Nolan Stolz is a composer, music theorist, and percussionist/drummer from Las Vegas, currently living in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Stolz has an individual compositional voice: one that is clearly influenced by his performance background in jazz fusion and progressive rock, yet firmly rooted in the contemporary classical tradition. His compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Canada, South America, and across Europe, including several national and international festivals and conferences and by ensembles such as Dubuque Symphony Orchestra, Clinton Symphony Orchestra, Joliet Symphony Orchestra, Sandhills Symphony Orchestra, Omaha Symphonic Winds, San Francisco State University Wind Ensemble and several other college bands and orchestras. Stolz has been commissioned by the Alturas Duo, SUNY-Stony Brook, Las Vegas Music Festival Orchestra, Central Connecticut Statue University Chamber Players, Synchronix, Las Vegas Academy Jazz Ensemble, and several solo performers. His compositions may be heard on releases from Six Strings Sounds, Ablaze and Tributary Music. His solo flute work Princess Ka'iulani was published in Volume 51 of the SCI Journal of Musical Scores.
Stolz has won several awards, including the Max DiJulio Composition Prize for Haystacks for orchestra, and was the winner of the Vox Novus/Composer’s Voice Dance Collaboration Competition for Remnants of Bullfrog, Nevada for fixed electronic media and dance. He has published articles and given papers on his own compositions, microtonal music, theory-composition pedagogy and jazz improvisation pedagogy at several regional, national and international conferences. His essays on Black Sabbath, Genesis, Rush, and Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention in The Greatest 100 Bands of All Time: An Encyclopedia are forthcoming from ABC-Clio in 2015. Dr. Stolz holds degrees from The Hartt School, University of Oregon, and University of Nevada-Las Vegas. Stolz is currently Assistant Professor of Music at University of South Carolina-Upstate. In previous years, he served on the faculties of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Southeast Missouri State University, University of South Dakota, Naugatuck Valley Community College, and Three Rivers Community College.
Selected Works:
Abyss, tuba and fixed electronic media
Catharsis, jazz-rock fusion quartet
Catharsis II, piano quartet
Concerto for Electric Guitar and Symphonic Band
Ghost Town Miners, percussion ensemble
Impressions of Mt. Charleston, alto saxophone and fixed electronic media
Incidental Music for Macbeth, fixed electronic media
Lincoln Highway Suite, orchestra or band
Mele Ho'oipoipo, concert band
On Ninth Street, jazz ensemble
Princess Ka'iulani, flute
The Touch: A Black Box Opera