Meet Our 2023-24 COMPOSERS

Recognized for his adventurous programming and passion for musical excellence, Composer-in-Residence Eric Tuan enjoys a varied career as choral conductor, composer, and music educator in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently in his fifth season as Artistic Director of the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, where he oversees a rigorous choral training program serving 270 youth singers and leads its top ensembles in concerts and collaborations throughout the Bay Area, the United States, and abroad. As Artistic Director of Convivium, the chamber chorus he founded in 2012, he continues to present creative programs highlighting underrepresented compositional voices and themes of social justice. Tuan also serves as Director of Music and Organist at Christ Episcopal Church in Los Altos, where he seeks to represent diverse voices and perspectives in liturgy. He holds degrees from the University of Cambridge and Stanford University. 

An active choral composer, Tuan is frequently commissioned by leading choral organizations, including Volti, Peninsula Women’s Chorus, Cantabile Youth Singers of Silicon Valley, Schola Cantorum, Musae, and Vox Aurea. His music explores contemporary social issues from immigration to war; the human relationship to the more-than-human world; and encounters with the sacred across wisdom traditions. Tuan’s choral works have been performed at state, regional, and national conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and Chorus America; by ensembles throughout the USA, Canada, Finland, Denmark, the UK, and Belgium; and through broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and Estonian Public Broadcasting. His music can be purchased through E.C. Schirmer and his website, erictuanmusic.com.

Article:
Read Eric’s reflections on the creation of his piece “Vision in the Coast Range” for our December 2023 concert

Based in Budapest, Hungary, Composer-Not-in-Residence Balázs Kecskés D. writes music that appeals to the listener’s imagination, offering a sound space that juxtaposes multiple worlds. His influences range from St. Augustine to Friedrich Nietzsche, from Franz Schubert to Katy Perry, and from J. S. Bach to Meredith Monk. His oratorio, Komm has been described as having a “unique profane spirituality, through which the audience can ... be part of a truly sacred experience” (Bartók Radio, New Music Journal). Komm was presented at the 67th International Rostrum of Composers in October 2021, and in 2022 it was performed by Nils Scweckendiek in Gdansk and Helsinki. His orchestra piece, Blue, commissioned by the Netherlands Philharmonic was recently premiered at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.

His works have been premiered by ensembles such as the Estonian Collegium Musicale Chamber Choir, the U.S.-based Garth Newel Piano Quartet, the Hungarian Radio Orchestra and Choir and the Budapest String Orchestra. Balázs’s compositions have been performed in Düsseldorf, Riga, London, Tbilisi, and Hot Springs, Virginia.

One of only two composers selected to be mentored through the Peter Eötvös Foundation, this year Balázs will be writing music for groups such as Ars Nova Ensemble in France, and the Danubia Orchestra Óbuda in Hungary.

As a lecturer at the Composition Department of the Liszt Academy of Music (Budapest), Balázs teaches baroque and Viennese classical techniques and contemporary music analysis.

Visit Balázs’s website at kecskesdbalazs.com.