Doctorate - D.Mus., Music Composition (1983)
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Composition with Peter Gena, Computer Music with Gary Kendall, Philosophy with James Edie.
Masters - M.Mus, Music Composition (1981)
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Composition with Peter Gena, Computer Music with Gary Kendall.
Bachelors - B.Mus, Music Composition (1977)
Oberlin Music Conservatory, Oberlin, Ohio
Minor in philosophy. Composition with Randolph Coleman.
Additional composition study with Ben Johnston (1984-86) and Morton Feldman (1975).
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Associate Professor of Music, Bard College (Fall 2002-present); Assistant Professor of Music (Fall 1997-Spring 2002)
Full-time tenure-track position in music theory, history, and composition.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Music, Bucknell University (Fall 1995-Spring 1997)
Theory, music history, music appreciation, composition, and related courses.
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University (Spring 1996)
Styles and Techniques - Music Since 1945
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Bucknell University (Fall 1990-Spring 1995)
Composition, contemporary music, music appreciation, and music history (medieval, Renaissance, Romantic, 20th Century)
Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Studies in American Music, Brooklyn College, N.Y. (Fall 1991).
Seminar: Numbers in New Music (analysis of Conlon Nancarrow, La Monte Young, Ben Johnston); lectures.
Kushell Chair Lecturer, Bucknell University (Spring 1990)
Lectured on musical aesthetics, criticism, and contemporary music; taught composition.
Lecturer in Music, School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1986-88)
Music before 1750, Contemporary Music, lectured on the history of music in Chicago.
Teaching Assistant, Northwestern University (1977-81)
Solely responsible for three levels of aural skills; classes in undergraduate theory and American experimental music.
TEACHING QUALIFICATIONS
Composition, music theory (all levels), counterpoint (especially 16th-century), music history (all periods, especially Classical, Romantic, early and late 20th century), orchestration, alternative tunings and tuning theory, American music, music appreciation, aesthetics.
PUBLICATIONS
Books:
- The Music of Conlon Nancarrow, Cambridge University Press, 1995.
- American Music in the Twentieth Century, Schirmer Books, 1997.
- Music Downtown: Articles from the Village Voice, 1986-2000, University of California Press, 2004 (forthcoming)
- The Arithmetic of Listening: Tuning Theory and History for the Impractical Musician (in preparation)
Scholarly Articles:
- "The Percussion Music of John J. Becker," in Percussive Notes Journal, March 1984 (vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 26-41)
- "Downtown Beats for the 1990s" (Analyses of music by Rhys Chatham, Mikel Rouse, Michael Gordon, Larry Polansky, Ben Neill), in Contemporary Music Review, Summer 1993
- "La Monte Young's The Well-Tuned Piano," in Perspectives of New Music, Winter 1993 (Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 134-162)
- "The Outer Edge of Consonance: The Development of La Monte Young's Tuning Systems," in Sound and Light: La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela (Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 1996, pp. 152-190).
- "Subversive Prophet: Henry Cowell as Theorist and Critic," in The Whole World of Music: A Henry Cowell Symposium, David Nicholls, ed., Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997.
- "Conlon Nancarrow: Study No. 25 for Player Piano," in Settling New Scores: Music Manuscripts from the Paul Sacher Foundation, Felix Meyer, ed. (Mainz: Schott Musik International, 1998, pp. 171-173).
- "Chapter 13: New Currents Coalesce: Since the Mid-1980s," in H. Wiley Hitchcock, Music in the United States (Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2000, pp. 363-394).
- "Music-Theater Lite for a Dark Age," in Theatre Magazine, Volume 30, Number 2, pp. 24-33
- "Navigating the Infinite Web of Pitch Space," in Open Space, Issue 2, Spring 2000, pp. 67-77
- "No Escape from Heaven: John Cage as Father Figure," in David Nicholls, ed., The Cambridge Companion to John Cage, Cambridge University Press (2002)
- "American Music since 1980," in Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart
- Preface to Essential Cowell, Dick Higgins, ed. (Kingston, NY: McPherson & Company, 2001)
- Biographical entries on Robert Ashley , Eve Beglarian, Henry Brant, Wendy Mae Chambers, Nic Collins, Michael Gordon, Guy Klucevsek, David Lang, Meredith Monk, Conlon Nancarrow, Ben Neill, Mikel Rouse, David Soldier, Bernadette Speach, Lois V Vierk, Julia Wolfe, Evan Ziporyn in The New Grove Dictionary of Music, 2001
Compact Discs:
- Ghost Town, on Century XXI USA1 - Electronics, New Tone nt 6730
- Desert Sonata on Lois Svard [pianist]: Other Places, Lovely Music LCD 3052
- Snake Dance No. 2 on Ten Years of Essential Music, Monroe Street msm 60101
- Hesapa ki Lakhota ki Thawapi on Relache Ensemble: Pick It Up, Monroe Street msm 60102
- Custer's Ghost (including Fractured Paradise, How Miraculous Things Happen, Superparticular Woman, So Many Little Dyings, Ghost Town, Custer and Sitting Bull), Monroe Street msm 60104
AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS
- American Music Center Letter of Distinction, 2003
- ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award for criticism, 2002
- Commission from the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir to write Transcendental Sonnets for chorus and orchestra, 2002
- Commission from St. Luke's Orchestra Chamber Series to write Hovenweep for quintet, 2001.
Commission from the Pew Charitable Trusts and the National Endowment for the Arts to write The Planets, Book II, for the Relache ensemble, 2001.
- Stagebill Award for music criticism, 1999.
- National Endowment for the Arts Individual Composer's Fellowship to write Custer and Sitting Bull, 1996-97
- Music in Motion commission to write The Planets, Book I, for the Relache ensemble, 1993-94.
- Commission from pianist Lois Svard to write Desert Sonata, 1994.
- Commission from the American Ritual Theater Company to write I'itoi Variations, 1985.
RELATED EXPERIENCE
- Columnist for Chamber Music magazine (1998-present); bimonthly column, "American Composer."
- New Music Columnist for The Village Voice, New York (1986-present); weekly (now monthly) column plus feature stories.
- Director, N.A.M.E. Gallery, Chicago (Feb. 1984-Feb. 1985)
Raised annual budget by 64%, increased government funding by 16% to over $50,000, initiated and organized new music series, expended performance art series, wrote public relations materials.
- Administrative Assistant, New Music America festival for Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (Sept. 1981 to Aug. 1982)
Wrote all grant proposals (which brought in over $250,000), negotiated contracts, wrote all press materials, coordinated programming, lectured on related exhibitions.
- More than 2000 articles published in the following additional newspapers and periodicals: American Music Box, American Theosophist, Art Forum, ASCAP in Action, AtlAntica, Chicago Sun-Times (1986-87), Chicago Tribune (1984-85), Dialogue, Fanfare (1985-92), Musical America, New Art Examiner, New York Times (1986 and 1998-present), Opera News, Pulse (1998-2001), and Chicago Reader (1983-89); program notes for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, American Symphony Orchestra, and American Symphony Chamber Orchestra (regular annotator since 1997); liner notes for discs on the New World, Lovely Music, Hat Art, Epic, Disques Montaignes, Centaur, O.O., CRI, Monroe Street, Starkland, Koch International, and Albany labels.
SELECTED RECENT LECTURES AND SYMPOSIA
- Lecture, "Charles Ives' Influence on Younger American Composers," March 19, 2004 at the MaerzMusik Festival, Berlin
- Lectures on American music, alternate tunings, and my own music, January 2004; Dartington College of the Arts, Totnes, England
- Lectures on recent American music, Moscow Conservatory, Oct. 23, 2002; Pro Arte Institute in St. Petersburg, Oct. 30, 2002
- Lectures on the history of tuning and intonation, American avant-garde music, and analysis of the works of the composer Conlon Nancarrow, at Goldsmiths College, London, March 1 - 16, 2001.
- Lecture on Nancarrow, Dartington School of the Arts, Totnes, England, March 2, 2001.
- Lecture on the notation of Downtown chamber music at the Chamber Music America conference in New York City, January 14, 2001.
- "Navigating the Infinite Web of Pitch Space," at MicroFest, a festival of microtonal music at Harvey Mudd College in Los Angeles, April 7, 2001.
- Participation in a panel, "Death or Transfiguration: The Future of Publishing," at Toronto 2000, the conference of musicological organizations in Toronto on November 2, 2000.
- Paper, "Mikel Rouse and the Simulation of Normalcy" at a postmodernism conference at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, May 11, 2000.
- "Downtown Music: An Ancient Tradition" at the conference of the Music Theory Society of New York State, at NYU, April 8, 2000.
- A week-long residency at Oberlin Conservatory , lecturing on American music, alternate tunings, and criticism as a profession, November 8-12, 1999.
SELECTED RECENT PERFORMANCES
- Cinderella's Bad Magic premiered at the Alernativa festival in Moscow, Russia, on Oct. 26, 2002, James Bagwell conducting; and performed at the Beloselski-Belozerski Palace in St. Petersburg, Nov. 1, 2002; along with Custer and Sitting Bull.
- Transcendental Sonnets, performed by the Indiana Symphonic Choir on Oct. 19, 2002 in Indianapolis, Eric Stark conducting.
- Performances of Custer and Sitting Bull, New World Coming, and eight Disklavier pieces at the Mini-Max Festival at the Powerhouse, Brisbane, Australia, on Nov. 3, 2002; featured American composer along with William Duckworth.
- The Planets, Book II, commissioned and performed by the Relache ensemble, one movement in Philadelphia on May 11-13, 2001.
- Custer and Sitting Bull at the Ought One Festival of Nonpop in Montpelier, Vermont, organized by the well-known Kalvos & Damian Web Site, August 26, 2001.
- New York premiere of my Time Does Not Exist by pianist Emily Manzo at Christ and St. Stephen's Church, April 23, 2001.
- Custer and Sitting Bull at the MicroFest at Harvey Mudd College in Los Angeles, April 7, 2001.
- Hovenweep, commissioned and performed by the St. Luke's Orchestra Chamber Ensemble at the Dia Arts Foundation in New York City February 3, 2001; repeated at Bard College by the Da Capo ensemble on April 11.
- One of the three featured composers at the University of New Mexico Composers Symposium in Albuquerque, performing my one-man opera Custer and Sitting Bull, and presenting three pieces for Disklavier; March 26-27, 2001.
- Custer and Sitting Bull, performed at the Kitchen in New York City, in a theatrical version directed by Jeffrey Sichel, with visual and lighting design by Andrew Hill; December 6, 7, 8, 9, 2000.
- One-person concert at Bard College: pianist Sarah Cahill premiered my Time Does Not Exist and Private Dances, Sara Phillips performed my "Last Chance" Sonata, and I premiered Texarkana and Nude Rolling Down an Escalator for Disklavier, as well as playing my piano piece Windows to Infinity; November 16, 2000.
- Featured composer at the Storm King Music Festival, June 30, July 1, and July 6, 2000; I performed Custer and Sitting Bull.
- Concert of my electronic music, including Custer and Sitting Bull, at the Center for New Music and Audio Technology (CNMAT) in San Francisco, April 13, 2000.
References upon request
