B.Mus., University of Kansas
M.Mus., University of Kansas (1970)
M.Mus., The Juilliard School (1972)
D.M.A., University of Southern California (1974)

Principal teachers included Darius Milhaud, Edward Mattila, Vincent Persichetti and Halsey Stevens.

Teaching positions in composition, theory, organology, performance practice and baroque flute:
Catholic University of America, Washington DC
Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas
California State University, Fullerton

Michael Seyfrit was born in Kansas and grew up in Pasco, Washington and Piqua, Ohio.

In the course of a multifaceted career, Seyfrit did research and historical orchestrations for the Smithsonian Institution's Divisions of Musical Instruments and Performing Arts, and was Curator of Musical Instruments at the Library of Congress for four years. His writings include Musical Instruments in the Dayton C. Miller Collection at the Library of Congress, Volume I: Recorders, Fifes, and Simple System Transverse Flutes of One Key, and the articles on woodwind instruments in the 1986 edition of The New Harvard Dictionary of Music.

As a composer, he received the Charles Ives Scholarship from the National Academy of Arts and Letters.

As an instrumentalist on recorder, baroque oboe and baroque flute, Seyfrit performed and recorded with the Smithsonian Chamber Players and appeared with other ensembles including Hesperus, Wondrous Machine, Berkeley Collegium Musicum, Portland Baroque Orchestra and Early Music Guild of Oregon. His final years were spent on the West Coast, where he worked as a computer programmer.

Michael Seyfrit died of AIDS in Portland, Oregon at the age of 46 on May 29, 1994.

—Nurit Tilles

WORKS:

KEYBOARD

Ballade
for: piano
date: 1968
duration: 4:00
published: American Composers Alliance

Gamelan
for: carillon
date: ?
duration: 2:00

Interactions
for: piano
date: 1972
duration: 18:00
note: commissioned and premiered by Michael Boriskin
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Lost and Found
for: organ
date: 1979
duration: 12:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Symphony for Carillon
for: carillon
date: 1974
duration: 8:00
published: American Composers Alliance

Three Views of the Moon
for: two pianos
date: 1990
duration: 20:45
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Variegations
for: piano
date: 1972
duration: 7:00
note: commissioned and premiered by Michael Boriskin
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

VOCAL/CHORAL

It Is Love
for: mezzo-soprano, tenor, piano
date: 1991
duration: 9:00
text: Lewis Carroll
note: "From the children's play Sylvie and Bruno by T. Brian Wagner and Michael Seyfrit."
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Remembering Our Friends (In Remembering Our Friends Who Have Died, They Live On)
for: TTBB, optional falsetto voices and speakers, oboe, English horn, cello, piano
date: 1988, revised 1990
duration: 12:00
text: by composer
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center
note: AIDS-themed work

Ritual
for: tenor and piano
date: 1992
duration: 8:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Winter's Warmth
for: bass voice, clarinet, bassoon, violin, viola, cello, harp
date: 1970
duration: 8:00
published: American Composers Alliance

INSTRUMENTAL/CHAMBER

And Still the Night Stars Shine
for: violin, cello, marimba (or extended range marimba)
date: 1991
duration: 8:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Ascending and Descending
for: handbell choir
date: 1987
duration: 7:00
published: American Composers Alliance

Brass Rings
for: brass quintet
date: 1971
duration: 9:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Continuum Vacuum Residuum
for: clarinet, English horn, trombone or cello, prepared piano (six hands)
date: 1971
duration: 15:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

A Dance of Life
for: violin and piano
date: 1989
duration: 10:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Dupont Cycle
for: clarinet, English horn, viola, marimba, prepared piano
date: 1981
duration: 13:00
note: commissioned by Cesar Caceres
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Eight Love Poems
for: oboe and piano
date: 1988
duration: 18:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center
recorded ("Bill"): Matt Sullivan, oboe, Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano, Sudden Sunsets: Highlights from the Benson Series, Downtown Music Productions, Leonarda Records LE 354 (forthcoming).

For One Alone
for: clarinet
date: 1972
duration: 5:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Hymeneal (Wedding Suite)
for: trumpet, violin, 2 violas, 2 cellos
date: 1968
duration: 12:00
published: American Composers Alliance

In Search Of
for: clarinet, marimba, double bass
date: 1975
duration: 18:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Interplay
for: recorder, violin, tape
date: 1973
duration: 12:05

Latent Images
for: piano, viola, clarinet, bassoon, cello, marimba
date: 1973
duration: 18:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Lost and Wandering
for: antiphonal ensembles: 2 flutes, clarinet, 2 English horns, horn, trombone, 4 trumpets, marimba
date: 1972
duration: 12:00
published: American Composers Alliance (rental)
source: American Music Center

Pages from My Diary
for: flute or baroque flute
date: 1990
duration: 19:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Patchwork
for: solo violin, solo marimba, alto flute, English horn, bass clarinet, 2 percussion
date: 1972
duration: 15:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Portal
for: oboe, English horn, clarinet, bassoon
date: 1973
duration: 16:00
note: commissioned by Joe and Joan Ceo, Friday Morning Music Clubs Composition Contest
published: American Composers Alliance

Serenade
for: alto recorder (or flute) and harp
date: 1969
duration: 10:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Shadows and the Night Wind
for: clarinet, alto flute, marimba, timpani
date: 1970
duration: 16:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Similes
for: oboe, cello, 3 flutes, alto flute, 4 percussion
date: 1970
duration: 14:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Sleepwalk
for: viola d'amore and harp
date: 1976
duration: 8:00
note: commissioned by Joe and Joan Ceo, Friday Morning Music Clubs Composition Contest
published: American Composers Alliance
source: New York Public Library

Sonata
for: clarinet and harpischord (or piano)
date: 1968, revised 1969
duration: 6:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Spans and Changes
for: clarinet, 8 flutes, English horn, baritone oboe (or bassoon), harp, double bass
date: 1971
duration: 9:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Three Solos and All
for: horn, English horn, clarinet
date: 1972-73

ORCHESTRAL/LARGE ENSEMBLE

Dichroism (Symphony No. 3)
for: orchestra: 1111 0220 timp, perc(4), cel str (14-6-8-3)
date: 1970
duration: 18:00
source: American Music Center

Dusk to Dark
for: clarinet, English horn, horn, cello, percussion ensemble
date: 1975
duration: 17:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Earth Cycle
for: solo soprano voice, solo clarinet, 33 instruments
date: 1974
duration: 18:00

Night of the Blue Moon
for: orchestra: piccolo/3fl-2-ehn-2-2-cbsn; 4-2-2-btbn-1; 2 perc., timpani; harp; strings
date: 1991
duration: 10:00
published: American Composers Alliance (rental)
source: American Music Center

Peace (Symphony No. 2)
for: wind ensemble, 4 percussion, timpani
date: 1969
duration: 25:00
note: commissioned by Phi Mu Alpha (Kansas University) Chapter Composition Contest
published: American Composers Alliance (rental)
source: American Music Center

Refuge
for: violin, cello, clarinet, English horn, alto sax, trombone, bass, piano, echo consort (3 unspecified instruments)
date: 1974
duration: 9:00
published: American Composers Alliance

Slice of Life
for: string orchestra
date: 1973
duration: 10:00

Windfest (Symphony No. 1)
for: woodwind ensemble: piccolo/flute-alfl-1-2ehn-2-3sax(SAT)-2bsn
date: 1968
duration: 12:00
published: American Composers Alliance
source: American Music Center

Within View of the Sea (Chamber Concerto for Oboe)
for: oboe solo, 2 trombones, bass trombone, marimba, strings
date: 1991
duration: 28:15
published: American Composers Alliance (rental)
source: American Music Center

MUSICAL THEATRE

The Desert Peach: A Musical
Musical about Pfirsich Rommel, the fictional gay younger brother of the Desert Fox
for: voices (male roles but one), men's chorus, 5 instruments
date: 1990
duration: 2:30:00
book and lyrics: Donna Barr and T. Brian Wagner;
additional lyrics by Angela Rhoads
note: stage adaptation of Donna Barr's The Desert Peach
source: Ohio State University

Foxhunt
One-act opera derived from The Desert Peach
date: ?
duration: 40:00

Silk Dancers
Dance musical
for: ?
date: 1992
duration: 40:00

Sylvie and Bruno
Children's musical play
for: voices and piano
date: 1991
duration: 58:00
text: T. Brian Wagner (?)

INCIDENTAL MUSIC
(For productions by Stuart Vaughan, Kansas Shakespeare Festival)

As You Like It
for: oboe/recorder, clarinet/percussion, harpsichord/recorder
date: 1971
duration: 14:00

Twelfth Night
for: recorder/viola, clarinet/percussion, bassoon, harp, celesta
date: ca. 1971
duration: 16:00

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Unknown

WRITINGS:
Musical Instruments in the Dayton C. Miller Collection at the Library of Congress, Vol. I: Recorders, Fifes, and Simple System Transverse Flutes of One Key, Library of Congress (1982).
The articles on woodwind instruments in The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, Harvard University Press (1986).
"Going Blind," The American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, Vol. 12, No. 3 (May/June 1995).

DISCOGRAPHY:
"Bill" from Eight Love Poems, Matt Sullivan, oboe, Mimi Stern-Wolfe, piano, Sudden Sunsets: Highlights from the Benson Series, Downtown Music Productions, Leonarda Records LE 354 (forthcoming).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Unknown

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
BMI

RESOURCES:
Publisher of all extant scores:
American Composers Alliance
73 Spring Street
Room 505
New York NY 10012
Tel: (212) 362-8900
Fax: (212) 925-6798
info@composers.com
www.composers.com

American Music Center
30 West 26th Street
Suite 1001
New York, NY 10010
Tel: (212) 366-5260
Fax: (212) 366-5265
www.amc.net

American Music Center Collection
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
40 Lincoln Center Plaza
New York, NY 10023-7498
www.nypl.org

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
George Brockamp
1530 N.E. Liberty Street
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 285-6788

OTHER CONTACTS:
Jean Biddick (sister)
4513 N. Little Rock Drive
Tucson, AZ 85750
jbiddick@comcast.net