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American composer Everette Minchew (born May 20, 1977) is consistently active in the creation, performance, and promotion of contemporary music. His catalogue of original chamber and electronic compositions is relatively small, yet steadily growing. His output includes small chamber pieces for violin, piano, various wind instruments, and harpsichord. Current commissions include the genre-bending Celia Music for tenor saxophone and string bass and an opera based on an 11th-century crusades tale.
Biography
His earliest musical training came at the age of eleven when he began playing alto saxophone; it wasn’t long until he began his first attempts in composition. He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Music History from The University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied saxophone under world-renowned soloist, Lawrence Gwozdz. Fearing that traditional university training would hinder his development as a progressive composer, he abandoned the idea of formal lessons in favor of an intense private study of modern masterworks. Minchew's works are characterized by their intense timbral explorations and brutal dissonance. That is not to say, however, that the compositions are devoid of beauty. In the first of the Two Brief Pieces, for example, the harpsichord chimes stringent yet haunting chords evoking a sense of loss. Other pieces, like the Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" play upon the kaleidoscopic interaction between timbres and tones. The rapid alternation of pizzicato, arco bowing, and extreme glissandi remind the listener of Xenakis coupled with a Berio Sequenza. Minchew's Invention "Two-Part Contraption" for piano owes much to Ligeti's etudes and boogie-woogie jazz. Everette Minchew has been the featured composer at the Intégrales New Music Festival in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He currently resides in Hattiesburg, Mississippi with his wife and son.
Selected works
- In Pursuit of Mythical Beasts An Electronic Ballet (2006)
- Figment No. 3 "Euterpe" for Flute Alone (2005)
- Hydra for Wind Sextet (2005)
- Figment No. 2 "Juggler's Fancy" for Violin Alone (2004)
- Figment for Alto Saxophone Alone (2004)
- Two Brief Pieces for Harpsichord (2003)
- Canon In Memoriam Iannis Xenakis for Saxophone Quartet (2002)
