RANDOLPH PARTAIN (ASCAP) studied piano and composition at Florida Southern College (B.S.M., summa cum laude, 1995), and he received a Master’s Degree in Composition from the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University ( Houston) in May 2000, having studied under Richard Lavenda and Anthony Brandt. In May of 2005, he completed a doctoral degree in Music Composition from Rice University, under the tutelage of Arthur Gottschalk. His short work for orchestra, Blood Rite, will be performed in November of this year by the Shepherd School Symphony Orchestra at Rice.

During the summer of 2004, Mr. Partain’s song cycle Pax Americana: Songs of Protest received its European premiere in a public concert at the Antonin Dvořak Museum in Prague during his participation in the Czech-American Summer Music Institute’s Eleventh Annual Summer Program in Composition, directed by Ladislav Kubik. An arrangement of Pax Americana was performed in concert by tenor Gregory Wiest and pianist Nicole Winter in July of 2005 in Munich, Germany.

His work Three Simple Talismans for Piano was chosen as a semi-finalist in the Renée B. Fisher Composer Awards for 2006–2007. He has received two commissions from the Woodlands Symphony Orchestra ( Texas): Landscape of a Lifetime, premiered in November 2003, and Dancers, premiered in February 2005.

Early 2005 also saw his string quartet Seven Oblivions performed by the Eppes Quartet at Florida State University’s Festival of New Music. Last year, in addition to receiving a reading of his work Chronosphere by the renowned ensemble Speculum Musicae, he premiered his commissioned choir piece Emmaus and performed his work Faerie Ring for computer and live performer at the LaTex Electronic Music Festival hosted by Rice University. The short film Total Control (1999) by Houston-based Dominion Films featured clarinet and piano music by Mr. Partain.|

From 2000 to 2002, he completed the course work for certification as a music therapist at Sam Houston State University. While in Houston, he has taught a variety of undergraduate music courses at Rice University, Sam Houston State University, and Houston Community College.