Biography

Jan Bach was born in Forrest, Illinois in 1937. He studied at the University of Illinois in Urbana where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition. His performing instruments are French horn and piano. His composition teachers have included Roberto Gerhard, Aaron Copland, Kenneth Gaburo, Robert Kelly, and Thea Musgrave. Since 1966 he has taught theory and composition courses at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb. In 1978 he was selected as one of three professors receiving the Excellence in Teaching award; in 1982 he was recipient of one of the first eight prestigious Presidential Research Professorship grants instituted by the university. For six years he was Northern Illinois University's nominee for the national CASE Professor of the Year award.

Bach has written for virtually every live medium of vocal and instrumental performance. His music has been recognized with numerous composition awards and grants since 1957 when, at the age of nineteen, he won the BMI Student Composers first prize. Other awards have included the Koussevitsky competition at Tanglewood, the Harvey Gaul composition contest, the Mannes College opera competition, the Sigma Alpha Iota choral composition award, first prize at the First International Brass Congress in Montreux, Switzerland, grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council, the Brown University choral composition award, first prize in the Nebraska Sinfonia chamber orchestra competition, and first prize in the New York City Opera competition. Six times his works have been recommended for a Pulitzer Prize in music.

Twenty-nine works of Bach have been published by Associated, Carl Fischer, Galaxy, Boosey & Hawkes, Magnolia Music, and others. His recorded works, on LP and CD, include all three of his brass quintets LAUDES (four recordings!), ROUNDS AND DANCES, and TRIPTYCH; his work for narrator and chamber orchestra THE HAPPY PRINCE; FOUR TWO-BIT CONTRAPTIONS for flute and horn; CONCERT VARIATIONS for euphonium and piano; EISTEDDFOD for flute, harp, and viola; and SKIZZEN for woodwind quintet. Recordings of other works have been distributed for broadcast by NPR and the BBC.

Bach has received commissions from the Orpheus Trio, the Chicago Brass Quintet, Harvey Phillips, the Orchestra of Illinois, the International Trumpet Guild, the Greenwich Philharmonia, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Sacramento Symphony, the Biddle Trust, the Pew Memorial Trust, Chamber Music America, and many others. Performance highlights have included his trio EISTEDDFOD at the Aldeburgh Festival in England, his opera THE STUDENT FROM SALAMANCA produced by Beverly Sills for the New York City Opera Company and his 1991 ANACHRONISMS, written for the Vermeer String Quartet and commissioned and broadcast live to 261 FM stations nationwide in its premiere by WFMT, Chicago's Fine Arts radio station.

Within the last few years his concertos for horn, trumpet, harp, and euphonium as well as other works have been performed at recent international conventions of the horn, trumpet, harp, tuba, trombone, flute, and double-reed associations; in the summer of 1990 selections of his chamber music appeared on programs of virtually every summer music festival in the U.S. In celebration of Dr. Bach's fiftieth year his music was performed in full concerts at the University of Southern Maine and Illinois Wesleyan University. In 1995 his CONCERTO FOR EUPHONIUM AND ORCHESTRA was chosen for the final round of the international euphonium competition held in Japan every four years; it was also chosen for the last round in the 1997 International Euphonium-Tuba conference held in northern Italy. In November of 1995 his CONCERTO FOR STEELPAN AND ORCHESTRA was premiered at Orchestra Hall in Chicago to enthusiastic reviews. Recently-completed works which received their premieres early in 1996 included FOLIATIONS, written specifically for a recording by the Stockholm Chamber Brass, and THE LAST FLOWER, for four musicians (harp, cello, clarinet, percussion) from the Indianapolis Symphony. He has just finished commissions for the Elmhurst (IL) Symphony and for Ramon Parcells, first trumpet of the Detroit Symphony.

Jan Bach is married to the former Dalia Zakaras and they have two daughters: Dawn, a professional actress in Chicago, and Eva, a sophomore at an upstate New York college. He and his family currently reside near the far western Chicago suburb of St. Charles. His biography is published in the eighth edition of BAKER'S BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY OF MUSICIANS, the last twelve editions of WHO'S WHO IN AMERICA, three editions of WHO'S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT, two editions of the INTERNATIONAL WHO'S WHO IN MUSIC, the ASCAP BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY, and several other biographical journals. He is a composer member of Broadcast Music, Inc.

Compositions

A score sample from Jan Bach's HARP CONCERTO is available here.

Further Information

For further information about Jan Bach, along with a full list of works and recordings, awards and upcoming performances, along with many audio samples and several free duets from his larger work, PEOPLE OF NOTE, may be found on the composer's website at www.janbach.net

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