MARK WINGES

Mark Winges was born in Louisville, Kentucky, and currently resides in San Francisco, where he is composer / advisor for the chamber choir Volti. He is a graduate of the College-Conservatory of Music - University of Cincinnati, San Francisco State University, and has studied at the Musikhögskolan in Stockholm, Sweden. His principal teachers have been Ellsworth Milburn, Henry Onderdonk, and Arne Mellnäs. He is the recipient of the UNESP Organ Competition Prize, the Dumler Award, a Barlow Competition prize, and has received grants from Meet the Composer, the California Arts Council, the American Music Center. He is also a MacDowell Colony Fellow.

Recent works include Gloss for string quartet, which was performed in San Francisco and Davis, California by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble,The Moon-Dance, which was performed in Gorizia, Italy and Ljubljana, Slovenia by the women's chorus Ancora, Two Voices for violin, cello and harp, (featured at the Music Exchange festival in Sofia, Bulgaria), Familial Banter, which was performed at the Camarissa Festival in Mexico City by Earplay, and also on the Music Now! series at Sacramento State University, Fog Patterns and Clouds, which was featured on a recent Under Construction program by the Berkeley Symphony, and The Oh of Moon and Piano (commissioned as part of the NEA / American Composer's Forum Continental Harmony project), which was performed by the Piedmont Choirs at the American Choral Director's Association national convention in San Antonio, and was included in the choir's European tour repertoire. His Unbecoming: Songs for Dancing for chorus and 2 percussionists was premiered last season by Volti, and his Magic Strings was performed during the ISCM World Music Days held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

A CD of his Aural Colors for orchestra is available on the VMM label. His most recent CD:Freed From Words: Choral Music of Mark Winges has just been released on Innova Recordings. Amanda MacBlane of the American Music Center's New Music Box says of this recording: the choral music of San Francisco-based composer Mark Winges probes deeply into the spiritual and sonic depths of the chorus.

Prizes, Grants, Awards
Barlow Endowment Award
Dumler Prize
American Music Center
California Arts Council Grant
Continental Harmony Commission
(American Composers Forum / NEA)
UNESP Organ Competition Prize (Brazil)
Meet the Composer
(California, Texas, New York)

Piteå Musikhögskolan Lecture Grant (Sweden)
Rice University (Texas)
Kathaumixw Choral Festival Citation (Canada)
 
Publishers
Alliance Music Publications
J.B. Elkus & Son (MMB Music, Inc.)
Trinitas
Vienna Master Composers
 
Ensembles / Performers of Mark Winges' Works
The Piedmont Children's Choir (California)
EARPLAY (California)
The Berkeley Symphony (California)
Carmina Slovenica (Slovenia)
Ancora (California)
Four Eyes Duo (Germany)
The Left Coast Chamber Ensemble (California)
J. Melvin Butler, organist (Washington)
The Rohnert Park Symphony (California)
Marcella DeCray, harpist (California)
The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble (Pennsylvania)
Hans-Ola Ericsson, organist (Sweden)
The Marin Symphony (California)
The San Francisco Chamber Singers (California)
Canzonetta Berlin (Germany)
The San Francisco Contemporary Music Players (California)
Grupp Kontrast (Sweden)
Telluride Chamber Players (Colorado)
Coro de Niños Cantores de Cordoba (Argentina)
Syzygy (Texas)
The Bakersfield Symphony (California)
Synchronia (Missouri)
Maelström Percussion Ensemble (New York)
DePauw Chamber Orchestra (Indiana)
Piteå Symphony (Sweden)

List of Compositions & Performances