Skip to main content
Department of Music

Dominique Schafer

Dominique Schafer

Guest Artist
Teacher in Composition & Music Theory

Contact
Phone: 401.874.2431
Email: domschafer@gmail.com
Web site: http://www.dominiqueschafer.com

Specializations
Applied Composition, Ear Training and Sight Singing

Education
Ph.D., Harvard University

Bio
The music of Boston based composer DOMINIQUE SCHAFER has been performed in the USA, Latin America, Asia and Europe at major festivals such as Musica Nova Finland, Archipel - Geneva, Acanthe - France, Etchings at Auvillar, and La Ciudad de las ideas in Mexico with performances by ensembles such as the Dinosaur Annex Ensemble, Modern Art Sextet (Berlin), Ensemble Fa, Arditti String Quartet, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), Frances Marie Uitti (cello solo piece played by using two bows), Garth Knox, Alarm will Sound, the Callithumpian Consort, Talea Ensemble, Orchestre National de Lorraine, E-Mex ensemble, and the California EAR Unit.

His duo Triplex Unity for Saxophone and Percussion has recently been released by the Yesaroun'Duo on their CD HeavyUp/HeavyDown. His new piece Cendre, for bass flute and electronics has been premiered by Italian flutist Mario Caroli, a work that is composed to be projected into an eight-channel surround space. Electronic music has become of increasing importance, even though the majority of his work is written for acoustic instruments and the concert stage. He has given talks about his music at places such as Darmstadt Ferienkurse Germany, Yonsei University Korea, and at June in Buffalo, NY.

Awards include the Adelbert Sprague Composition Award, George Arthur Knight Composition Prize, regional winner of the ASCAP/SCI commission competition twice, and 2nd prize of the Kempten Orchesterverein composition competition in Germany. Dominique Schafer was also a finalist in the Queen Marie José International Composition Competition, the 33rd and 36th International Competition in Electroacoustic Music (Trivium) Bourges, France, and at the Fifth Seoul International Competition for Composers. He has received grants from the American Music Center. An advocate for teaching and communicating knowledge to young students, he has been a awarded the Certificate of Distinction in Teaching at Harvard two years in a row.

Dominique Schafer has been studying composition among others with Paul Reale, Mario Davidovsky, Bernard Rands, Magnus Lindberg, and Julian Anderson. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University, where he most recently has been studying with Chaya Czernowin, Brian Ferneyhough and Helmut Lachenmann.