Meet Dr. Uriah Rinzel

Assistant Professor of Music and Songwriting

Educational Background

B.M., Dallas Baptist University
M.M., Southern Methodist University
D.M.A., Texas Christian University

Areas of Teaching at DBU

Theory
Composition
Songwriting
Rock Band (Ensemble Director)

Previous Work Experience

Adjunct music theory at SMU, TCU, and Austin College, composition at TCC, and guitar at TKU. Guitarist/bassist for Gateway Church from 2011-2018 for services as well as productions. Currently active independent composer/producer and freelance musician.

Uriah Rinzel's Background

Uriah W. Rinzel, DMA is an award-winning composer in styles ranging from classical to minimalism to heavy rock. As composer/producer he seeks to blend his popular music and classical music backgrounds whether composing music for video sync or producing a pop song.

From age three, Uriah showed strong interest in music. At his brother’s piano recital, he heard a student playing a violin and asked his mom what that it was. From that point, he began telling everyone that he was going to play violin when he turned four. He would later go on to join the Wisconsin Youth Symphony Orchestras. In high school, he picked up guitar and began leading worship at his local church. After high school, he felt led him to pursue ministry training, so he left Wisconsin for Christ For the Nations Institute in Dallas where he earned a certificate in Worship and Technical Arts. After CFNI, he returned to his home church in Madison where he served as tech director and assisted with worship and the building of the church’s recording studio.

In 2008, Uriah returned to Dallas and enrolled at DBU where he decided to pursue a degree in music theory and composition. During this time, he began freelance work as a musician and worship leader in local churches before joining the worship teams at Gateway Church. After DBU, he pursued two masters degrees at SMU and a doctorate at TCU focused on creating a wide variety of music and studying music theory.

Uriah returned to DBU in 2015 as an adjunct to teach Advanced Songwriting and began teaching theory as well. In 2020 as the result of a national search, he was brought on as a member of the full-time faculty.

One of his favorite quotes is from Tony Robbins: "Most people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in two or three decades.”

Achievements

From 2021-22 he has been composing and producing underscoring for documentaries/advertisements as part of the Dairy for the Future Campaign, hired by Balcom Advertisement Agency, Fort Worth, TX (Campaign Playlist). In 2015, He was commissioned by violist Nadia Sirota and SYZYGY (directed by Matt Albert) to compose a piece for viola and amplified chamber ensemble. “Orca” premiered at SMU in concert, and the group made a studio recording. “Orca” was among the finalists for the ASCAP Morton Gould in 2014 and won first prize in the 2018 Breaking the Fourth Wall New Music Festival. His original composition, “Cowtown Counterpoint” for bass clarinetist William Hayter and was given its European Premiere in July 2018 at Clarinetfest in Oostende, Belgium, and was also selected to be performed at the 2020 SCI National Conference.“Snip,” an electroacoustic work was performed at the 2017 Region VI SCI conference in Arlington, TX. His wind symphony “Candide” was commissioned and premiered by Jack Delaney and the Meadows Wind Ensemble in 2017. Other works include a rock oratorio, a folk/minimalist requiem mass, a symphony, two piano concerti, three piano sonatas, two violin sonatas, and many pop songs and instrumental compositions.

Teachers and Coaches

Neil Anderson-Himmelspach (electronic composition); Blaise Ferrandino (music theory/composition); Robert Frank (electronic composition, orchestration); Michael Cox (classical composition); Barbara Wallace (theory)