JONATHAN SANTORE
Jonathan Santore is professor of Music Theory and Composition and chair of the Department of Music, Theatre, and Dance at Plymouth State University. He holds academic degrees from Duke University, The University of Texas at Austin, and UCLA, and studied composition with Stephen Jaffe, Robert Ward, Eugene Kurtz, Donald Grantham, Elaine Barkin, and William Kraft.
Named a 2010 Individual Artist Fellow by the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Santore is currently serving as Composer in Residence for the New Hampshire Master Chorale, which received a Best in NH 2008 award from New Hampshire Magazine for his compositions setting texts with strong New Hampshire connections. He was a winner of the 1999 American Composers Forum Welcome Christmas! Carol Contest, and was also named New Hampshire Composer of the Year in 1999 and 2006. Santore has won several other awards for his compositions, including Second Prize in the 2007 University of South Carolina Choral Composition Contest, Finalist in the 2005 NUVOVOX Choral Awards and the 2003 Wegmans/PMCP Band Composition Contest, Special Mention in the 2002 British Trombone Society/Brass in Association Composition Contest, Honorable Mention in the 2000 Britten-on-the-Bay Composition Competition, and performances at the New Hampshire Music Festival, the national conferences of the North American Saxophone Alliance and the Society of Composers, Inc., and the Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest.
His works have been performed by professional ensembles including Minnesota’s Vocal Essence Chorus, the Choir of Rochester Cathedral, England, and Austin’s Conspirare (on a National Endowment for the Arts American Masterworks Festival), and have been broadcast regionally by Maine Public Radio and Television, and nationally by Public Radio International. He has conducted performances of his own compositions in the United States and Europe, and his works have been recorded by California’s Octagon New Music Ensemble. He is also active as a music theorist and conductor.