Non Sequitur Music

Music of Keith Fitch

Keith Fitch


Biography

Website: www.keithfitch.com
Photo credit: Alex Cooke

Keith Fitch currently heads the Composition Department and holds the Vincent K. and Edith H. Smith Chair in Composition at the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he also directs the CIM New Music Ensemble. Called "gloriously luminous" by The Philadelphia Inquirer, his music has been consistently noted for its eloquence, expressivity, dramatic sense of musical narrative, and unique sense of color and sonority. Reviewing a performance of his work Totem by Wolfgang Sawallisch and The Philadelphia Orchestra (chosen by Maestro Sawallisch to celebrate the orchestra's centennial), The Wall Street Journal praised "the sheer concentration of his writing, and its power to express a complex, unseen presence shaping the course of musical events." The American Academy of Arts and Letters has said, "[his] music reveals an individual landscape that concentrates on unusual textures and sounds - all within a strong narrative that drives towards a rich and powerful conclusion."

His works have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia by such ensembles and soloists as The Philadelphia Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the League of Composers Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, the Colorado Quartet, the Da Capo Chamber Players, guitarist Jason Vieaux, and many others. His music has been heard at the Mostly Modern Festival, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, June in Buffalo, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and New York's Carnegie and Merkin Halls, among others. Recent works include The Range of Light, a setting of texts by John Muir, commissioned by the Rocky Ridge Music Center to celebrate its seventy-fifth anniversary; Ruthless Voicings, commissioned by Cleveland's No Exit ensemble to mark its tenth anniversary season, Alee for orchestra, commissioned by the Cleveland Institute of Music for its centennial, as Earth dreams, a solo work for the renowned harpist, Yolanda Kondonassis, and still, commissioned by the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition at the University of Chicago.

A native of Indiana, Keith Fitch (b. 1966) began composing at age seven and began formal musical training on the double bass at age eleven. While still in high school (age sixteen), he received his first professional orchestral performance. He attended the Indiana University School of Music, where he studied composition with Frederick Fox, Eugene O'Brien, and Claude Baker, double bass with Bruce Bransby and Murray Grodner, and chamber music with Rostislav Dubinsky, founder of the Borodin Quartet. He also counts Donald Erb and Joan Tower among his compositional mentors. Among his many awards are three each from ASCAP and the National Society of Arts and Letters, an Individual Artist Grant from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts, a Fromm Music Foundation Commission, two Individual Excellence Awards from the Ohio Arts Council, a Copland House Residency Award, the 2016 Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the 2023 Ellis-Beauregard Foundation Composer Award, and a 2023 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship. He has enjoyed multiple residencies at The MacDowell Colony and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, as well as at Yaddo, The Charles Ives Center for American Music, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and he has twice served as Resident Composer and faculty at the Chamber Music Conference and Composers' Forum of the East.

Highly regarded as a teacher, chamber music coach, and conductor of new music, he has taught at Indiana University, Bard College, and for eleven years served on the faculty of the Mannes College of Music in New York. From 2015-2017, he served as Composer-in-Residence and Director of the Young Artist Seminar in Composition at the Rocky Ridge Music Center.

He frequently appears as guest composer at colleges, universities, and summer festivals nationwide, and his students regularly win awards from such prestigious organizations as ASCAP, BMI, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Fulbright Foundation, as well as attending leading summer festivals around the world.

A passionate advocate for new music, for five years, he curated a concert series at Cleveland’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and he has mentored such ensembles as Cleveland's FiveOne Experimental Orchestra and Ars Futura ensemble, as well as individual members of leading new music ensembles throughout the country. Not one to avoid controversy, in 2014, he organized and co-authored an open letter that took to task The Cleveland Orchestra for failing to program works by American composers. That letter went viral, gaining national attention and re-igniting a conversation about the place of American music on our nation's orchestral programs. Equally adept at working behind the scenes, he also guided pianist Daniil Trifonov, the 2011 Tchaikovsky Competition gold medalist, in the composition and world premiere of Trifonov's first piano concerto.

His music is published by Non Sequitur Music and Edition Peters and appears on Azica Records and Naxos Digital. He joined the CIM faculty in 2008. (Biography current as of January 2024)

www.keithfitch.com.

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CDs containing works by Keith Fitch:



Contains as Earth dreams



Contains Mean Fiddle Summer



Together with Knock on Wood


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click on the title of any work for detailed information.


Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra Music

Alee
Rental: $400.00; Purchase: $500.00
2019-2021, 12 minutes
Orchestra: 3333 4331 4 perc, harp, piano, strings
audio available audio available

In Memory
Rental: $200.00; Purchase: $300.00
2013, 10 minutes
chamber orchestra (1[dbls alto]. 1[dbls EH]. 1[dbls bass cl].0. 1.1.1.0. 2 perc. pno/celesta, harp [optional] 10 vlns, 6 vla, 6 vc, 2 dbs)

Summer and Shade: Three Dream-dances for Orchestra
Rental: $400.00; Purchase: $500.00
2006/2008, 15 minutes (three movements)
Orchestra: 3333 4331 4 perc., harp, piano/celesta, strings

Totem
Rental: $300.00; Purchase: $500.00
1993, 10 minutes
Orchestra: 3333 4331 timp., 3 perc., harp, piano/celesta, strings
audio available audio available

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Music for Mixed Chamber Ensembles

Still
Rental: $300.00; Purchase: $400.00
2022-23, 12 minutes
Thirteen players: (1[dbls alto]. 1[dbls EH]. 1. 0. Alto/Baritone sax. 1. 0. 0. 0. 2 perc. pno harp 2. 1. 1. 0.)
audio available audio available

Echoes of Orpheus
Purchase: $120.00
2019, 17 minutes
cello, piano, harp, percussion (2)

Ruthless Voicings
Purchase: $120.00
2018-2019, 12 minutes
flute/alto flute, bass carinet, viola, cello, percussion
audio available audio available

The Range of Light
Rental: $150.00; Purchase: $200.00
2016-2018, 30 minutes (6 movements)
baritone, flute/alto flute/bass flute, clarinet, horn, violin, cello, piano
audio available audio available

Piano Quartet, "Last Words"
Purchase: $80.00
2014, 17 minutes
piano, violin, viola, and cello
audio available audio available

Midnight Rounds
Purchase: $120.00
2010, 20 minutes
flute/bass flute, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano/celesta
audio available audio available

This Rough Magicke
Purchase: $50.00
2008, 14 minutes
flute/alto flute, clarinet in A, viola, and double bass

To sleep, to dream
Purchase: $120.00
2001, rev. 2004, 20 minutes
violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, and piano/celesta
audio available audio available

Dancing the Shadows
Purchase: $120.00
1994, 12 minutes
flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion

December Rhythms
Purchase: $100.00
1993, 15 minutes
oboe, string quartet

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Piano Music

Dances for Tanja
Purchase: $25.00
2002/2003, 12 minutes (3 movements)
piano
audio available audio available

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String Music

as Earth dreams
Purchase: $20.00
2020, 6 minutes
harp
audio available audio available

Piano Quartet, "Last Words"
Purchase: $80.00
2014, 17 minutes
piano, violin, viola, and cello
audio available audio available

Knock on Wood
Purchase: $15.00
2012, 7 minutes
guitar and harp
audio available audio available

Mean Fiddle Summer
Purchase: $20.00
2011, 10 minutes
violin
audio available audio available

'Tho Night Be Falling
Purchase: $80.00
2009, 20 minutes
string quartet

To sleep, to dream
Purchase: $120.00
2001, rev. 2004, 20 minutes
violin, viola, violoncello, double bass, and piano/celesta
audio available audio available

Come soon, come soon
Purchase: $40.00
2000, 15 minutes
violoncello, piano
audio available audio available

in the rain-darkness
Purchase: $45.00
1990, 20 minutes (4 movements)
violin, piano

Todestanzen
Purchase: $35.00
1992, 14 minutes (3 movements)
viola, percussion (Vibraphone, Marimba (low A), Xylophone, Bongos (2), Maracas (2), Tom-toms (5), Tenor Drum)
audio available audio available

December Rhythms
Purchase: $100.00
1993, 15 minutes
oboe, string quartet

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Music for Winds

Burnt Counterpoint
Purchase: $35.00
2007, 12 minutes
alto saxophone, percussion

December Rhythms
Purchase: $100.00
1993, 15 minutes
oboe, string quartet

Partita
Purchase: $130.00
1990, 18 minutes
saxophone quartet

Cut River
Purchase: $20.00
1988, 9 minutes
oboe

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Percussion Music

Shhh!
Purchase: $15.00
2023, 3 minutes
solo snare drum

Burnt Counterpoint
Purchase: $35.00
2007, 12 minutes
alto saxophone, percussion

Manhattan Rolls
Purchase: $25.00
2004, 12 minutes
marimba
audio available audio available

Todestanzen
Purchase: $35.00
1992, 14 minutes (3 movements)
viola, percussion (Vibraphone, Marimba (low A), Xylophone, Bongos (2), Maracas (2), Tom-toms (5), Tenor Drum)
audio available audio available

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Vocal Music

The Range of Light
Rental: $150.00; Purchase: $200.00
2016-2018, 30 minutes (6 movements)
baritone, flute/alto flute/bass flute, clarinet, horn, violin, cello, piano

The Imagined Garden
Purchase: $35.00
1999, 20 minutes (4 songs)
soprano and piano

Two Love-Songs
Purchase: $20.00
1997, 8 minutes
soprano and piano

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USA
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