James Oliverio is an American composer of

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s and

contemporary classical music Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included seria ...

Biography

Oliverio was born in

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

. He studied composition at the

Cleveland Institute of Music The Cleveland Institute of Music (CIM) is a private music conservatory in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1920 by Ernest Bloch, it enrolls 325 students in the conservatory and approximately 1,500 students in the preparatory and continuing educatio ...

. Oliverio later moved to

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, where he was the

composer-in-residence Artist-in-residence, or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs which involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs which provide artists with space a ...

at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

. His music for the film ''Time and Dreams'' was included in Atlanta's successful bid to host the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

. His piece ''The Explorer'' (later retitled ''To Boldly Go...'') was commissioned and premiered as the opening for that summer's four-year Cultural Olympiad. During the 1990s, Oliverio was described as "Atlanta's hottest composer". Since January 2001, Oliverio has served as Executive Director of the Digital Worlds Institute at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. A lifelong friend of the timpanist brothers Paul and Mark Yancich, Oliverio has composed a number of works for the performers, including his first and second timpani concertos and the 2011 double timpani concerto ''Dynasty''.

List of compositions

* ''The Fall of Babylon'' (1974) for mezzo-soprano and wind quintet * ''Dantreume Leu Pliska'' (1975) for timpani and amplified double bass * ''Etude for Four Harps'' (1975) * ''Piano Sonata No. 1 '' (1976) for two pianos * ''Aradia'' (1978) for acoustic and electronic chamber ensemble * ''J'ai Plus de Souvenirs'' (1978) for soprano and amplified double bass quintet * ''Go Gently, My Friend'' (1986) for symphony orchestra * ''American Suite'' (1988) for symphony orchestra * ''Anniversary Overture'' (1988) for symphony orchestra * ''Drawn to the Light'' (1989) for chorus and orchestra * ''Timpani Concerto No. 1: The Olympian'' (1990) for timpani and orchestra * ''Winds of the Magic Wood'' (1990) for woodwind quintet and narrator * ''Concerto for Orchestra'' (1990) * ''The Story of Snow White: A Child's Introduction to the Symphony Orchestra'', Second Edition (1991) * ''Voyage Through the Musical Universe'' (1991) for orchestra and narrator * ''Songs Without Words'' (1992) for chamber ensemble * ''The Lessons of Time'' (1992) for chorus and orchestra * ''Imaginary Worlds'' (1992) chamber ensemble with electronics * ''Common Ground'' (1992) ballet for orchestra * ''Pilgrimage: Concerto for Brass'' (1992) for orchestra and brass soloists * ''Children of a Common Mother'' (1992) for four ethnic storytellers and multicultural percussion orchestra * ''To Boldly Go... (The Explorer)'' (1992) for orchestra * ''Dark Serenade'' (1994) for piano, cello, and orchestra * ''The Science of Imagination'' (1995) for orchestra and large-scale digital media * ''Three Scenes for Flute and Orchestra'' (1995) * ''StarChild: the Opera'' (1996) opera for live performers and large-scale digital media * ''Timpani Concerto No. 1'' (1996) for timpani and symphonic winds * ''A Thousand Lifetimes'' (1997) for five singers and orchestra * ''DRUMMA'' (1998) for large percussion ensemble and timpani soloist * ''Dreamers, Then Remembering, Open the Sky'' (1998) for MIDI percussion soloists and symphonic band * ''Generations'' (2000) for chorus and orchestra * ''The Messenger'' (2001) for percussion, orchestra, and digital media * ''Hands Across the Ocean'' (2004) for distributed performance ensemble and online interactive virtual environment * ''In Common: Time'' (2005) for distributed performance ensemble and online interactive virtual environment * ''DRUMMA v2.0'' (2006) for distributed percussion ensemble and interactive virtual environment * ''Timpani Concerto No. 2'' (2007) for timpani and orchestra * ''SMOKE, WIRE, ROCK'' (2007) * ''Voyage to Tomorrow'' (2008) for chorus, orchestra, and digital media * ''Little Tricker the Squirrel Meets Big Double the Bear'' (2008) ballet * ''Dynasty'' (2011) Concerto for two timpanists and orchestra

References

External links

*
Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oliverio, James Living people American male composers 21st-century American composers Musicians from Cleveland Year of birth missing (living people) Cleveland Institute of Music alumni Musicians from Atlanta 21st-century American male musicians University of Florida faculty