B.M. (magna cum laude), San Francisco State University; M.A., Ph.D. (Composition), University of California at Berkeley

Richard Festinger emerged into prominence as a composer in the early 1980s. At that time he was a founding director of the nationally acclaimed Earplay ensemble for contemporary American music in San Francisco. Before turning to composing, he led his own groups as a jazz performer, an experience which has had a profound stylistic influence on his music. Today his music has been performed on three continents, in the United States, Europe and Asia. His works have been commissioned by Parnassus, Earplay, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the New York New Music Ensemble, the New Millennium Ensemble, the Redwood Symphony, the Aprodu-Miroglio Duo, the Alexander String Quartet, the Laurel Trio, The University of California, New York University, the Left Coast Ensemble, the City Winds, Alter-Ego, and the Music Teachers National Association. His music has also been performed by Griffin, Phantom Arts, New Millennium, Speculum Musicae, the Sun String Quartet, Composers Inc., the Seoul Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Berkeley and Riverside Symphonies, the Orchestra da Camera Italiana G.F. Ghedini, the Ensemble Italiano per la Musica Contemporanea, Ensemble Kaleidacollage, sopranos Jane Manning and Karol Bennett, and the Boston Chamber Ensemble. Richard Festinger's work has been honored with commissions and awards from the Jerome Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, and the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, the Barlow Foundation, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1978-80 he studied in Paris as recipient of the George Ladd Prize, and in 1993 he received the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 1994 he founded the Composition Workshop as part of the California State University's annual Summer Arts Festival.

Mr. Festinger has been a resident composer at the Edward MacDowell Colony (1982, 1983 and 1985), the Camargo Foundation ( 2000), CitZß Internationale des Arts (2001), Yaddo (2001), the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (2001), the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (1994 and 1996-1997) and the Festival of New American Music in Sacramento, California (1997), and has been a fellow at the IRCAM AkadZßmie dÍZßtZß in Paris (2001), the Wellesley Composers Conference (1993), and the June in Buffalo Festival (1994). His music is published by C.F. Peters Corporation and Fallen Leaf Press, and his works are recorded on the Centaur, CRI and CRS labels.

http://online.sfsu.edu/~raf/