Michael Wittgraf

Michael Wittgraf (born 1962 in Minnesota) is an American composer, music educator, conductor, and bassoonist. He works in both electronic and acoustic genres.

Wittgraf first studied mathematics at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, where he received his Bachelor of Arts. He then studied music theory and composition at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and received his Master of Musical Arts. He completed his studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, earning a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in composition. His composition teachers included: Dominick Argento, Andrew Imbrie, M. William Karlins, Alan Stout, Jay Alan Yim, Alex Lubet, and Phillip Rhodes.

In 2005, he taught at his Alma Mater, Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota. He then taught at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, and at St. Mary's College. Since 1998, he has been a professor of music at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. He teaches composition, music theory, and bassoon.

As a composer, he has been successful in several competitions, including winning the University of Minnesota Craig and Janet Swan Sesquicentennial Commissioning Project and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)/Nissim Foundation Composition Contest. Furthermore, the Ladislav Kubik International Prize in composition as well as the Modern Chamber Players International Composition Contest.

By 2009, he had published more than 60 works for orchestras, concert bands, choirs, chamber music, concerts, vocal music, and electronic music.

Works for orchestra

• 1994 Event, for orchestra
• 1996 ...so everything doesn't happen all at once , for chamber orchestra
• 1997 A Marriage of Seasons, for orchestra
• 2003 Prelude, for orchestra
• 2007 Landmarks, for orchestra
• 2008 Winds of Freedom, for youth orchestra

Works for concert band

• 1998 Fanfare on a North Dakota Theme, for concert band
• 2006 The Great Plains, for concert band
• 2006 Festival Music, for concert band
• 2007 Landmarks, for concert band

Working for choirs

• 2004 The House, for mixed choir, orchestra or mixed choir and concert band - text: Ralph Waldo Emerson
• 2004 Ode to Quinbus Flestrin, for eight-part mixed choir (SSAATTBB) - text: Alexander Pope

Vocal music

• 2000 Three Songs, for soprano and piano - text: Terry Jacobson
  1. Chocolate Ditches
  2. Revolt
  3. Dry Soil – Dry Thoughts
• 2002 Night, for soprano, clarinet and tape
• 2003 Township Fifty-Five North , five songs for baritone and piano - text: from documents of Presidents of the United States around 1900, mostly by William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt
• 2006 Paradoxes, for soprano, flute and percussion
  1. Zeno of Elea
  2. Thompson's Lamp
  3. Complement

Chamber music

• 1991 Conversation, for oboe (or flute or soprano saxophone) and clarinet
• 1992 Dances, for viola and piano
• 1993 Bearing, duet for soprano and alto saxophone
• 1993 Wrought Gold, for trombone quartet
• 1994 Meditation and Hoolerei, for clarinet, cello and piano
• 1995 Dihedral Groups, for trumpet, horn and trombone
• 1995 Theme and Five Interpolations, for cello and percussion
• 1996 Theme and Four Interpolated Interpolations, for horn and double bass
• 2000 Fluid, Stone, and Heresy, for two soprano saxophones, two tenor saxophones, cello, piano, percussion and tape
• 2000 First Frost, for flute and guitar
• 2001 The Mutable Lens, for string quartet
• 2001 Variations on “The Erie Canal”, for brass quintet
• 2003 Three Pieces, for four bassoons
• 2003 Child's Play, for clarinet and percussion
• 2003 The Nature of a Circle: The Cycle of Lewis and Clark
• 2005 Sagacity's Perdition, for bass clarinet, percussion and piano
• 2005 Canon, for four double basses
• 2006 Septet for Winds, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet and trombone
• 2007 Atmosphere, for flute and organ
• 2008 Fanfare to the Memory of JFK

Works for organ

• 2002 Threefold Wellspring
• 2003 Fugue on "Stand up and Cheer"

Works for piano

• 2004 Fantasy Variations: Twelve Bells
• 2006 Pneumonia
• 2007 Influenza
• 2008 Insomnia

Works for guitar

• 1994 Summer and a Half
• 1995 Manifold
• 1997 Pythagorean Triple

Working for percussion

• 1998 The Counterfeit Reality, for five percussionists
• 2006 Fess, Etc. , for solo percussion

Electronic music

• 1995 Inversation, for audio tape
• 1996 Impend, for audio tape
• 2005 My Children Mock Us, for audio tape
• 2007 Dronelet 1, for 4 channel soundtrack
• 2007 Dronelet 2, for 4 channel soundtrack
• 2008 Squeeze Play, for audio tape
• 2008 Tensile Silence, for audio tape
• 2008 Executive Order, for KYMA X, MIDI Wind Controller