|
The California EAR Unit
The California EAR Unit was an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. The group was founded in March 1981 in Los Angeles, California. The original members of the EAR Unit were Dorothy Stone (flute); James Rohrig (clarinet); Amy Knoles and Daniel Kennedy (percussion); Gaylord Mowrey and Michael McCandless (piano); Robin Lorentz and Mary Terranova (violin); Erika Duke (cello); and Rand Steiger (conductor). By 1983 Terranova, Kennedy and McCandless had departed, and Arthur Jarvinen (percussion) and Lorna Eder (piano) joined. After many years with the same personnel, changes began to occur and one by one original members departed and new performers joined the group. Amy Knoles is the only remaining original member, along with longtime pianist Vicki Ray, and violinist Eric KM Clark. The EAR Unit was formed at the California Institute of the Arts in 1981 by a group of students who had all been performing in the CalArts 20th-Century Players ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Contemporary Classical Music
Contemporary classical music is classical music composed close to the present day. At the beginning of the 21st century, it commonly referred to the post-1945 modern forms of post-tonal music after the death of Anton Webern, and included serial music, electronic music, experimental music, and minimalist music. Newer forms of music include spectral music, and post-minimalism. History Background At the beginning of the twentieth century, composers of classical music were experimenting with an increasingly dissonant pitch language, which sometimes yielded atonal pieces. Following World War I, as a backlash against what they saw as the increasingly exaggerated gestures and formlessness of late Romanticism, certain composers adopted a neoclassic style, which sought to recapture the balanced forms and clearly perceptible thematic processes of earlier styles (see also New Objectivity and Social Realism). After World War II, modernist composers sought to achieve greater levels ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eve Beglarian
Eve Beglarian (born Ann Arbor, Michigan, U.S., July 22, 1958) is a contemporary American composer, performer and audio producer of Armenian descent. Her music is often characterized as postminimalist.Woodard, Josef"A Bird’s Eye, a Wonderer’s Ear". Liner note essay. New World Records. Her chamber, choral, and orchestral music has been commissioned and widely performed by The Los Angeles Master Chorale, the Bang on a Can All-Stars, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, The California EAR Unit, The Orchestra of St. Luke's, Relâche, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, Sequitur, and The American Composers Orchestra, among many others. She received a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Robert Rauschenberg Award (2015). Discography Albums *''Overstepping'' (1998) *''Tell the Birds'' (2006) Collaborations *''Dream Cum Go Down'' - Eve Beglarian and Juliana Luecking (1995) *''Dancing in Place'' - Elizabeth Panzer (1999) *'' Play Nice'' - Twisted Tutu (1999) *'' Almost Human (Beiser)'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Julia Wolfe
Julia Wolfe (born December 18, 1958) is an American composer and professor of music at New York University. According to ''The Wall Street Journal'', Wolfe's music has "long inhabited a terrain of its own, a place where classical forms are recharged by the repetitive patterns of minimalism and the driving energy of rock". Her work ''Anthracite Fields'', an oratorio for chorus and instruments, was awarded the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for Music. She has also received the Herb Alpert Award (2015) and was named a MacArthur Fellow (2016). Life Born in Philadelphia, Wolfe has a twin brother and an older brother. As a teenager, she learned piano but she only began to study music seriously after taking a musicianship class at the University of Michigan, where she received a BA in music and theater as a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1982. In her early twenties, Wolfe wrote music for an all-female theatre troupe. On a trip to New York, she became friends with composition students Michael Gor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicholas Frances Chase
Nicholas Frances Chase (born Nebeil Mahayni; 1966 in Roseburg, Oregon) is an American composer and performer. Chase received a Bachelor of Arts in German Area Studies from University of Oregon in 1993 and studied music composition at the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) with Stephen Mosko, Morton Subotnick, Bunita Marcus, and Mary Jane Leach, receiving his Master of Fine Arts in 2000. At CalArts he studied Hindustani Classical Music with Rajeev Taranath and Arabic Classical Music with Dr. Ziad Bunni. His compositional style references popular music forms such as techno, electronica, ambient, and noise music, and frequently integrates interactive signal processing and electronic sound material with acoustic instrumentation. He has written original music for various ensembles including the California EAR Unit, the Long Beach Opera, and the Philadelphia Classical Symphony. Performances Chase performs using a laptop and DJ turntables and is known to integrate v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ann Millikan
Ann E. Millikan (born June 10, 1963) is an American composer. Life and career Ann Millikan was born in San Diego County, California. She studied music at San José State University, where she graduated with a BA. She went on to graduate with a MFA from the California Institute of the Arts where she studied with Morton Subotnick, Mel Powell and Stephen Mosko. Afterward, she continued her studies in African music and classical voice. Millikan composes in several genres, including orchestral, opera, choral and instrumental, and her works have been used for purposes such as installation, theatre and dance. Her compositions have been called "dynamic and diverse." Millikan's works have been performed internationally and are widely available on recorded media. She currently resides in Minnesota. Honors and awards Millikan has received grants and awards from the following: *2011 MN State Arts Board Artist Initiative *2010 McKnight Composer Fellowship *California Arts Council *Americ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wadada Leo Smith
Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the fields of avant-garde jazz and free improvisation. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Freedom Summers'', released on May 22, 2012. Biography Smith was born in Leland, Mississippi, United States. He started out playing drums, mellophone, and French horn before he settled on the trumpet. He played in various R&B groups and, by 1967, became a member of the AACM and co-founded the Creative Construction Company, a trio with Leroy Jenkins and Anthony Braxton. In 1971, Smith formed his own label, Kabell. He also formed another band, the New Dalta Ahkri, with members including Henry Threadgill, Anthony Davis and Oliver Lake. In the 1970s, Smith studied ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University. He played again with Anthony Braxton, as well as recording with Derek Bailey's Company. In the mid-1980s, Smith became Rastafarian and began ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erkki-Sven Tüür
Erkki-Sven Tüür (born 16 October 1959) is an Estonian composer. Life and career Tüür () was born in Kärdla on the Estonian island of Hiiumaa. He studied flute and percussion at the Tallinn Music School from 1976 to 1980 and composition with Jaan Rääts at the Tallinn Academy of Music and privately with Lepo Sumera from 1980 to 1984. From 1979 to 1984 he headed the rock group In Spe, which quickly became one of the most popular in Estonia. Tüür left In Spe to concentrate on composition, and with the advent of perestroika soon found an audience in the west. The Helsinki Philharmonic, the Hilliard Ensemble, the Stockholm Saxophone Quartet and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra are among those who have commissioned works from him. He was awarded the Cultural Prize of Estonia in 1991 and 1996 and the Baltic Assembly Prize for Literature, the Arts and Science in 1998. His Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, entitled ''"Illuminatio"'', was premiered by violist Lars Ander ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell "Terry" Riley (born June 24, 1935) is an American composer and performing musician best known as a pioneer of the minimalist school of composition. Influenced by jazz and Indian classical music, his music became notable for its innovative use of repetition, tape music techniques, and delay systems. His best known works are the 1964 composition '' In C'' and the 1969 LP ''A Rainbow in Curved Air'', both considered landmarks of minimalism and important influences on experimental music, rock, and contemporary electronic music. Raised in California, Riley began studying composition and performing solo piano in the 1950s. He befriended and collaborated with composer La Monte Young, and later became involved with the San Francisco Tape Music Center. A three-record deal with CBS in the late 1960s, resulting in an LP recording of ''In C'' (1968) and ''A Rainbow in Curved Air'' (1969), brought his work to wider audiences. In 1970, he began intensive studies under Hin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mel Powell
Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the founding dean of the music department at the California Institute of the Arts. He served as a music educator for over 40 years, first at Mannes College of Music and Queens College, then Yale University, and finally at CalArts. During his early career he worked as a jazz pianist. Early life Mel Powell was born Melvin D. Epstein on February 12, 1923, in The Bronx, New York City, the second of Russian Jewish parents Milton Epstein and Mildred (Mollie) Mark Epstein's three children. He began playing piano at age four, taking lessons from, among others, Nadia Reisenberg. A passionate baseball fan, his home was within sight of Yankee Stadium. A hand injury while playing baseball as a boy, however, convinced him to pursue music instead of sports as a career. Powell dreamed of life as a concert pianist until his older brother took him to see jazz pianist Teddy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Paterson (composer)
Robert Paterson (born April 29, 1970) is an American composer of contemporary classical music, as well as a conductor and percussionist. His catalog includes over 100 compositions. He has been called a "modern day master" and is primarily known for his colorful orchestral works, large body of chamber music and clear vocal writing in his operas, choral works, vocal chamber works and song cycles. Early years Paterson was born on the West Side of Buffalo, New York. He is the son of Tony Paterson, an award-winning sculptor who was a Professor of Sculpture at the University at Buffalo, and Eleanor Paterson, a painter and bilingual education director at Erie Community College who received her Ph.D. in bilingual education from the University at Buffalo. Although Paterson was surrounded by sculptors and painters while growing up,Schulslaper, Robert, Giving a Voice to American Music: A Conversation with Composer Robert Paterson, Fanfare Magazine, March 28, 2011. his father enjoyed contemp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scott Lindroth
Scott Allen Lindroth (born 1958) is an American composer and teacher based near Durham, North Carolina. Lindroth joined the faculty of Duke University in 1990, where he is the Vice-Provost for the Arts and the Kevin D. Gorter Associate Professor of Music; his colleagues at Duke include composers Stephen Jaffe, John Supko, and Anthony Kelley. Lindroth teaches undergraduate courses in music theory, composition, and electronic music, as well as graduate seminars on composition-related topics. In the spring of 1995, Lindroth served as Visiting Assistant Professor of Music at Princeton University. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised near Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, Lindroth holds D.M.A. and M.M. degrees in Composition from the Yale University School of Music, and a B.M. degree in Composition from the Eastman School of Music. Lindroth’s music has been commissioned and performed by ensembles such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Annea Lockwood
Annea Lockwood (born July 29, 1939, in Christchurch, New Zealand) is a New Zealand-born American composer and academic musician. She taught electronic music at Vassar College. Her work often involves recordings of natural Musique concrète, found sounds. She has also recorded Fluxus-inspired pieces involving piano burning, burning or drowning pianos. Life and career Lockwood studied composition and completed a B.Mus. with honors from the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She studied composition at several institutions around Europe with notable teachers: The Royal College of Music with Peter Racine Fricker (1961–63), the Darmstädter Ferienkurse with Gottfried Michael Koenig (1963–64), the Hochschule für Musik Köln, and also in the Netherlands. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Lockwood performed and composed around Europe but made London her home, having returned there in 1964. Her compositions feature non-conventional instruments such as glass tubing used in â ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
