Kurt Erickson is an active composer whose music can be heard frequently throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He is currently serving as the 2001-2004 Composer-in-Residence at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi, where he writes sacred choral music for the professional ensemble Schola Cantorum. From 1999-2000, he served as Resident Composer in a unique Three Church Residency at the Grace Cathedral, St. Mary the Virgin, and St. Mark’s Episcopal Church.  

In November 2002, his multi-media commissioned ballet Angels: Fallen & Otherwise was premiered by the Lawrence Pech Dance Company, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, Ragazzi Boys Chorus, and the Baroque Choral Guild. Recent performances of his music have been heard in Chicago, Italy, and Australia. In December 2003, the San Francisco Girls Chorus premiered a new commissioned work at Davies Symphony Hall, and his music was sung later that season by the Pacific Mozart Ensemble on the Composers, Inc. 2003-2004 concert series. In June 2004, he continued his work with the Lawrence Pech Dance Company, participating in a composer residency and performing at the Napa Valley Opera House. Upcoming performances and activities include a commission and residency with the Randolph-Macon Woman's College Chorale (Virginia), an orchestral premiere by the Sacramento Philharmonic, a new work for soprano Marnie Breckenridge, a new piece for violist Kurt Rohde with the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, and a series of string quartet concerts with composer Daniel Feinsmith.

Born in Fresno, California, Kurt studied piano performance with pianist Philip Lorenz at California State University Fresno. He continued his graduate studies with William Cerny at The University of Notre Dame and composition at Mills College with Pauline Oliveros and Alvin Curran. While at The University of Notre Dame, he founded and directed the New Music at Notre Dame Festival—commissioning and premiering guest composer Ingram Marshall’s Rave. As a pianist/composer, he has participated as a fellow at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, Music 97 (Cincinnati), Chamber Music Institute (NY), and participated in the residency program at the Banff Centre for the Arts. He has received grants and awards from the American Music Center, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, and the Seaver Institute.   

Erickson’s choral works will be recorded and released on an upcoming CD by the Schola Cantorum vocal ensemble on the Gothic Records label. In a recently published choral music dissertation, Dr. Randall Speer declared: “This is a composer to watch for.”