Dr. Frank Felice, composition, electronic music, music
theory
Frank Felice began his musical studies in Hamilton, Montana,
playing piano, guitar and double bass. Interest in composition
began through participation with a number of rock bands, one of
which, Graffiti, toured the western United States and the Far East
in 1986-1987. Dr. Felice attended Concordia College in Moorhead,
Minnesota, the University of Colorado, and Butler University,
studying with Michael Schelle, Daniel Breedon, Luiz Gonzalez, and
James Day. Most recently he has studied with Dominick Argento and
Judith Lang Zaimont at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis,
where he completed his Ph.D. in 1998. In addition to currently
teaching as an associate professor at Butler University, he has
previously taught at Eastern Wyoming College, the University of
Minnesota, Sam Houston State University and Lamar University.
Dr. Felice has served as composer-in-residence with the Symphony
of Southeast Texas in Beaumont, where he helped write the Create a
Symphony Program. He has also served as composer-in-residence for
Eastern Wyoming College, along with the Wyoming Council on the Arts
from 1988-1990. During his tenure there he not only taught in the
public schools, but lectured and composed pieces for many of the
ensembles in residence as well. He also serves as an adjudicator
and judge for a variety of composition contests each year,
throughout the United States, as well as lecturing around the
Midwest on new music.
A composer of many styles and genre, his works have been
performed extensively in the U.S. as well as Japan, the United
Kingdom, Austria, the Czech Republic and Hungary. His commissions
have included funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the
Omaha Symphony, the Indiana Arts Commission, The Indiana Repertory
Theatre, the Wyoming State Arts Board, the Indianapolis Youth
Symphony, Kappa Kappa Psi/Tau Beta Sigma and the Minneapolis Vocal
Consort as well as many private commissions. In 2003 the Butler
University Department of Dance commissioned an evening-length
ballet from him, The Willow Maiden, which was premiered at
Clowes Hall in April of that year. A recording of electronic and
electro-acoustic music entitled Sidewalk Music is
available on Capstone Records, while other scores can be obtained
from MMB Music or Mad Italian Bros. Ink Publishing. Frank is a
member of the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the U.S., the
American Composers Forum, the American Music Center, The Society of
Composers Inc., and the Christian Fellowship of Art Music
Composers. In addition to musical interests, he pursues his
creative muse through painting, poetry, cooking, home brewing,
paleontology, theology, philosophy, and basketball. He is very
fortunate to be married to mezzo-soprano Mitzi Westra.
(317) 940-3236
ffelice@butler.edu