Santa Barbara Music Club

Member Type: Composer

William Ramsay , Composer

William Ramsay studied music composition with Sotireos Vlahopolous at the Washington Conservatory (DC), and his compositions include the Symphonic Prelude, Glory Road, performed by the Santa Barbara Symphony, a Violin & Piano Suite, The Hawk, a Flute Sonata, a Piano Quartet, and numerous songs, including a setting of Spring Dawn, based on a text by the Tang Dynasty poet Meng Hao-Jan. Dr. Ramsay holds a PhD in Physics from UCLA, has worked as an environmental economist at the Nuclear Regulatory Commision, and has published books and papers in physics and on energy and environmental issues. He has also written novels and a number of plays, published short fiction, and edited the literary journal Fiction-Online.

SBMC Concert Performances

John Villar , Composer

John Villar, composer, has had his instrumental and vocal works performed in venues across the United States, ranging from the Hammer Theatre Center in San Jose, CA to the National Opera Center in New York City, the latter featuring the premiere of his Serenata bajo la luna performed by mezzo-soprano Anna Tonna, guitarist Francisco Roldán, and pianist Max Lifchitz. John Villar is a graduate of the Thornton School of Music at USC, having studied there with Ellis Kohs and Robert Linn, and thereafter studying privately with William Kraft and Mario Pelusi. His compositions range in scope from solo pieces to works for large orchestra, and in style from atonal to tonal. He is currently at work on a set of symphonic variations.

SBMC Concert Performances

Linda Holland , Flutist, Composer

Linda Holland is a flutist/composer whose works have been performed internationally: in Carnegie Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and at National Flute Conventions across the U.S. A SBCC faculty member since 1998, her honors include awards from the Festival of New American Music, Society of Composers, Inc., and ASCAP. Dr. Holland earned her BM from CSU Sacramento, MM in Composition from San Francisco Conservatory, and both MM in Flute and PhD in Composition from UCSB.

SBMC Concert Performances

Emma Lou Diemer , Composer, Pianist, Organist

Emma Lou Diemer was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 24, 1927 and died in Santa Barbara, California on June 2, 2024. Her father, George Willis Diemer, was an educator (college president); her mother, Myrtle Casebolt Diemer, was a church worker and homemaker. Her sister, Dorothy Diemer Hendry, was an educator, poet, writer, musician (married to Col. Wickliffe B. Hendry; their children are Betty Augsburger, Terri Sims, Alan Hendry, Bonny Gierhart). Her brothers were George W. Diemer II, an educator, Marine fighter pilot, musician, and John Irving Diemer educator, musician (his children are George W. Diemer III, René Krey, Jack Diemer, Dee Dee Diemer).

Emma Lou played the piano and composed at a very early age and became organist in her church at age 13. Her great interest in composing music continued through College High School in Warrensburg, MO, and she majored in composition at the Yale Music School (BM, 1949; MM, 1950) and at the Eastman School of Music (Ph.D, 1960). She studied in Brussels, Belgium on a Fulbright Scholarship and spent two summers of composition study at the Berkshire Music Center.

She taught in several colleges and was organist at several churches in the Kansas City area during the 1950s. From 1959-61 she was composer-in-residence in the Arlington, VA schools under the Ford Foundation Young Composers Project, and composed many choral and instrumental works for the schools, a number of which are still in publication. She was consultant for the MENC Contemporary Music Project before joining the faculty of the University of Maryland where she taught composition and theory from 1965-70. In 1971 she moved from the East Coast to teach composition and theory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. At UCSB she was instrumental in founding the electronic/computer music program. In 1991 she became Professor Emeritus at UCSB.

Through the years she fulfilled many commissions (orchestral, chamber ensemble, keyboard, choral, vocal) from schools, churches, and professional organizations. Most of her works are published. She received awards from Yale University (Certificate of Merit), The Eastman School of Music (Edward Benjamin Award), the National Endowment for the Arts (electronic music project), Mu Phi Epsilon (Certificate of Merit), the Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards (for piano concerto), the American Guild of Organists (Composer of the Year), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers/ASCAP (annually since 1962 for performances and publications), the Santa Barbara Symphony (composer-in-residence, 1990-92), the University of Central Missouri (honorary doctorate), and many others.

She was an active keyboard performer (piano, organ, harpsichord, synthesizer), and has given concerts of her own music at Washington National Cathedral, St. Mary’s Cathedral and Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles, and elsewhere.

In 2012 she wrote two works for violinist Philip Ficsor: Concerto for Violin (A Little Parlour Music, Remembrance of Things Past, Santa Barbara Rag) that he premiered October 19, 2012 with the Westmont College Orchestra under Michael Shasberger in Hahn Hall at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. And a light piece for violin and organ: Holiday Madness Medley that he and Diemer premiered at the SB Music Club at First Congregational Church, SB on December 1, 2012. These works will eventually be published. Along with a new work titled Going Away they were recorded by Philip Ficsor and Diemer on the album, Going Away.

SBMC Concert Performances

Marc Evanstein , Director, Pianist

Marc Evanstein is a composer currently residing in the Portland area. His music has been featured at festivals in the US and internationally, including the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the International Computer Music Festival, the Atlantic Music Festival, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival, where he won the Composition Contest in 2015. He has collaborated with artists such as Aperture Duo, Ignition Duo, Hocket Duo, Formalist Quartet and LA Percussion Quartet. A musician and composer since a young age, he pursued his undergraduate degree at Stanford University, where he studied composition with Jarosław Kapuściński and piano with Thomas Schultz. Following up on his interest in computers and interactivity, he then continued on at Stanford with a master’s degree in Music, Science and Technology. More recently, Marc was the recipient of a Chancellor’s fellowship at UC Santa Barbara, where he completed a PhD in composition and a master’s in Media Arts and Technology, studying composition with Profs. Clarence Barlow, Joel Feigin, and Curtis Roads, as well as piano with Dr. Charles Asche.

SBMC Concert Performances

Leslie Hogan , President, Pianist

Composer/pianist Leslie A. Hogan received her principal training at the University of Kansas and the University of Michigan. Her music often manifests her longtime fascination with other art forms and with the potential of music to reflect or respond to visual stimuli from the natural world. As a pianist, she has performed with UC Santa Barbara’s Ensemble for Contemporary Music and was a co-founder and frequent performer for the Current Sounds concert series in Santa Barbara. She was on the board of the Chamber Music Society of Santa Barbara for over a decade. She has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (Charles Ives Fellowship, 2002; Charles Ives Scholarship, 1993), the Rapido Composition Contest, the American Music Center, ASCAP, and the Chicago Civic Orchestra, among others. Dr. Hogan has taught composition in the College of Creative Studies at the University of California-Santa Barbara since 1995.

SBMC Concert Performances

Robert Else , Director Emeritus, Pianist

Robert Else, pianist, is active in both the classical and jazz worlds. He earned his BA Degree in Music from Cal Poly Humboldt and pursued graduate studies at USC, studying with Gwendolyn Koldofsky and Brooks Smith; he also received a BA in Jazz Piano from Berklee College of Music in Boston. His activities include solo piano, chamber music, jazz ensembles, singing tenor with the SB Noel Carolers, and composing tracks for film and TV, many of which can be heard at www.robertelse.com. A SBMC Advisory Board member, he also plays acoustic bass in various local Bluegrass and Americana bands.

SBMC Concert Performances

Hal Isbitz , Director Emeritus

Hal Isbitz, composer and pianist, is a classically trained musician who studied composition and music theory with Dr. Ernest Kanitz, then Professor Emeritus at the University of Southern California. A retired computer programmer, Hal began writing ragtime and other syncopated pieces in the mid-1970’s, and to date has written over 80 piano pieces. His music has been recorded and performed at ragtime festivals throughout the country, and Tulsey Town Rag, written to commemorate the centennial of Oklahoma statehood, won the 2007 competition held by the Ragtime for Tulsa Foundation.

Raymond Egan , Organist

Raymond Egan’s music has been performed throughout the United States, in Europe, in Australia, and at conventions of the American Choral Directors Association and The American Guild of Organists. He has had commissions from the General Assembly of The Unitarian Universalist Church and from California State University Los Angeles. His sacred music includes two masses, some larger choral works on environmental themes, and lots of choral, solo voice, and organ music. In the secular realm he is the composer of the score for the United States Steel documentary, Worlds of Von Braun.

He is the grandson of Raymond Egan, a member of the Songwriter’s Hall of Fame and the Canadian Songwriter’s Hall of Fame for his songs such as “Ain’t We Got Fun” and “Sleepy Time Gal”. Raymond III was honored at the Ventura A. G. O. Chapter’s recent A Celebration of Ventura County Composers. He is presently the Organist of First United Methodist Church, Santa Barbara. He has also held positions as the Director of Music/Organist & Choirmaster of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, Los Angeles, and Minister of Music of Agape Christian Fellowship Church, Compton, California.

Raymond Egan was a composition student of Samuel Adler and John Corigliano, and an organ student of David Craighead. He has a Doctoral degree in conducting from the Thornton School of Music, The University of Southern California, where he was the Outstanding Doctoral student of 1996.

SBMC Concert Performances

Eric Valinsky , Past President, Secretary

A native Manhattanite, Eric Valinsky has, for more years than he would like to admit, maintained dual careers in computer systems architecture and music. He was educated at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music and the University of Illinois, finally achieving his DMA in music composition from Columbia University. He studied composition with Walter Aschaffenburg, Salvatore Martirano, Jack Beeson, and Darius Milhaud; piano with Sara Crawford Drogheo and Emil Danenberg; and conducting with Harold Farberman. While living in Los Angeles, he became music director and composer-in-residence for The Storie-Crawford Dance Theatre Ensemble. Returning to New York, he served in a similar capacity for Danny Buraczeski’s Jazzdance, Uris Bahr and Dancers, and The New American Ballet Ensemble as well as composer-in-residence for The Rachel Harms Dance Company, Opera Uptown, and the Dance Department at City College of New York. He is currently Music Director for the American Dance & Music Performance Group and moonlights as founder and partner of Inlineos LLC, a strategic Internet consulting company.

SBMC Concert Performances