About

My name is Jason Taurins (pronounced TAR-ins), and I am a graduate of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, MI, where I earned a Bachelor of Music in Education in 2015. My trumpet teachers were Dr. Stephen Jones and Scott Thornburg. I am also a freelance composer with an interest in writing for educational bands and orchestras, metamodern chamber music. I am currently based in Phoenix, Arizona, where I work for a large chain of music stores serving classroom music educators.

In my time at WMU, I studied composition with Dr. Lisa Coons and Dr. Richard Adams. I participated in masterclasses and took lessons from composers such as John Mackey and Dr. Scott Boerma. I worked with several other composers during my time at WMU, including Brian Balmages, Robert Sheldon, Quincy Hilliard, Phillip Sparke, Larry Clark, Jack Stamp, Sean O’Loughlin, and Steven Bryant. My music has been frequently performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

My music has been recorded by numerous artists, including Dr. Angela Collier-Reynolds (flute) and Patrick Reynolds (trombone); Olivia Jageurs (harp) and Ray Hearne (tuba); Dr. David Bohn (keyboards); Lindsey Goodman (flute); Robin Meiksins (flute); and Iwona Glinka (flute). You can hear my music on the labels Navona Records and Phasma-Music.

My educational works for band and orchestra are published through Excelcia Music, Carl Fischer, Wingert-Jones, and TUX People’s Music.

In what little spare time I do have, I enjoy golfing, learning languages (I’m currently working on Esperanto, German, and Spanish), and streaming movies and TV. I have a mini dachshund named Mingus, and a Pembroke Welsh Corgi named Ella, both of whom I adore.

Fun fact: I am an ordained minister in the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, and have even officiated a wedding!

What is Klangfarbenmelodien Music? I am affiliated with ASCAP both as a composer and a publisher (because I am self-published). I wanted to choose a more interesting publisher name than “Jason Taurins Music,” so I chose a fun word. “Klangfarbenmelodien” is a German word which means “tone color melody” or “timbre melody.” It refers to the compositional technique of splitting a melody between several instruments, and is the musical equivalent of pointillism.