Michael Kallstrom
- Shining Moment (unaccompanied horn)
- Head Banger (four horns)
- Starflame (four horns)
- Jammin’ (sixteen horns)
Michael Kallstrom is an active composer and performer, and the creator of Electric Opera, a series of five solo musical theater works with electronic tape, puppets and videos that have been performed over 200 times in the U.S. and Canada. Tell Me Your Name, a music theater work for solo voice, electronics, videotape projections and shadow puppets and the fifth work in the Electric Opera series, was premiered in Kentucky in February 2005 and also performed in Ohio at Mt. Union College, Denison University and the Southeastern Composers’ League Forum in Louisiana.
His other works have been performed in Russia, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Italy, England, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Kenya. He has received a Meet the Composer grant, two Kentucky Arts Council Fellowships, a Ragdale Foundation Residency, a Ucross Foundation Residency, an Interarts Colony Residency, a University Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research/Creative Activity, and has been the Kentucky Music Teachers’ Association Commissioned Composer of the Year. His music is available on compact discs from Capstone Records, Editioni della Foundazione, and from the TransAtlantic Horn Quartet and is published by WaveFront Music LLC.
His ballet score, Frankenstein, was premiered by the Fort Wayne Ballet in September 2002 and produced again for the 2003 season. An electronic composition, Forward Drive, was choreographed and premiered for the American College Dance Festival Association conference held at Emory University in Atlanta. Paun I Kolo, was premiered by the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra as part of the “Bowling Green Suite.” The suite featured the music of five local composers, each adapting a folk from the different cultures that are part of the Bowling Green area to create an orchestral suite. He was a featured guest composer for the annual Heidelberg College New Music Festival where he performed excerpts from Tell Me Your Name, for bass voice, electronics, videotape projections and shadow puppets, and sections from his children’s opera, School’s Out, were performed by local elementary school students for the festival. School’s Out, a collborative work created with the students and faculty of McNeill Elementary was commissioned and premiered in November 2001. The TransAtlantic Horn Quartet commissioned and premiered Starflame in London, England and also performed it for the Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Benjamin Britten–Peter Pears Music Festival, and a BBC radio broadcast that was also heard world-wide via the internet. The TAHQ and the Macon Symphony premiered Jeepers, for horn quartet and string orchestra. Crazy Rhythm, for horn quartet, a commission from the Quadre quartet was premiered in Los Angeles in 2001. His children’s opera, Sunday Pages, a full-scale opera, was given a four evening premiere at Western Kentucky University in 1999. Hornist and Fulbright Fellow Paul Basler recorded his Around the Clock in a version for horn and full orchestra with the Moravian Symphony in the Czech Republic. The work was funded by grants from the Meir Rimon Commissioning Fund of the International Horn Society and the University of Florida. Inner Flame, a work for solo alto saxophone, was premiered for the World Saxophone Congress in Madrid, Spain. A chamber work concerning the homeless, with audience participation, Nocturne, was commissioned and premiered by the ensemble Epicycle for the Work Project Authority Festival of the Arts in Cleveland, Ohio, and was performed for the Music Educators National Convention in Cincinnati.
Dr. Kallstrom has taught at Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green), Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ) and Florida A&M University (Tallahassee). He holds degrees in Composition from the Florida State University (DM), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MM), and the University of Miami, Florida (BM). He has studied composition with Roger Hannay and John Boda.
His other works have been performed in Russia, Spain, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Italy, England, Japan, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Kenya. He has received a Meet the Composer grant, two Kentucky Arts Council Fellowships, a Ragdale Foundation Residency, a Ucross Foundation Residency, an Interarts Colony Residency, a University Award for Outstanding Faculty Achievement in Research/Creative Activity, and has been the Kentucky Music Teachers’ Association Commissioned Composer of the Year. His music is available on compact discs from Capstone Records, Editioni della Foundazione, and from the TransAtlantic Horn Quartet and is published by WaveFront Music LLC.
His ballet score, Frankenstein, was premiered by the Fort Wayne Ballet in September 2002 and produced again for the 2003 season. An electronic composition, Forward Drive, was choreographed and premiered for the American College Dance Festival Association conference held at Emory University in Atlanta. Paun I Kolo, was premiered by the Bowling Green Chamber Orchestra as part of the “Bowling Green Suite.” The suite featured the music of five local composers, each adapting a folk from the different cultures that are part of the Bowling Green area to create an orchestral suite. He was a featured guest composer for the annual Heidelberg College New Music Festival where he performed excerpts from Tell Me Your Name, for bass voice, electronics, videotape projections and shadow puppets, and sections from his children’s opera, School’s Out, were performed by local elementary school students for the festival. School’s Out, a collborative work created with the students and faculty of McNeill Elementary was commissioned and premiered in November 2001. The TransAtlantic Horn Quartet commissioned and premiered Starflame in London, England and also performed it for the Tanglewood Summer Music Festival, the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Benjamin Britten–Peter Pears Music Festival, and a BBC radio broadcast that was also heard world-wide via the internet. The TAHQ and the Macon Symphony premiered Jeepers, for horn quartet and string orchestra. Crazy Rhythm, for horn quartet, a commission from the Quadre quartet was premiered in Los Angeles in 2001. His children’s opera, Sunday Pages, a full-scale opera, was given a four evening premiere at Western Kentucky University in 1999. Hornist and Fulbright Fellow Paul Basler recorded his Around the Clock in a version for horn and full orchestra with the Moravian Symphony in the Czech Republic. The work was funded by grants from the Meir Rimon Commissioning Fund of the International Horn Society and the University of Florida. Inner Flame, a work for solo alto saxophone, was premiered for the World Saxophone Congress in Madrid, Spain. A chamber work concerning the homeless, with audience participation, Nocturne, was commissioned and premiered by the ensemble Epicycle for the Work Project Authority Festival of the Arts in Cleveland, Ohio, and was performed for the Music Educators National Convention in Cincinnati.
Dr. Kallstrom has taught at Western Kentucky University (Bowling Green), Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ) and Florida A&M University (Tallahassee). He holds degrees in Composition from the Florida State University (DM), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (MM), and the University of Miami, Florida (BM). He has studied composition with Roger Hannay and John Boda.