Nick Didkovsky (born 22 November 1958) is a

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 ...

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 ...

, computer music programmer, and leader of the band Doctor Nerve.Dorsch He is a former student of Christian Wolff,

Pauline Oliveros Pauline Oliveros (May 30, 1932 – November 24, 2016) was an American composer, accordionist and a central figure in the development of post-war experimental and electronic music. She was a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center ...

and Gerald Shapiro.

Career

Didkovsky formed Doctor Nerve in 1984. He received a Masters in Computer Music from

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 1987 and went on to develop a

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

music

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

called JMSL (Java Music Specification Language). JMSL is a toolbox for algorithmic composition and performance. JMSL includes JScore, an extensible staff notation editor. JMSL can output music using either JavaSound or

JSyn JSyn ("Java Synthesis") is a free API for developing interactive sound applications in Java. Developed by Phil Burk and others, it is distributed through Burk's company, Mobileer Inc. JSyn has a flexible, unit generator-based synthesis and DSP a ...

. He has presented papers on his work at several conferences. Ensemble activities include founding the blackened

grindcore Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. G ...

band Vomit Fist in 2013. He was a composing member of the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet for the ten years of the band's tenure, and has also played in

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

's band. His Punos Music record label is a harbor for his more extreme musical projects such as "split", a guitar collaboration with Dylan DiLella of the technical death metal band Pyrrhon. His debut solo album was released in 1997 and featured contributions from Frith. His second album, ''Body Parts'', came out of a collaboration with Guigou Chenevier. Didkovsky has composed for or performed on a number of CDs including: * 1987, Doctor Nerve ''Armed Observation'', Label: Cuneiform, produced by

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

* 1988, Rascal Reporters ''Happy Accidents'' * 1995, Doctor Nerve ''SKIN'', Label: Cuneiform * 1997 ** '' Every Screaming Ear'', Label: Cuneiform (January 21, 1997) **''

Ayaya Moses ''Ayaya Moses'' is a 1997 studio album by the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet, an American-based contemporary classical and experimental music guitar quartet comprising Fred Frith, René Lussier, Nick Didkovsky and Mark Stewart. It is their debut ...

'', with the

Fred Frith Guitar Quartet The Fred Frith Guitar Quartet was an American-based contemporary classical and experimental music guitar quartet comprising Fred Frith, René Lussier, Nick Didkovsky and Mark Stewart. The group was formed in 1989 by Frith and they performed ...

** ''Binky Boy'' * 1999, ''

Upbeat Up beat may refer to: *Upbeat, in music, the last beat in the previous bar which immediately precedes the downbeat *Anacrusis, a note (or sequence of notes) which precedes the first downbeat in a bar in a musical phrase * ''Upbeat'' (album), by t ...

'', with the Fred Frith Guitar Quartet * 2000, ''Ereia'', with Doctor Nerve and the Sirius String Quartet * 2003, ''Bone - uses wrist grab'', with

Hugh Hopper Hugh Colin Hopper (29 April 1945 – 7 June 2009) was a British progressive rock and jazz fusion bass guitarist. He was a prominent member of the Canterbury scene, as a member of Soft Machine and other bands. Biography Early career Starting in ...

and John Roulat * 2015, Vomit Fist ''Forgive but Avenge'' * 2017 Alice Cooper ''

Paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

'' * 2019, Vomit Fist ''Omnicide'' Didkovsky's music has also been arranged by 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 ...

. He is a co-owner of the " $100 Guitar", a guitar which was circulated amongst many musicians (including

Alex Skolnick Alex Skolnick (born September 29, 1968) is an American musician. He is best known as the lead guitarist and one of the songwriters of the thrash metal band Testament and has played with several other bands, including The Alex Skolnick Trio, Tra ...

, and

Nels Cline Nels Courtney Cline (born January 4, 1956) is an American guitarist and composer. He has been the guitarist for the band Wilco since 2004. In the 1980s he played jazz, often in collaboration with his twin brother Alex Cline, Alex, a percussionis ...

) for the recording of a concept album about the guitar.Kozinn, Allan (2013)
A Generic Guitar Inspires a Distinctive Project
, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', April 2, 2013. Retrieved August 16, 2014

Solo discography

*''Now I Do This'' (1982), Punos Music *''Binky Boy'' (1997), Punos *''Body Parts'' (2000), Vand'Oeuvre *''The Bright Lights The Big Time'' (2005), FMR *''Tube Mouth Bow String'' (2006), Pogus *''The $100 Guitar Project'' (2013), Bridge *''Phantom Words'' (2017), Punos

Notes

Sources

* Couture, François
''Body Parts'' Review
,

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

. Retrieved August 16, 2014 * Dickenson, J. Andrew
"Electric Counterpoint"
''Urban Guitar'', July 2006 * Dorsch, Jim
Nick Didkovsky Biography
,

. Retrieved August 16, 2014 * Jurek, Thom
''Binky Boy'' Review
,

. Retrieved August 16, 2014 * Ross Feller, ''Ice Cream Time: The Raunchy and the Rigorous'

* Rose, Joe, ''A $100 Guitar Makes A 30,000-Mile Odyssey''

National Public Radio, 4 December 2012

External links

*
Doctor Nerve Home PageJMSL Home PageInterview with New Sounds
*
Hundred-dollar Guitar Project
{{DEFAULTSORT:Didkovsky, Nick 21st-century classical composers Living people 1958 births American male classical composers American classical composers 21st-century American guitarists 20th-century American guitarists American male guitarists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians