About me
After earning my Ph.D. degree in Music theory and Composition at the University of Pittsburgh in 2003, I have been working as Assistant Professor of Music at Wheaton College in Norton, MA since July 2003. I had my junior sabbatical in 2006 - 2007 during which I was teaching in Cairo Conservatoire, Egypt. At Wheaton College, I have been teaching courses in Music Theory, at the introductory and advanced level, Composition, and Electronic and Computer Music. I developed courses in interactive composition, music psychology in addition to teaching oboe and classic guitar.
Many of my works have been premiered by outstanding ensembles and performers in Europe and the States, such as the Parnassus ensemble, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Luna Nova New Music Ensemble, Eberhard Buschmann (bassoonist), Eric Moe (piano), Felix Wong (cellist) and others. Several of my recent compositions have been performed by Wheaton College New Music Ensemble, which I created with my colleagues of the Music Department, and by the Wheaton Choir. In addition to playing the oboe with the Cold Fusion Ensemble that specializes in interactive compositions/performance, I have developed ad-hoc Modern Music Ensembles with colleagues from other universities who come together for special events and conferences.
You can reach me by email with any questions or appointment scheduling requests.
Ahmed Madkour
"A musical work is an ordering of sounds and silences in time arranged according to a composer’s taste and a particular set of established rules. In making compositional choices, the composer sets a specific course of perceiving his/her work before the listener. He/she manipulates the listener’s perception by introducing a phrase, expanding or contracting a section, telling the listener to look ahead in anticipation or to reach back in his/her memory to recall a previous event, or to take account of something present now but that was not present early in the evaluation. He/she induces in the listener a mental state through which the listener discovers the beauty and significance of the ‘sound landscape’ the composer presents before the listener.”
-Ahmed Madkour