“Transformative,” a “captivating mix of busy and sparse,” and “a crowd pleaser” according to the Boston Musical Intelligencer, Ian Wiese is a truly multifaceted composer. Wiese teaches at Berklee College of Music as Associate Professor of Ear Training and Adjunct Professor of Composition as well as at The New England Conservatory of Music. Currently a doctoral student at NEC in composition under John Heiss, his works have been heard in places such as New York City, Boston, Charlotte, Denver, Houston, Saratoga Springs, The Walt Disney World Resort, and internationally in Oslo, Norway and Moldova. Multiple performers and ensembles, including loadbang, Imani Winds, Navy Band Northeast, Air Force Band of Our National Heritage, Dinosaur Annex, The ____ Experiment, Exponential Ensemble, Box Not Found, Worcester Polytechnic Concert Band, New England Conservatory Contemporary Ensemble, Some Assembly Required, guitarist Aaron Larget-Caplan, Kalliope Reed Quintet, oboist Kristin Leitterman, pianist Donald Berman, oboist Kemp Jernigan, soprano Corrine Byrne, Duo Zonda, members of the Beo String Quartet, WordSong Boston, Untitled Roots, Hub New Music, bassoonist Christin Schillinger, the Ithaca New Music Collective, and many others have performed his music. Recently, Wiese won the American Prize in Vocal Chamber Music, Nightingale Ensemble Young Composers Commissioning Project, Maximiliano G.G. Call for Piano Scores, the North Star Press Art Song Call for Scores, the NEC Merz Trio Call for Scores, the 2022 NEC Honors Ensemble Competitions for trombone quartet and piano trio, and both the 2019 and 2021 Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Fraternity Original Composition Competitions; he was also finalist in the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Prize in 2021. In the past, he was composer-in-residence for the Ithaca College New Voices Literary Festival (a series which he founded), participated in the 2018 Collage New Music Composers’ Colloquium, and held a residency with the Ball State University Xenharmonic Music Alliance as part of the inaugural 2018 Xenharmonic New Music Showcase. He also composed the fanfare for the 121st Ithaca College Commencement Ceremony.
Wiese currently has ongoing commissions and collaborations with The ____ Experiment, The Lakeside Clarinet Quartet, and toy pianist/composer Jared Aragon. He also has worked with several organizations and ensembles administratively, including Philip Glass’s record label Orange Mountain Music, the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra combined, The Woodlands Chamber Music Project in Texas, and WordSong Boston, where his planning helped create the tenth anniversary celebration of the concert series.
Ian Wiese is currently in the doctoral program at New England Conservatory, where he studies for the Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition with John Heiss; previously, he studied with Michael Gandolfi. He holds a Masters of Music in Composition from New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Kati Agocs and Michael Gandolfi; he also received lessons from composers John Harbison, Bert van Herck, and Scott Wheeler. Wiese also holds a Bachelors of Music in Composition from Ithaca College, where he studied with Dana Wilson, Jorge Grossmann, and Sally Lamb McCune. While at Ithaca College, he received lessons with various distinguished guest composers including the late Steven Stucky, David Rakowski, Fredrick Kaufmann, Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and Koray Sazli, among others.