Spencer Topel’s music has recently appeared on concert programs in major venues such as the Chiesa di Santa Caterina Treviso in Venice, Italy, Istanbul Technical University (MIAM), the 2008 Aspen Music Festival, Chigiana Festival in Siena, Italy in 2007, at Alice Tully and Weill Concert Halls in New York, and in Tokyo City Opera Hall. In May 2008, his music was featured on a concert tour of Turkey sponsored by the Turkish Cultural Center NY, which featured twelve musicians from around world. In 2009, his music appears on the calendars of the Syracuse Society of New Music and the Schwartz Center at Cornell University.
Mr. Topel has been a top prizewinner in student competitions, including the American Modern Ensemble Composers Composition, Palmer Dixon Prize for Outstanding Composition at Juilliard and the Diploma di Merito at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, as well as awards and commissions from organizations such as ASCAP, BMI, and from the National Foundation from Advancement in the Arts. Recent performances include those with Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, the processional for the inauguration of President David Skorton, and new music ensembles at Cornell University, Tulane, and Juilliard.
Originally from Portland, Oregon, Spencer is a 2004 graduate of The Juilliard School, where he earned his Master’s degree as a student of Christopher Rouse. Also from Juilliard, Mr. Topel holds a degree in composition (BM) while studying with Samuel Adler. He is currently candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Cornell University as a student of Roberto Sierra and Steven Stucky.
Spencer Topel is also an active lecturer and researcher at Dartmouth College where he teaches composition in the Digital Musics Program. In 2007 Mr. Topel was a recipient of the Credit Suisse Sponsor Award at the Cornell Student Engineering Conference BOOM.
Current research include Music Information Retrieval topics on rhythm detection and categorization and spatial inference tasks in music cognition.