The following is summarized from a reference book. Sandburg grew up in Galesburg, Illinois, working numerous odd jobs; fought for eight months in the Spanish-American War; went to Lombard College, where he self-published his first book; and then worked for various socialist-democratic political groups and wrote for various Milwaukee newspapers. On June 15, 1908 he married Lillian Steichen. Around 1912 Sandburg moved to Chicago for more newspaper work. In Chicago he published (through a publisher now) several poems and two books of poetry. American democracy and its virtues were a principal topic of his work, and this interest led him further to become a biographer of Abraham Lincoln. In the 1920s and 30s he gained enough reputation as a poet to make a living from his publications and his lectures. Sandburg toured the country reading his poetry and singing folk songs; during the wars he contributed his talents to many wartime projects. He, his wife, and their three daughters lived for a while in Harbert, Michigan and the couple finally retired to a farm in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Sandburg's poems are typically unmetered and rhymeless, although informed by the rhythms of Midwestern speech. Vigorous and strong, his language and moods are usually underpinned by compassion.

Other Web Site: http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=19169

See also The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg (Poetry) in the Singers' Bibliography

This entry contributed by G&K around 9/7/98

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Scearce, J. Mark

American composer (see songs) 1960 - , working primarily in English

This entry contributed by G&K around 6/22/98

Mark is a wonderful composer and a friend of ours. He composes both instrumental and vocal music, but he has a particular interest in vocal composition because his wife, Leda Asher-Yager, is a soprano. This relationship also might go some way to explaining why his vocal compositions are so complimentary to the voice. His musical style, from the relatively small representative sample to which I have been exposed, is one that uses the techniques of many musical periods, from tonal to (at least seemingly) atonal, to express himself. His text setting is exemplary, and he has excellent taste in poets. Mark is currently living in North Carolina as part of a Meet the Composer grant. The link below is to an article on him by an online weeekly magazine.

Other Web Site: http://www.spectatoronline.com/1998/041898/feature_index.html

This entry contributed by G&K around 7/16/98

Mark's songs are currently self-published. Contact him at 6617 Lake Shore Drive, Hickory, NC 28601, USA, (828) 326-8887, fax (828) 267-0099.

This entry contributed by G&K around 10/11/98

Born in Edina, Missouri in 1960, J. Mark Scearce has five degrees in music composition, theory, french horn performance, and philosophy and religion, including the doctorate in composition from Indiana University. His teachers have included John Eaton, Harvey Sollberger, and Donald Erb.

His compositions have been published, recorded and awarded numerous honors, among them from the Wellesley Composers' Conference (1987), the June in Buffalo festival (1989), the Atlantic Center for the Arts (1995), the SCI National Conference (1993), and the American Music Center (1996). His works have been awarded First Prize in three national competitions: the 1982 Chicago Brass Quintet Competition, the 1988 NACUSA Young Composers' Competition, and the 1991 Christensen Prize from Franklin and Marshall College. In 1993 Dr. Scearce was one of three national winners of the First Triennial Opera Composition Competition sponsored by the Moore Foundation of Texas, and in 1997 was a recipient of Hawaii's first-ever Individual Artist Award for Music Composition awarded by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts.

In March 1991 the Chicago Brass Quintet released their recording of Scearce's award=winning work on the Delos compact disc "Virtuoso Brass." And in September 1997 the Nashville Chamber Orchestra released his Endymion's Sleep on their debut compact disc recording on the Warner Bros. Label. Scearce's music is being performed throughout the United States, and recently in France, Korea, and New Zealand as well.

Dr. Scearce has served as an arts administrator with the Bowling Green (OH) New Music and Art Festival, the Raleigh (NC) Symphony Development Association, and the Indiana University New Music Ensemble. He was Composer-in-Residence at North Carolina State University for two years. He also served for four years as Assistant Professor and Chair of Music Composition and Theory at the University of Hawaii, acting as Founder and Director of the Mirror of the New festivals of new music and the contemporary music ensemble, Kawana'ao, at the University of Hawaii. Presently, Dr. Scearce is Composer-in-Residence in Hickory, North Carolina as part of the coveted "Meet the Composer New Residencies" program.

This entry contributed by anonymous around 8/25/98

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