THE LIVING COMPOSERS PROJECT  

Vicente Avella

(b. 27 November 1970, Caracas).

Venezuelan composer, now resident in the USA, of mostly chamber and vocal works that have been performed in the Americas.

Mr. Avella studied piano performance with Enrica Cavallo-Gulli and Lev Vlassenko at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1991–95, where he earned his BMus. He then studied composition with Ellsworth Milburn at Rice University in Houston in 1995–96, on a full scholarship, and composition with Sydney Hodkinson and Christopher Rouse at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York from 1996–98, where he earned his MMus.

Among his honours are an honourable mention in the competition of the ensemble ALEA III in Boston, Massachusetts (1997), the Bernard and Rose Sernoffsky Composition Prize from the Eastman School of Music (1998) and honours in the competition Waging Peace through Singing (2002). He was also a finalist for the Pete Carpenter Fellowship Award from BMI (1999), the Morton Gould Young Composer Award (2000) and the Turner Classic Movies Young Film Composers Competition (2001).

He is also active in other positions. As a pianist, he has toured since 1994. He later served as organist at the Church of Our Lady of Good Counsel in Newark, New Jersey.

He has taught at the Newark School of the Arts in New Jersey since 1999 and at the Suburban Community Music Center in New Jersey since 2001.

He has lived in the USA since 1991.

CONTACT INFORMATION

E-mail address: vavella@earthlink.net

COMPLETE LIST OF WORKS

ORCHESTRAL:

Pearls, 1997

Different Beginnings, 2 tamboras (drums from Venezuela), orchestra, 1998

CHAMBER MUSIC:

Chamber Paintings, flute (+ piccolo), clarinet, bassoon, violin, cello, piano, 2 percussion, 1995

String Quartet, 1995

From a Land of Sands, Donkeys and Prickly Pears..., 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 French horns, 1995

Pandora's Box, clarinet, string quartet, 1996

Winter's Cold Light, French horn, 2 trumpets, trombone, bass trombone, 1996

Premonition, guitar, 1997

The River of the White Dolphin, viola, piano, 1997

Awakening between a Serpent and a Rainbow, oboe, 3 percussion, 1997

Short Stories, violin, cello, piano, 2001

CHORAL:

And Two Continents..., 4 male voices (+ maracas, stones), 1997

Ave Maria, mixed chorus, 2000

Phantom Towers, mezzo-soprano, mixed chorus, 2002

A Prayer, mixed chorus, 2002

VOCAL:

Between Two Gardens (song-cycle), soprano, piano, 1994

The Waiting Room, soprano, orchestra, 1994

En el Fondo Forestal del Día, mezzo-soprano, harp, violin, cello, percussion, 1996

Vegetaciones, mezzo-soprano, 2 oboes, bassoon, harpsichord, 1997

Canciones de Arena, mezzo-soprano, piano, 2000

PIANO:

Walpurgis Night, 1994

Two Unrelated Pieces, 1997

FILM SCORES (DIRECTOR):

A Spring Day, 1998 (animation; Glenn Ehlers)

Outdone, 1999 (animation; Dan Pejril)

Up the Tree, 1999 (animation; Glenn Ehlers)

A Night Less Ordinary, 1999 (John Rockefeller)

The Diestmobile, 2000 (animation; Shaun Foster)

Bibbily Bobbily Job, 2000 (animation; Valerie Perkins)

The Shell, 2001 (Elizabeth Harnois)

Cross-Pollination, 2002 (animation; Shaun Foster)

Scapegoat, 2002 (Sean Sullivan)