Bio
Born in 1977 to a left-handed amateur ragtime pianist and a self-avowed member of the "tone-deaf choir," Scott Gendel was surely destined for a musical career. He first showed interest in music when at age 5 his father discovered him picking out commercial jingles by ear at the family piano. Scott quickly began piano lessons, but almost as quickly gave them up to play little league baseball, which sadly conflicted with the hours of the local piano school. But Scott kept playing the piano even without lessons, and soon wanted to spread his wings and try out some other musical activities. After being told "no" on the drums question (too many drummers already, said the band director), and having to give up on the alto saxophone (Scott's short stature, alas, kept him from reaching all the keys), Scott settled for a while on the clarinet (which, according to his band director, was kind of like a saxophone but smaller).
Scott continued to play the piano and clarinet almost incessantly through high school and into college, and played every other instrument he could get his hands on as well. But despite that love, as he began studies at Bard College, he intended to simply become a biologist (holding on to music as just a hobby). Scott in fact attended that school on a prestigious science scholarship. Soon into his studies, however, Scott was overtaken by his deep abiding love of music, and while he still received his BA in Biology, it became very clear that music was where he belonged. Along the way, Scott became infatuated with opera, art song, choral music, and the absolute beauty of the human voice. He finished up his education by writing and producing his first opera, "A Song That's True," and hasn't stopped writing since.
Currently, Scott is living as a self-employed musician in Madison, Wisconsin, where he works as a vocal coach and accompanist for local singers and regional opera companies, a freelance composer and arranger, a musical director for theatrical productions, and choir director for a local church. In May of 2005, Scott received his DMA in composition from UW-Madison, with a minor in opera accompanying and vocal coaching. While he was working on that degree, he held the position of Associate Lecturer in composition at the UW, where he designed and taught undergraduate composition courses, as well as working with a few individual students.
This past year, Scott won first prize in the ASCAP / Lotte Lehmann Foundation Song Cycle Competition. That award gives him a large song cycle commission from ASCAP and the Lehmann Foundation, performance of that commissioned work in three major American cities by the Joy in Singing Foundation, and publication of the work by E.C. Schirmer. In addition to exposure he has received from that competition, Scott is emerging as a composer on the national scene. His music has been programmed by New Music New York, St. Mary's University of Minnesota, The New York Singing Teachers Association, soprano Claudia Waite, the 60x60 Project, and other groups. There are currently three CD recording projects, all intended for commercial release, involving Scott's compositions, including an entire CD of his choral works.
Scott's composition teachers have included Stephen Dembski, Daron Hagen, and Joan Tower. His music has been performed by such artists as the Riverside Opera Ensemble, soprano Julia Faulkner, and The American Symphony Orchestra; and he has been commissioned by the Joy in Singing, the Madison Children's Choir, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, the Edgewood Community Orchestra, Dr. Bruce Gladstone and the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Music, and others. Scott's compositions have a wide-ranging scope, but he remains particularly fond of vocal music, having written 10 song cycles, 8 large-scale individual songs and duets, 3 pieces for voices and orchestra, 12 choral works, a 45-minute mass for choir and chamber ensemble, and 2 operas. When he's not writing or playing music... well, he's pretty much always writing or playing music, except when he finds a rare moment to spend with his lovely wife Kelly and sweet little baby girl Lotte.
