Alden Jenks (born August 10, 1940) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

Biography

Alden Jenks was born in

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

and received a B.A. from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

and an M.A. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

. He studied composition with

Lawrence Moss Lawrence Kenneth Moss (November 18, 1927 – June 24, 2022) was an Americans, American composer of contemporary classical music. He was born in Los Angeles. He held a B.A. degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, an M.A. from the Eas ...

Andrew Imbrie Andrew Welsh Imbrie (April 6, 1921 – December 5, 2007) was an American contemporary classical music composer and pianist. Career Imbrie was born in New York City and began his musical training as a pianist when he was 4. In 1937, he went to Par ...

and

Seymour Shifrin Seymour Shifrin (28 February 1926 – 26 September 1979) was an American composer. He was described by ''Time Magazine'' as "one of the most significant composers of his generation." Shifrin's ''Satires of Circumstance'' (1964, text by Thomas Ha ...

. He also studied composition in 1967 with

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. He is known for his groun ...

at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

, and

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

with

David Tudor David Eugene Tudor (January 20, 1926 – August 13, 1996) was an American pianist and composer of experimental music. Life and career Tudor was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano with Irma Wolpe and composition with Stefan ...

and Anthony Gnazzo. As a performer, he served as a controller of the live electronics for Stockhausen’s 1967 Darmstadt collective-composition project, ''Ensemble'', and performed on

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

in the 25th anniversary concert of

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 it ...

's ''

In C ''In C'' is a musical piece composed by Terry Riley in 1964 for an indefinite number of performers. He suggests "a group of about 35 is desired if possible but smaller or larger groups will work". A series of short melodic fragments, ''In C'' is o ...

'' in 1989, released as a recording in 1995 on New Albion Records CD NA071. As a composer he is primarily known for his work in electronic media, and is Professor of Composition and Director of the E. L. Wiegand Composition Studio at the

San Francisco Conservatory The San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) is a private music conservatory in San Francisco, California. As of 2021, it had 480 students. History The San Francisco Conservatory of Music was founded in 1917 by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodg ...

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

has cited him as an influential colleague, crediting Jenks with introducing him to Wagner His composition ''Nagasaki'' won the

Bourges Bourges () is a commune in central France on the river Yèvre. It is the capital of the department of Cher, and also was the capital city of the former province of Berry. History The name of the commune derives either from the Bituriges, t ...

Electronic Music Competition, and ''Marrying Music'' won the Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition award.

Compositions (selective list)

*''Nagasaki'', electronic music (1983) awarded a prize at the Bourges Festival in 1983 *''Those Long Canadian Winters'', theatre music *''Mummermusic'', music for a mime act by Peter Kors (1974) *''Ansichtskarte an Johann'', for two pianos (1978/83) *''Marrying Music'', for two pianos (1978/83) Winner of "Diploma and Medal" in the Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition *''Femme Fatale: The Invention of Personality'', incidental music for the play by Laura Farabough (1981) *'"Calcululations'', MIDI composition (1990) *''MENAGE'', for synthesizer, piano, and percussion (1994) *"Letter from Linda" (1998–99) *''Martin Put That Gun Away'', electroacoustic music (2000) *''Ognaggio al'Anzzonio'', electroacoustic music (2003) *''Sour Music'' (2003) *"Prelude", for organ (2003) *"Ghost Songs" (2004) *"Five California Songs" on texts by

Richard Brautigan Richard Gary Brautigan (January 30, 1935 – c. September 16, 1984) was an American novelist, poet, and short story writer. A prolific writer, he wrote throughout his life and published ten novels, two collections of short stories, and four bo ...

Robert Hass Robert L. Hass (born March 1, 1941) is an American poet. He served as Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997. He won the 2007 National Book Award and shared the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for the collection ''Time and Materials: Poems 1997 ...

, Leonard Nathan, and

Philip Whalen Philip Glenn Whalen (October 20, 1923 – June 26, 2002) was an American poet, Zen Buddhist, and a key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance and close to the Beat generation. Biography Born in Portland, Oregon, Whalen grew up in The Dalles f ...

for tenor, cello, and piano (2006) *"The Soup" (2008/09) *"Tokyo Crow" (2009) *"Unrestful Sleep", piano solo (2011) *"Hammered", piano and computer (2013) *"Oh, It's You", soprano and electronics (2013)

References

Sources * * *

External links

Alden Jenks’s website.
2011-02-04)
San Francisco Conservatory biography pageSan Francisco Conservatory of Music Oral History Interview with Alden Jenks
Living people 20th-century classical composers 21st-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers 1940 births Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen Yale University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of California, Davis alumni San Francisco Conservatory of Music faculty 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from California Classical musicians from Michigan 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub