NSC-04: Cara Haxo
Cara's website: www.chaxomusic.com/
As a child, Cara Haxo (b. 1991) loved listening to her father read stories out loud to her. Today, she loves finding ways to incorporate these stories, poetry, and artwork into her music. Haxo was awarded the 2013 National Federation of Music Clubs Young Composers Award, the 2013 International Alliance for Women in Music Ellen Taaffe Zwilich Prize, and second prize in the 2012 Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Student/Collegiate Composers Contest. Her works have been performed by the PRISM Quartet, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, clarinetist James Shields, the Wooster Symphony Orchestra, and the Pacific Rim Gamelan, amongst other ensembles.
A native of Massachusetts, Haxo earned her Bachelors of Music in Composition at The College of Wooster, where she studied with Jack Gallagher and Peter Mowrey, and her Masters of Music in Composition at Butler University, where she studied with Michael Schelle and Frank Felice. Before Wooster, Haxo spent six summers studying at The Walden School Young Musicians Program in Dublin, New Hampshire. She has returned to Walden as faculty in recent years, teaching classes in composition, theory, and graphic notation. Haxo also taught private piano, theory, and composition lessons through the Butler Community Arts School from 2013 to 2015. An avid Francophile, Haxo studied film, literature, and archeology at The Institute for American Universities in Aix-en-Provence, France, during the summer of 2011.
Haxo is currently pursuing a doctoral degree in composition at the University of Oregon, where she studies with Robert Kyr and David Crumb and works as a Graduate Teaching Fellow in Music Theory. After graduation, she hopes to teach at the college level. When she is not composing, Haxo enjoys baking muffins, going on long road trips, and reading Harry Potter in French.
Interview Acknowledgments:
The Walden School, Jack Gallagher, Professor of composition, The College of Wooster,
Michael Schelle, composer-in-residence, Butler University, Frank Felice, Assoc. professor of composition, Butler University
Robert Kyr, Professor of composition and theory, University of Oregon,David Crumb, Assoc. professor of composition, University of Oregon, Thom Haxo, Artist/Associate professor of sculpture - Hampshire College
Emily Corwin, Author, Quince Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, Kayleigh Butcher & Christopher Narloch:
The Schönberg Project, Resonant Bodies Festival,
Splinter Reeds
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe
David Wegehaupt, saxophone
Dana Jessen, bassoon
Jeff Anderle, bass clarinet
Bill Kalinkos, clarinet
Music by Women - Univ. of Mississippi, Music Theory Examples by Women, Creative Commissions Project - Andy Villemez
Research on Contemporary Composition Conference - Georgia, Evan Harger, conductor, Martín Quiroga, Jr.