Maurice Saylor, born in Neptune, New Jersey on August 13, 1957, graduated with a BM. and MM. in Music Composition from The Catholic University of America. His music has been performed by the Contemporary Music Forum, at the Bowling Green New Music & Art Festival, the Delius Festival, the Kennedy Center and throughout the United States, Central America, Europe and the Middle East with broadcasts over commercial and Public Radio.
He has received grants from the Maryland State Arts council and The American Composers Forum. Mr. Saylor has received three awards from the Delius Composition Competition, once in 1988 and twice in 1997 and an additional six awards from the Diana Barnhart American Song Competition in 1998, 1999, and 2005. His other awards include the 1987 David Lloyd Kreeger Creativity Award in composition; the 1987 Church and the Artist Award; the 1985 National Capital Area Composer's Consortium Composition Competition; and the 1985 Omaha Symphony Guild New Music Competition. From 2003-4 he was composer-in-residence for the Cantate Chamber Singers of Washington DC which culminated in the creation and performance of Saylor's magnum opus, The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in Eight Fits. He will return as composer-in-residence in 2007-2008 to write another major choral work as well as the recording of the Snark in the Spring of 2008.
Mr. Saylor has received commissions from the US Air Force, The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, the Eakins String Quartet, and from numerous instrumental and vocal soloists.
He has served on the board of the Capital Composers Alliance of Washington D.C. since 1987 and as Executive Director since 1991. He is a member of BMI.
Mr. Saylor is also head of the Music Library at The Catholic University of America where he has worked as a music information wrangler for over twenty years.
From reviews:
"Maurice Saylor's String Quartet in D is a wonderfully absorbing piece, full of contrasting ideas. The sustained phrases, angular motifs, swirling figures, glissandi and other special effects were played with astounding virtuosity by the Eakins Quartet. Especially fascinating was the second movement in which Saylor uses long arching passages to build to a climax of luxuriance." -- Norman Middleton , The Washington Post.
"In the 1987 String Quartet in D by Maurice Saylor...the details were what captured one's interest. Saylor has investigated a palette of textures as varied as his repertoire of thematic transformations, and his piece...projected an extraordinary feeling of cohesion and evolution." -- Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post.
"the resoundingly silly Risseldy, Rosseldy arranged by Maurice Saylor concluded the cycle with whimsical amusement." -- Gail Wein, NewMusicBox.org
"In most cases, brevity precluded all but the broadest gestures, although the one-two punch of Maurice Saylor's Terse Metamorphosis: Citizen to Soldier...made an impression." -- Andrew Lindemann Malone, Washington Post.
"Maurice Saylor's Alta Quies, a cycle containing five bleak poems by A.E. Housman, made a fine finale: evocative, communicative, powerful music..." -- Andrew Lindemann Malone, Washington Post.
"Maurice Saylor is a very skilled composer with a unique musical "vision." We were lucky enough to be present at the premiere of his Hunting of the Snark a few weeks ago - it is a powerful masterpiece, well performed by Gisele Becker's Cantate Singers and the 'Snarkestra'." -- Carl Banner, Washington Musica Viva
Select list of works:
Opera: Express: a bus ride in one act (1983)
Music Theater: A Doctor in the House (1991) based on Moliere's Imaginary Invalid
Incidental music: Ionesco's Rhinoceros (1990)
Silent film scores: There It Is! - Music for the 1928 Charley Bowers Silent Film (2005); Teddy at the Throttle: a silent opera - Music for the 1917 Mack Sennett silent comedy (2006).
Orchestral: Symphony for Winds (1984); Love Songs (1986) for high voice and strings; Concerto in D for Violin and small orchestra (1985); Duo Concertante for violin, viola and winds (1988); Alta Quies (1994) for bass voice and orchestra; Serenade (2000); Concerto in A for cello and string orchestra (2001)
Chamber: Prelude (1982) for string quartet; Oboe Trio (1983) for ob., va. and vc.; String Quartet #1 in D (1987); Metamorphosis and Scherzo (1987) for solo vc.; String Quartet #2 Five Portraits (1997); Terse Metamorphosis: Civilian to Soldier, for piano trio (2005).
Solo Vocal: (all works for voice and piano unless otherwise stated) Insect Songs (1985), high voice and vn.; Love Songs (1986); Pills to Purge Melancholy (1988) also with string quartet; Apple of the Eye (1993); In the Night Without End (1994) for tenor, eh. and pn.; Alta Quies (1994); Laudis Corona: Settings of texts from the 1885 Hymnal (2004) Slumber Songs from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (2006), high voice, horn, and harp; Thoughts in a Garden (2006) high voice, horn, and harp.
Choral: The Hunting of the Snark: an Agony in Eight Fits (2004); Risseldy, Rosseldy (2006).