COMPOSER S.J. DINSFRIEND

ABOUT S.J. DINSFRIEND

Composer, Performer, Educator

Scott Jonathan Dinsfriend began composing piano pieces at age five and is a multi-instrumentalist. He was the concertmaster violinist throughout high school, the drumline captain, and won the first place prize in the high school division Reflections music composition competition (2006). He received his BMus Composition degree (magna cum laude) at the University of Oregon (2007-2011), where he studied composition with David Crumb and Robert Kyr. He earned his MMus Composition degree from Azusa Pacific University, where he studied with Dr. Phil Shackleton, and was awarded a full scholarship in musicology & theory. At APU, he won a composition competition that resulted in the premiere of his symphonic piece Ex Nihilo. He then received a scholarship from Claremont Graduate University and studied privately for one year with composer and Hollywood orchestrator, Dr. Peter Boyer. He is now attending the University of Oregon as a Graduate Employee with a full scholarship for a PhD in music composition, studying again with David Crumb and Robert Kyr. Dinsfriend's piece UnRavel for piano and violin was recently performed four times on a tour in southern California and was described as "counterpoint swing insanity." This captures some of Dinsfriend's strongest influences and inspiration: the intricate counterpoint of J.S. Bach combined with jazz idioms pioneered by American composers such as Gershwin, Bernstein, and Copland. Some of his favorite composers include Jennifer Higdon, Arvo Pärt , Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Bartók . Dinsfriend's music is motivic and thematic, texturally colorful, harmonically fresh, and full of rhythmic intricacy and energy. He is currently writing two new commissions for Azusa Pacific University (Piano Trio No. 2 and a new choral work based on Te Deum).