Composer Biographies

Peter H. Bloom

Peter H. Bloom, flute, concertizes in North America, Europe and the Far East; is featured on more than 45 recordings; and is a winner of the American Musicological Society’s Noah Greenberg Award. He performs chamber music from the Renaissance to the 21^st century with Ensemble Chaconne, Ensemble Aubade, The Karl Henning Ensemble, The D’Anna Fortunato Ensemble, and others.  He is a noted jazz artist, veteran of the internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra (47^th season) and the FiLmprov Ensemble (23^rd season), and founding member of The Modernistics. The Boston Globe called his playing “a revelation for unforced sweetness and strength,” while Jazz Improv hailed his “exquisite melody…the improvisations growing organically out of the theme,” and ArtsFuse wrote, “His solos on flute and amplified flute are always highlights of a performance.”  

Mr. Bloom has given lectures, workshops and master classes across the globe on such wide-ranging topics as historical performance, new music, jazz standards, and improvisation. He has served as historical performance consultant to The American Museum in Britain, The New-York Historical Society, The American Antiquarian Society and The Museum of Fine Arts Boston, where he has given numerous lecture-demonstrations and recorded for the audio guide to historical woodwinds. A former board member of The James Pappoutsakis Flute Competition and the Society for Historically Informed Performance, he holds an MM with distinction in flute performance from New England Conservatory of Music and a BA (philosophy) from Boston University.

Among his many recitals and chamber music concerts, Mr. Bloom has performed for The National Gallery in London, Animusic Portugal, The Goethe Institute in Bangkok, The New Zealand School of Music in Wellington, University of Canberra College of Music (Australia), Payap University in Chiang Mai (Thailand), The Yale Center for British Art, The Metropolitan Museum, Atlanta's Spivey Hall, The American Musical Instrument Society, The National Flute Association, The Shakespeare Association of America, The Bach Festival Society of Winter Park Florida, The New York Flute Club, the Royal Shakespeare Company Residency at Davidson College, and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

A champion of new music, Mr. Bloom collaborates extensively with composers and has given premieres of works by Elizabeth Vercoe, Elliott Schwartz, Narong Prangcharoen, Karl Henning, Pamela Marshall, Mark Harvey, Edward Jacobs, Richard Nelson, Marianela Maduro, Peter Aldins, Richard Cornell, Timothy Bowlby, Matt Samolis, and others.  Original compositions, including numerous works written for him, have been a vital part of his concert tours for more than three decades, across forty states and four continents.

Mr. Bloom’s career in jazz encompasses free improvisation, jazz standards, blues, bebop and the avant-garde. He has appeared with Charles Neville, Jaki Byard, Sheila Jordan, Geri Allen, Ricky Ford, Walter Thompson, Raj Mehta and other notables. A veteran with the internationally acclaimed Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, Bloom has performed with the orchestra at hundreds of venues and appears on all of Aardvark’s 15 CDs.   With members of Aardvark, he recorded improvised music for the National Film Preservation Foundation’s DVD series Treasures from the American Film Archives, which The New York Times called “one of the best sets of the year.”     

An extensive discography includes recordings for SONY Classical, Dorian, Leo Records, Newport Classic, 9Winds, North Star, Americas Musicworks, Soundjewel, and other labels. Mr. Bloom appears with pianist Mary Jane Rupert (The Duo “2”) on two discs from Navona Records that feature works by Elizabeth Vercoe: Butterfly Effects (“stunningly beautiful” – Cinemusical) and Kleemation and Other Works (“outstanding in every respect, an artistic masterwork” – IAWM Journal). He was executive producer and soloist in D.C. Hall's New Concert and Quadrille Band's recording Grand Concert!, praised by Gramophone: "Clean playing and careful ensemble are the keynote...Hall's Band meets the challenge with precision and spirit." (Dorian, re-released on Americas Musicworks). Other recordings include Hall's Band’s Union and Liberty (music of the American Civil War, Dorian), Measure for Measure: Music of Shakespeare's Plays (Ensemble Chaconne, Americas Musicworks), and Take Me Out to the Ballgame (music of baseball 1858-1913, with mezzo-soprano D'Anna Fortunato, SONY Classical). Mr. Bloom can be heard on 15 CDs by The Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, including American Agonistes on Leo Records ("a stunning hour of music that is in turn beautiful, poignant and raucous" -- Billboard.com). He is featured on A Rite for All Souls (The Mark Harvey Group, Americas Musicworks, July 2020) presenting a long lost recording of the trail-blazing ensemble from 1971. He can also be heard on the acclaimed compilation CD The Boston Creative Jazz Scene 1970 - 1983 (Cultures of Soul, 2016).

http://www.americasmusicworks.com/peter-h-bloom.html

Mr. Bloom's composition Ablaze She Came In The Dream for flute, viola, and guitar was published by NSM in February, 2014; an adaptation for flute, cello, and guitar was created in May, 2016.  From the Drawer for tenor or soprano, flute, clarinet, bassoon, and horn was published in November, 2015; a new edition for tenor or soprano and saxophone quartet was published in May, 2016.

In addition, NSM currently offers several arrangements and transcriptions by Mr. Bloom:  The Wreck of the Hesperus (Hatton/Longfellow) for tenor, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, and double bass; Chaconne (Bach) for solo flute or alto flute; Der Hirt auf dem Felsen (Schubert) obbligato for alto flute; Romanza Andaluza (Sarasate) for flute, Fantaisie (Saint-Saëns) for flute, Quartet No.1 (Arriaga) for flute, and Sonata, Op.22 (Bauer) for alto flute.

The following CDs featuring Peter H. Bloom are available from NSM: Measure for Measure: the Music of Shakespeare's Plays; Amoroso: The Heartbeat of Brazil; Grand Concert! Dramatic Concert & Ballroom Music Heard in 19th Century America; Tea-Time Classics; A Rite for All Souls; and Exuberant Ellingtonia, Flute & Piano Sessions.

Timothy J. Bowlby

Born in Wolfville, Nova Scotia Canada in 1958, Timothy J. Bowlby holds degrees from Acadia University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  His principal teachers include Owen Stephens (Acadia) as well Morgan Powell, William F. Brooks, and Paul Martin Zonn (UIUC); he has also worked with Donald Martino and Milton Babbitt.  

Tim composes in a wide variety of styles and idioms, with non-tonal chamber music involving assorted ensembles comprised of voices and instruments being a predilection.  He recently finished a Trio for 4 Instruments for the NYC based ensemble 8 Strings & a Whistle and In a Plain Brown Blues for nine piece jazz combo.  Currently he is sketching a tonal piece for flutist and piano; he plans to start a non-tonal composition, Dashes & Dots, for solo clarinet in the near future.

In addition to his work as a composer, Tim also enjoys arranging music by others.  He also is active as a singer, conductor, and researcher.  His doctoral dissertation focused on the concept of influence in musical composition using post-Webern serialism as a point of departure; a recent paper dealt with symmetry and reuse of material in Barber’s Hermit Songs.  He is currently conducting research on the role of the fibonacci series plays in selected piano pieces by Sergei Prokofiev.

Currently active — and loving every minute of it — as a free-lance teacher, Tim has held teaching appointments at UIUC, Columbia College (Chicago), St. Xavier University, and Lewis University. 

Noteworthy Sheet Music, LLC has published Tim Bowlby's piece Laurels for solo flutist (playing flute, alto flute, and piccolo).

Walter A. Finlayson (1919-2000)

Biography contributed in Sept. 2017 by Gale Finlayson, daughter of the composer:

After the war, he returned to his home town of Katonah where he was offered the job of music teacher at his old high school; this entailed conducting the band, chorus and orchestra. Naturally, with so many eager students at his disposal he began to compose for those various groups. An avid music educator, he inspired many students over the decades to pursue a career in music. When John Jay High School was formed to meet the demands of two growing school populations, he moved to the new campus in 1956 to conduct the band and give music lessons. He remained there until he retired in 1974, but not before he had created a student Dance Band which performed at dances and assemblies to great acclaim. He even collaborated with the head coach to have a class in the Dances of the Big Band Era. CBS news from NYC sent up a crew one year to film students dancing the jitterbug in the gymnasium during their lunch break. Walter remained a Jazz fan all his creative life and sought to inspire successive generations to be the same!
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Currently NSM offers two works by Walter Finlayson, Moon Shadows for winds and percussion, published in September, 2017, and 3 Pagan Dances for percussion ensemble, published in December, 2017.