counter)induction

Peter Knell

Peter Knell (b. 1970) has received awards in numerous national and international competitions, including First Prizes in the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra’s 10th New Music Festival International Composers Competition, the Indiana State University Contemporary Music Festival/Louisville Orchestra Competition, and the Omaha Symphony Guild International New Music Competition, and Second Prizes in the Fourth International Witold Lutoslawski Composers Competition, the First International Composers’ Competition “In Memoriam Zoltán Kodály”, and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra’s Young Composers Competition. He has also received a Fulbright Fellowship, a BMI Student Composer Award, two ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Awards, grants from the Paloheimo Foundation and Meet the Composer, and commissions from the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, Pacific Serenades, Oakland East Bay Symphony, Renee B. Fisher Foundation, and Dale Warland Singers, among others.

His music has been performed at the Aspen, Bowdoin, Chautauqua, June in Buffalo, Norfolk, Oregon Bach, Ernest Bloch, New Music North and MATA festivals, by ensembles such as the Hungarian Radio Orchestra, Louisville Orchestra, Filharmonia de Stat “Transilvania”, Winnipeg, Omaha, Richmond, Memphis, and Oakland East Bay Symphony Orchestras, the Onyx String Quartet, Verdi Quartett, Southwest Chamber Music, Volti Chamber Chorus, Continuum Ensemble (UK), Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, ModernWorks, Poné Ensemble, Stern-Schoenhals Duo, Ensemble Green, and Ensemble Musicattuale (Italy), and by soloists including James Dunham, Martin Chalifour, and the German alto Ingeborg Danz. It has been broadcast nationally in Canada and Hungary, statewide on Nebraska Public Radio, and on stations in Charlottesville [VA], Richmond, Austin, Omaha, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland, San Diego, and Helsinki. His Seven Last Words, based on paintings of Rolf Stein, is available in a book/CD format from Valve-Hearts, Cologne. A compact disc featuring his orchestral work, ”...the weakening eye of day” in a live performance by the Budapest Symphony Orchestra, is available on the Artisjus label. An upcoming compact disc featuring German pianist Susanne Kessel performing to of his Four Snapshots will be released by OehmsClassics in February 2006.

Highlights of the 2005-2006 season include the premiere of his Snapshots 2005 by pianist Susan Boettger, a portrait concert of his music for violin by Winnipeg-based violinist John Racaru, and the premiere of (012), (01234) by the New York-based ensemble counter)induction.

Mr. Knell holds degrees from Princeton University (BA), the Juilliard School (MM), and the University of Texas at Austin (DMA), and he was a Fulbright Fellow at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland. His principal composition teachers have included Dan Welcher, Donald Grantham, and David Diamond. He is currently a freelance composer based in Los Angeles, and he served as Composer-in-Residence for the American Music Festival in Cluj, Romania, in November 2004.

• (012), (01234)