Cynthia Van Maanen

Cynthia Van Maanen

Biography

Cynthia Van Maanen (b. 1971, Huntsville, Ala.) is an American composer, flutist and educator.

Dr. Van Maanen holds a D.M.A. in composition from the University of Houston Moores School of Music; an M.M. in composition from Rice University Shepherd School of Music; and a B.M. in composition from Baylor University. She also participated in the University of Southern California film composition program. Her professors in composition were David Ashley White, Samuel Jones, and Richard Willis. Masterclasses and workshops were with Christopher Rouse, Alvin Singleton, Samuel Adler, Elliot Antokoletz, and Christopher Theofanidis. Her work at USC was with Richard Bellis, Jerry Goldsmith, Buddy Baker, John Parker, Bruce Broughton and included additional masterclasses in composition with Bill Conti, David Raksin, Henry Mancini and sax lessons with Buddy Collette.

A winner of the Louisa Stude Sarofim Composition Prize, Van Maanen has had many of her works commissioned and performed by members of the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Ballet Orchestra, and the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra. Her solo work for flute, Blue Jays, was released on the Capstone label.

Also a flutist, Van Maanen has performed with the Fort Bend Symphony Orchestra, Class Act Productions, and ARCO (American Radio Chamber Orchestra), in addition to other local community groups.

Dr. Van Maanen is an instructor of music composition and music theory at Interlochen Arts Academy. She also teaches for the Boston Conservatory High School Composition Intensive (HSCI) during the summers.

Works for Winds

• Elegy for Our Children (orch. Maanen and Stern) (2018)

Resources

• Cynthia Van Maanen, personal correspondence, January 2019
• Cynthia Van Maanen website Accessed 3 April 2021
• "Dr. Cynthia Van Maanen." Interlochen Center for the Arts. Web. Accessed 6 January 2019
• The Horizon Leans Forward…, compiled and edited by Erik Kar Jun Leung, GIA Publications, 2021, p. 504.