Mr. Cadman received a Bachelor of Music (1987) and a Master of Music (1989) in composition from California State University, Fullerton, where he studied with Michael Bayer and Lloyd Rodgers. In the summer of 1989, Mr. Cadman participated in a master class with Philip Glass.
In 1995, Mr. Cadman was commissioned by Piano Productions to write a piece for one piano, eighteen hands, which received its world premiere in China in 1996. Starting in 1997, he has received an ASCAP Standard Panel Award each year for his continuing work in composition. In 1999, Mr. Cadman was a participant in the A.S.K. Theater Projects/Nautilus Music Theater Playwright-Composer Studio, and he won the 1998 Lester Horton Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music for Dance (for “Grand Hope Flower,” by Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide). In 2000, he received a nomination for the 1999 Lester Horton Dance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music for Dance (for “Lovesickness,” by Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide).
In 1989, Mr. Cadman co-founded The Illustrious Theatre Orchestra (www.theito.org), post-modern chamber ensemble (of which he was a member until 2001) which was formed in order to perform the original compositions of its members. The ITO performed numerous concerts in such venues as the Getty Center, UCLA’s Schoenberg Hall, California Plaza, California State University, Northridge and the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College, and on such prominent radio stations as KPFW, KUSC and KCRW in Los Angeles. The Illustrious Theatre Orchestra has two recordings, Standing on the Shoulders of Giants and Pythagorean Xydiko Machine (on Trompe l’Oreille records), which have been played on radio stations across the United States and in Europe.
Along with music for concert performance, Mr. Cadman has written music for theater, dance and film. His film and theater credits include “The Coffeemaker,” a film produced by Beyond the Guns Entertainment (2004), “Women of Mystery,” a documentary film by Pamela Beere Briggs and William McDonald (2000), “Endgame” by Samuel Beckett, produced by the Alternative Repertory Theatre (1996), “The Unexpected Guest” by Agatha Christie, produced by the La Mirada Community Players (1992), and “The Good Woman of Setzuan” by Bertolt Brecht, produced by the California State University, Fullerton Theater and Dance Department (1989). Mr. Cadman’s dance credits include having pieces choreographed by Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange, Iona Pear Dance Theatre, the Cleveland Repertory Dance Project and Naomi Goldberg’s Modern Dance and Ballet. In 1997, he collaborated with dancer/choreographer Oguri, and together they created an evening length site-specific piece (“A Flame in the Distance”) for Oguri and Renzoku with the Illustrious Theatre Orchestra, which was commissioned by the Friends of California Plaza (with a grant from the Lila Wallace Readers Digest Foundation). Mr. Cadman also composed an electronic score (“Windscape”) for Oguri, which premiered in December of 1997 at DanceWest, at the Luckman Theater at California State University, Los Angeles. In 1998, he premiered a new site-specific work with Oguri and Renzoku for the Armand Hammer Museum, as well as two new pieces commissioned by and composed for Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide. The first (“Vessel”) was premiered at Dance Kaleidoscope at the Luckman Theater, and the second (“Grand Hope Flower”) is an evening length work that premiered at the Getty Center, with subsequent performances at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica, CA., California Plaza in downtown Los Angeles and Sushi Performance Space in San Diego, CA. Mr. Cadman premiered his third dance/ theater piece (“Lovesickness”) for Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide in December of 1999 at Highways Performance Space, with subsequent performances at the Colorado Dance Festival and the Skirball Cultural Center. In 2001, Mr. Cadman was commissioned (along with Jeff Fairbanks and John P. Hoover) by Jerome Dunn/Humility Inc., to write music for “Mulch,” which was premiered at the A.S.K. Common Ground Festival at UCLA. He also was commissioned by Los Angeles Opera, and wrote the libretto and music to a one-act opera called “The Letter,” which was performed at Southern California middle and high schools in the Spring of 2002 and 2003. In 2002, Mr. Cadman was commissioned by Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide to write the music for a new dance/theater piece called “Two Views/An Urban Ocean Has 29 Eyes,” which was premiered March 8th 2003, at the Japan America Theater in downtown Los Angeles. “Grand Hope Flower,” “Lovesickness” and “Two Views” are part of the national touring repertory for Rosanna Gamson/Worldwide. In 2010 he was commissioned to write music for “Body of Water (Part 2),” a dance piece by Nannette Brodie Dance Theater, which premiered in September of that year. Los Angeles Opera has regularly produced “The Letter,” bringing it back to Southern California middle and high schools in 2006, 2007, 2012 and 2013.
In addition to his other music-related roles, Mr. Cadman started the annual RealNewMusic Festival in the summer of 2005 at Whittier College in Whittier, CA. This festival was created in order to feature new concert music performed by composers, musicians and ensembles based in southern California. In recent years, RealNewMusic has grown and expanded by featuring composers Harold Budd and Philip Glass.
In 2009, Mr. Cadman started a website for his publishing company (Illustrious Music), which can be found at illustriousmusic.com. Between 2009-2010, he wrote a series of pieces called “Music for Insomniacs,” which are currently available in score form on the website. Since August of 2009, the majority of his musical output has been created as weekly improvisations through Sound-In.org (and can also be found at illustriousmusic.com). Lately he has been writing music for solo guitar and for guitar and clarinet under the project name of Temporary Creatures. He is looking forward to performing live again in the near future.
Mr. Cadman lives in Whittier, CA with his wife, children and a small dog named Jukebox. In addition to his work as a composer/performer/impresario, he is an award-winning adjunct music professor at Santiago Canyon College in Orange, CA. In 2010, he became the theatre manager and production coordinator at the Ruth B. Shannon Center for the Performing Arts at Whittier College. He has performed in the United States and Europe.