Frank Felice

Frank Felice (born October 13, 1961 in Great Falls, Montana) is an American composer of contemporary classical music and associate professor of composition, theory, and electronic music in the Jordan College of Arts at Butler University.
Background
Felice grew up in Hamilton, Montana, playing piano, guitar, and double bass in a variety of settings, including several rock bands.
He attended Concordia College (Moorhead), the University of Colorado, and Butler University. Felice received his PhD from the University of Minnesota in 1998.
Felice has studied composition under Dominick Argento, Judith Lang Zaimont, Luiz Gonzalez, James Day, Michael Schelle, and Daniel Breedon. He describes himself as "an eclectic composer who writes with a postmodern mischievousness: pieces can be comedic/ironic, simple/complex, or humble/reverent."
He is member of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, The Society of Composers Inc., and the Christian Fellowship of Art Music Composers.
Activities and collaborations
Performances and commissions
Felice's music has been performed in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Russia, Austria, the Philippines, the Czech Republic, and Hungary.
Commissions have come with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Omaha Symphony, the Indiana Arts Commission, The Indiana Repertory Theatre, Butler University, Dance Kaleidoscope, the Butler University Arts Festival, Music Teachers National Association, the Wyoming State Arts Board, the Indianapolis Youth Symphony, Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma, any many private sources. He also serves as an adjudicator and judge for a variety of composition contests each year, throughout the United States, as well as lecturing around the Midwest on new music.
Felice directs the annual Electronic Music Festival, which has taken place at Butler University since 2002. Many of his electronic compositions were recorded on Sidewalk Music: Electronic and Electro-Acoustic Music.
Philosophy
Felice compares composing music to cooking, another of his passions. He says that both involve problem-solving. "It's how you put the ingredients together. Are they going to work?" Of the creative process, Felice says, "Everyone who writes, everyone who composes really is involved with some creation. We echo a little bit of what God did in the very beginning."
Felice inspires his students to be creative and explore their boundaries. He "inspires student composers at Butler University every day to follow through with unique music composition concepts." "Felice's philosophy lends itself nicely to his career as a music educator. Rejecting the Romantic notion of artistic genius, he asserts that, for him, composing is more about form and craft than inspiration and epiphany."
Composer-in-residence
Felice has served as composer-in-residence with the Symphony of Southeast Texas and Eastern Wyoming College.
Dance music
Felice has been commissioned twice to write pieces for Dance Kaleidoscope. "Earthworks" (2005) is a suite of electronic music, choreographed by David Hochoy, and performed as part of The Four Elements. "It is a piece that is rich in texture and sonorities and was actually a challenge to choreograph to when I first heard it. It contains some beautifully evocative sections where the combinations of electronic and classical instruments provide a powerful backdrop for the dancers as they create many different landscapes and scenarios." "Of Rivals and Lovers: Ten Lines from a Poet's Past" was written for Dance Kaleidoscope's Remembrance of Things Past performance in 2012.
Another commission was by the Butler University Department of Dance for a ballet entitled The Willow Maiden, which premiered in 2003. Originally, his ballet was to tell the story of Beren and Lúthien, from J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. After permission from the Tolkien Estate could not be obtained, Ellen Denham wrote a new story, with new mythological elements, to some of Felice's existing music, and The Willow Maiden was successfully premiered in April, 2003.
Compositions
Orchestral
Time and Motion (2014)
Third Suite from The Willow Maiden (2004)
Entrata! (2002), co-written with Michael Schelle
The Willow Maiden (2002), ballet
Three Dances from Romeo & Juliet (1999), chamber orchestra
Concerto Grosso for Homemade Instruments (1997), for orchestra and homemade instruments
Crack the Whip! (1992)
Pre-Sleep Mental Dances (1992), soprano and orchestra
Adagio (1988)
Ainúlindalë (1985), symphonic poem
Nocturne (1985), cello and chamber orchestra
Symphonic band / wind ensemble
Power Plays (2013)
Revolution Calling (2013), brass, percussion, and four-channel fixed media
Three Fanfares (2007)
Fanfare and Dances from the Court of the Woodland King (2004)
Sleight of Band (2000)
Passage (1997)
Antics (Pagliacciata) (1996)
Mixed chamber ensembles
Exquisite Corpse (fragment) (2010), three unspecified soloists
le cadaver exquis boira le vin nouveau (2010), three unspecified soloists and piano
Michael Schelle, ein Porträt (2010), speaker, two percussionists, and piano
Morning becomes.... (2009), clarinet and cello
you drive ME nervous.... (2009), flute, horn in F, violin, bass, and percussion
Charismata (2007), clarinet, alto saxophone, cello, percussion
Pasta Concerns: Three Lead Sheets (2006), flexible instrumentation
arcana (2003), flute/alto flute, violin, cello, piano
Choral
James Whitcomb Riley Triptych (2014), SSAATTBB
Nearly Madrigals (2012), SATB
Voice of the Mountains (2012), SATB and piano
Heiligenstadt, Oct. 6, 1802 (2011), SSAATTBB
A Pocket Breviary (2011), SSAATTBB and organ
Bitterroot Homecoming (2006), SATB
The Word Made Flesh (2004), a round in four or more parts
...in the Melting (2002), SSAATB and clarinet
Four Christmas Tableaux (2000), SATB and concert band
Critical Mass (1995-1998), concert mass
Canticle of Mary (1994), soprano solo and SATB
My Daughter (1993), SSA and english horn
Three Autumn Portraits (1990), SATB
What is Beauty But a Breath? (1984), SATB
Vocal solo and duo
If Ever Two Were One (2008), high voice and string quartet
Letters to Derrick (1995), song cycle for medium voice and piano
Pre-Sleep Mental Dances (1992), song cycle for high voice and piano or orchestra
Four Songs of Jennifer Haines (1989), song cycle for medium voice and piano
Keyboard
Shichi mata ha (2010), piano solo
Echolocator (2009, rev. 2010), piano solo
awakenings (winter) (2008), piano solo for either the left or right hand alone
three pieces from banff (2006), piano solo
Rapping Papers (2002), piano solo
Preludes (1998), piano solo
Odds and Entities (1992–present), piano solo
Piano Sonata No. 1 (1991)
Scherzophrenia (1984), piano solo
Woodwind solo/ensemble
The Empty Sky (2011), oboe solo
Walkin' by Myself (2011), bassoon solo
Jumping the Shark (2005), clarinet and wind ensemble
The Wedding at Cana (2004), two flutes
"...and so the hole was dug" (2001), bassoon and stereo recorded medium
Fifteen Pieces About Kim Ellis (1999), clarinet solo with mezzo soprano and percussion obbligato
Catechism, Criticism, and Wit (1993), saxophone and an unspecified number of performers
Playground of the Winds (1993), woodwind quintet
"...a chasing after the wind" (1992), alto flute and piano
Brass solo/ensemble
Honk! (2014), horn and piano
Waiting for Gounod (2004), euphonium and nine string instruments
Phantoms (1984), trombone/piano duet
Troll's March (1983), brass quintet
String solo/ensemble
Five Whimsies for Non-Grownups (2010), string quartet
Seven by Three (2009), three e-bowed electric guitars
Reflection on a Hymn of Thanksgiving (2004), two violins
Two by Four (2004), three violins and viola
BRACE YOURSELF LIKE A MAN (2001), solo violin and recorded medium
Were You Angry with the Rivers (2001), solo double bass
String Quartet No. 4 (1993)
Quarks (1991), solo violin
String Quartet No. 3 (1988)
String Quartet No. 2 (1986)
Simple Suite (1984), cello solo
String Quartet No. 1 (1984)
Percussion
Chalk Circle Reel (2009), marimba solo
now I know in part (2007), violin, cello, and marimba
Road to Damascus (2006), one player on marimba and assorted percussion
Basta! (1996), marimba solo
Up the Creek! (1992), an unspecified amount of performers and a floor that creaks
Electronic
...of glass (2009)
Earthworks (2005)
Postlude: Past the Purge Tents (2001)
Prelude: Purge the Past Tense (2001)
Psychotica: Six Etudes for the Very, Very Nervous (2001)
Retrogressions (I, II, III) (2001)
Sidewalk Music (2001)
Reflections from The Night Attic (1999)
When Two or More Are Gathered (2001)
Incidental music
Of Lovers and Rivals (Ten Lines from a Poet's Past) (also known as Remembrance of Things Past) (2012), fixed media
The Caucasian Chalk Circle (2009), six songs for mezzo soprano, two baritones, marimba, and percussion
The Lamentations Project (2007), treble women's chorus and recorded medium
The Turn of the Screw (2003), solo piano with electronic processing, sound effects, and recorded medium
Metamorphosis (2001), clarinet/bass clarinet, violin/guitar, cello, keyboards, percussion
Romeo & Juliet (1999), chamber orchestra, three percussionists, two harps, piano/celeste, and strings
References
External links
Frank Felice, composer
School of Music, Butler University
American male composers
21st-century American composers
University of Minnesota alumni
University of Colorado alumni
Living people
Butler University alumni
Concordia College (Moorhead, Minnesota) alumni
1961 births
21st-century American male musicians