b. 1953 Accompaniment of "[Now one has the gift of wisdom] " in Sing and Rejoice! Dr. Dennis Friesen-Carper (b. 1953) is Reddel Professor of Music at Valparaiso University where he conducts the Symphony, opera, oratorio and musical theatre, and teaches composition. He has served as Music Director for Indiana Opera North, the Pasadena Philharmonic, and the Northwest Indiana Symphony Youth Orchestra. Recent professional and teaching activities include a New Year's Eve 2002 concert conducting his own works, as well as Puccini, Copland, Strauss and traditional Chinese music with the professional symphony of Nanjing, PR China. That trip also featured conducting visits to the Nanjing University and Youth Symphonies and a conducting master class at the Shanghai Conservatory. Domestic conducting appearances include the South Bend Symphony, Lake Superior Chamber Orchestra, Mid-Kansas Symphony, Elkhart Symphony, Indiana University South Bend Philharmonic, Great Lakes and Lutheran Summer Music camp orchestras. Previous academic positions include teaching posts at Goshen College and Bethel College. He has served as festival conductor and clinician from Texas to Ontario, conducted and performed in over forty states, China, Canada, Europe, Korea and Japan. He holds DMA and MMus degrees from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University and a BA from Bethel College, Kansas, and has performed extensively as a jazz pianist. Active as a composer and arranger, Dr. Friesen-Carper recently completed a term as Composer in Residence for the Northwest Indiana Symphony, whose conductor Kirk Muspratt commissioned the overture Fireworks for the opening of the 2001-2002 season.
His works have been commissioned by the Houston Symphony, Tucson Symphony, Houston Chamber Singers, South Bend Symphony, Mid-Kansas Symphony, colleges, seminaries, churches, schools, and the 1999 harp festival sponsored by the Bangkok Symphony. The review of his concerto for flute and harp enthused, "The evening's highlight undoubtedly was the premiere of The Ring of Kerry...With its echoes of Celtic harp and Irish jigs...its rhythms and its melodies delighted and enchanted the orchestra that played it and those fortunate enough to hear it." His work has been published by Augsburg Fortress and Faith and Life Press, and has been recorded by Minnesota Public Radio, Platshon, VUCA Media Productions, and Pro Arte. Recent commissions include Processional and Fanfare for the Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra, and "My True Gift's to Come," a setting of a poem by National Book Award winner, Walter Wangerin, Jr., premiered in Chicago's Orchestra Hall. His Step Dances were premiered in a prize-winning performance at the 2001 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. The House of Wisdom, a short commissioned cantata on texts from Proverbs and I Peter was premiered on groundbreaking weekend for the new Christopher Center for Library and Information Resources recently opened on the Valparaiso campus. Other recent works include five madrigals and a dozen pieces of incidental music for Shakespeare's As You Like It. A Mass for Peacemakers, his setting of the Lutheran communion liturgy in contemporary and vernacular styles, was premiered in services at Trinity Lutheran in Valparaiso, and at the Holden Village retreat center near Lake Chelan, Washington. The "Gloria" from that setting was selected by the ELCA for inclusion in the Renewing Worship liturgical supplement published in 2004.
--www.sbmp.com/
Dennis Friesen Carper
My Starred Hymns
My FlexScores
My Hymnals
My Purchased Files
