Composer Bios - An Expanding Distance of Multiple Voices

Composer Bios Mari Takano After graduating from the Toho Gakuen College of Music in Tokyo, Mari Takano studied composition with Brian Ferneyhough at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, earning her Master’s degree, and with György Ligeti at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg. Encouraged by Ligeti to move beyond avant-garde influences, she developed a highly individual compositional voice and has received numerous awards since the 1980s. In 2002, BIS Records released a CD devoted to her works (Women’s Paradise, BIS 1238) to international acclaim, with broadcasts in Europe, the USA, and Australia. That same year, she was a guest composer at Northwestern University on a scholarship from the Japanese Ministry of Education. Takano has received commissions from the City of Hamburg, Music from Japan, and the American Embassy in Tokyo, among others. Her Double Violin Concerto, written for Sarah Plum and Michi Sugiura, was premiered in 2024 with the Chicago Composers Orchestra. Her recordings include LigAlien (BIS, 2011) and In a Different Way (Fontec, 2022). She is now a lecturer at the Toho Gakuen College of Music and Bunkyo University. Ben Fuhrman Ben Fuhrman is a composer, musician, and programmer whose work centers on the creative use of technology, including acousmatic, interactive, and improvisatory music. He holds a D.M.A. and M.M. in composition from Michigan State University and a B.Mus. in violin performance from Hope College, and has studied with Ricardo Lorenz, Mark Sullivan, Steve Talaga, Rob Lunn, and Mihai Craioveanu. Fuhrman has received commissions from a wide range of performers and institutions, including Keith Kirchoff, the H2 Quartet, REACH Studio Art, and the MSU National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and Facility for Rare Isotope Beams. He was awarded a billboard dedicated to his music by the Arts Council of Greater Lansing—possibly the first composer in the U.S. to receive one. His solo albums Concrete Oasis and Synthesizer and Computer Works are available online, with additional releases on Albany, Argali, Blue Griffin, Elmstreet, and SEAMUS. He is Assistant Professor of Music Technology at Montana State University. Jeffrey Mumford Born in Washington, D.C. in 1955, composer Jeffrey Mumford has received numerous fellowships, awards, and commissions. His honors include an Academy Award in Music from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Guggenheim Fellowship, an ASCAP Aaron Copland Scholarship, and first prize in the inaugural National Black Arts Festival/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Composition Competition. Mumford has received major commissions from organizations such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Library of Congress, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Parker Quartet, Chamber Music America, and the Fromm Music Foundation. His music has been featured at festivals including June in Buffalo, Kneisel