Martin Blessinger, composer
Martin Blessinger is an Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Texas Christian University. He holds a D.M. in music composition from the Florida State University where he was a University Research Fellow, studying with Ladislav Kubik and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. He received undergraduate and master’s degrees from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, studying with Sheila Silver and Perry Goldstein. Prior to arriving at TCU, he worked as a Lecturer in Music Theory at the Ithaca College School of Music.
His works have been performed around the country and abroad by professional and collegiate ensembles such as the North Shore Symphony Orchestra, the Metropolitan Brass Quintet, the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Sounds New, and the new music ensembles of the University of Nebraska at Kearney, Florida State University, Texas Christian University, Franklin Pierce College, Truman State University, and others. His orchestration of Jessica Grace Wing’s score for the critically-acclaimed off-Broadway musical Lost won Best Music in the 2003 New York City Fringe Festival and received a revival performance during the 2009 season by the Arizona Onstage Theater Company. Further, he has won awards from the Diana Barnhart American Song Competition (cum laude, for Cradle Song), the Eppes String Quartet Competition (for Postcard from the Americas), the 2007 Illinois Wesleyan University Young Composers Competition (forFanfare for Brass Quintet), the 2008 NACUSA Young Composers Competition (for Duo for Saxophone and Piano), and a 2011 ASCAP Award. His music is published by Reed Music and C. Alan Publications.
