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Nolan Ira Gasser (born November 10, 1964) 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 ...
,
pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
, and
musicologist Musicology (from Greek μουσική ''mousikē'' 'music' and -λογια ''-logia'', 'domain of study') is the scholarly analysis and research-based study of music. Musicology departments traditionally belong to the humanities, although some mu ...
. He was the chief musicologist for Pandora Media, Inc. and the architect of the
Music Genome Project The Music Genome Project is an effort to "capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level" using various attributes to describe songs and mathematics to connect them together into an interactive map. The Music Genome Project covers five ...
, the proprietary musical analysis system that underlies the popular
Internet radio Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...
service. His classical compositions have been performed by orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists around the world, in such venues as
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 ...
, the
Kennedy Center The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (formally known as the John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, and commonly referred to as the Kennedy Center) is the United States National Cultural Center, located on the Potom ...
, and the Rose Bowl. Gasser scored his first film soundtrack, for Lance Kinsey's comedy ''All-Stars'' (starring
Fred Willard Frederic Charles Willard (September 18, 1933 May 15, 2020) was an American actor, comedian, and writer. He was best known for his roles in the Rob Reiner mockumentary film ''This Is Spinal Tap'' (1984); the Christopher Guest mockumentaries ''Wai ...
and
John Goodman John Stephen Goodman (born June 20, 1952) is an American actor. He gained national fame for his role as the family patriarch Dan Conner in the ABC comedy series '' Roseanne'' (1988–1997; 2018), for which he received a Golden Globe Award, an ...
), which was released in October 2014. Gasser was the subject of the documentary, “Musicology”, as part of “the Collectors” series on prominent data collectors / purveyors, by
Nate Silver Nathaniel Read Silver (born January 13, 1978) is an American statistician, writer, and poker player who analyzes baseball (see sabermetrics), basketball, and elections (see psephology). He is the founder and editor-in-chief of ''FiveThirtyEight' ...
's ''FiveThirtyEight'' and
ESPN Films ESPN Films, formerly known as ESPN Original Entertainment (EOE), is an American production company which produces and distributes sports films and documentaries. It is owned by ESPN Inc., a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (which ow ...
. Gasser is the Artistic Director of Classical Archives, a leading online classical musical service. Gasser received his Ph.D. in musicology from
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. He frequently performs as well as lectures around the United States – on music, and the relationship between music and science. He is also working with the Chicago-based company Mission Metrics, to help develop an Impact Genome Project, on behalf of social impact program measurement across all social sectors (education, food security, poverty, culture and identity, health, etc.). The project has been subject to critique by the social science community who cite its opaque methodology and oversimplication of complex social issues.


Early life

Gasser began playing piano at age 4, and was composing by age 8. His professional career began at age 11, when he became the weekend pianist at the newly built La Mirada Mall – for which he credits his eclectic musical identity, being fluent in pop,
rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...
,
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
,
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street **Broadway Theatre (53rd Stree ...
, and classical styles.


Education

In 1988, Gasser received a
Bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...
in music from
California State University, Northridge California State University, Northridge (CSUN or Cal State Northridge) is a public university in the Northridge neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. With a total enrollment of 38,551 students (as of Fall 2021), it has the second largest un ...
, where he studied composition with Aurelio de la Vega, and piano with Charles Fierro. Gasser then sojourned to Paris for two years, where he studied privately with
Betsy Jolas Elizabeth Jolas (born 5 August 1926) is a Franco-American composer. Biography Jolas was born in Paris in 1926. Her mother, the American translator Maria McDonald, was a singer. Her father, the poet and journalist Eugene Jolas, founded and edited ...
and at
Fontainebleau Fontainebleau (; ) is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the ''arrondissement ...
with Jolas,
Gilbert Amy Gilbert Amy (born 29 August 1936) is a French composer and conductor. Career Born in Paris, Amy entered the Conservatoire de Paris in 1954, where he was taught and influenced by Olivier Messiaen and Darius Milhaud and studied piano with Yvonne Lo ...
, and
Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the "spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His fa ...
. While in Paris, he began a fascination with Renaissance music (especially the music of
Josquin des Prez Josquin Lebloitte dit des Prez ( – 27 August 1521) was a composer of High Renaissance music, who is variously described as French or Franco-Flemish. Considered one of the greatest composers of the Renaissance, he was a central figure of the ...
), spawning an interest in musicology. In 1991, Gasser earned a Masters in composition at
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
in New York, where he studied with Todd Brief and Menachem Zur. In 2001, Gasser earned a PhD. in musicology from
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
in California. Gasser's dissertation was "The Marian
Motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...
Cycles of the Gaffurius Codices: A Musical and Liturgico-Devotional Study".


Career

In March 2000, Gasser was hired by Savage Beast Technologies (today
Pandora Media, Inc. Pandora is a subscription-based music streaming service owned by Sirius XM Holdings based in Oakland, California, United States. The service carries a focus on recommendations based on the " Music Genome Project" — a means of classifying in ...
), where he helped flesh out the
Music Genome Project The Music Genome Project is an effort to "capture the essence of music at the most fundamental level" using various attributes to describe songs and mathematics to connect them together into an interactive map. The Music Genome Project covers five ...
. Gasser became the Chief Musicologist at Pandora, and is the architect of all five Music Genomes (Pop/Rock, Jazz, Hip-hop/Electronica; World Music; Classical); he also helped design the means of analysis and training by which the company continues to this day, as the hugely successful Pandora Radio service. In April 2003, Gasser became the Artistic Director of the Classical Archives website, which in May 2009 re-launched as a streaming and download service with classical content from most labels. Gasser designed for the site a proprietary database to properly categorize and display classical recordings, and runs the editorial operation – including conducting interviews with classical artists and composers such as
Renée Fleming Renée Lynn Fleming (born February 14, 1959) is an American soprano, known for performances in opera, concerts, recordings, theater, film, and at major public occasions. A recipient of the National Medal of Arts, Fleming has been nominated for 1 ...
,
Hilary Hahn Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. She has performed throughout the world as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She is an avid supporter of contemporary classical music, and several ...
, Alan Gilbert,
Hélène Grimaud Hélène Rose Paule Grimaud (born 7 November 1969) is a French classical pianist and the founder of the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, New York. Early life and education Grimaud was born in Aix-en-Provence, France. She described famil ...
,
Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...
,
Jeremy Denk Jeremy Denk (born May 16, 1970 in Durham, North Carolina) is an American classical pianist. Early life Denk did not come from a musical family. After several years in New Jersey, his family settled in Las Cruces, New Mexico, where he grew up. He ...
,
Daniel Hope Daniel Hope (born 17 August 1973, Durban, South Africa) is a European classical violinist. Early life and education Hope was born in Durban, South Africa, and is of Irish and Jewish German descent, his maternal grandparents, formerly from Be ...
, David Lang,
Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall. ...
, and
John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...
. Gasser is active as a pianist and bandleader, especially in jazz and popular styles – including with the San Francisco Jazz Quartet;. He is an occasional Adjunct Professor in Medieval-Renaissance music history at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. He periodically gives lectures, such as at the Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival in 2010, at the
University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Barbara County, California, Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduate ...
in February 2011, and at a joint meeting of the
National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...
and the
United States Department of Health and Human Services The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is ...
in Washington D.C. regarding arts education.


Composition

Gasser's shift in focus to musicology, beginning in 1991, led to an extended disruption in his compositional output, with only a handful of works written before his graduation from Stanford in 2001. Since 2003, however, composition has become a principal focus of his career. Among his substantial works include ''American Festivals'' – a four-movement work with poetry by
Robert Trent Jones Jr. Robert Trent "Bobby" Jones Jr. (born July 24, 1939) is an American golf course architect. He is the son of golf course designer Robert Trent Jones and the brother of golf course designer Rees Jones. Background Jones was born in Montclair, New J ...
; each movement is dedicated to a distinct and quintessential American holiday: "Oration on July 4th" (2004), "Black Suite Blues" (for Martin Luther King Jr. Day; 2005); "Memorial Day" (2006); and "Thanksgiving" (2007). The work has been performed – in part and whole – numerous times by several orchestras (e.g., Charleston, Memphis, Arkansas, and Oakland East Bay Symphonies), including a complete performance at the 2008 IMG Festival del sole (Napa Valley, CA.). Gasser's most ambitious composition project in recent years has been a pair of works written in conjunction with
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
's
Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (FGST, also FGRST), formerly called the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST), is a space observatory being used to perform gamma-ray astronomy observations from low Earth orbit. Its main instrument is ...
(formerly GLAST) – launched June 8, 2008. The first work, the ''GLAST Prelude'', for brass quintet (2007), was recorded by the
American Brass Quintet When the American Brass Quintet gave its first public performance on December 11, 1960, brass chamber music was still relatively young to concert audiences. The New York Brass Quintet is regarded as the first brass quintet in the United States, ha ...
, and presented at a pre-launch party in
Cocoa Beach Cocoa Beach is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. The population was 11,539 at the 2018 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The first non-native s ...
, the live premiere took place on November 2, 2009 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the work was released on the ABQ's 50th Anniversary CD on Summit Records. The same Kennedy Center concert also saw the premiere of the second Fermi-related work, the narrated symphony ''Cosmic Reflection'', with narration by Pierre Schwob and physicist
Lawrence Krauss Lawrence Maxwell Krauss (born May 27, 1954) is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist who previously taught at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He founded ASU's Origins Project, now cal ...
that tells the full history of the
Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the universe. Acc ...
. The work was recorded by the
Baltimore Symphony The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in Baltimore, Maryland. The Baltimore SO has its principal residence at the Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, where it performs more than 130 concerts a year. In 2005, it bega ...
under
Marin Alsop Marin Alsop ( mɛər.ɪn ˈæːl.sɑːp born October 16, 1956) is an American conductor, the first woman to win the Koussevitzky Prize for conducting and the first conductor to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. She is music director laureate ...
, and will be subsequently released as a full-feature DVD. Among other serious works include his ''World Cello for Cello and Orchestra'' (2008), which was premiered by cellist
Maya Beiser Maya Beiser (born 31 December 1963) is an American musician, cellist, performing artist and Record producer, producer who lives in New York City. Beiser was raised on a kibbutz in Israel by her France, French mother and Argentina, Argentine father ...
and the Oakland East Bay Symphony under Michael Morgan, along with three "world" soloists:
Jiebing Chen Jiebing Chen (; sometimes credited as Jie-Bing Chen) is a Chinese musician based in the United States who specializes in the erhu (two-string fiddle). Biography Born in Shanghai, China, Chen turned professional when she was 9 and became a soldier ...
,
erhu The ''erhu'' (; ) is a Chinese two-stringed bowed musical instrument, more specifically a spike fiddle, which may also be called a ''Southern Fiddle'', and is sometimes known in the Western world as the ''Chinese violin'' or a ''Chinese two-s ...
; Aruna Narayan,
sarangi The sārangī is a bowed, short-necked string instrument played in traditional music from South Asia – Punjabi folk music, Rajasthani folk music, and Boro folk music (there known as the ''serja'') – in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. It is ...
; and Bassam Saba,
oud , image=File:oud2.jpg , image_capt=Syrian oud made by Abdo Nahat in 1921 , background= , classification= * String instruments *Necked bowl lutes , hornbostel_sachs=321.321-6 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded with a plectrum , ...
. His ''3 Jazz Preludes'' (2007) were performed at Carnegie Hall by pianist Kimball Gallagher in March 2008. His opera ''
The Secret Garden ''The Secret Garden'' is a novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett first published in book form in 1911, after serialisation in ''The American Magazine'' (November 1910 – August 1911). Set in England, it is one of Burnett's most popular novels and ...
'', commissioned by the
San Francisco Opera San Francisco Opera (SFO) is an American opera company founded in 1923 by Gaetano Merola (1881–1953) based in San Francisco, California. History Gaetano Merola (1923–1953) Merola's road to prominence in the Bay Area began in 1906 when he ...
, premiered on 1 March 2013; the opera was also performed at Opera Theater of Weston (Vermont) in January 2015. Gasser wrote the opening movement of the choral song cycle ''Tyler's Suite'', about the tragic story of Tyler Clementi (with other movements by
Stephen Schwartz Stephen Lawrence Schwartz (born March 6, 1948) is an American musical theatre lyricist and composer. In a career spanning over five decades, Schwartz has written such hit musicals as ''Godspell'' (1971), ''Pippin'' (1972), and ''Wicked'' (20 ...
,
John Corigliano John Paul Corigliano Jr. (born February 16, 1938) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, an ...
, and
Jake Heggie Jake Heggie (born March 31, 1961) is an American composer of opera, vocal, orchestral, and chamber music. He is best known for his operas and art songs as well as for his collaborations with internationally renowned performers and writers. B ...
, among others), which was premiered in March 2014 by the
San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus (SFGMC) is the world's first openly gay chorus, one of the world's largest male choruses and the group most often credited with creating the LGBT choral movement. The chorus was founded by gay music pioneer Jo ...
at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and which will be performed subsequently in Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York. His song cycle ''Repast: An Oratorio'', about the life and career of civil rights figure Booker Wright, with text by Kevin Young, will be premiered on October 26, 2014 by bass-baritone Justin Hopkins at the
Southern Foodways Alliance Southern Foodways Alliance (SFA) is an institute of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, dedicated to the documentation, study and exploration of the foodways of the American South. Member-funded, it stages ...
Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi


Publications

Gasser's book, ''Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste'' (
Macmillan Publishing Macmillan Publishers (occasionally known as the Macmillan Group; formally Macmillan Publishers Ltd and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC) is a British publishing company traditionally considered to be one of the 'Big Five' English language publi ...
) was released on April 30, 2019.


Personal life

In 1994, Gasser married Lynn. They have two children, Camille (b. 1995) and Preston (b. 2001). Gasser and his family reside in
Petaluma, California Petaluma (Miwok languages, Miwok: ''Péta Lúuma'') is a city in Sonoma County, California, Sonoma County, California, located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. Its population was 59,776 a ...
.


Discography and media

* * ''GLAST Prelude'' o
State of the Art: The American Brass Quintet at 50
(Summit Records, 2010) * San Francisco Jazz Quartet

(Mundana Nova, 2011) * "Montana Home" (lyrics and sung by Jim Salestrom) o
Beneath the Big Sky
(Rebecca Records, 2008) *
Christmas by the Bay
(lyrics by Clark Sterling; Tim Hockenberry, vocals) on Christmas by the Bay (Sterling Performances, 2003) *

(lyrics and sung by Jim Salestrom) on Safe Home (Rebecca Records, 2001)


References


External links


Stanford University Library Index (Search Works)

Official web site



Pandora Radio & the Music Genome Project: What Musicology & Science Reveal About Our Musical Tastes
lecture at the
Linda Hall Library The Linda Hall Library is a privately endowed American library of science, engineering and technology located in Kansas City, Missouri, sitting "majestically on a urban arboretum." It is the "largest independently funded public library of scien ...
, November 2, 2011 *
Classical Archives Classical Archives LLC is an online digital music store that solely focuses on classical music. Originally opening as the Classical MIDI Archives in 1994 primarily as a repository for free MIDI sequences of classical music works, in August 200 ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gasser, Nolan Ira 1964 births 20th-century American composers 20th-century American pianists 20th-century classical composers 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American composers 21st-century American pianists 21st-century classical composers 21st-century American male musicians American bandleaders American classical composers American male classical composers American male pianists American musicologists American opera composers California State University, Northridge alumni Classical musicians from California Living people Male classical pianists Male opera composers People from La Mirada, California Stanford University alumni Stanford University faculty Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development alumni