Janika Vandervelde is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 composer, pianist, and music educator.

Biography

Janika Vandervelde was born in Ripon, Wisconsin, and grew up in nearby Green Lake, playing horn and piano. She began composing in her teens. After undergraduate studies in music education at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, she relocated to the Twin Cities of Minnesota, earning a doctorate in composition (1985) from the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

, where her teachers included Dominick Argento

Dominick Argento

Dominick Argento is an American composer, best known as a leading composer of lyric opera and choral music...

 and Eric Stokes

Eric Stokes

For historian, see Eric Stokes Eric Stokes was a composer, whose work spanned an eclectic range of influences and styles....

. She has taught intermittently at the University of Minnesota School of Music, and currently teaches music and composition at the Perpich Center for Arts Education

Perpich Center for Arts Education

The Perpich Center for Arts Education is an agency of the State of Minnesota that works to improve arts education for Minnesota students and educators through programs and partnerships centered in the arts. A campus in Golden Valley houses the Center's three main components: the Professional...

 in Golden Valley, Minn. She has also worked as a pianist and conductor.

Vandervelde served as music director at Wesley United Methodist Church

Wesley United Methodist Church

Wesley United Methodist Church is a common name. It can refer to several churches in the United States:* Wesley United Methodist Church * Wesley United Methodist Church...

 in Minneapolis and received a Meet The Composer New Residencies grant that supported her three-year tenure as composer-in-residence for three Minnesota cultural organizations, led by the Minnesota Chorale.

Vandervelde is especially well-known for her choral music, which has been commissioned and performed by such groups as Chanticleer

Chanticleer

- Fiction :*A rooster appearing in fables about Reynard The Fox**The Nun's Priest's Tale, a version of Chanticleer and the Fox told in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales**By metonymy, any rooster**A character in the movie Rock-a-Doodle played by Glen Campbell...

, the Dale Warland Singers

Dale Warland Singers

The Dale Warland Singers was a 40-person choral group in the United States, based in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1972 and conducted by Dale Warland, the ensemble tackled a repertoire of difficult, complex, and beautiful polyphonic works for both a cappella...

, and the Oregon Repertory Singers. In 2006 she designed a composition curriculum using music notation software, Music By Kids For Kids, which is published by the American Composers Forum. Based on this curriculum, she has led composition workshops for teachers and students across Minnesota.

Vandervelde lives in St. Paul, Minnesota. Her music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, Earthsongs, and Hothouse Press; she is a member of ASCAP.

Awards and Honors

• Bush Artist Fellow
• McKnight Foundation
  McKnight Foundation
  The McKnight Foundation is a philanthropic organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota in the United States. The foundation's interests lie in the environment, the arts, community development, and other areas....
  
  Composer Fellow
• Boulanger Award of the Women’s Philharmonic of San Francisco
• Fellowships from the Minnesota State Arts Board, ASCAP, and the American (formerly Minnesota) Composers Forum.
• Listed in the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed.)
• Listed in International Who's Who of Classical Musicians

Works

Vandervelde has written more than 100 works for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, and soloists, as well as two operas, Hildegard (1989) and Seven Sevens (1993).

Choral:

• Water Of Life [SATB, pno four-hands, or 2 vln, vla, vlc, cb, 2 ob, mar, pno four-hands] 2010
• All the Great Ships [SATB] 2008
• Sing Me A Home [SATB, piano, Latin percussion, opt. guitar and bass] 2007
• All Things Resounding [SATB] 2007
• Slip Away [SA, Orff instruments] 2006
• Medicine Woman [SATB, Native American flutes and percussion, piano bows, narrator] 2006
• We Are All Your Chosen People [SATB, piano] 2005
• Mar [SATB] 2004
• Cancioncilla del primer deseo [SATB, Latin percussion] 2004
• Villancico [SATB, Latin percussion] 2004
• Kindling Humanity's Heart [SATB, organ] 2004
• Birds of Oz [SATB] 2003
• Alleluia [SATB, harp] 2003
• The Spacious Firmament [SATB, vln, electronics] 2003
• O Factura Dei [SATB, amplified bass, dumbeck] 2002
• The Gathering [SATB (or SSA), pno/hp, vln/hammered dulcimer] 2002
• Kyla Vuotti [SATBB] 2001
• Earthbeat [SSA, pc] 2001
• Ave Maria [SATB, tenor solo, pno., vlc. (opt.)] 2001
• Dance Ablaze [SSA, pc. (opt.)] 2001
• Adventures of the Black Dot [SSAATTBB, youth choir (SSA), acc., hp., pc., vlc., narrator] 2001
• Dancing in Circles [SSA (or SAB), fl., mar., vla.] 2000 Audio Clip
• Cançoes de Embalar (Lullabies) [SATB] 2000 Audio Clip
• New Face [SSA, bottles drums] 1999
• Tutti for Earth and Heaven [SATB, organ] 1999
• It's Alive Now [SATB, pc.] 1999
• Beijing Cai Hong (Colorful Rainbow of Beijing) [SATB, pipa, vln., sop., narrator] 1998
• Three Songs of the Spirit [SATB, cl./bass cl., pno., pc] 1997
• Wataridori [SATB, ob.] 1997
• Villages of the Earth [SATB, pc.] 1995
• Ancient Echoes Across the Stara Planina [SSAA, orchestra] 1994
• Positive Women: Susan [SA or SB, vln] 1992
• O Viridissima Virga [SATB, pc.] 1992
• Polyhymnia [SATB, orchestra] 1992
• The Mystic Trumpeter [SATB, T solo, 2 trp.] 1986
• Voxworks [SATB] 1986
• Come Ye Weary [SATB, pno. (or handbells)] 1983
• Hilariter [SATB, pno. (or handbells)] 1983
• Little Boy Lost/Little Boy Found [SSA] 1979
• Three Psalms [SATB] 1978

Orchestral:

• Cosmos: An All-Persons' Guide to the Orchestra and Space Adventure [orchestra, narrator] 1999
• Pacific Transit [orchestra, pipa] 1997
• Cafes of Melbourne [orchestra, accordion]
• The Dreamweaver [orchestra, narrator] 1996
• Ancient Echoes Across the Stara Planina [orchestra, chorus (SSAA)] 1994
• Polyhymnia [orchestra, chorus (SATB)] 1992
• Mythos 1991
• Journey to the End of the Shaking Lands [orchestra, 2 actors] 1988
• Clockwork Concerto [orchestra, vla.] 1987
• Womanhood Shines the Seasons [orchestra and soprano]1981
• The Farthest Shore [chamber orchestra] 1981
• Metaphors [orchestra and handbells] 1980
• Testaments [chamber orchestra] 1979

Stage and multi-media:

• Adventures of the Black Dot [a choral storybook ; concert or staged piece with video animation] 2001
• Dancing in Circles [the story of Mary Yang, Hmong immigrant; concert or interdisciplinary performance piece] 2000
• Cosmos: An All-Persons' Guide to the Orchestra and Space Adventure [narrated concert piece with video animation] 1999
• The Dreamweaver [an orchestral storybook; concert piece with slides] 1996
• A Time of Hands [interdisciplinary performance piece] 1995
• Seven Sevens [music-theater] 1993
• Hildegard [animated video-performance opera] 1989
• The Bacchae [incidental music] 1987
• Seven Sevens - Cycle One:The Politicians [operatic fragment] 1986
• Love Song to the Plains [ballet] 1982

Solo vocal:

• I Am the One [T, pno.] 1998
• The Prayer of Manitonquat [S, vln., gtr.] 1996
• Item de Virginibus [S or A, digital tape] 1989
• In Celebration [S, pno.] 1988
• God's Grandeur [B, pno.] 1988
• Crystal Light [S, digital tape] 1988
• Sky-Born [S, pno.] 1985
• Henry's Fate [T, cl., vlc., pno., pc.] 1983
• Skyros [B, vln., vlc., fl., cl., pno., pc.] 1982

Chamber & solo instrumental:

• Max Found Two Sticks (cl, bsn, tpt, trb, vln, vlc, 2 pc, narrator) 2011
• Labyrinth [organ, with optional piano] 2009
• Getting Your Z's, Or Not [cl/b cl, pno, w pc] 2008
• HaChZaRaH [organ] 2007
• Petric's Web [accordion] 2005
• Monapacataca [string quartet] 2004
• Klucevsek's Web [accordion] 1994
• Genesis I [oboe, digital tape] 1991/1983
• Clockwork Concerto [viola, digital tape] 1991/1987
• The Greenfly [2 vibraphones, digital tape] 1991/1987
• Genesis VII [alto/sop. sax, digital tape] 1991/1989
• Genesis VII [alto sax/bass cl., 2 pc., pno] 1989
• Aeolian Palindrome Clockwork [alto sax, digital tape] 1989/1987
• Genesis VI [string trio] 1988
• Dabhar [3 celli, or string trio] 1988
• Viriditas [vln. & pno; or sop. sax & mar.]
• Genesis V [guitar quartet] 1987
• The Greenfly [vibraphone & pc. ensemble] 1987
• Genesis IV [cl., vln., pno] 1987
• Saxworks [saxophone quartet] 1986
• Clockwork Rhapsody [piano] 1985
• Two Clockworks [woodwind quintet] 1985
• Jack and the Beanstalk [fl., ob., hn., trb., vla., cb., pc., hp., nar.] 1984
• Genesis III [vla., fl., hp] 1984
• Ch'i [2 pianos] 1983
• Genesis II [piano trio] 1983
• Genesis I [ob., pno.] 1983
• Four Miniatures [piano trio] 1982
• Birthday Music for N.D.B. [piano] 1980
• Physis [hn., pno.] 1978