Our regular (well, semi-regular, at least until our dust has settled in Houston) listen to and look at living, breathing composers and performers that you may not know yet, but I know you should… And can, right here and now, since they’re nice enough to offer so much good listening online:
Amos Elkana (b. 1967 — US / Israel)
Born in Boston and a product of Berklee, the New England Conservatory and Bard, Amos now makes his home in Tel Aviv. He was one of the brave few “serious” composers that took the online plunge early; I first bumped into him and his music way back in 1999 or 2000 on the old MP3.com. His work has a touch of the modern Romantic, chromatic and sharp, though the lyrical is never too far away.
The website linked above gives a great introduction to Amos and his music. You can read about some of his composing techniques, snag a CD or two, and the works page contains numerous full-length MP3s of all kinds of pieces (some with PDFs of the scores), including his award-winning Arabic Lessons for three sopranos and chamber ensemble (though you shouldn’t forget to catch the piano piece Eight Flowers as well).