
Russell M Reed DMA
Dr. Russell Reed received his Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees in piano performance from Baylor University where he studied with artist-in-residence Krassimira Jordan. He studied composition with Richard Willis and Daron Hagen and drawing and painting with Karl Umlauf. Dr. Russell Reed received his D.M.A in music composition in 2005 from The University of Texas at Austin.
While attending The University of Texas, he studied composition with Dan Welcher and Donald Grantham and served as the assistant director of The New Music Ensemble. Since receiving his D.M.A, Dr. Reed has received many notable honors and performances including a state sponsored performance and exhibition of his works at the historic home of Alexander Scriabin in Moscow, Russia. In 2009 his Princess Songs were premiered in New York City at the Poetry Project reading series, one of the oldest and most prestigious poetry venues in the United States. Recently, light the lovely candles, a song cycle for Soprano, Viola and Piano and Princess Songs were nominated for Austin Critics Table awards for best original composition/score of the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 concert seasons respectively.
In February of 2013 Dr. Reed was the visiting composer at The University of Texas, Brownsville. He was the featured composer and performer at Sin Fronteras Fest--a new festival in the Rio Grande Valley dedicated to the performance of contemporary music.
Recent commissions include a large choral work with orchestra, Entre La Noche(2015) for Panoramic Voices (Austin, TX) and a large work for piano entitled Communications From the Limitless Cosmic Bird Empire (2014) in collaboration with Sector Reforma and Museo de Arte Raúl Anguiano (MURA), Guadalajara, Mexico.
In 2010 Dr. Reed began a series of works with the visual artist Santino Escatel combining music, architecture and visual art. They have completed four projects: Hipermnesia, Guadalajara, Mexico March 2011. , Consideración de las Cosas Más Cercanas, Main installation for the 2017 OUTsider festival in Austin, TX. In the Body In the Mind, August 2018 Casa Taller Clemente Orozco Guadalajara, Mexico. dionisio, February 2020 Capilla Abierta Luis Baragán Guadalajara, Mexico. Their fifth project will be presented in Mexico City in Spring 2021.
In addition to his work as a composer and performer, Dr. Reed has for the past ten years curated and performed in a concert featuring music by gay and lesbian composers for the Austin Chamber Music Festival.
He currently lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexico
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