BIOGRAPHY
Lonnie Hevia (b. 1970) grew up in Miami, Florida. Although he started playing the piano at the age of 7, his formal lessons were sporadic, and he found a much greater fascination in using the instrument to create sounds that were his own than in using it to practice the pieces assigned by his teachers. By the time he entered high school, he had started writing music inspired by the progressive rock and jazz fusion of the 1970’s and by the alternative bands of the 1980’s.
After high school, Lonnie became involved in an eclectic variety of musical projects: playing keyboards in an experimental, psychedelic jam band; nightclub performances with various rock and top-40 bands; and a studio project in which he played the role of George Martin, orchestrating the Beatles-esque songs of a talented songwriter. Having been self-taught as a composer, and realizing that he had hit a wall in his compositional progression, Lonnie enrolled at the Florida State University School of Music in 1994.
After high school, Lonnie became involved in an eclectic variety of musical projects: playing keyboards in an experimental, psychedelic jam band; nightclub performances with various rock and top-40 bands; and a studio project in which he played the role of George Martin, orchestrating the Beatles-esque songs of a talented songwriter. Having been self-taught as a composer, and realizing that he had hit a wall in his compositional progression, Lonnie enrolled at the Florida State University School of Music in 1994.
At Florida State, Lonnie studied with professor emeritus, John Boda. He earned his bachelor’s degree in composition – summa cum laude – in 1998, and he earned his master’s degree in composition in 2001. He presented his music in a master class with John Corigliano, worked with Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in master classes and individual lessons, and studied for one semester with Ladislav Kubik.
In 2006, Lonnie enrolled at The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland where he worked on, both, a DMA in composition – which he earned in 2013 – and a second master’s degree, in music theory pedagogy. At Peabody he studied composition with Nicholas Maw, Christopher Theofanidis, and Michael Hersch. He presented music in master classes with Justin Dello Joio, and Christopher Rouse, and he took individual lessons with Libby Larsen and Chen Yi. He won second prize in the school’s Prix d’Été and first prize in the Virginia Carty deLillo Composition Competition. In 2008, he was awarded the Randolph S. Rothchild Award in Composition.
Lonnie completed his MM in music theory pedagogy in 2009 and has taught as adjunct faculty at Peabody and Towson University, and as a teaching assistant at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He has taught courses in the undergraduate music theory and aural skills sequences, fundamentals for both music majors and non-majors, keyboard skills, eighteenth-century counterpoint, Classical and Romantic form and analysis, twentieth-century theory, composition, arranging, and the history of popular music.
In 2006, Lonnie enrolled at The Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland where he worked on, both, a DMA in composition – which he earned in 2013 – and a second master’s degree, in music theory pedagogy. At Peabody he studied composition with Nicholas Maw, Christopher Theofanidis, and Michael Hersch. He presented music in master classes with Justin Dello Joio, and Christopher Rouse, and he took individual lessons with Libby Larsen and Chen Yi. He won second prize in the school’s Prix d’Été and first prize in the Virginia Carty deLillo Composition Competition. In 2008, he was awarded the Randolph S. Rothchild Award in Composition.
Lonnie completed his MM in music theory pedagogy in 2009 and has taught as adjunct faculty at Peabody and Towson University, and as a teaching assistant at Johns Hopkins University. He is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida. He has taught courses in the undergraduate music theory and aural skills sequences, fundamentals for both music majors and non-majors, keyboard skills, eighteenth-century counterpoint, Classical and Romantic form and analysis, twentieth-century theory, composition, arranging, and the history of popular music.