ACA Board and Staff

Composer Board of Governors 2022-23

Robert Carl - Composition Department Chair at the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford; Writer Fanfare Magazine; Former Co-Director of the Extension Works New Music Ensemble in Boston; Performer, keyboards and shakuhachi.

Joseph Dangerfield (Treasurer) trained as a pianist, and has been an active performer and conductor throughout the United States. He has conducted various concerts (chamber and orchestral) of music, both new and from the canon in New York, Vienna, Prague, and beyond, and has served on the faculty of West Virginia University, the University of Florida, and McNeese State University, and Coe College.

Robert Gibson (newly elected President), composer whose works have been performed throughout the United States and in Europe, China and South America by noted performers and ensembles. He is Professor and former Director (2005–2016) of the School of Music at the University of Maryland, College Park.

David E. Gordon founded the Look & Listen Festival, a non-profit series of new music concerts in New York City art galleries and served as President of the League of Composers/ISCM. During his tenure as President of the League/ISCM, David launched the Orchestra of the League of Composers, started Residency, Membership, and Commissioning Programs, and quintupled the organizational budget. David also has taught on the faculty of New York University and Hofstra University.

Barbara Jazwinski is the Virginia Beer Professor of Music and head of the composition and theory program at the Newcomb Music Department at Tulane University in New Orleans.

David Liptak (Vice-President; President emeritus) is Professor of Composition at the Eastman School of Music, where he has taught since 1986. Previously, he served on the composition and theory faculties of the University of Illinois and Michigan State University.

Jody Rockmaker, composer and educator has taught at Stanford University, and the San Francisco Conservatory Preparatory School, Arizona State University where he is currently an Associate Professor.

Steven Christopher Sacco, composition and theory faculty member and past department co-chair at the Mannes College of Music in New York City, his music has been performed by the American Brass Quintet, Speculum Musicae, The U.S. Army Band, the Czech Nonet, Soprano Juliana Gondek, Cellist Steven Isserlis, and more.

Brian Schober studied at the Eastman School of Music where his teachers included Samuel Adler and Joseph Schwantner in composition and Sue Seid and Russell Saunders in organ.  He furthered his studies in Paris, studying composition with Olivier Messiaen and Betsy Jolas at the Paris Conservatory of Music while studying organ privately with Jean Guillou and André Isoir. Schober’s music spans all instrumental and vocal media and has been performed by the Gregg Smith Singers, The New York Treble Singers, Voces Novae et Antiquae, the Kitos Singers, neXus Arts, and Palisades Virtuosi.

Marilyn Shrude earned degrees from Alverno College and Northwestern University, and has served on the faculty of Bowling Green State University since 1977. She has been honored with awards from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, among others. She was the first woman to receive the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award for Orchestral Music and the Cleveland Arts Prize for Music.

Michael Slayton (Secretary) is Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition and Chair of the Composition/Theory Department at the Blair School of Music, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He was a student of Michael Horvit, Jerome Reed, David Ashley White. He is a member of the American Composers Alliance, the College Music Society, the Society of Composers, Inc., the South Central Society for Music Theory, and BMI.

Edward Smaldone is Professor of Music and Associate Director at the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, City University of New York. He was the Director of the School of Music from 2002 – 2016. His composition teachers include George Perle, Ralph Shapey, Henry Weinberg and Hugo Weisgall. Smaldone is the recipient of many awards including the Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2016 he was named “Composer of the Year” by the Classical Recording Foundation at a ceremony at National Sawdust.

Noel Zahler is a composer, whose compositions have been performed and recorded throughout the US, Europe, Russia and Asia by major professional ensembles and virtuoso performers. He has served as the Dean of the School of Visual and Performing Arts at LIU Post; Head of the Carnegie Mellon School of Music; Director of the University of Minnesota School of Music; and Chair of the department of music at Connecticut College. His research is in computer assisted live performance.

Advisors:

Gerry Fifer, Law Office of Gerry A. Fifer
Christine Clark, President, Theodore Front Musical Literature.
Vincent J. Novara, Head of Acquisitions, Library of Congress, Music Division
Richard Scerbo, Director, National Orchestral Institute and Festival

Elected members of the ACA Board of Governors serve 4-year terms of service. Committees consisting of Board members, advisers, and ACA composers are appointed at the discretion of the Board officers. The Board of Governors meets 3 to 4 times per year on first Friday afternoons in March, June, and October, with additional teleconferencing by the Board and various committees.

Committees:
Recruiting works and composers
Grants and Fundraising:
Finances - Budget Planning:
Custodial Plan/SCPA Relations Committee:
Promotion/Marketing/Social engagement:
Concerts/Recording/Special Projects: