Cynthia Van Maanen, D.M.A.

About Cynthia

American composer, educator, and multi-instrumentalist Cynthia Van Maanen, D.M.A., currently serves on the faculty of the Interlochen Arts Academy. In 2023 she was Artist-in-Residence for the San Francisco Conservatory Technology and Applied Composition (TACS) program. Her composition catalogue includes music for theatre, dance, chamber ensembles, soloists, orchestra, and wind ensembles. Radiance, Unleashed (2026) is a chamber work commissioned by the University of Houston in celebration of the 100th anniversary for that institution. Her most recent orchestral commission, Mercury: Bringing Dualities into Harmony, was premiered by the Toledo Symphony Orchestra as part of a multi-composer work called ...of the spheres... . Van Maanen’s works for wind band have been performed around the United States by groups including: Texas State University Wind Symphony, Florida State University Wind Ensemble, and Texas Woman’s University Wind Symphony among many other collegiate groups. Her chamber music has been performed internationally and nationally. One of her most recent works is for the PBS online show Songs About Buildings and Moods, Seth Boustead producer.

Helping students discover, refine, and communicate their own musical voices is the primary focus of her teaching and her students have gone on to successes at institutions like: Juilliard, Eastman, Peabody, Oberlin, Curtis, the San Francisco Conservatory, Rice University, the Cleveland Institute of Music, the New England Conservatory, the Boston Conservatory, the University of Michigan, and the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Her masterclasses for the Seattle Symphony’s Composer Workshop; Interlochen Online; The FaceArt school in Shanghai, China; and the TACS program of San Francisco Conservatory have been highly lauded. She has served on the National Association for Music Education (NAfME) Council for Music Composition and her published contributions include Information Literacy in Music: an Instructor’s Companion; and The Oxford Handbook of Music Composition Pedagogy.

My music is focused on communicating with the audience through emotion. Music is such a beautiful way of expressing the human experience and letting it provide an outlet for us in whatever circumstance(s) we are living through—from the most joyful to the most profoundly life changing moments. My goal is to help students find their way of expressing themselves as an artist.