Richard James Felciano (born December 7, 1930) is an American

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 ...

Life

Felciano was born in

Santa Rosa, California Santa Rosa (Spanish language, Spanish for "Rose of Lima, Saint Rose") is a city and the county seat of Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, Bay Area ...

and studied at

San Francisco State College San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

where he received his BA in 1952. In the same year he also obtained an MA from

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University is a private college in Oakland, California and part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was ...

, where he studied composition with

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His compositions ...

. He continued his studies with Milhaud at the

Paris Conservatoire The Conservatoire de Paris (), also known as the Paris Conservatory, is a college of music and dance founded in 1795. Officially known as the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP), it is situated in the avenue ...

, where he received two diplomas in 1955, and went on to study privately in Florence for a year (1958–59) with

Luigi Dallapiccola Luigi Dallapiccola (February 3, 1904 – February 19, 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical twelve-tone compositions. Biography Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current Pazin, Croa ...

. He also earned a PhD from the

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is org ...

in 1959. He taught at

Lone Mountain College Lone Mountain College was a college acquired by the University of San Francisco (USF) in 1978. History It was built and founded by the Religious of the Sacred Heart as Sacred Heart Academy in Menlo Park, California, in 1898. The school became ...

and the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, before becoming composer-in-residence for the city of Boston from 1971 until 1973

Compositions

* ''Evolutions'', for clarinet and piano (1962) * ''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'', chamber opera (1964) * ''Gravities'', for piano four-hands (1965) * ''Contractions'', mobile for wind quintet (1965) * ''Mutations'', for orchestra (1966) * ''Spectra'', for flute ensemble and contrabass (1967) * ''God of the Expanding Universe'', for organ and electronics (1971) * ''Galactic Rounds'', for orchestra (1972) * ''EKĀGRATA'', for organ, two percussionists, and electronics (1972), written for the 1972 International Contemporary Organ Music Festival. * ''In Celebration of Golden Rain'', for gamelan and organ (1977) *''Islands of Sound'', an environment for multiple

carillon A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoniou ...

s (1977) * ''The Tuning of the Sky'', for carillon (1978) * ''Come Away With Me'': Kindertotenlieder, for solo Renaissance recorders (1 player) and electronic sounds (1984) * ''Dark Landscape'', for English horn (1985) * ''Lontano'', for harp and piano (1986) * Concerto for Organ and Orchestra (1986) * ''Berliner Feuerwerksmusik'', for three mobile carillons (1987) * ''Constellations'', for multiple brass quintets, horn ensemble, and organ (1987) * ''Shadows'', for flute, clarinet, piano, percussion, violin, and cello (1987) * ''Masks'', for flute and trumpet (1989) * ''Palladio'', for violin, piano, and percussion (1989) * ''Primal Balance'', for flute and contrabass (1991) * ''Camp Songs'', for orchestra (1992) * ''Cante jondo'', for clarinet, bassoon, and piano (1993) * Symphony, for string orchestra (1993) * ''Overture concertante'', for clarinet and orchestra (1995) * String Quartet (1995) * Prelude, for piano (1997)

References

Sources * *

Life

Compositions

References

Further reading