The CSU School of Music, Theatre, and Dance is proud to announce the 2018 Aries Composers Festival selected composers!  More than four hundred works were submitted by composers from throughout the world and fourteen have been selected for performance.  Many thanks to the outstanding work of the jury!  This year's selected composers are as follows:

Bryce Craig - Professional composer, Music editor, C. Alan Publications
Pierce Gradone - Ph.D. candidate, University of Chicago
Aaron Graham - Doctoral Fellow, University of British Columbia
Douglas Hertz - Master's candidate, University of Michigan
Michael Johanson - Associate Professor, Lewis and Clark College
Eric Lagergren - B.M. Composition, Colorado State University
Alexis Lamb - B.M. Composition/Percussion Performance, Northern Illinois University
​Nicole Murphy - Composer-in-Residence, Queensland Academy for Creative Industries, Australia
Ivonne Paredes - Master's candidate, Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music
Aaron Parker - Master's candidate, Brunel University, London
David Reeves - Professional composer, Seattle, WA
James Romig - Professor, Western Illinois University
Carl Schimmel - Associate Professor, Illinois State University
Dan VanHassel - Professional composer, Boston, MA

This list is subject to change based on individual availability and travel arrangements. Selected presentations will be announced by October 13, 2017.

The theme for the third Aries Composers Festival will be "Ionisation 2018" based on the seminal work for percussion by Edgar Varése.  The works selected for this coming year's festival will all be composed for percussion with other instruments or media.  Also, instead of having a principal guest composer, all selected composers will receive an honorarium to attend the festival and composers from different career stages will be featured.  Check the "ABOUT" page for more info.

Official dates for the third Aries Composers Festival are now set!  This academic year's festival moves to the spring semester and will be held on February 11-13, 2018.  More details to come!

Check out the complete program for this year's festival at the link below:

2013 ACF Program (pdf)

The complete schedule for the festival is now available here and the final program is coming very soon!

The following works have been selected for the 2013 Aries Composers Festival Faculty Chamber Concert on October 21.

Andrew Mac Donald: One After One in Time

Charles Halka: Por la Fuerza las Tierras 

Mike Barnett: Ask the Wind

Ian A. Cook: O Cool is the Valley Now

Brian Kehlenbach: Blue Line 

Haralabos Stafylakis: Kritikos Horos 

Bryan Christian: Airs no Oceans keep 

The following composers' works have been selected for performance on Sunday, October 20 at 7:30 PM in the CSU Organ Recital Hall as part of the 2013 Aries Composers Festival:

A Song of Joys by Nicholas Omiccioli
...to balance myself upon a broken world by Paul Carey
it may not always be so; and i say by Nicholas Weininger
Four Haiku by Robert Honstein
Reasons to learne to sing by Clifton Callender
Virgo Mater Regina by Costas Dafnis
Beneath the Wave by Luke Flynn
Cradle My Heart by Clint Needham 

Works in the chamber music and electroacoustic categories will be announced in a few days.

Thanks to everyone who submitted their works for the 2013 Aries Composers Festival.  We received more than 570 entries from composers throughout the world!  Invited composers will be notified no later than September 1, 2013.

The Aries Composers Festival is honored to welcome Michael Colgrass as its 2013 Principal Guest Composer.  Mr. Colgrass won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize in Music and will present multiple workshops while on campus.

The official dates for this year's Aries Composers Festival is October 20-22, 2013.  This year we will be featuring works for chamber ensemble, mixed chorus, percussion ensemble, and electroacoustic pieces.

The principal guest composers and call for scores will be announced in a matter of days, so watch this space for more details!