Ken Bales, composer

University of Nebraska at Omaha

 

Ken Bales was born February 21, 1952 in Nevada, Missouri. He studied composition with William Latham and electronic and computer composition with Merrill Ellis and Larry Austin. Support for his work through grants has been received from the American Composers Forum, the Burlington Northern Foundation, the Nebraska Arts Council, Music Teachers National Association, and the Omaha Symphony Orchestra. He has been named Nebraska Composer of the Year twice by the Nebraska Music Teachers Association, in 1988 and in 1994. His composition “Plain Variations” received honorable mention in the 1988 National Music Teachers Association Composer’s Competition. His music is influenced by the people, places and visual images of the American west and the music of the Ozarks.

 

Bales’s music is published by Southern Music Company, and he is active in teaching composition, music theory, and multicultural music. His writings on composition, pedagogy of music theory, and Native American arts are published in such journals as The American Music Teacher, The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, The Journal of Computer-Based Instruction, and Nebraska Humanities. He is a Fellow of the the Center for Great Plains Studies, Composition Chair for the Nebraska Music Teachers Association, and a member of the Native American Studies faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO). In 1989 he received the Excellence in Teaching Award at UNO, where he is the Robert Spire Endowed Professor of Music.

 

Bales chaired the 2007 & 2008 Iron Composer competitions.