Bio
Chad Twedt (b. 1976) was classically trained from the age of six with private piano lessons, studying with Kathie Krocak, Joan Houtz, Dr. Ronald Williams, and Dr. James Winn. Chad won the 1997 MTNA-Young Chang Collegiate Artist Piano Competition for the state of Nevada, and went on to take third place in the Southwest U.S. Divisionals. He also performed Mendelssohn's Piano Concerto No. 1 as guest soloist with a couple of Reno orchestras. He began composing seriously after completing his Masters in Piano Performance degree in 2001. Today, he tours and performs traditional classical repertoire as well as his own compositions. Twedt has been presented in concert by numerous venues, including the Tahoe Tallac Association (Valhalla Arts Festival, South Lake Tahoe), the Nevada Arts Council (Reno, NV), Winchester Cultural Center (Clark County Parks & Recreation in Las Vegas), Sierra College Dept. of Music (Rocklin, CA), and Franktown Ranch Center for the Arts (Washoe Valley, NV). For the composing on his Ostinato CD, Twedt was a recipient of the 2005 Nevada Arts Council Fellowship Grant, a $5,000 award given to only three artists in the state of Nevada each year, competing with other applicants in all performance categories, including dancing, acting, music performance, composition and choreography. His compositions were scored the highest by three judges in every round of judging, and these marks were based on both the newness of the art as well as the quality of the art. The unusually broad appeal of his music comes from his unique blend of classical background and his non-standard musical influences, extending to new age, alternative and even techno music. Twedt received a Masters in Music Performance in May 2001 from University of Nevada, Reno. From there he also received his two undergraduate degrees: a Bachelor of Music in Performance degree and a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics degree, with a minor in Computer Information Systems. He was one of two recipients of the UNR Excellence Fellowship, the most competitive fellowship given to graduate students at University of Nevada, Reno. He was also one of two student recipients of the 1998 Sierra Arts Foundation Fellowship Grant, awarded based on his performing abilities. An active member of the Music Teachers National Association, Twedt balances his composing and performing with his life as a private piano instructor in Reno, NV. He has been the pianist for the South Reno United Methodist Church since 1994, and he published a sheet music review in the February/March issue of American Music Teacher. Chad Twedt is the first composer to explore the ostinato (a musical pattern that repeats throughout a significant portion of a composition) in such depth. Just as others have created their most profound and imaginative works by limiting themselves (Shakespeare limited himself to 14 lines of iambic pentameter in all of his sonnets; Seurat limited himself to thousands of tiny dots in his pointillistic paintings; Chopin limited himself to "boom-chuck-chuck" accompaniments in his waltzes), Twedt finds his exploration of the ostinato to be similarly limiting and, at the same time, a source of his most inspiring creative thinking. His past classical solo repertoire is well-rounded, and he particularly enjoys baroque and various styles of tonal contemporary music. He has performed some of the most demanding solo repertoire, including Chopin’s Third Sonata, Alkan’s Le Festin d’Esope, Liebermann’s Gargoyles, Schubert’s “Wanderer” Fantasy, Beethoven’s “Appassionata” Sonata, Bolcom’s Garden of Eden, Bach’s Sixth English Suite and Stravinsky’s Three Movements from Petrushka, including Twedt’s own additions and changes to Petrushka, which made sections of the piece sound closer to its original orchestration but also made it much harder to play than it already is. All of these classical works were recorded live, and these recordings are available to purchase from his web site, www.twedt.com or at his concerts. |
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