Ross Feller

Ross Feller is an accomplished composer, theorist, saxophonist, improviser, and educator. Over the past twenty years he has developed a unique musical vocabulary that features raw, ecstatic layers of material that percolate with refined, virtuosic gestures, often integrated with performance gestures. Feller grew up near Chicago, where he came into contact with composers and performers from a thriving avant-garde jazz scene, including the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) and an equally thriving new music scene, including New Music Chicago. While still in high school Feller began to systematically explore the boundaries of his instrument through improvisation, and experiment with various compositional techniques. He co-founded the Chicago-based, avant-garde, jazz-rock ensemble Dot Dot Dot, and later, Double Edge Dance with choreographer Kora Radella.

Feller holds DMA and MM degrees in Composition and Theory from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Salvatore Martirano, Morgan Powell, and Paul Zonn, and a BM in Composition from the American Conservatory of Music, Chicago, where he studied with Darleen Cowles. Currently, he is an Associate Professor of Music at Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he teaches composition, theory, and computer music. He has also taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, Georgia College and State University, Minnesota State University, Moorhead, and at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Feller’s awards and honors include the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Composition, ASCAP Young Composer’s Competition, Gaudeamus Foundation International Composer’s Competition, and Bent Frequency’s International Call for Scores. He has received commissions and performances by ensembles including the Oberlin Conservatory Contemporary Music Ensemble, Oberlin Percussion Group, Prism Saxophone Quartet, Aurelia Saxophone Quartet, Goliard Ensemble, Ensemble Luna Nova, International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), Kenyon College Symphonic Wind Ensemble, members of the Cleveland Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, and performers such as saxophonist Taimur Sullivan, trumpeters Peter Evans and Stephanie Richards, trombonist Steven Parker, violinist Dorothy Martirano, ‘cellists Franklin Cox and Craig Hultgren, double bassist Michael Cameron, guitarist Nick Didkovsky, and pianists Cory Smythe and Adam Tendler.

Feller’s work has been performed throughout the U.S.A. and in Europe at venues including Symphony Space (New York City), Roulette (Brooklyn), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), Spoleto (Charleston, South Carolina), Eyedrum (Atlanta), Krannert Center (Urbana), Presser Recital Hall (Philadelphia) Park West (Chicago), Preston Bradley Hall (Chicago), Cleveland Public Theatre, Gund Gallery (Gambier, Ohio), Green Mill (Chicago), Spectrum (New York City), Plateau (Brussels) and at many national and international festivals, conferences, and universities. Recent, evening-length performances of his compositions have taken place at Spectrum and Roulette.

Feller’s work has been written about in Time Out New York, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Reader, and Wall Street Journal. Recordings of his music are available on New Dynamic Records, Athena Records, and UIUC Experimental Music Studios. In 2015 he and fellow saxophonist Frank Mauceri released a collaborative cd entitled Chiasmus. In early 2017 Feller released an album of his solo and ensemble music on Innova Recordings (#911).