BIO

Mason has received many awards for his compositions including the Rome Prize, the 2022 Disitinguished Composer Award from MTNA the ACO “Playing it Unsafe” prize, the International Society of Bassists  prize,  the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award American Prize, First Prize in the Yoon Jin Kim Contemporary Music, the Premi Internacional de Composició Musical Ciutat de Tarragona Orchestra Music prize, a  National Endowment of the Arts Individual Artist Award and the Dale Warland Singers Commission Prize.

His music has been performed throughout the world and broadcast on a number of radio stations including “Performance Today” (featuring his string quartet) on NPR and RIAA in Italy and his compositions were the subject of two radio

He has also worked in collaboration with artists such as New York video artist Sheri Wills, New York photographer Richard Barnes, and Video artist Alex Schweder.  Mason’s collaborative works with video have appeared in Yerba Buena (San Francisco), Howard House (Seattle), American Academy in Rome, and the ISPIN Gallery (New York).  His work, Murmurs was featured in the New York Times magazine and the on-line magazine FLYP media.

In addition to his year in Rome Mason was a composer in residence at the International Centre for Composers in Sweden, Visiones Sonoras 2015 festival, a Hambidge Center, the University of Alaska in Fairbanks, the ppianissimo New Music Festival in Bulgaria, and two residencies with "Escape To Create” in Seaside, Florida. 

His music is on Albany Records, Beauport Classical, Innova Recordings, Quindecim Recordings, North/South Consonance Recordings, Capstone Recordings, Seamus recordings, and Living Artist Recordings labels.

He received his B.M. in Composition at the University of Miami and his M.M. and D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Illinois.    Mason is department chair and professor of composition at the Frost School of Music of the University of Miami since 2010.