Ross Bauer

Born in Ithaca, New York, Bauer graduated from the New England Conservatory in 1975 with a Bachelor of Music degree.^[1] At the NEC he was a pupil of John Heiss and Ernst Oster. He studied music composition with Luciano Berio while a fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center in 1982. In 1984 he earned a PhD from Brandeis University where he studied with Arthur Berger, Martin Boykan, and Seymour Shifrin. In 1986 he was awarded a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 1988 he was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship. In 1996 he was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony.^[2]

As a music educator, Bauer taught on the music faculties of Brandeis University (1981–1985), Stanford University (1986–1988), and the University of California, Davis (1988–2017).^[2][3] Upon his retirement from the latter institution in 2017, he was named a professor emeritus.^[3] At Brandeis he was the director of the Brandéis Jazz Ensemble, and at Stanford he directed the Alea II New Music Ensemble.^[1] He founded the Empyrean Ensemble at the University of California, Davis; an ensemble he directed during his tenure at that university.^[2]

As a composer, Bauer won the ISCM National Composers Competition in 1989 and the Speculum Musicae International Composers’ Competition in 1997.^[1] He received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation in 1991 and the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in 1994.^[2] In 2005 he was awarded the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.^[3]

• Concertino for Chamber Orchestra (1983)
• Sospeso for Strings (1987)
• Neon (1988)
• Piano Concerto (1990)
• Halcyon Birds for Chamber Orchestra (1993)
• Romanza for violin and orchestra (1996)
• Icons, bassoon concerto (1997)

• Trio for clarinet, cello and piano (1980)
• String quartet no. 1 (1981)
• Hang Time for clarinet, violin, and piano (1984)
• Along the Way for 10 Players (1985)
• Deja Vu for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (1986)
• Evanescent Heterophony for cello and piano (1986)
• Chimera for 9 Players (1987)
• String quartet no. 2 (1987)
• Fast Gar Nichts... for string trio (1988)
• Chin Music for viola and piano (1989)
• Anaphora for flute, violin, viola, cello, and piano (1991)
• Tributaries for cello, percussion, and piano (1992)
• Aplomb for violin and piano (1993)
• Octet for clarinet, bassoon, horn, string Quartet, and bass (1994)
• Stone Soup for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (1995)
• Motion for piano trio (1998)
• Pulse for clarinet, viola, and piano (1999)
• Etudes for Violin (1999)
• String quartet no. 3 (2000)

• Tonarten (1982)
• Birthday Bagatelles (1993)

• Four Honig Songs for Soprano and Piano (1989)
• Oda al Olor de la Lena for Baritone, Alto Flute, Cello, and Percussion, after Neruda (1991)
• Ritual Fragments for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello, Percussion, and Piano, after Native American texts (1995)
• Eskimo Songs for mezzo-soprano, flute, cello, and piano (1996)