Composition & Theory

Sheet music

The Hugh Hodgson School of Music’s composition and theory area features internationally recognized faculty, attracting talented young composers and theorists from the United States and abroad. 

Composition and theory students at the Hodgson School enjoy countless opportunities to present their work, including frequent Student Composers Association recitals and chamber music performances, and research symposia. Additionally, students have the opportunity to participate in and collaborate with the Hodgson School's numerous small chamber ensembles, orchestras, bands, and choirs.

Area Chair: Dr. Emily Gertsch (egertsch@uga.edu)

Click here to go to the Dancz Center of New Music, Music Composition at UGA website

 

Personnel

Adrian P. Childs

Associate Director for Graduate Studies and Administration

Dr. Childs' theory work includes research in the area of transformational theory and interests in issues of post-tonal music and referential collections. HIs scholarship has been presented at national and regional meetings of both music theory and mathematics organizations and appears in the Journal of Music Theory and Music Theory Online. He…

Emily Gertsch

Senior Lecturer, Music Theory, Area Chair

Prior to joining the faculty at the Hugh Hodgson School of Music, Dr. Gertsch served on the faculty at Furman University and as a graduate teaching assistant at Florida State University and The Catholic University of America. She was honored with the Phi Mu Alpha Outstanding Teaching Award at Furman University and was nominated three times for…

Tom Hiel

Assistant Professor of Commercial Music and Media

Emily Koh

Assistant Professor of Composition

Dr. Koh is a Singaporean composer whose music is characterized by inventive timbral extremes. Described as ‘the future of composing’ (The Straits Times, Singapore), she is the recipient of awards such as the Yoshiro Irino Memorial Prize, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, Prix D’Ete, and PARMA competitions, commissions from the Barlow…

Peter Van Zandt Lane

Associate Professor of Composition and Director of the Dancz Center for New Music

Dr. Lane composes works primarily for chamber ensemble, wind ensemble, and orchestra, often integrating electronics into works for traditional instruments. He has received fellowships from Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Composers Now. His music has been performed by the…

Dickie Lee

Assistant Professor of Music Theory

Dr. Lee’s research applies theories of interpretation and agency to post-1945 orchestral music and popular genres. His current work investigates the music of Olivier Messiaen, Krzysztof Penderecki, Thomas Adès, George Rochberg, and Ween. He has presented at international and regional meetings in music theory and philosophy, including the …

Dwight Satterwhite

Professor

Dr. Satterwhite is the author of Power in the Progress System an enrichment curriculum for any band program.  He is also the designer of the Student Achievement Tracking Software that accompanies the Power program.  The Power in the Progress System has recently been cited in two national publications, The Music Educators Journal and The…

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