About
Spitting Image Collective was formed in Spring 2013 to build a strong community of composers, performers and listeners in the Twin Cities metro area. Since then, the collective has commissioned ten new works from local Minnesota composers and presented them in concert series throughout the Twin Cities featuring some of the area’s most talented new music performers. In addition, Spitting Image hosts community social events to encourage the formation of professional relationships among composers, and monthly “Composer Hangs,” an opportunity for composers to received artistic feedback from peers. Spitting Image Collective members are: Katherine Bergman, Joshua Clausen, and Daniel Nass.
Mission: Spitting Image Collective brings together composers, performers, and listeners in order to strengthen the Minneapolis/St. Paul new music community.
Vision: We envision the Twin Cities community finding personal meaning and cultural significance in contemporary classical music by identifying with it as a reflection of our shared experiences.
Vision: We envision the Twin Cities community finding personal meaning and cultural significance in contemporary classical music by identifying with it as a reflection of our shared experiences.
Composers
Katherine Bergman
Katherine Bergman is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on literature, environmentalism, and found materials to create work that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. Her music has been performed by leading ensembles and festivals throughout the United States, including The Dream Songs Project, RenegadeEnsemble, The Antithesis Project, Esperanza Ensemble, and Spitting Image Collective.
Katherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with composition instructors including Michele Gillman and Steve Wright. She has studied extensively with Mary Ellen Childs, and has received additional instruction from Samuel Adler. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, Spitting Image Collective, Brainerd High School Symphonic Winds, and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee.
Katherine is Co-Founder and Artistic Co-Director of Spitting Image, a composer collective that brings together composers, listeners, and performers to strengthen the Twin Cities new music community.
As a saxophonist, Katherine performs regularly in and around Minnesota. She has been named a Bjorling Scholar by Gustavus Adolphus College, and in 2007 she performed as a soloist with the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra (Concerto for Alto Saxophone by Pierre Max Dubois). She has studied saxophone with a variety of teachers, including Scott Kallestad, Chris Merz, Tom Barry, and John Engebretson. Katherine is a founding member of the Caprice Saxophone Quartet, performs with the Encore Wind Ensemble, and maintains a private studio of saxophone students.
Katherine Bergman is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on literature, environmentalism, and found materials to create work that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. Her music has been performed by leading ensembles and festivals throughout the United States, including The Dream Songs Project, RenegadeEnsemble, The Antithesis Project, Esperanza Ensemble, and Spitting Image Collective.
Katherine holds a master’s degree from the University of Northern Iowa School of Music, where she studied composition with Jonathan Schwabe and Alan Schmitz. She earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Gustavus Adolphus College in Saint Peter, Minnesota with composition instructors including Michele Gillman and Steve Wright. She has studied extensively with Mary Ellen Childs, and has received additional instruction from Samuel Adler. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for the Gustavus Wind Orchestra, Spitting Image Collective, Brainerd High School Symphonic Winds, and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee.
Katherine is Co-Founder and Artistic Co-Director of Spitting Image, a composer collective that brings together composers, listeners, and performers to strengthen the Twin Cities new music community.
As a saxophonist, Katherine performs regularly in and around Minnesota. She has been named a Bjorling Scholar by Gustavus Adolphus College, and in 2007 she performed as a soloist with the Gustavus Symphony Orchestra (Concerto for Alto Saxophone by Pierre Max Dubois). She has studied saxophone with a variety of teachers, including Scott Kallestad, Chris Merz, Tom Barry, and John Engebretson. Katherine is a founding member of the Caprice Saxophone Quartet, performs with the Encore Wind Ensemble, and maintains a private studio of saxophone students.
Joshua Clausen
Joshua Clausen is a Minneapolis-based composer, music producer and educator. Clausen’s works often inhabit stylistic interstices between chamber concert music, electronic music and varied popular forms exerting “a dynamic intensity to [their] influence of popular culture (Computer Music Journal).”
Clausen has been commissioned by Wild Rumpus new music collective, the Antithesis Project, AVIDduo, the Renegade Ensemble, the pianist Keith Kirchoff, saxophonist Kyle Hutchins and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee and his recent works have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the MacPhail Center for Music and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Clausen’s work has been presented at numerous festivals and conferences of new music including the International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest and the Spark festival.
Clausen is director of Community Programs at Slam Academy, a business he co-founded that is dedicated to community education in the electronic arts and was a composition mentor in the inaugural season of American Composers Forums’ NextNotes workshop and concert series for young composers. Clausen earned a Bachelor of Music degree (theory/composition, minor in philosophy) from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and a Master of Arts (composition, minor in art – time & interactivity) from the University of Minnesota. His mentors at the University of Minnesota included Douglas Geers, Alex Lubet and Judith Lang Zaimont.
Joshua Clausen is a Minneapolis-based composer, music producer and educator. Clausen’s works often inhabit stylistic interstices between chamber concert music, electronic music and varied popular forms exerting “a dynamic intensity to [their] influence of popular culture (Computer Music Journal).”
Clausen has been commissioned by Wild Rumpus new music collective, the Antithesis Project, AVIDduo, the Renegade Ensemble, the pianist Keith Kirchoff, saxophonist Kyle Hutchins and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee and his recent works have been supported by the Jerome Foundation, the MacPhail Center for Music and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Clausen’s work has been presented at numerous festivals and conferences of new music including the International Computer Music Conference, Society for Electroacoustic Music in the United States, New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, Electronic Music Midwest and the Spark festival.
Clausen is director of Community Programs at Slam Academy, a business he co-founded that is dedicated to community education in the electronic arts and was a composition mentor in the inaugural season of American Composers Forums’ NextNotes workshop and concert series for young composers. Clausen earned a Bachelor of Music degree (theory/composition, minor in philosophy) from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and a Master of Arts (composition, minor in art – time & interactivity) from the University of Minnesota. His mentors at the University of Minnesota included Douglas Geers, Alex Lubet and Judith Lang Zaimont.
Daniel Nass
The music of Daniel Nass has been reviewed as “playful,” “eerie,” and “witty.” He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including ASCAP awards, as well as invitations to SEAMUS and SCI national conferences, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and the International Computer Music Conference in Singapore. He has been awarded prizes in the ISU Carillon Composition Competition, the UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competition, and was one of three composers awarded a commission to write a new choral work for the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus. Other recent commissions include guitarist Jonathan Dotson, pianist Matthew McCright, and the dream songs project.
A native of Howard Lake, Minnesota, Nass holds degrees from Saint Olaf College, the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin. Past teachers include Kevin Puts, Donald Grantham, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Peter Hamlin. His works are distributed through his self-publishing company, Daniel Nass Music, and professional recordings are available on the Innova Records, Crescent Phase Records, and Centaur Records labels.
The music of Daniel Nass has been reviewed as “playful,” “eerie,” and “witty.” He has received numerous awards and recognitions, including ASCAP awards, as well as invitations to SEAMUS and SCI national conferences, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, and the International Computer Music Conference in Singapore. He has been awarded prizes in the ISU Carillon Composition Competition, the UMKC Chamber Music Composition Competition, and was one of three composers awarded a commission to write a new choral work for the Young New Yorkers’ Chorus. Other recent commissions include guitarist Jonathan Dotson, pianist Matthew McCright, and the dream songs project.
A native of Howard Lake, Minnesota, Nass holds degrees from Saint Olaf College, the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and the University of Texas at Austin. Past teachers include Kevin Puts, Donald Grantham, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Peter Hamlin. His works are distributed through his self-publishing company, Daniel Nass Music, and professional recordings are available on the Innova Records, Crescent Phase Records, and Centaur Records labels.
Advisory Board
Heather Barringer
Alyssa Anderson
Paul Cantrell
Alyssa Anderson
Paul Cantrell
