Jeremy Beck
Composition: Three Pieces for Orchestra
Performance date: 10/18/2025
American composer Jeremy Beck “knows the importance of embracing the past while also
going his own way. … [In] Beck’s forceful and expressive sound world … the writing is concise
in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic.” — Gramophone Magazine
A first-prize winner in the 2021 The King’s Singers New Music Prize, Beck’s music has been
presented by the American Composers Orchestra, New York City Opera, ETHEL, the Apollo
Chorus of Chicago, San Francisco Ballet Orchestra, Center for Contemporary Opera, Yale
Opera, and the Louisville Orchestra, among others. A graduate of the Mannes College of Music,
Duke University, and the Yale School of Music, recordings of Beck’s orchestral, chamber, and
vocal music are available on the Acis, neuma, innova, and Ablaze labels.
www.BeckMusic.org
Nicole Knorr
Composition: As the Garden Bows
Nicole Knorr is an Ann Arbor-based composer-improviser, pianist, singer &
interdisciplinary artist. Nicole’s work resides at the intersection of sound, visual art, and
language—continually transforming in the embrace of curiosity and unwavering
attention to detail. In Nicole’s eyes, art is at its best when slow-grown; she revels in
iterative projects that allow ample time and ample space for layers of complexity to
breathe, develop and blossom. Nicole’s creative practice is interdependent with her
community of long-term collaborators and partners, mutually tending shared ideas and
curiosities while growing alongside each other throughout the process.
Collaborations of the current season include performances with the New Jersey
Symphony through the Edward T. Cone Institute, the Albany Symphony, a residency
with NeuroArts Productions to create a concert-length staged music theater work, and
the creation of a new chamber opera with Marinette Gomez (Lyric Opera of Chicago)
and the University of North Florida.
Nicole has received commissions from esteemed organizations such as the Music
Teacher’s National Association (MI chapter) and the National Association for Teaching
Singing. Past highlights include her work with Haven Trio through Connecticut
Summerfest, her collaboration with FLYDLPHN, and recognition in Sinta Quartet’s annual
composer competition. Nicole is also an active performer, contributing piano and vocals
to my salamander, a pluralistic band that moves fluidly between indie, folk, math rock,
and live improvisation.
Nicole earned her M.M. in Composition at the University of Michigan; her primary
composition teachers include Michael Daugherty, Evan Chambers, Mathew Fuerst, Gary
Smart and Joshua Tomlinson.
William Popp
Composition: Wheat Fields with Cypresses
William Popp earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in performance from the
Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver. He earned his doctoral degree in
composition from The Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC. His composition
teachers include: Normand Lockwood (Denver), David Diamond (Juilliard), and Helmut
Braunlich (Washington, DC).
William Popp has received the Suzanne and Lee Ettelson Composer’s Award and
additional awards from: National Federation of Music Clubs, New York Virtuoso Singers, The
American Prize, and the Delius Music Festival. His compositions have been recorded on Centaur
Records and by the Contemporary Record Society and have been performed throughout the
United States and Europe.
He was a member of the United States Air Force Band in Washington, DC for 20 years.
He wrote numerous arrangements for the USAF Strings and has performed with this orchestra on
accordion and harpsichord throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia.