CLASS MATERIALS

E.A.R.S.

JOHN A. STEFFA currently serves as Associate Professor of composition and theory in the Department of Music at Murray State University. In addition to remaining active as a composer, he coordinates the activities in the Music Synthesis Laboratory and every semester Dr. Steffa's composition/music synthesis students produce a recital of original music utilizing digital technology in cooperation with performers on traditional acoustic instruments.

Dr. Steffa received his degrees in composition and music education from the University of Northern Iowa and The University of Texas at Austin. His studies in composition have included working with Peter Michaelides, Donald Grantham, Kent Kennan and Russell Pinkston. He also studied music theory and pedagogy with Douglas Greene, Elliot Antokoletz and Dorothy Payne.

As a clinician, conductor, adjudicator and educator, Dr. Steffa has served public school districts and university systems in Iowa, South Carolina, Ohio, Kentucky and Texas. He has also performed as a cellist in orchestras in many of those states. He has appeared in several Who's Who publications including Who's Who Among Americas Teachers (2003, 2005), Who's Who in America (2003, 2004, 2005), Who's Who in American Education (2006).

John's recent activities include:

•Incidental music for the Enloe Arts Magnet High School production of The Crucible (October, 2004), Raleigh, North Carolina

•Festival Diversion to performed at the Kentucky Music Teacher's Association Convention (October, 2004) by Dr. Stephanie Rea, flute, and Martha Carsens, piano

•Sacred Valley Festival Suite to premiered by the Owensboro (KY) Symphony Orchestra, Nicholas Palmer, conductor, (November, 2004)

•Chamber Music of John Steffa to produced under the auspices of the Kentucky Wesleyan College and the Owensboro Symphony Orchestra (November, 2004) at Kentucky Wesleyan College

•Creating a World View Through Electro-Acoustic Music in the Applied Studio, the Hawaiian International Conference on Arts and Humanities, ongoing research presented with collaborators, Drs. Robert and Lauren Murray from the University of Northern Colorado (January, 2005)

•Chamber Music of John Steffa to presented in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall (March, 2005) in New York, New York

•Documentation of Mountain Village Folk Music of Taiwan, a research trip to record the mountain village festival music in central Taiwan, July, 2005.

•Sacred Valley Festival Suite performed by the Southern Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Edward Benyas, Music Director, Carbondale, Illinois, November, 2005.

•A Night in Nepal for string orchestra, was premiered by the Paul Laurence Dundar High School Orchestra, Kathryn Van Fleet, Music Director, at the Kentucky Music Educators Association State Convention, Louisville, Kentucky, February, 2006.