About Clint Needham

The music of Clint Needham (b. 1981, Texarkana, TX) has been described as “wildly entertaining” (New York Times), “easy to smile at” (Philadelphia Inquirer), and “fresh and spicy” (Courier-Post). Recently named recipient of a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Clint’s music has been recognized with two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the William Schuman Prize/BMI Student Composer Award, the Jacob Druckman Prize from the Aspen Music Festival, First Prize in the International Ticheli Composition Contest, the Heckscher Prize from Ithaca College, a Lee Ettelson Composer Award and the coveted Underwood New Music Commission from the American Composers Orchestra.

Clint’s orchestral music has been commissioned and performed by the American Composers Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the Aspen Concert Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, New York Youth Symphony in Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, the Omaha Symphony, and Symphony in C. Various chamber groups including the American Brass Quintet, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Ithaca College’s KULMUSIK, Quintet Attacca, Stanford Wind Quintet, and the Wingra Woodwind Quintet have given performances of his chamber music across the country and in Europe.

Commissions for the 2010-2011 season include orchestral works for the New York Classical Players, the Bloomington Symphony Orchestra, the Sioux City Symphony, and the Texarkana Symphony Orchestra as well as a new work for soprano and wind ensemble for the United States Air Force Band of the West.

Clint recently earned his doctorate degree from Indiana University, where he was a four-year Jacobs School of Music Doctoral Fellow in composition. He also received his MM from Indiana University in 2006 and his BM from Baldwin-Wallace College in 2004. His principal composition teachers include Claude Baker, Loris Chobanian, David Dzubay, Michael Gandolfi, Per Mårtensson, Sven-David Sandström, and Richard Wernick. Clint has also studied with Robert Beaser, Syd Hodkinson, Christopher Rouse, and George Tsontakis at the Aspen Music Festival as a Susan and Ford Schumann composition fellow and with Mario Davidovsky at the Wellesley Composers Conference as a composition fellow.

The American Brass Quintet has recorded his Brass Quintet No. 1 “Circus” on their 2007 Summit Records release entitled “Jewels”. Clint’s music is published by the Theodore Presser Company with additional works published by Manhattan Beach Music and Triplo Press.

Visit Clint Needham's website.

The 4.40 Fund

The 4.40 Fund is a commissioning collective that brings people together to support the creation of new work performed by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall and around the world. By contributing just $4.40, you join a community of people of all ages, interests, and incomes, united by a curiosity for new music and the artists who create it.

Project 440 is supported by a leadership gift from Thomas Bishop, with additional major support provided by the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund. Project 440 is a collaboration between Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and WQXR.

Project 440 World Premiere
March 24, 2012 at 7 PM
Stern Auditorium | Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall

When We Forget by Clint Needham is the third of four new works by emerging composers commissioned by Orpheus as part of Project 440.

Spotlight on Project 440 composer Clint Needham

Blog Update from Clint Needham

Coming Soon!

Audio samples: The Body Electric
Performed by the Wellesley College Composers Conference Ensemble, conducted by James Baker.

The Body Electricwas written for the 2009 Wellesley College Composers Conference and was premiered on the final concert of the conference with Jim Baker conducting.

Writing a work that attempted to capture the mood of this epic poem seemed impossible. Because of the inherent abstract nature of text-less music, writing a work that was a musical blow-by-blow of the poem seemed equally impossible. For me, the solution was to take three fragments of the poem and focus on conveying their particular moods. In the score, I have included the following lines at the beginning of each section: “the Body electric”, “A divine nimbus exhales”, and “the Body at auction.”

Chamber Symphony
Performed by American Composers Orchestra; conducted by Jeffrey Milarsky.

Chamber Symphonyis constructed in three movements, played without pause; “Hammering Out,” “Open-ended Echoes,” & “Radiant Nation.” The movement titles suggest a general atmosphere each attempts to express rather than articulating a clear program that each follows. The outer movements act as the antithesis of each other in terms of texture and mood (each represents a political party – you decided which is which). “Hammering Out” employs an aggressive, relentless, pounding beat that frequently shifts, and utilizes a great deal of loud metallic sounds. Politically, this movement represents an extremely powerful political machine that eventually pounds itself out of control. “Radiant Nation,” a much lighter and optimistic movement, uses an up-beat grove throughout. This movement embodies the persistence of the cool, driven candidate that seemed to rise above the fray. The middle movement, “Open-ended Echoes,” is less political and represents the connective serenity at the heart of humanity. Following the overtly pulsated and destructive nature of the first movement, “Open-ended Echoes” is somewhat meditative and almost void of any perceivable pulse. The movement attempts to transform the volatile nature of the first movement into the radiant spirit of the last.

Chamber Symphonywas commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra (www.americancomposers.org) for its Orchestra Underground Series with the generous support of Paul Underwood. Additional support for the ACO’s Emerging Composers Program comes from the National Endowment for the Arts. The premiere took place on November 14, 2008 at Carnegie Hall’s Zankel Hall with Jeffrey Milarsky conducting.