Biography
A native of Houston, Texas, Wayne Oquin's music has been performed on three continents. His original compositions have been performed in London, Paris, Prague, Moscow, Toronto, Tokyo, Vienna, Warsaw, and throughout the United States. Oquin has composed for The King's Singers, Grammy Award- Winning organist Paul Jacobs, and The Juilliard Orchestra. His Ave Maria is published by Boosey and Hawkes.
Current projects include Prism for the Lake Geneva Symphony Orchestra, a Flute Concerto for Emi Ferguson, and a piano solo for nine-time Grammy nominated pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin. In the Spring of 2013 Oquin’s Violin Sonata No. 2 will be given its world premiere by virtuoso Yo-Yo Fann in Carnegie Hall with the composer at the piano.
Reverie for solo organ, commissioned and premiered by Paul Jacobs, was featured on NPR's Pipedreams. In 2010-11, Jacobs performed Reverie at The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Davies Hall in San Francisco, Rockefeller Memorial Chapel in Chicago, at New York’s Church of St. Ignatius Loyola, and gave the European premiere in Stavanger, Norway.
Tower Ascending, commissioned by conductor John P. Lynch for the University of Georgia Wind Ensemble, was premiered at the 2009 College Band Directors National Association (CBDNA) at The University of Texas, Austin. Its premiere recording will be released this year on the Naxos label. This season Tower Ascending is performed by the United States Army Field Band in Baltimore and at the American Bandmasters Association (ABA) in Indianapolis as well as by the West Point Military Academy Band.
In 2007, The Juilliard School commissioned A Time to Break Silence: Songs inspired by the Words and Writings of Martin Luther King Jr. The work was premiered by baritone, Sidney Outlaw, at Saint Bartholomew's Church in New York City. The premiere was broadcast on New York's WQXR on the Marilyn Horne Foundation Debut Recital Series, The Song Continues....
After completing his Bachelor of Music at Texas State University, graduating in the Honors Program in three years with a 4.0 GPA, Oquin continued his studies at The Juilliard School where he earned his Master of Music and his Doctorate of Musical Arts. His principal teachers were Milton Babbitt, Samuel Adler, and Mary Anthony Cox. There he won the Palmer-Dixon Prize and the Arthur Friedman Award for outstanding composition as well as the Theodore Presser Music Award for doctoral research of the Stravinsky Archives at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basil, Switzerland. At the 2008 Juilliard Commencement Ceremony, Oquin was also awarded the Richard F. French Doctoral Prize for his doctoral document and the Juilliard Inner-arts Award for particular sensitivity in artistic collaborations with all three divisions of the Juilliard student body: dance, drama, and music.
Dr. Oquin joined the Juilliard faculty in the fall of 2008 where he teaches nineteen hours weekly in undergraduate and graduate courses covering Musicianship, Ear Training, Literature and Materials, Beethoven 1800-1810, American Symphony, American Song, and the late works of Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Bartók, and Hindemith.
An active composer, conductor, and pianist, Wayne Oquin is a Steinway Artist. He is artistic director and founder of Juilliard Joins Texas State, an inner-arts collaborative performance of Juilliard's actors, dancers, and musicians. Oquin is the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from Texas State University. He is featured in the March 2012 issue of Texas Monthly and quoted in the spring issue of SYMPHONY Magazine.