Composition Faculty
2027 COMPOSERS-IN-RESIDENCE
Jennifer Jolley
Jennifer Jolley is a composer, conductor, and professor. Her work is founded on the belief that the pleasures and excesses of music have the unique potential to engage political and provocative subjects. Addressing a range of topics such as climate change, #MeToo, feminist history, and the abuses of the Putin regime, Jennifer strives to write pieces that are equally enjoyable and meaningful. Her works have been commissioned and performed by ensembles worldwide, including the Dallas Winds, Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Central Ohio Symphony, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and Quince Ensemble. Her music has been featured in venues such as Carnegie Hall, the Rivera Court at the Detroit Institute of Arts, and Žofín Palace. A future piece commissioned by the US Navy Band will premiere at the World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Conference in Gwangju, South Korea, in Namhansanseong Art Hall. Jennifer received degrees from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music. She is now an Associate Professor of Music Theory and Composition in the Department of Music, Multimedia, Theatre, and Dance at Lehman College in the Bronx and was a Fulbright Scholar to Egypt in 2023. She has been a composition faculty member at Interlochen Arts Camp since 2015.
Eric Nathan
Eric Nathan has been described as writing music that is “as diverse as it is arresting,” with a “constant vein of ingenuity and expressive depth (San Francisco Chronicle) and a marvel of musical logic” (Boston Classical Review). Nathan has written extensively for orchestra, most notably three commissions from the Boston Symphony Orchestra, including the space of a door, released on Naxos, and Concerto for Orchestra, which opened the BSO’s 2019–20 season under Andris Nelsons. His orchestral work Opening, co-commissioned by the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, received a nationally broadcast premiere on PBS with Ken-David Masur. His recent flute concerto, The Seas Between Us, was commissioned by a consortium of five orchestras in the U.S. and México for flutist Alejandro Escuer. Nathan has received additional commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Barlow Endowment, and Fromm Music Foundation. His music has been presented at the New York Philharmonic Biennials, Tanglewood, Aspen, Aldeburgh, and Cabrillo festivals, and the Library of Congress. A recipient of the Rome Prize and a Guggenheim Fellowship, he has also received a Goddard Lieberson Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, as well as fellowships from MacDowell, Civitella Ranieri, Copland House, and Yaddo. Nathan’s two-CD set Missing Words (New Focus Recordings, 2022), praised as “brilliantly original” (Musical America), was recently presented as a complete cycle by Collage New Music and conductor Anna Handler in Boston. A composer portrait at Yellow Barn and recordings with Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Chelsea Music Festival have further highlighted his work, including an upcoming Orchid Classics release of his two Double Concertos. Nathan is Artistic Director of Collage New Music in Boston, Composer-in-Residence of the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra & Music School, and Associate Professor of Music at Brown University. He previously served as Composer-in-Residence of the New England Philharmonic for six seasons. He holds degrees from Cornell, Indiana University, and Yale. His compositions are published by Just a Theory Press.
2027 RESIDENT FACULTY
Andrew Bishop
Andrew Bishop is a saxophonist, clarinetist, flautist, composer, improviser, and educator whose work bridges jazz, contemporary improvisation, and concert music. He is Professor and Chair of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan, where he teaches saxophone, composition, and improvisation, and also serves on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Academy and its summer institutes. Bishop has released three acclaimed recordings as a leader—De Profundis, Time and Imaginary Time, and The Hank Williams Project—and has appeared on more than fifty recordings as a sideman. He has performed with artists including Geri Allen, Ray Charles, Terri Lyne Carrington, Kris Davis, Dave Liebman, Tyshawn Sorey, and Clark Terry. A recipient of more than forty commissions, Bishop has been recognized by ASCAP, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other organizations. He is a Conn-Selmer and Vandoren artist.
Elliott Miles McKinley
Elliott Miles McKinley has had music performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Commissions include those from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Music Society, the SOLI Chamber Music Ensemble, the Martinů String Quartet, and the Janaček Trio. The Minnesota Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, and the Czech Radio Symphony have performed his orchestral music, and his works have been featured on many international festivals. He is the recipient of a number of awards, grants, and fellowships including those from BMI, ASCAP, SCI, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum, and Indiana University, the Bogliasco Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. McKinley earned degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music, University of Michigan, and University of Minnesota. He has taught at Indiana University, the University of Tennessee, Washington and Lee University, and is currently Professor of Music Composition, Theory, and Technology at Roger Williams University.
J Anthony Allen
J. Anthony Allen, a musical polymath who defies easy categorization. A Michigan-born, Minneapolis-based creator has penned orchestral scores, produced popular dance tracks, and taught electronic music to over a million students worldwide. Allen’s musical footprint spans continents, with compositions performed across Europe, North America, and Asia. From the Minnesota Orchestra to Netflix jingles, his work knows no bounds. But Allen isn’t content with just creating; he’s on a mission to revolutionize music education for the 21st century. In 2011, he founded Slam Academy, an electronic music school aimed at making production accessible and affordable. His disruptive spirit was further showcased in 2024 when he famously received tenure and quit his university job on the same day. As a composer, Allen is a musical magpie, weaving diverse influences into unique sonic tapestries. Lately his favorite thing is writing “acoustic music inspired by dance music, and dance music inspired by acoustic music.”