ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½

Senior Music Composition student Max Whittaker has been selected as the 2024-25 ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ and Irving Symphony Orchestra (ISO) Composer-in-Residence.

This residency, founded in 2012 by Meadows alum Hector Guzman (M.M. ’83) and Music Composition program director and associate professor Rob Frank, aims to offer ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½ Meadows composition studies students the opportunity to become a Composer-in-Residence with a local professional orchestra.

As the new Composer-in-Residence, Whittaker will explore roles with the ISO including educational outreach, pre-concert presentations, performance, and direction. He will gain professional experience working alongside Maestro Guzman, Music Director of the ISO, while furthering his career goals and aspirations and will also have one of his original works performed by the ISO.

“This is the 13th year our selected student has the unique opportunity to participate in a full residency and hear their work performed in a regular concert by a professional symphony orchestra, something many professionals never get to experience,” explains Frank. “Many of these works have gone on to win other competitions and receive more professional performances as well.”

Since discovering an appreciation for music composition at Kinder High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, TX, Whittaker has had his works performed by notable ensembles such as the Meadows Percussion Ensemble, Meadows Wind Ensemble, SYZYGY, Voces Intimae, Ensemble PHACE, AMF Contemporary Ensemble, Apollo Chamber Players and the Viano String Quartet. As a drummer in the metal band Evren, his experience in the genres of both metal and classical music continually influence his compositions.

Whittaker’s new work, Hyperion, will be premiered by the Irving Symphony Orchestra during their concert on Saturday, March 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Irving Arts ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½. Tickets and information for this performance can be

This year, Maestro Guzman was so impressed with the residency’s runner-up Brent Fatherly that he commissioned him to write a short piece for the ISO’s educational outreach concert for local fifth- and sixth-grade students on Wednesday, March 19. Fatherly, a graduate student pursuing an M.M. in Composition and Music Theory Pedagogy, wrote his new work Under the Mask for this concert, which features the orchestra in a musical look “under the mask of a superhero.”

The ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½-ISO Composer-in-Residence program is one of the only opportunities of its kind in the US and continues to be a groundbreaking experience for its chosen student composers.

For more information about Meadows’ Music Composition program, please click here.