Ross Feller joined the Kenyon College faculty after having taught at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and Georgia College and State University. His research interests include the cognition and embodiment of sound, the impact of technology on compositional praxis, semiotics, composition, computer music, jazz, and improvisation. He has published book chapters with Cambridge University Press, Routledge, and Schott, articles and reviews in journals such as the Computer Music Journal and ex tempore, and has presented papers at music theory and interdisciplinary conferences in the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Canada, and the U.S.A. He was also the first external scholar to receive a year-long research grant to study materials in the Brian Ferneyhough Collection, housed at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland. His dissertation on Ferneyhough was nominated for an award from the Theodore Presser Foundation.

A recent recipient of the Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for Composition, he has also received awards and grants for his compositions from the Gaudeamus Foundation, ASCAP, Illinois Arts Council, Bent Frequency, and Ingenuity: Cleveland's Festival of the Arts, Music, and Technology. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by ensembles such as the Prism Saxophone Quartet, Oberlin Conservatory Contemporary Music Ensemble, Ensemble Luna Nova, Goliard Ensemble, members of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, at venues including: Symphony Space (New York City), Presser Recital Hall (Philadelphia), Green Mill (Chicago), De Ijsbreker (Amsterdam), Plateau (Brussels), and at many universities, conferences and festivals. Recordings of his compositions are available on New Dynamic Records, Athena Records, and UIUC Experimental Music Studios.

As a saxophonist he has specialized in contemporary classical repertiore, improvisation, extended techniques, and jazz. With Kenyon College Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Kora Radella he co-founded Double-Edge Dance, a contemporary dance and music company for which he has composed many works. He has also collaborated with Kenyon dance faculty professors Balinda Craig-Quijada and Julie Brodie, and art faculty professors Claudia Esslinger and Marcella Hackbardt.

Currently he serves as the Associate Reviews Editor for the Computer Music Journal and often adjudicates competitions such as the MTNA Ohio Music Teachers Association Young Composers Competition.

Education

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign D.M.A. & M.M. (Theory and Composition)
American Conservatory of Music B.M. (Composition)

Selected Publications

"E-Sketches: Brian Ferneyhough's Use of Computer-Assisted Compositional Tools," in A Handbook to Twentieth-Century Musical Sketches, Patricia Hall and Friedemann Sallis, editors, Cambridge University Press, United Kingdom, 2005.

"Resistant Strains of Postmodernism: The Music of Helmut Lachenmann and Brian Ferneyhough," in Postmodern Music/Postmodern Thought, Judy Lochhead and Joseph Auner, editors, Routledge, New York City and London, 2003.

"Involuntary Grimace: A Semiotic Morphology of Facial Gesticulation in Jazz Performance Practice," Proceedings of the 2004 Dutch Music Theory Society Annual Conference, Utrecht, the Netherlands, 2005.

Courses Taught

MUSC 101: Basic Musicianship
MUSC 121: Music Theory/Ear Training
MUSC 221: Eighteenth-Century Counterpoint
MUSC 324: Introduction to Music Technology
MUSC 392: Composing for Digital Audio