Shafer Mahoney is CSMTA's 2015 Commissioned Composer

The committee for the 2015 Commissioned Composer award is pleased to announce the selection of Shafer Mahoney for CSMTA’s annual commission. Mr. Mahoney was selected from a field of over sixty submissions, and his music, knowledge and experience will be excellent additions to our conference in Pueblo next June. 

Shafer Mahoney was born in 1968 in Albany, New York. He graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University and earned graduate degrees at the Eastman School of Music, where he was a Sproull Fellow. He studied composition with Samuel Adler, Warren Benson, David Liptak, Steven Mackey, and two recipients of the Pulitzer Prize in Music, Christopher Rouse and Joseph Schwantner.

Mr. Mahoney’s compositions have been performed around the world and at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. His music, which critics have described as “dazzling,” “tonal and imaginative,” and “gorgeous,” has won many national awards, including two from BMI, a Morton Gould Award from ASCAP, and the Bearns Prize from Columbia University. Absolute Ensemble’s recording of his music was nominated for a Grammy Award. His recent commissions include works for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne; the Albany, Lubbock, Seattle, and Tucson Symphony Orchestras; Relâche; the Corigliano String Quartet; and the Brooklyn Youth Chorus. Current commissions include works for the Stanford Percussion Ensemble, San Francisco’s Farallon Quintet, and British violinist James Dickenson. Mr. Mahoney is an Associate Professor at Hunter College (the City University of New York) and on the college faculty of the Juilliard School, where he teaches orchestration. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes and has been recorded by Albany, Azica, Enja, Mark, Meyer, Soundwaves, and Summit Records.