Donatoni, and a Diploma from the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau.

To become a member, composers submit a portfolio of works to the president, who gives them to the membership committee, which evaluates them for professional competence. We expect members to be participatory and to attend meetings, which are generally held before our concerts to make attendance easier (and to limit the length of the meeting.)

Current Membership Roster

Below you will find the current roster of members with links to any pertinent information about them. Some additional information on past and present members of the Guild can be found at the University of Akron Cleveland Composers Guild Archive.

 
Chris Auerbach-Brown
Larry Baker
Robert A. Beckstrom
Margaret Brouwer
Eric Charnofsky
Loris Chobanian
Jennifer Conner
Halim El Dabh
Ty Alan Emerson
Ross Feller
Jack Gallagher
David Gooding
Paul Gothard III
Mary Ann Griebling
Stephen T. Griebling
Margi Griebling-Haigh
Monica Houghton
Amelia Kaplan
Marcia Kraus
Michael Leese
Fredric Lissauer
Tom Lopez
Jeffrey Mumford
Katharine O’Connell
Jeremy Piper
Nicholas Puin
Jeffrey Quick
Lisa Rainsong
Ryan Ramer
Jeffrey Rathbun
William F. Rayer
Nikola Resanovic
Robert Rollin
Alissa Shuster
Dawn Sonntag
Stephen Stanziano
Nicholas Underhill
Katharine Mulky Warne
Dolores White
James Wilding
Frank Wiley
Eric Ziolek

Mr. Charnofsky has performed as a collaborative pianist throughout the U.S., and has concertized with members of the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics; the Philadelphia, Cleveland and Metropolitan Opera Orchestras; and the Akron Symphony. Formerly on the faculty in the pre-college division at The Juilliard School, he served as staff accompanist and ear-training fellow in the Juilliard College division. Mr. Charnofsky’s performances have been broadcast over WQXR and WNYC in New York; WFMT in Chicago; WCLV in Cleveland; WKSU in Kent; and KPFK, KMZT, and KCSN in Los Angeles, where he worked as a classical radio announcer. He has presented several lecture-recitals on “The Duos with Piano” by the composers Paul Hindemith, Francis Poulenc, Samuel Barber, and Aaron Copland.

Mr. Charnofsky worked at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara as an Associate Faculty member for eight summers, performed several times as a substitute keyboardist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cleveland Orchestra, worked as a rehearsal pianist for Lyric Opera Cleveland, served as convention accompanist for the National Flute Association, and appears on recordings with trombonist JoDee Davis on the Albany label, and music by the Cleveland Composers Guild on the Capstone label. He frequently performs new music, and is an active composer and conductor.

Catalog of Works

CCG just finished it’s 51st season! Northeast Ohio composers brought new music to venues throughout the Greater Cleveland area. Highlights included a collaboration with the Lorain Community College Music department in a December concert, and a partnership with the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society in a February recital of new chamber music for guitar. Our April art song concert was hosted by the West United Church of Christ concert series and featured baritone Andrew White and soprano Lara Troyer. We finished with our biggest Junior Concert ever, where composers wrote over 20 pieces for young performers and elementary and high school student composers heard their works played by professional musicians. This annual event produced in tandem with the Music Settlement in University Circle is a great way to encourage the next generation of musicians to love new music.

Our 2011-12 concert season will begin September 25th, with a 3PM concert at Cleveland State University’s Drinko Hall, 2121 Euclid Avenue, at the Northwest Corner of E. 21st and Euclid.

Other concerts will include a Nov 20 , 2011 concert at 3 p.m. at the Stocker Performing Arts Center, Studio Theatre, Lorain Community College and a choral collaboration with Case Concert Choir on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 7:30PM in Harkness Chapel, 11200 Bellflower Rd in University Circle. Stay tuned for more information on our second “Guitar Plus” concert coming in February on the West United Church of Christ concert series and dates for our annual Junior concert next Spring.