The 'white piano' at Virginia Center for the Arts
			Photo: Lucille Colin

rewHemenger The music of

Drew Hemenger has been performed all over the United States, Europe and Canada, as well as parts of Russia and Asia. An Ohio native, he was raised in a musical environment; his mother is a church organist and an accomplished flutist. He began piano lessons at the age of six and later studied trumpet.

Dr. Hemenger was the 1996 winner of the ALEA III International Composition Competition for The Unforgettable Hour, a soprano and chamber ensemble work, which was performed by ALEA III at Boston University. He has completed numerous commissions, recently including Four Movements for String Quartet for the Serafin Quartet, which was premiered at Carnegie Hall's Weill Hall, Sharks for virtuoso American violinist Brian Lewis, commissioned by the University of Texas at Austin, a new string quartet for the Berlin-based Vogler Quartet, as well as Manhattan Flourish for the Goldman Memorial Band, who premiered the work at Lincoln Center. Songs From America, written for the Jones/Maruri Cello and Guitar Duo, has been performed over fifty times by the duo in Europe, North America and parts of Asia. They have also recorded the work for the EMEC label (on a CD entitled Don Quixote ) and it has recedntly been published by SEEMSA (Spanish partner of Schott) in Madrid, Spain.

In 2002, Hemenger co-founded Chamber Music Now! with composers David Laganella and Richard Belcastro of Philadelphia. CMN is a presenting organization focused on programs of contemporary music balanced with standard repertoire. He has served as Composer-in-Residence for the New York based RamosDance. He has been a fellow at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts several times, has attended the Aspen Music Festival where he studied composition with Michael Czajkowski, and was a teaching assistant fellow at the Bowdoin Music Festival where he worked with such composers as George Crumb, Robert Beaser and Sebastian Currier.

Dr. Hemenger received his doctorate and master's degrees from Manhattan School of Music where his principle composition studies were with Richard Danielpour. His undergraduate work in trumpet performance was at Ohio Wesleyan University, after which he studied composition with Stanley Wolfe at The Juilliard School.

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