His early compositions, from the end of World War II, are deeply romantic. There is a strong feeling for folk style in the song cycles of 1945-7, but the sonatas for violin and cello that followed are harder and harmonically more adventurous. He became known to the musical public in the middle of the 50s with his oratorio composition, The Legacy of J A Komensky (Comenius) (1955), in which he used Moravian folk intonations in an understandable and simple musical language— ater on, he achieved a completely characteristic expression especially in the symphonic poem Noc a nadeje (Night and Hope) (1959) and in Variations on the Theme and Death of Jan Rychlik for symphonic orchestra (1964) which were performed abroad several times with exceptional success. Symfonicka; intermezza and the symphonic poem Noc a nadeje (Night and Hope), which won prizes at the 1960 Jubilee Competition, are of greater originality, though the Orchestral Variations (1964) again draw on folk music. This is not the case in his two stage works: Polapena nevera (Infidelity Unmasked), a piece based on 17th-century Czech farces and showing a keen sense of characterization, and Jezero Ukereve (Lake Ukereve). The latter is a powerful piece in which, against the violent background of the colonization of Africa, German doctors and biologists unsuccessfully attempt to combat an epidemic of sleeping sickness—the score makes interesting use of tapes within the orchestral texture.

The principal starting point for Macha’s symphonic, chamber, vocal and dramatic music has been and remains the tradition of Czech music from the first half of the 20th century which he developed in the frame of a more generally understandable and approachable musical language, which was in the course of time, enriched by new possibilities offered to music by the development in the third quarter of the 20th c. The pieces, Four Monologues to the lyrics of F X Salda and Lasske heleckacky, a song cycle of mountain songs for SSAA, received awards in the Jubilee Competition for the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution (1967) and in the Jihlava International Choral Competition (1973). Hoj, hura, hoj and Ho-ja-ja, ho-ja-ja are two songs from this award winning song cycle of mountain songs for SSAA, Lasske helekacky, published by Alliance Publications, Inc. Fish Creek, WI. The Prague Philharmonic Children’s Choir under the direction of Jiri Chvala have recorded and performed Macha’s choral works with great success on their European and American tours. Choral Music by Otmar Macha published by API

Fortuna -SSAA a cap AP-1543

Hel’pa - SSAA/Pno/Rcdr AP-1291

Ho-ja-ja, ho-ja-ja - SSAA a cap AP-1127 Hoj, hura, hoj - SSAA a cap AP-1134 Hymnus SSA/Piano AP-1160

Materska znamenka (Birthmarks) SSAA a cap AP-1273

Proverbia - SSAA a cap AP-1465

Slavnosti jara (Spring Celebration )- AP-1273

Ta Moravska brana (The Moravian Gate) SSAA a cap AP-1298

Ten Czech Christmas Carols - SSA / Flute or Violin / Piano AP-1159

Tece Voda (Water’s Flowing) - SSAA a cap AP-1161 Chamber Music

Capricci - Fl, Bsn, Pno Trio AP-258 Preludium Aria Toccata - Accordion AP-586

Orchestra

Concerto Grosso for Singers and Orchestra AP-4017 Thalia - Sym Orch AP-479

Derek began his teaching career as a middle school vocal and general music teacher in Southeastern Wisconsin and functioned as an in-demand accom-panist and pianist in the greater Metro-Milwaukee area. In 1999, he became a member of the Music Department of Kenosha-Tremper High School in Kenosha, WI. In 2001, he became head of the choral department at Waterford (WI) High School.

Compositions for both vocal and instrumental ensembles have been written by Derek Machan. He pieces combine traditional librettos and/or lyrics with exciting orchestrations, producing unique harmonies and voice combinations.

Machan continues to teach private music students in his home and serves as church music director and organist. Currently, Jim is Minister of Music at Dr. Martin Luther Church in Oconomowoc, WI. Professional memberships include WSMA, AGO and the Greater Milwaukee Synod of Evangelical Lutheran Church of America.

Machan’s choral arrangements are the fruit of his choral experience and have proven to meet the needs of many ability levels while providing fresh, vibrant settings appealing to singers and audiences alike.

Editions of The Music of James Machan

Angels We Have Heard on High - SSAA a cappella AP-1173 SATB a cappella AP-1174

Child in the Manger (BUNESSAN) - SATB a cappella AP-1207

Classic Carol Suite - Two-Part Vocal/Keyboard plus Unique instrumental options AP-1171 (6 carols from Austria, France, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Hungary)

Jubilee Song - Peters-Machan, SATB/Organ/ Brass Quartet/Timpani AP-1241

Rocking Carol / Hajej, nynej (Czech) - SATB a cappella AP-1190

To Bethlehem (Basque Noel) - SATB / Percussion AP-1168

Two Easter Carols (17th c Dutch / French) - SAB a cappella / Percussion AP-1172

His higher education in music began at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where he received a BA in music theory/composition in 1995, and a MM in music composition in 1997. A Doctorate in Music Composition was received in 2001 at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Isle Royale, a four-movement composition for symphony orchestra and chorus was his dissertation work. His principal composition instructors were John Downey, Jon Welstead, Joel Nauman, and Stephen Dembski.

Dan has received commissions with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Chamber Music America. Commissions were received from the Skyline Brass, the Umpqua Chamber Orchestra, the St. Norbert College Wind Ensemble, the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra’s Junior Wind Ensemble, and the Madison Chapter of the Wisonsin Alliance for Composers. Dan's music is recorded on Arizona University Recordings as well as on independent releases.

Maske’s music has earned him numerous awards. He was a finalist in the Illinois State University composition contest in 1996. The ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould ‘Young Composer Award’ placed Dan as a finalist for three years (1996, 1997 & 1998). Dan was the winner of the University of Wisconsin Concerto Concert Composition Contest in 1998. In 1999, he was selected as one of the winners of the "First [,] Listen" Composition Contest and received first place in the "Ear N' Now Composition Contest," both sponsored by the Madison Chapter of the Wisconsin Alliance for composers.

Dan’s works have bcen performed throughout the USA and in Europe by various soloists and ensembles. He is a member of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers (WAC), serving as Vice President and Co-Director for the WAC Madison Chapter. He is also a member of the American Composers’ Forum (ACF), Society of Composers, Inc. and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP).

Besides being a composer, Dan is active as a teacher, conductor, and performer. He gives private lessons in composition, piano and trumpet at Ward-Brodt Music Mall in Madison. He has classroom teaching experience in music theory, music technology and progressive rock. Dan performs regularly on trumpet and piano in ensembles and as a soloist and accompanist. As a conductor, he enjoys working with bands and orchestras as well as chamber ensembles. He often performs with his wife, Angela Schmidt, a cellist who holds the position of Director of Orchestras in the Lake Mills, Wisconsin, School District.

http://www.sit.wisc.edu/~demaske/ 286 N Main St, Cottage Grove, WI 53527 608-839-1582

In the 1930s, Moerschel attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music to study organ, music theory and piano, but due to the Depression, she had to return to her parents' home in Chicago after one year. Blanche began her life of service as organist in 1936. (A ministry she continued till 1973, having served four churches in the Wesern suburbs of Chicago in that period). She continued her studies at the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago completing degrees in composition (1940) and piano (1941). Then she joined the faculty of Cosmopolitan School of Music teaching collegiate level piano and music theory from 1941-1943. Graduate piano work was pursued with Mollie Margolies, understudy for Rudoph Ganz, at Chicago Musical College. She studied composition privately for three years under Dr. Rosetter G. Cole of Chicago.

While working at a war plant in the Chicago area, Moerschel met her husband, Eugene Moerschel, a German immigrant who shared Blanche's love of music, art and culture. He played clarinet in the Moerschel family orchestra. After their marriage, she lived with her in-laws in the Ozarks where they shared much music while she awaited her husband's return from the army and a return to Chicago where most of her time was devoted to raising five sons to whom she taught piano: Richard, a violist; Paul; Eugene, who became a baritone with the Lyric Opera but now is owner of a construction business in Waupaca, WI; Joel, a professional cellist with the Boston Symphony; and Daniel.

She died on November 30, 2004 in Waupaca, WI where she resided and was an active participant in musical life.

Music published by Alliance Publications include:

" Flutiano - AP-2006 for Flute and Piano " Improvised Hymns for Piano with Tenor Soloist AP-588 " Psalm 139: A Psalm of David AP-1402 High Voice and Piano " The Song of Songs AP-1436 Solo Duet for Soprano and Baritone with Piano " Three Cradle Songs AP-1699 Vocal Solo with Piano " Ticha voda do Dunajka padala - Quiet Water (Slovak) AP-1768 Vocal Solo with Piano For 14 years, 1958-1972, Blanche faithfully served as a music teacher to the Timothy Christian Grade School in Cicero, Illinois. Since 1974 to 2001, she has been a private piano, organ and music theory teacher in the Waupaca, Wisconsin, area.

A life-long learner, Blanche pursued graduate piano work at the University of Wisconsin/Stevens Point under Michael Keller and served as accompanist in the University from 1979 to 1983. During these years, she toured the state with the Central Wisconsin Composers Forum, playing several of her compositions. Blanche, a founding member of the Wisconsin Alliance for Composers, has been sponsored in WAC recitals playing her compositions ? 1997 (Green Bay), 1998 (DePere), 1999 (Green Bay), and 2001 (Madison). She has also performed as Piano Soloist in recitals throughout Wisconsin and Illinois as well as in Boston, Chicago and Los Angeles. While studying at the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago, Moerschel became taken with the music of the Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev. ?There were groups of new national composers like Delius and Vaughan Williams in England, and Prokofiev and Shostakovich in Russia, and listening to their music was like going to a different country.? She also liked the music of Stravinsky and revels in the memory of meeting him in Chicago in the late 1930s. ?Our eyes met as we passed. I looked at him. He looked at me. Then he went into Orchestra Hall.?

She uses traditional musical idioms in her compositions, but continues to grow and learn as a composer. She likes to work with progressions and the whole-tone scale of Debussy. She revels in chromaticism. ?It?s very rich harmonically because you?re able to get through all the keys quickly. It?s based on half steps and in the strings, it can even be quarter tones. Chromaticism can take you into atonality because you can begin in one key and end in another key.?

?I can?t take credit for my music. I?m just using what the Lord has given me.? Her repertoire includes 3 cello sonatas, ensemble chamber works, piano pieces, songs and hymns.

He first sought training from the Prague choirmaster Frantisek Habermann, but dissatisfied with his slow pace of instruction, he turned instead to the organist Josef Seger. Reputedly he was able to compose symphonies within six months’ study with Seger. His earliest surviving symphony, dated 1762, is preserved in the collection of Count Vincenz von Waldstein who sponsored performances of Myslivecek’s symphonies in his Prague palace.

Myslivecek’s true ambition was to achieve fame as a
composer of Italian opera, and so he left Prague in November of 1763 to study vocal composition in Venice with G. B. Peschetti. He was able to get his first opera performed within two and a half years after his arrival in Italy. By the time of his death, his operas had been performed in all of the principal theaters of Italy.

After moving to Italy, Myslivecek mainly spent his time
traveling at will as a 'rake'and adventurer. He shunned
institutional employment, preferring instead to finance a self-indulgent lifestyle with his earnings as an independent musician and composer. The effects of a lifetime of financial irresponsibility and other discreditable behavior unfortunately proved inescapable. He became quite ill in the mid-1770s, and in 1777, during one of his few trips back to northern Europe, he underwent an operation in Munich that resulted in his nose being burnt off. After a long period of physical decline, he died destitute in Rome in 1781.

The importance of Myslivec“ek\s close friendship with Wolfgang Mozart during the period 1770-78 remains little appreciated. As a matter of fact, Mozart frequently used Myslivecek’s works as compositional models, and Mozart’s account of his visit to Myslivecek’s sickbed in Munich in 1777 is without precedent in the Mozart correspondence for the tenderness it shows for the welfare of another composer. Tragically, Myslivecek ruined his friendship with Mozart shortly after this time when he failed to make good on a boastful promise to arrange an operatic commission for him in return for help from Mozart’s father in obtaining patronage from the archbishop of Salzburg. Few persons succeeded in bamboozling the shrewd Leopold Mozart, but Myslivecek was one.

As a composer, Myslivecek occupied himself chiefly with the composition of operas and symphonies, but like most major composers of the 1760s and 1770s, he also produced chamber works intended for amateur performance. What mainly filled publisher’s catalogs in those days were duets, trios, etc, for various combinations of string and wind instruments— nothing was expected of them except that they be pleasing to the ear, enjoyable to play, and well suited to the technical capabilities of the amateur musicians who formed the principal market for music publishing.

The largest category of chamber music by Myslivecek
consists of trios in three movements for violins, flutes, and bass. He produced several sets of trios for two violins and bass (which could also be performed as 'orchestra trios'), one set of trios for two flutes and bass, and one set of trios for flute, violin, and bass. Myslivecek’s contributions exhibit unusually attractive melody lines and a good deal of compositional ingenuity.

The trios edited for this collection constitute the complete trios for flute, violin, and bass known to have been written by Josef Myslivecek. All are found in an Italian print of the late 1770s published by Ranieri del Vivo in Florence, the Sei Trii per flauto, violino, e violoncello. The only known copy is preserved in the Biblioteca Musicale Greggiati in Ostiglia. Four of the trios were also published in an undated eighteenth-century print brought out by J. Schmitt in Amsterdam (nos. 1, 2, 3, and 6) and two more (nos. 3 and 6) were published by John Bland in London ca. 1795 in a collection entitled Six Trios for a German Flute, Violin, Bassoon or Violoncello and Three for Two German Flute, Bassoon or Violoncello by Myslivecek, Venturini, and Leo.         

Myslivecek’s Trios can be performed successfully by almost any combination of instruments whose range is appropriate for the parts. Probably the best scoring for this set is the one specified in the Del Vivo print (flute, violin, and cello), but the flexibility available to performers is confirmed in the Bland print, which leaves open the possibility of performance with bassoon. The flute is clearly intended to be the featured instrument, whereas the violin has a dual function. Sometimes the violin is merely given rhythmic busywork to help support the melodies of the flute part— at other times, it is treated as a co-soloist.

Myslivecek clearly understood that one of the most important principles of chamber music composition in the eighteenth century was that there should be something enjoyable for all of the participants to play, even if some of the parts could be subordinated at times in the interest of musical variety and textural richness.