Michael Vincent Waller (born October 26, 1985 in Staten Island, New York) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He has studied with

La Monte Young La Monte Thornton Young (born October 14, 1935) is an American composer, musician, and performance artist recognized as one of the first American minimalist composers and a central figure in Fluxus and post-war avant-garde music. He is best kno ...

Marian Zazeela Marian Zazeela (born April 15, 1940) is an American light artist, designer, calligrapher, painter and musician based in New York City. She was a member of the 1960s experimental music collective Theatre of Eternal Music, and is known for her collab ...

, and

Bunita Marcus Bunita Marcus (born May 5, 1952 in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American composer. She began studying composition at the age of sixteen and worked in both electronic and instrumental mediums while at the University of Wisconsin. In 1981, she receive ...

Life and works

His recent compositions have been compared to

Erik Satie Eric Alfred Leslie Satie (, ; ; 17 May 18661 July 1925), who signed his name Erik Satie after 1884, was a French composer and pianist. He was the son of a French father and a British mother. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire, but was an und ...

Claude Debussy (Achille) Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influential composers of the ...

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

Keith Jarrett Keith Jarrett (born May 8, 1945) is an American jazz and classical music pianist and composer. Jarrett started his career with Art Blakey and later moved on to play with Charles Lloyd and Miles Davis. Since the early 1970s, he has also been a ...

, and Morton Feldman blending elements of

minimalism 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 ...

, impressionism, gamelan, world music, and melodic classicism. His piano works have been described as "evoking Debussy but refracted through a 21st century prism". Reviewer Brian Olewnick summarizes, "Waller's music has centered around a kind of melodic classicism, the source of which I struggle to ascertain." Critic Harry Rolnick in reviewing a performance of his String Trio ''Per La Madre e La Nonna'' (2012), "The harmonies were like something written by Dvorák (perhaps his Cypresses), but they were obvious original." His chamber works feature a rich lyricism and counterpoint, described by Steve Smith of '' The New York Times'' as "sweetly lyrical". In the October 2014 issue of the Brooklyn Rail, George Grella highlighted Waller as an emerging, unique artist in New York who deserves more critical attention, and to be heard by larger audiences, "The fruits are heard on an EP released early this year, ''Five Easy Pieces'', piano works played by Megumi Shibata and Jenny Q. Chai. The music is subtly affecting and shows his roots in Bartók and Debussy without ever casting a shadow over his own voice and vision." Waller's early work was heavily focused on the avant-garde, with his use of microtonality,

just intonation In music, just intonation or pure intonation is the tuning of musical intervals Interval may refer to: Mathematics and physics * Interval (mathematics), a range of numbers ** Partially ordered set#Intervals, its generalization from numbers to ...

, new abstract forms, extensive glissandi, and isolated sonorities around frequent silences. During this period, he also composed electroacoustic music with monolithic drones and interference beats, and overall features appreciation for slow durations, exotic harmonic relationships, and process-based phenomenon. His postminimal chamber works have been performed by members of the

S.E.M. Ensemble S.E.M. Ensemble is an American group dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1970 by the Czech composer Petr Kotik, who serves as its director, and is based in New York City. Kotik seems to have rather arb ...

and

FLUX Quartet The FLUX Quartet is an American string quartet dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1998 and is based in New York City. The group is renowned for its performances of Morton Feldman's String Quartet No. ...

, performing at venues such as

ISSUE Project Room The ISSUE Project Room (often shortened to ISSUE) is a music venue in Brooklyn, New York, founded in 2003 by Suzanne Fiol. Located in 110 Livingston Street in Downtown Brooklyn, the venue supports a wide variety of contemporary performance, sp ...

and

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

. He also curates an avant-garde program in New York City, the NewIdeas MusicSeries, with composers Phill Niblock, Elliott Sharp, a duo with

David First David First (born August 20, 1953) is an American composer. His music most often deals with drones and interference beats, the latter aligning his music with that of Alvin Lucier. He usually plays computer or guitar and has led the World Cas ...

, and many more performing. He was written up in TimeOut Classical, "Composer and visual artist Michael Vincent Waller, who also happens to be a protégé of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, opens the second season of the plugged-in new-music series".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Waller, Michael 21st-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Postmodern composers Pupils of La Monte Young Spectral music Avant-garde composers Living people 1985 births Contemporary classical music performers American contemporary classical composers Minimalist composers Postminimalist composers Musicians from New York City American experimental musicians Experimental composers Microtonal musicians Electroacoustic music composers 21st-century American composers 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians