Benjamin Krause’s music has been recognized through commissions, awards, and residencies by the Copland House, Houston Symphony, Atlanta Chamber Players, Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra, Network for New Music, Presser Foundation, ASCAP, and The American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, among others. His piece Pathways for chamber orchestra was named the winner of the Houston Symphony’s Emerging Composer Competition and was described as “attractive…the composer craftily reconstituted orders of events to create a compelling dramatic arc. Krause’s excellent control of dissipating energy for the serene ending of the work was most impressive” (concertonet.com). As the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Rapido! Competition, he will be writing new works for the Atlanta Chamber Players and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for upcoming seasons. Other distinctions include the Distinguished Composer of the Year award from MTNA, and the Runner-Up in the 2021 RED NOTE New Music Competition (both for his piano duo, Taxonomies of Pulse (2018).

An artist with diverse interests, Krause has collaborated with photographers, dancers, architects, and filmmakers in his creative work. He was a Young Artist of Da Camera (2011—2012) and was the recipient of the 2012 Presser Award, enabling a summer of study in Europe at the American Conservatory of Fontainebleau, where his work was awarded the Prix Marion Tournon Branly. In the 2018-19 season he was in residency at the Brush Creek Foundation for the Arts (WY) and, as a recipient of the Copland House Residency Award, at Aaron Copland's historic home in Cortlandt Manor, NY. He will spend part of Summer 2021 in residence at the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts (GA).

Krause's music is characterized by its visceral rhythmic drive, motivic control, and colorful, dense harmonies reminiscent of jazz. His music draws fluently from many historical traditions and aesthetics, both improvisational and carefully controlled, often creating new sound worlds through the absorption and synthesis of varied musical idioms. His Night Tides (2011) for flute and piano "simultaneously established and explored a detailed, individual musical landscape. Mr. Krause performed the work fantastically, engendering his expressive and densely atonal textures with clear structures and a palpable rhetorical/narrative arc" (Sequenza 21).

Other works by Krause, such as Uv'Chein Variations (2012) for violin and piano, and Suite for Bari Sax and Piano (2016) explore connections between classical forms (theme and variations, Baroque dance suites) with folk and popular sources. Just as often, as in Beach Scenes (2013) and his first string quartet (2017), his music evokes a sense of the mystical, depicting expansive landscapes and environments through lush textures and an impressionistic sense of sonority and color. More recently, his music has increasingly explored on rhythmic dimensions, resulting in such works as Taxonomies of Pulse and in the forthcoming pieces Not A Thing But A Movement for solo piano and a new work for the Atlanta Chamber Players.

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As a pianist, Krause is active in contemporary music, jazz, and the traditional classical repertoire, with performances at Carnegie Hall, Zilkha Hall (Houston), the Houston Museum of Fine Arts, the Menil Collection, and in collaboration with such artists as Molly Barth (Eighth Blackbird), Jeffrey Zeigler (the Kronos Quartet), Timothy McAllister (PRISM Saxophone Quartet), and Ronald Feldman (the Boston Symphony). In both solo performances and collaborations with many ensembles, he has premiered and performed over fifty new works in a wide variety of venues, in addition to performing the works of major 20th and 21st century composers such as George Crumb, Louis Andriessen, John Cage, and Pierre Jalbert. As a jazz pianist, he has appeared as a soloist and in performances with saxophonists Woody Witt and Horace Alexander Young, the VU Faculty Jazz Trio. He appears regularly in performances with pianist Christina Giuca Krause as the piano duo 4x5 (“four-by-five”).

Krause holds composition degrees from Rice University (D.M.A.) and the University of Oregon (M.M.), where his teachers included Pierre Jalbert, Anthony Brandt, Richard Lavenda, Robert Kyr, and David Crumb. He has studied piano with Peter Gach, Joseph Bognar, and Brian Connelly. As an educator, he has designed and taught university courses in composition, orchestration, music theory, aural skills, and jazz, and, while Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Valparaiso University (2015 - 2018), founded and directed VUNUMU (Valparaiso University New Music Ensemble), coaching and leading performances of the work of leading contemporary composers as well as of that of student composers. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Music at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he teaches composition, theory, and piano. www.benkrause.com

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Christina Giuca has been hailed as a “sensitive partner” by the New York Times. The Romanian-American pianist enjoys a dynamic career as a performer, vocal coach, and educator.  

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Heard on the stages of Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, Steinway Hall, and Preston Bradley Hall, Christina has also performed at festivals including the Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival and International Musicians Seminar in Prussia Cove, England. She has been a member of the music staff at the Houston Ballet, SongFest, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Chicago Opera Theater, Music of the Baroque, and the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Patrick W. and Shirley G. Ryan Opera Center.

As the pianist winner of the Music Academy of the West’s 2017 Marilyn Horne Song Competition, Christina and soprano Hannah Rose Kidwell gave a recital tour that included sold-out performances in Houston, Santa Barbara, and New York City. They premiered Jake Heggie’s These Strangers, a new song cycle written for them for this tour. Christina was invited to play in Carnegie Hall’s 2018 “The Song Continues” masterclass series with Renée Fleming, Graham Johnson, and Marilyn Horne.

Christina has performed many works by living composers and assisted in the premieres of new operas, most recently Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones (Opera Theatre of Saint Louis) and Dan Shore’s Freedom Ride (Chicago Opera Theater). She is a founding member of contemporary piano duo 4×5 with composer Benjamin Krause.

Christina holds a Bachelor of Music degree from the Oberlin Conservatory and Master of Music degree from Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Her teachers include the late Emilio del Rosario, Peter Takács, Monique Duphil, David Breitman, Brian Connelly, and Frank Corliss. Christina was a recipient of the Postgraduate Collaborative Piano Fellowship from the Bard College Conservatory, where she worked with the Graduate Vocal Arts Program under the direction of soprano Dawn Upshaw and pianist Kayo Iwama.

Christina is currently the Artistic Director of LYNX, a Chicago-based nonprofit organization that amplies diverse voices through new song commissions, inclusive recital programming, and innovative educational initiatives. Christina has been on faculty at Lutheran Summer Music Festival since 2018 and also works at Hope College, where she is Coordinator of Accompanying and teaches a course in collaborative skills to pianists. To learn more, visit christinagiuca.com.