Roger Briggs

Roger Briggs (born May 28, 1952) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, and educator.

Roger Briggs, born and raised in Florence, Alabama, began playing the piano at age 8 and composing by age 11. His earliest teachers were Norman Hill (1960–67) and Walter Urben (1967-70) who taught at the University of North Alabama. He earned a Bachelor of Music Degree (1974) in Composition and Piano Performance from the University of Memphis where he studied composition with Johannes Smit and Don Freund, piano with Herbert Hermann, and conducting with Richard Earhart. He then studied at the Eastman School of Music, where he earned a Master of Music (1976) and Ph.D (1978) in Music Composition. At Eastman he studied composition with Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Eugene Kurtz, Warren Benson, and Russel Peck. He studied conducting with Gustav Meier.

In 1978, he was appointed Professor of Composition and Conducting at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana, where he founded the Michiana New Music Ensemble, and received his first national and international recognition as a composer with works such as the solo piano work, Spirals, the chamber orchestra work, Gathering Together, and the chamber work, Chamber Music.

During this period he completed post-doctoral work at the Dartington Institute in Totnes, England where he studied composition and contemporary conducting techniques with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and John Carewe. In 1984 he studied vocal composition with composer Ned Rorem. He received several awards including three MacDowell Colony Fellowships, an NEA Composer Grant, two Meet the Composer Grants, and an ASCAP Award for Young Composers, among others.

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