About

Austin Shadduck is a New York-based composer and freelance musician. His first compositions were written in high school and the thrill of writing music and hearing it performed live guided his college experience. He graduated from the University of Rochester in 2008 with a B.A. in Music, additional training at the Eastman School of Music, and a number of compositions under his belt. After graduation he relocated to Madison, Wisconsin to work as a Digital Sheet Music Specialist (sheet music engraver) for Musicnotes.com. Also in Madison, a growing interest in Japanese history and music led him to the shakuhachi, an end-blown bamboo flute, which he studies with Michael Chikuzen Gould, a Grand Master of the instrument. In 2011 he received his M.A. in Music Composition from Queens College, CUNY under the guidance of Bruce Saylor. He currently resides in New York City and is pursuing a Ph.D. at the CUNY Graduate Center (composition studies with Tania León) while working as a freelance engraver. Austin is both a writer and publisher member of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), and he self-publishes his works via Muraiki Music, an entity named after the breathy shakuhachi technique.