48th Annual - Contemporary Music Festival 2010
Kyle Gann
The School of Music is pround to present Kyle Gann as our Featured Guest Composer.
Kyle Gann, born 1955 in Dallas, Texas, is a composer and was new-music critic for the Village Voice from 1986 to 2005. Since 1997 he has taught music theory, history, and composition at Bard College. He is the author of The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Cambridge University Press, 1995), American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer Books, 1997), Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice (University of California Press, 2006), No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33" (Yale University Press, 2010), and Robert Ashley (University of Illinois Press, 2010; forthcoming).
Gann studied composition with Ben Johnston, Morton Feldman, and Peter Gena, and his music is often microtonal, using up to 37 pitches per octave. His rhythmic language, based on differing successive and simultaneous tempos, was developed from his study of Hopi, Zuni, and Pueblo Indian musics. His music has been performed on the New Music America, Bang on a Can, and Spoleto festivals. His major works include Sunken City, a piano concerto commissioned by the Orkest de Volharding in Amsterdam; Transcendental Sonnets, a 35-minute work for choir and orchestra commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir; Custer and Sitting Bull, a microtonal, one-man music theater work he's performed more than 30 times from Brisbane to Moscow; The Planets, commissioned by the Relache ensemble via Music in Motion and continued under a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Artists' Fellowship; and The Hudson River Trilogy, a trio of microtonal chamber operas written with librettist Jeffrey Sichel, the first of which, Cinderella's Bad Magic, was premiered in Moscow and St. Petersburg. In 2007, choreographer Mark Morris made a large-ensemble dance, Looky, from five of Gann's works for Disklavier (computerized player piano).
In addition to Bard, Gann has taught at Columbia University, Brooklyn College, the School of the Art Instutute of Chicago, and Bucknell University. His writings include more than 2500 articles for more than 45 publications, including scholarly articles on La Monte Young (in Perspectives of New Music), Henry Cowell, John Cage, Edgard Varčse, Ben Johnston, Mikel Rouse, John Luther Adams, Dennis Johnson, and other American composers. He writes the "American Composer" column for Chamber Music magazine, and he was awarded the Peabody Award (2003), the Stagebill Award (1999) and the Deems-Taylor Award (2003) for his writings. His music is available on the New Albion, New World, Cold Blue, Lovely Music, Mode, Meyer Media, New Tone, and Monroe Street labels. In 2003, the American Music Center awarded Gann its Letter of Distinction, along with Steve Reich, Wayne Shorter, and George Crumb.
Other Performers and Lecturers Include
- Sam Houston Percussion Group
- The Percussion Ensemble is under the direction of John Lane
- Intersection
- The ensemble Intersection is directed by Brian Herrington.
Spring 2010 Concert and Event Schedule
(April 15th-17th, 2010)
Admission: FREE for SHSU Music Majors and Music Faculty,
$5 SHSU Students,
$10 General Public
- Thursday, April 15th
- Artist Faculty Spotlight: Daniel Saenz, Cello Recital
Recital Hall; 7:30pm - Sam Houston State Student Composers Concert (Time and Location TBA)
- Friday, April 16th
- Kyle Gann, Guest Lecture
11:00am; Music Building RM 202 (subject to change) - The Chamber Music of Kyle Gann and Sam Houston State Composers (Concert 1)
Recital Hall; 4:00pm - The Chamber Music of Kyle Gann and Sam Houston State Composers (Concert 2)
Recital Hall; 7:30pm - Thursday, April 17th
- Intersection and the Sam Houston Percussion Group: The Music of Kyle Gann (Concert 1)
Directed by Brian Herrington and John Lane
Recital Hall; 4:00pm - Intersection and the Sam Houston Percussion Group: The Music of Kyle Gann (Concert 2)
Directed by Brian Herrington and John Lane
Recital Hall; 7:30pm - Pre-Concert Talk; 8:00pm - Concert
- Location Info:
- Music Building of the School of Music
- Recital Hall - Google Maps