A Wish To The World: Troy University Symphony Band

BIO / STEPHEN MELILLO Susan Corrotto Lieux With organizations in 28 countries, the Music of 21st Century Composer, Stephen Melillo has been played and recorded by some of the World's finest ensembles and conductors. More than 950 works span from the IBM Thinkpad Demo to the Concerto for Violin & Orchestra. Currently 117 commissions for Wind & Percussion Ensembles of the 3rd Millennium comprise the body of recorded work called STORMWORKS. Since 1995, ASCAP continues each year to recognize Mr. Melillo's work with Special Awards in Concert Music. In 2005, his 'Documentary in Music, ' KAKEHASHI: THAT WE MIGHT LIVE was nominated for the prestigious PULITZER PRIZE IN MUSIC. This composition marking 60 years since the end of WW II, involved an unprecedented gesture in music-making and made International History. KAKEHASHI, inspired by and dedicated to the Survivors of the Bataan Death March, was recorded by an ensemble of 2 American Choruses and 143 Japanese Military Musicians specially appointed for this historic occasion by the Japanese Ministry of Defense. In 2006, The World Historic recording, STORMWORKS Chapter 5:8, Writings on the Wall, was nominated in 4 categories in the 1st round of the 49th Grammy Awards. In 2008, the 'visually scored', DVD version of THAT WE MIGHT LIVE was nominated in the 50th Grammy Awards in the Long Form Documentary caption, and won 2 Telly Film Awards for History/Biography and Music Concert. In 1992, Mr. Melillo's innovation in self-publishing and digital music dissemination, known as STORMWORKS, established a modern precedent in international Music publishing. STORMWORKS is now represented online and via store dealerships in the United States and throughout Europe and the Orient: stormworld.com You will find Mr. Melillo's scoring work in 13 feature films, 28 network television programs and the 1991 Academy Award-nominated movie 12:01PM starring Kurtwood Smith. In the early 1990's Stephen composed game music for Nintendo, Sega-Genesis and others through his affiliation with Absolute Entertainment. His work in this field, presented at the 1993 NAMM convention positioned him as a pioneer for a complete new generation of 'film-scoring' approaches to game-music. During the scoring of 12:01PM, Mr. Melillo authored and implemented Music To Picture, a hands-on curriculum establishing, in 1991, the film-scoring program at the State University of New York at Purchase. The 1992 premiere of Stephen Melillo's S-MATRIX Symphony # Numberless, conducted by Maestro Gerhardt Zimmerman with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra, received the first standing ovation in the 40-year History of the Meymandi Concert Hall in Raleigh. During intermission, a delighted Maestro Zimmerman commissioned Stephen's; Symphony 2: At Life's Edge, which premiered in 1996. At present, Maestro Zimmerman and the Canton Symphony Orchestra are engaged in planning a CD of Melillo symphonic works that will include his Concerto for Violin, composed for virtuoso violinist, Anne Akiko Meyers. As creator of MIDIMAST, (MIDI-Music, Mathematics & Science) sponsored by the Ford and Carnegie Foundations and the New York Academy of Science in the early 1980s, Mr. Melillo trained 275 New York City Mathematics and Science teachers while demonstrating a quantifiably improved understanding of mathematics and science via musical composition. Case studies included numerous classes with K-6 students from Harlem, Spanish Harlem, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens. His scoring techniques, orchestration, recording practices and implementation of new sonic forces in the modern Wind Ensemble have been the subject of several Doctoral dissertations in America, Europe and the Orient. Many of the World's finest ensembles and conductors continue to employ his innovative strategies and instrumentation. Many of Stephen's students now enjoy musical careers as professionals in an eclectic range, employed as teachers, recording artists, television and studio musicians and members of major symphony orchestras. With 17 years in the public schools, more than 30 years as an interna