James Avery (September 23, 1937 – March 8, 2009) was an American classical pianist and conductor. Avery was born in

Hutchinson, Kansas Hutchinson is the largest city and county seat in Reno County, Kansas, United States, and located on the Arkansas River. It has been home to salt mines since 1887, thus its nickname of "Salt City", but locals call it "Hutch". As of the 2020 ...

and studied at

the University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States, and several satellite campuses, research and educational centers, medical centers, and classes across the state of Kansas. Tw ...

, and then at Indiana University (Bloomington) under Tibor Kozma. From 1967 to 1980 he taught at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, and from 1980 until 2002 at the

Hochschule für Musik Freiburg ' (, plural: ') is the generic term in German for institutions of higher education, corresponding to ''universities'' and ''colleges'' in English. The term ''Universität'' (plural: ''Universitäten'') is reserved for institutions with the right to ...

in Germany. From 1992 he headed Ensemble SurPlus, playing mostly new music. Avery recorded works by Stefan Wolpe, Charles Wuorinen, Brian Ferneyhough, and

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-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

. In the fall of 1978 he took a leave of absence from the University of Iowa in order to be a visiting artist at the American Academy in Rome . In 1992 he formed the contemporary music ensemble SurPlus, which he conducted and in which he performed on the piano. After its debut in Freiburg, Ensemble SurPlus performed at the

Darmstädter Ferienkurse Darmstädter Ferienkurse ("Darmstadt Summer Course") is a regular summer event of contemporary classical music in Darmstadt, Hesse, Germany. It was founded in 1946, under the name "Ferienkurse für Internationale Neue Musik Darmstadt" (Vacation Co ...

and at festivals throughout Europe .

Sources

* * * The Andy Warhol Museum https://www.warhol.org/event/sound-series-ensemble-surplus/

External links

Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Spiritus rector fürs Unmögliche
// Neue Musikzeitung, # 4, 2009.

// Badische Zeitung, 11. März 2009. * Ensemble SurPlus https://en.ensemble-surplus.com/#about {{DEFAULTSORT:Avery, James 1937 births 2009 deaths 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American pianists 20th-century classical pianists American classical pianists American male classical pianists Academic staff of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg People from Hutchinson, Kansas