Marc Mellits (born 1966) 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 ...

and musician. Mellits was born in

Baltimore Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. He studied at the

Eastman School of Music The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman. It offers Bachelor of Music (B.M ...

from 1984 to 1988, at the

Yale 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 wor ...

School of Music from 1989 to 1991, at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

from 1991 to 1996, and at

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the ...

in the summer of 1997. His composition instructors include

Joseph Schwantner Joseph Clyde Schwantner (born March 22, 1943, Chicago, Illinois) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize. Schwantner ...

, Samuel Adler,

Martin Bresnick Martin Bresnick (born 1946) is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music. Education and early career Bresnick grew up in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and A ...

Bernard Rands Bernard Rands (born 2 March 1934 in Sheffield, England) is a British-American contemporary classical music composer. He studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna ...

, Christopher Rouse,

Roberto Sierra Roberto Sierra (born 9 October 1953) is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music. Life Sierra was born in Vega Baja, Puerto Rico. He studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg (1979–1982), Germany. Af ...

Jacob Druckman Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1 ...

Poul Ruders Poul Ruders (born 27 March 1949) is a Danish composer. Life Born in Ringsted, Ruders trained as an organist, and studied orchestration with Karl Aage Rasmussen. Ruders's first compositions date from the mid-1960s. Ruders regards his own compositi ...

, and

Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he ...

. Mellits's music has been performed throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. His music is influenced by

minimalist In visual arts, music and other media, minimalism is an art movement that began in post–World War II in Western art, most strongly with American visual arts in the 1960s and early 1970s. Prominent artists associated with minimalism include Don ...

and

rock music Rock music is a broad genre of popular music that originated as " rock and roll" in the United States in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of different styles in the mid-1960s and later, particularly in the United States an ...

, and has been identified with the

postminimalist Postminimalism is an art term coined (as post-minimalism) by Robert Pincus-Witten in 1971Chilvers, Ian and Glaves-Smith, John, ''A Dictionary of Modern and Contemporary Art'', second edition (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. ...

stylistic trend. He often composes for electric guitar and other amplified instruments. Mellits received a 2004

Foundation for Contemporary Arts The Foundation for Contemporary Arts (FCA), is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City that offers financial support and recognition to contemporary performing and visual artists through awards for artistic innovation and potential. It was ...

Grants to Artists Award. Mellits's commissions include pieces for the

Orpheus Chamber Orchestra The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (founded 1972) is a classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. They have won several Grammy Awards. The orchestra is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a cond ...

, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Assad Duo,

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

, and the

Meridian Arts Ensemble The Meridian Arts Ensemble is an American chamber music ensemble based in New York City, specializing in the performance of new works for brass and percussion. History The Meridian Arts Ensemble was founded in 1987. The original members of the g ...

. His music has also been arranged by

guitarist A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...

Dominic Frasca Dominic Frasca (born 5 April 1967) is a guitarist, originally from Akron, Ohio, USA, but living in New York City since the early 1990s. He began playing hard rock guitar at age 13, but gravitated into classical after finding an ad for classical g ...

and the

experimental music Experimental music is a general label for any music or music genre that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilities radically opposed to, and questioning of, ...

group

Electric Kompany Kevin R. Gallagher is a guitarist who plays both the electric guitar and the classical guitar. As a classical guitarist, he has received top honors at some of the most prestigious guitar competitions in the world, including the 1993 Guitar Foundat ...

. Mellits is a founding member of

Common Sense Composers' Collective Common may refer to: Places * Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland * Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts * Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts * Clapham Common, originally com ...

, which focuses on new and alternative ways of collaborating with performance ensembles. Mellits is the artistic director and keyboard player in his ensemble, the Mellits Consort. As of 2011, Marc Mellits lives in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

with his wife and two daughters, and teaches composition at the

University of Illinois-Chicago The University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is a public research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its campus is in the Near West Side community area, adjacent to the Chicago Loop. The second campus established under the University of Illinois sy ...

"Department of Theatre and Music - Marc Mellits"
Retrieved on June 2, 2013.

Discography

* 1997 Common Sense Composers' Collective: ''Polysorbate 60'' * 2002 Shock of the Old, Common Sense Composers' Collective & American Baroque: ''11 Miiniatures for Baroque Ensemble'' * 2005 Deviations, Dominic Frasca: ''Dometude, Lefty's Elegy, Metaclopramide, Dark Age Machinery'' * 2006 String Quartet No. 2, Duke Quartet: ''String Quartet No. 2'' * 2006 Tight Sweater, Real Quiet plays the music of Marc Mellits: ''Tight Sweater, Agu, Fruity Pebbles, Disciples of Gouda'' * 2007 Dirty Little Secret, Andrew Russo: ''Etude No. 1: Medieval Induction'' * 2007 TIC, Common Sense Composers' Collective & New Millennium Ensemble: ''Spam'' * 2007 Paranoid Cheese, The Mellits Consort: ''Opening, Broken Glass, paranoid cheese, The Misadventures of Soup, Lefty's Elegy, Machine IV, Srećan Rođendan, Marija!, Troica, Dreadlocked, Machine III, Machine V'' * 2008 Melville's Dozen, Nicola Melville: ''Etude No. 2: Defensive Chili'' * 2008 Mix Tape, Andrew Russo: ''Spank Me (Menage a Deux), Curried Kaftka (No Strings Attached)'' * 2009 Serendipity, Society for New Music: ''Platter of Discontent'' * 2009 American Journey, Roger McVey: ''Agu'' * 2010 Convergence, Strike: ''Tight Sweater Remix'' * 2010 Black, Sqwonk: ''Black'' * 2017 Quatuor Debussy:
Marc Mellits, String Quartets n° 3, 4, 5.
'

References

* Dickenson, J. Andrew
"Electric Counterpoint"
''Urban Guitar'', July 2006

External links

Marc Mellits' homepageMarc Mellits Audio Portrait
ASCAP {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellits, Marc Cornell University alumni Living people 1966 births Musicians from Baltimore American male classical composers American classical composers 20th-century classical composers Pupils of Jacob Druckman Pupils of Samuel Adler (composer) Pupils of Joseph Schwantner 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians