About HeShe Music

HeShe Music is the publishing company of nationally award winning composers Dan Becker and Belinda Reynolds. Ranging from solo to chamber and orchestral works, we focus on bringing new concert music to today's musicians. Our music is cutting edge, yet accessible to audiences and players alike.

HeShe Music carried a varied repertoire of works for both professionals and young players. Regardless of your skills, you will be able to find music for you that is both fun and stimulating to play.

We invite you to browse our store to learn more about HeShe Music. You can look at scores, listen to pieces, and even contact the composers should you wish to know more about a work.

Welcome!

About the Composers

Belinda Reynolds

Raised in a Texan Air Force family, Belinda Reynolds (born 1967) now considers herself an 'adopted native' of California. She is an active composer, organizer, and teacher that focuses on bringing new music to a variety of audiences and communities. Ms Reynolds completed her Doctorate at Yale University with Martin Bresnick, Jacob Druckman, Jonathan Berger, and Tania León. She received her M.A. and B.A. from the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied principally with Andrew Imbrie and John Thow. She has received awards from ASCAP, the International League of Women Composers, the NACUSA Young Composers Competition, and the CMTA Composition Competition, among others.

Belinda Reynolds’ music has been performed by a number of organizations throughout North America and Europe, including: the Da Capo Players, New Music Consort, The New Millennium Ensemble, Twisted Tutu, Essential Music, Earplay, the Vermont Contemporary Music Ensemble, Citywinds, Alternate Currents Performance Ensemble, Fulcrumpoint (Chicago), Continuum Contemporary Music (Toronto), Artemis (Toronto), New Music Works, Music Now, and The Albany Symphony's Dogs of Desire. Her music has been featured in such festivals and venues as the Spoleto USA Music Festival, Lincoln Center’s Great Performers Series, The Festival of New American Music, Chicago Artists’ Series, the Portugal New Music Festival, Wie Es Ihr Gefält, and Weil Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has also been an Artist in Residence at Djerassi Colony, Banff Centre for the Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and the MacDowell Colony.

Recent seasons have been an especially productive for Ms. Reynolds. The Amsterdam based group, ELECTRA, has performed her music as part of Lincoln Center’s Great Performances Series. They have also toured it across Europe, including performances in London’s Queen Elizabeth’s Hall and on the island of Sardinia. In addition, Jennifer Hymer and WIREWORKS premiered in Germany Ms. Reynolds’ solo piano/sampler/film work, JUST BETWEEN US. Other engagements include being guest artist at the Spoleto Festival USA, the Blueprint Festival, and The Festival of New American Music. Most recently, Ms. Reynolds’ guitar concerto, CONVERGENCE, was arranged and performed in Rosario Argentina by the new music group, Ensamble Rosario, and the acclaimed guitarist, Sergio Puccini. In 2005, her work for piano and marimba duo PLAY was released on the Innova label’s CD, Hammers and Sticks, featuring pianist Teresa McCollough. Other projects include commissions for BARBWIRE, the Boulder and Marin Youth Symphonies, Melody of China, Citywinds, the Southwark Consorts of Winds (UK) and Kathleen Supové,

As an organizer, Ms. Reynolds is Vice-President of the composers’ cooperative, Common Sense. Now in their tenth year, the main objective of the group has been to explore alternative ways of conceiving and presenting new works. Common Sense has been responsible for the commission of over 50 new works, written for such organizations such as the Albany Symphony and the Meridian Arts Ensemble. Common Sense’s premiere CD was recorded on CRI's Emergency Music label in January, 1997. Their latest CD, Shock of the Old, featuring works from their collaboration with the Bay Area Ensemble American Baroque, was one of the winners of the Chamber Music America/WQXR Best Chamber Music CD for 2003.

Ms. Reynolds is also very active in music education. She has been a Meet-the-Composer-in-Residence for public schools and was the Music Director for the Bethwood Youth Orchestra in Woodbridge, CT. Additionally, she has taught and guest lectured at Dartmouth College and Yale University, among others. Ms. Reynolds is the Director of HeShe Music in San Francisco, a private studio that teaches composition, piano, theory, and musicianship. Her music is published by Dover, HeShe Music, and Kithara Editions.

Dan Becker

Composer, Teacher, Artistic Director, Common Sense Composers' Collective

Dan Becker received his DMA in Composition from Yale University, where he also earned his MM and MMA degrees. His teachers included Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Poul Ruders, Louis Andriessen, and Terry Riley. Awards and grants include those from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Meet the Composer, the America Composers Forum, and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust. His most recently completed work, an interactive piece for solo pianist and disklavier piano, was commissioned by Meet the Composer and premiered by Kathleen Supové in November 2004 and hailed by Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle as "a dynamic whirlwind of a piece". Scheduled for the 2005/06 season is a new work for the Paul Dresher Ensemble. Other recent performances include those by the Albany Symphony, the Cincinnati Conservatory, Duke University, Park City String Quartet Festival, Norfolk Summer Festival, Juilliard’s Focus Festival, Chicago Arts Series, OPUS415 Bay Area New Music Marathon, Bates College American Music Festival, the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, University of Vermont, New Langton Arts, Sacramento State American Music Festival, and Bowdoin College. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the American Music Center. In 2001, he joined the composition faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Common Sense Composers’ Collective, an eight-member SF-NYC based composers’ group which is committed to experimenting with the processes in which music is conceived, developed, and presented. Each year the eight composers of Common Sense seek out and collaborate with a different performing ensemble. Under the auspices of Common Sense, Dan has had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the most exciting performers and ensembles working in new music today, including the Meridian Arts Ensemble, the New Millennium Ensemble, Twisted Tutu, the Dogs of Desire Ensemble, the American Baroque period instrument ensemble, and New York’s Essential Music. Upcoming collaborations include those with Michelle Schumann of Austin’s Barbwire Music Project, and the ensemble Electra from Amsterdam – a project which marks their first Trans-Atlantic collaboration. A Compact Disc of the pieces resulting from their first project was released in 1997 by CRI on their acclaimed Emergency Music series; while a recent CD of works from their 1996 project with American Baroque was released in June, 2002 on the Santa Fe New Music label. This most recent disc, The Shock of the Old, received a Chamber Music America/WQXR 2003 record award. Their third CD, with the New Millennium Ensemble, will be released later this year.

From 1995-2000, Common Sense extended their philosophy of collaboration and bridge building to the creation of OPUS415, a day-long Bay Area New Music Marathon. Presented in San Francisco, this event showcased the diverse voices of Bay Area composers and performers, along with a selection of special visiting guests. Over the last ten years, Common Sense has been honored to receive numerous grants, including those from the Copland Fund for Music, the San Francisco Arts Commission, the Jerome Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the Zellerbach Family Fund, ASCAP, the Virgil Thomson Foundation, and Meet the Composer.