SEPF Guest Artist John Fitz Rogers

Konstantin Soukhovetski

John Fitz Rogers

Winner, Second Prize,
2002 Hilton Head International Piano Competition


John Fitz Rogers holds degrees from Cornell University, the Yale School of Music, and Oberlin College, where he studied composition, conducting, and piano. His music has been performed internationally by ensembles and venues including the Louisville Orchestra, Charleston Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, MATA Festival, Ensemble Sospeso, World Saxophone Congress, XVII Festival del Centro Historico de la Ciudad de Mexico, Synchronia, Composers, Inc., Lionheart, Philips Collection Concert Series, Bumbershoot Festival, Furious Band, artsEdge Festival, National Flute Association, Portland International Guitar Festival, and the Syracuse Society for New Music.

His commissions include those from the Albany Symphony, Tulsa Philharmonic, New York Youth Symphony, Dogs of Desire, the American Composers Forum and the Jerome Foundation, Music at the Anthology and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, Furious Band, and the Dale Warland Singers. Rogers has received numerous grants and prizes for his music; among them are awards from ASCAP, the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the American Music Center, MacDowell Colony, and the Heckscher Foundation Composition Prize for his orchestral work "Symphony of Cities." His recordings include “Transit," a 44-minute work for electric guitar and "virtual ensemble," and "Push" (both on Gale Recordings; www.galerecordings.com), as well as the Albany Symphony's performance of "Verge" on Albany Records. Rogers has served on the faculties of Cornell University and the Longy School of Music, as well as visiting faculty at the Conductor's Institute of South Carolina and the Composition Intensive Program at the Yellow Barn Chamber Music Festival. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Composition at the University of South Carolina, where he founded and directs the contemporary music series and ensemble, "Southern Exposure."