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Raised in Texas, with family roots in country-swing and gospel, Toby Twining has traveled musically from playing for rock and jazz bands to experimental composition at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he earned his Bachelor of Musical Composition degree in 1985. He moved to New York in 1987, initially writing for modern dance choreographers who wanted the sounds of a new choral music. In 1990, with a group of five New York–based singers, Twining presented the first international live concert of his music in Seoul, South Korea. A year later he formed Toby Twining Music, an a cappella quartet. The ensemble expanded to premiere Chrysalid Requiem in 1999 at Gaudeamus’ “Festival of New Spiritual Music”? in Amsterdam, an hour-length choral work released by Cantaloupe Music in 2002. His instrumental music has been recorded by pianist Margaret Leng Tan on the Art of the Toy Piano (Uni/Point, 1997) and cellist Matt Haimovitz on Please Welcome Matt Haimovitz (Artemis Classics, 2003) and Anthem (Oxingale/Artemis, 2002). In 2003, Twining was a Pew Fellow and he is working currently on a new solo recording for Cantaloupe.