Bio

FULL BIOGRAPHY:

Ian Evans Guthrie, an emerging composer, performer, researcher, and collaborator in instrumental, vocal, and interdisciplinary genres, has received the Mile High Freedom Band 2021 Commission, 1st prize for the Noosa-ISAM and Arcady Composition competitions, 2nd prize for the American Prize, a nomination for an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and other accolades for his compositions. Many of his works have been performed publicly around the world by fEARnoMUSIC, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Dakota Valley Symphony, Moore Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Offspring, Interlochen Summer Camp, VIPA, highSCORE Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, Charlotte New Music Festival, and others. He has served on various committees, including the Society of Composers, Inc., where he served as the Region VI Student Representative from 2015 to 2017 before serving as Assistant Marketer (2018-20) and Marketer (since 2020). His most recent works include pieces for the Rutgers University bands, Western Michigan University bands, Northland Christian School band, and Te Deum, among other groups.

Guthrie maintains an active piano career, frequently performing his own works and those of other contemporary composers, including Dmitri Tymoczko. He is also an improviser, often combining hits in various genres with his compositional intuition, particularly with dancers and casual audiences. He began accompanying choirs and soloists at nine, and two years later made his first appearance on the Vancouver Seafarer’s Concert. Most recently, he won and 2nd prize in the Great Composers Competition: Music of America and many other top prizes from GCC competitions. He has also won the 2013-14 Oregon MTNA young artist’s competition, the 2014 Brookings-Harbor Friends of Music scholarship, and 1st prize in the college-level OMTA scholarship competition in 2012. In September 2008, he and Mary Stone performed Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals with Portland’s Columbia Symphony Orchestra. He has also released three piano improvisation albums, which can be found on your favorite online streaming site.

He also actively researches the music business historically and currently, as well as the relationship between harmony and rhythmic cells. He has also presented papers on The Business With Composers at many SCI conferences (SCI Newsletter, 2015). He has presented his paper Rhythm as Function: Labeling the other progression across North America, as well as worldwide virtually. He is also author of the upcoming article The Eradication of Justice in Sacred Music (Interdisciplinary Journal on Biblical Authority, forthcoming).

Guthrie received his Doctor of Music as a Graduate Teaching Assistant from Florida State University, where he studied composition with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Stephen Montague, Clifton Callender, Mark Wingate, and Ladislav Kubik, and piano with Heidi Louise Williams. He received his Master of Music in Composition/Theory as a Graduate Assistant at Texas Christian University, where he studied composition with Till MacIvor Meyn, Martin Blessinger, and Blaise Ferrandino, and piano with John Owings and Gloria Lin. He received his Bachelor of Music at Marylhurst University, where he studied composition with John F. Paul and piano with Renato Fabbro.

He is currently the Assistant Professor of Music at Calvary University. Previously, he was the accompanist, arranger, and composer for North Kansas City Schools (Kansas City), and is a dance accompanist for the Interlochen Summer Camp. He has also taught at the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford, and accompanied dance for Florida State University. For more information about Ian Guthrie and his music, please visit ianguthriecomposer.com.

SHORT BIO (under 200 words):

Currently based in the Kansas City area, Ian Evans Guthrie has received the Mile High Freedom Bands 2021 Commission, a nomination for a 2020 award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, 1st prize for the Arcady Composition Competition, twice received 2nd prize for the American Prize, and other accolades for his compositions. Many of his works have been performed publicly around the world by fEARnoMUSIC, the Northwest Symphony Orchestra, Dakota Valley Symphony, Erik Drescher, Del Sol String Quartet, and others, with works published by Verlag Neue Musik and T.U.X. People’s Music. He has served on various committees, including NACUSA, where he is the National Treasurer, and the Society of Composers, Inc., where he is the Marketer. His most recent works include choral works for various ensembles in the Kansas City area. As a pianist, Guthrie has won awards from MTNA, the Great Composer Competition, and others, and actively accompanies instrumentalists, vocalists, and dancers, most recently the Interlochen Center for the Arts and Kansas City Ballet School.

He has studied composition with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Stephen Montague, Mark Wingate, and others, and piano with John Owings, Gloria Lin, Heidi Louise Williams, and Renato Fabbro.

Copyright 2011-23. All Rights Reserved.

Translate »