Steven J. Kukla - "Folksongs for Winds"
Folksongs for Winds
1. Russian
2. American
3. French
4. Finale
Steven J. Kukla
Born: January 23, 1984, Johnson City, Tennessee
Instrumentation: Wind Octet
Composed: 2004
Duration: 17 minutes
This piece is a collection of movements that are based loosely around folk melodies from their respective countries, or around a particular “style” of composition; i.e. the American movement spans different genres of American music, from the expected barn dance to a funky rock and roll. Each movement contains its own leitmotif, each of which reoccurs at some point in the Finale. At the climax of the finale, the American and French themes are juxtaposed against each other, beginning in harmony, moving through dissonance and returning to harmony at the end. It is the composer’s hope that this piece will serve as a reminder that, through music, we are all united.
- Steven J. Kukla
A composer for film, television and the concert hall, Steven J. Kukla's music covers a wide variety of styles and genres. As a film and television composer, his work appears regularly on networks such as TruTV, The Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and the History Channel. His credits include music for The Discovery Channel’s Shark Week, Ancient Aliens, Forensic Files, and many others. He is a winner of UCLA's Henry Mancini and Lalo Schiffrin awards, as well as the Jerry Goldsmith Memorial Award.
As a concert hall composer, Kukla’s music has been performed by, among others, the North Carolina Symphony and Pops Orchestras, the Sparks Wind Quartet, and the United States Air Force Band of Liberty. He has written works for various solo artists and chamber ensembles, including a wind quintet for the Tradewinds Wind Quintet (Boston), and a string quartet for the Laurel String Quartet (Boston), which won him the New England Conservatory’s 2008 Composition Competition.
Mr. Kukla's principal teachers have been Michael Gandolfi, Lee Hyla, John Mallia, and Paul Chihara; he has also studied with Steven Stucky, George Tsontakis, and Malcolm Peyton. Having earned his B.M. in Music Composition from the New England Conservatory in 2006 and an M.M. in 2008 from the same institution, he also holds an M.A. in film scoring from the University of California at Los Angeles.
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