About
Spitting Image Collective is a group of Minnesota composers that came together in 2013 to build a strong community of composers, performers and listeners in the Twin Cities metro area. Since then, the collective has commissioned numerous new works from local Minnesota composers and presented them in concerts throughout the Twin Cities featuring many of the area’s most talented new music performers and nationally-renowned visiting ensembles. Dedicated to community outreach and education, Spitting Image’s educational programs introduce learners of all ages to new music through listening, performing, and composing, including residencies at the University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis Public Schools, and workshops for the public. In addition, Spitting Image hosts community social events to encourage the formation of professional relationships among composers, and opportunities for composers to receive 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 environmentalism, literature, and found materials to create music that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. She has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, including the U.S. Coast Guard Band, Estonian Police and Border Guard Orchestra, Hub New Music, Zeitgeist, Seen/Heard Trio, The Dream Songs Project, and many others. Her works have been presented at ISCM World Music Days, The Midwest Clinic, North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, College Band Directors National Association Conference, and The Upper Midwest Chamber Winds Symposium, and her compositions have received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Metro Regional Arts Council, and New Music USA.
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 individual instruction from Samuel Adler.
Katherine’s work is published under Katherine Bergman Music, and her works for large ensemble are distributed by Murphy Music Press. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for 10th Wave Chamber Collective, Duo Leon, Nautilus Music-Theater, Isle Royale National Park, and a concerto for trombone and symphony orchestra commissioned by the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra.
Katherine Bergman is a Minnesota-based composer who draws on environmentalism, literature, and found materials to create music that has been described as hypnotic and visceral. She has received commissions and performances from leading ensembles throughout the United States and abroad, including the U.S. Coast Guard Band, Estonian Police and Border Guard Orchestra, Hub New Music, Zeitgeist, Seen/Heard Trio, The Dream Songs Project, and many others. Her works have been presented at ISCM World Music Days, The Midwest Clinic, North American Saxophone Alliance Biennial Conference, College Band Directors National Association Conference, and The Upper Midwest Chamber Winds Symposium, and her compositions have received support from the Minnesota State Arts Board, the Jerome Foundation, the Metro Regional Arts Council, and New Music USA.
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 individual instruction from Samuel Adler.
Katherine’s work is published under Katherine Bergman Music, and her works for large ensemble are distributed by Murphy Music Press. Recent and upcoming projects include new works for 10th Wave Chamber Collective, Duo Leon, Nautilus Music-Theater, Isle Royale National Park, and a concerto for trombone and symphony orchestra commissioned by the Oneota Valley Community Orchestra.
Joshua Clausen
Joshua Clausen is a Minneapolis-based composer. His 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).”
In 2016 Clausen was awarded a Composer/Sound Artist Fellowship by the Jerome Foundation. His works have also been supported by the McKnight Foundation, MacPhail Center for Music, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Recent or upcoming performances of Clausen’s works include the 2018 Tribeca New Music Festival, Ensemble Mise-En and ShoutHouse in New York City, Verdant Vibes in Providence RI, the 2018 American Choral Directors Association Conference in Oklahoma City, and American Composers Forum in St. Paul, MN. Clausen has been commissioned by Wild Rumpus new music collective, Seen/Heard Trio, Milieux Percussion, Zeitgeist, Struck Percussion, AVIDduo, the Renegade Ensemble, the pianist Keith Kirchoff, saxophonist Kyle Hutchins and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee. His 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 a member of the Spitting Image Collective, a Twin-Cities group dedicated to composer-curated programming, and mentors young composers from around the nation during the American Composers Forums’ annual NextNotes initiative. Clausen earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and a Master of Arts from the University of Minnesota. Past instructors include Douglas Geers, Judith Lang Zaimont, Mary Ellen Childs, John Gibson, and John Aylward.
Joshua Clausen is a Minneapolis-based composer. His 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).”
In 2016 Clausen was awarded a Composer/Sound Artist Fellowship by the Jerome Foundation. His works have also been supported by the McKnight Foundation, MacPhail Center for Music, the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and the Minnesota State Arts Board. Recent or upcoming performances of Clausen’s works include the 2018 Tribeca New Music Festival, Ensemble Mise-En and ShoutHouse in New York City, Verdant Vibes in Providence RI, the 2018 American Choral Directors Association Conference in Oklahoma City, and American Composers Forum in St. Paul, MN. Clausen has been commissioned by Wild Rumpus new music collective, Seen/Heard Trio, Milieux Percussion, Zeitgeist, Struck Percussion, AVIDduo, the Renegade Ensemble, the pianist Keith Kirchoff, saxophonist Kyle Hutchins and clarinetist Sarah Porwoll-Lee. His 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 a member of the Spitting Image Collective, a Twin-Cities group dedicated to composer-curated programming, and mentors young composers from around the nation during the American Composers Forums’ annual NextNotes initiative. Clausen earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota and a Master of Arts from the University of Minnesota. Past instructors include Douglas Geers, Judith Lang Zaimont, Mary Ellen Childs, John Gibson, and John Aylward.
Daniel Nass
The music of Daniel Nass has been reviewed as “playful,” “eerie,” and “witty.” Much of his music is influenced, both consciously and subconsciously, by popular musics of the past half-century. Thanks to older siblings, his childhood was dominated by the rock music of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, which led to teenage years spent performing in various loud garage bands. Quatre Études de Fromage, a recent set of his piano pieces, was heavily inspired by the music from “Sailing the Seas of Cheese,” an album by progressive rock-trio, Primus. For his doctoral dissertation, he composed Scattered Needles – a large-scale work for tenor and chamber orchestra in which he set lyrics composed by original Pink Floyd singer/songwriter, Syd Barrett.
A member of ASCAP and the American Composers Forum, Nass has received various awards and recognitions, including ASCAP awards, as well as invitations to SEAMUS and SCI national conferences, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the International Computer Music Conference in Singapore, and the SPARK Festival in Minneapolis. 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 One-Dog Canoe (Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra), Katla the Hag and Her Magic Britches and Shadows of Shadow Passing (Zeitgeist), …And the Sound is Thunder (Seen/Heard Trio), and Songs of Cowboys and Hobos (the dream songs project). His works are distributed through his self-publishing company, Daniel Nass Music, and professional recordings are available on the Innova, Crescent Phase, and Avid Sound Records labels.
A native of Howard Lake, Minnesota, Nass holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory and Composition from Saint Olaf College, a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. Past teachers include Kevin Puts, Donald Grantham, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Peter Hamlin.
Daniel is currently based in Lowertown St. Paul, and serves as a producer for American Public Media on various specials and shows, including Pipedreams, SymphonyCast, and Composers Datebook. In addition, he is a Composer Member of Spitting Image Collective – a composer collective that brings together composers, listeners, and performers to strengthen the Twin Cities new music community.
The music of Daniel Nass has been reviewed as “playful,” “eerie,” and “witty.” Much of his music is influenced, both consciously and subconsciously, by popular musics of the past half-century. Thanks to older siblings, his childhood was dominated by the rock music of the 60s, 70s, and 80s, which led to teenage years spent performing in various loud garage bands. Quatre Études de Fromage, a recent set of his piano pieces, was heavily inspired by the music from “Sailing the Seas of Cheese,” an album by progressive rock-trio, Primus. For his doctoral dissertation, he composed Scattered Needles – a large-scale work for tenor and chamber orchestra in which he set lyrics composed by original Pink Floyd singer/songwriter, Syd Barrett.
A member of ASCAP and the American Composers Forum, Nass has received various awards and recognitions, including ASCAP awards, as well as invitations to SEAMUS and SCI national conferences, the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the International Computer Music Conference in Singapore, and the SPARK Festival in Minneapolis. 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 One-Dog Canoe (Friends of the Minnesota Orchestra), Katla the Hag and Her Magic Britches and Shadows of Shadow Passing (Zeitgeist), …And the Sound is Thunder (Seen/Heard Trio), and Songs of Cowboys and Hobos (the dream songs project). His works are distributed through his self-publishing company, Daniel Nass Music, and professional recordings are available on the Innova, Crescent Phase, and Avid Sound Records labels.
A native of Howard Lake, Minnesota, Nass holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory and Composition from Saint Olaf College, a Master of Music in Composition from the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Composition from the University of Texas at Austin. Past teachers include Kevin Puts, Donald Grantham, James Mobberley, Chen Yi, and Peter Hamlin.
Daniel is currently based in Lowertown St. Paul, and serves as a producer for American Public Media on various specials and shows, including Pipedreams, SymphonyCast, and Composers Datebook. In addition, he is a Composer Member of Spitting Image Collective – a composer collective that brings together composers, listeners, and performers to strengthen the Twin Cities new music community.
Advisory Board
Heather Barringer
Alyssa Anderson
Katie Condon
Alyssa Anderson
Katie Condon
