Jerome Kitzke (born 1955) is a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

who grew up along the southwestern shore of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the east, its basin is conjoined with that o ...

South Milwaukee South Milwaukee is a city in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 20,795 at the 2020 census. History South Milwaukee was laid out in 1891 by the South Milwaukee company within the Town of Oak Creek, with the purpose o ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

History

He received his B.F.A. from the

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

, and moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1984. In 1992 Kitzke formed his performing group Mad Coyote. His music has also been performed by the

Milwaukee Symphony The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The orchestra performs primarily at the Bradley Symphony Center in Allen-Bradley Hall. The orchestra also serves as the orchestra for Florentine ...

, the New

Juilliard The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

Ensemble Ensemble may refer to: Art * Architectural ensemble * ''Ensemble'' (album), Kendji Girac 2015 album * Ensemble (band), a project of Olivier Alary * Ensemble cast (drama, comedy) * Ensemble (musical theatre), also known as the chorus * ''En ...

, Essential Music,

Present Music The present (or here'' and ''now) is the time that is associated with the events perceived directly and in the first time, not as a recollection (perceived more than once) or a speculation (predicted, hypothesis, uncertain). It is a period of ...

, Earplay,

Zeitgeist In 18th- and 19th-century German philosophy, a ''Zeitgeist'' () ("spirit of the age") is an invisible agent, force or Daemon dominating the characteristics of a given epoch in world history. Now, the term is usually associated with Georg W. F. ...

, Guy Klucevsek, Margaret Leng Tan,

ETHEL Ethel (also '' æthel'') is an Old English word meaning "noble", today often used as a feminine given name. Etymology and historic usage The word means ''æthel'' "noble". It is frequently attested as the first element in Anglo-Saxon names, b ...

and Kathleen Supové. Kitzke has received grants from the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

American Music Center New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media program ...

, Meet the Composer,

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

, and BMI. In 2004 and 2006 he visited the Randolph School in Wappingers Falls, New York to compose music for their shows. He even put music to Allen Ginsberg's poem ''Green Automobile'', which was included on his most recent album ''The Paha Sapa Give-Back'' (

Innova Recordings Innova Recordings is the independent record label of the non-profit American Composers Forum based in St. Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1982 to document the winners of the McKnight Fellowship offered by its parent organization, the Minneso ...

, 2014). He is a quarter Persian.

Music

Chamber works

*''A Keening Wish'', narrator and ensemble *''Alone On A Hill in Grandfather Night'', mixed trio *''Breath and Bone'', accordion solo *''Haunted America'', mixed quartet *''In Bone Colored Light'', mixed sextet *''Mad Coyote Madly Sings'', large mixed ensemble *''Present Music'', large mixed ensemble *''Regina Takes the Holy Road, 3 December 1994'', mixed quintet *''She Left in the Crow Black Night'', clarinet, unac *''Teeth of Heaven'', mixed sextet *''The Big Gesture'', mixed trio *''The Character of American Sunlight'', percussion ensemble, mixed quintet *''The Earth Only Endures'', percussion solo *''The Paha Sapa Give-Back'', piano and ensemble, percussion ensemble *''The Redness of Blood'', mixed quartet *''We Need to Dream All This Again'', mixed quintet *''Winter Count'', narrator and ensemble

Vocal works

*''171st Chorus'', medium voice *''Box Death Hollow'', vocal soloists and ensemble, men's chorus and ensemble

Solo Piano

*''Sunflower Sutra'' *''The Animist Child''

Musical Theatre

*''The Paha Sapa Give-Back'' *''Woope''

References

External links

Peermusic Classical: Jerome Kitzke
Composer's Publisher and Bio
Alive and Composing: Interview with Jerome Kitzke
Musicians from Milwaukee American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century classical composers University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Living people 1955 births 20th-century American composers People from South Milwaukee, Wisconsin Classical musicians from Wisconsin 20th-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub