Lives in New York, NY
Born 1948, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Composer
My primary work is in writing symphonies for orchestra. So far my symphonies 7, 9 and 11 have all been orchestral works. My new piece in progress is Symphony No. 14 (The Harmonic Series). The first movement 2,000,000,000 Light Years From Home has been completed and I am now working on seven more movements: 2. O Tempera, O Mores, 3. The Grand Sonic Field, 4. Lost Chords ('to strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield'), 5. The Universe (for Charles Ives), 6. The Museum of Modern Music Philharmonic, 7. Jesus H. Christmas and 8. Twisting In Space. As yet only the first movement of this piece has been commissioned. I started working with the harmonic series in 1982 for my Symphony No. 3. For that piece it was necessary to design and build most of the instruments in order to accommodate a tuning system that involves 128 unequal intervals in the first seven octaves. Since that time I've developed a system of close approximations for orchestral instruments that makes it possible to use this intonation with conventional orchestra. I am also working on a Jazz Symphony (for Miles) and a symphony for unconventional instrumentation: Music for Strange Orchestra.
1967-1968; 1969-1971 Emerson College
1966-1967 York College
2008 Symphony No. 14 (The Harmonic Series), First movement: 2,000,000,000 Light Years From Home, commissioned by The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, St. Louis, MO, conducted by David Robertson
2006 Lesson No. 3 (a tribute to Steve Reich), The Barbican Center, London, England, performed by the Glenn Branca Ensemble
2006 Lesson No1 (for string quartet) 1979-2006, Carnegie Hall, New York, NY, performed by the Kronos String Quartet
2000 Symphony No. 13 (Hallucination City) first version in one movement for 100 guitars, premiered at the World Trade Center, New York, NY; revised version performed in Rome, Italy; London, England; Dublin, Ireland; Ghent, Belgium; Los Angeles, CA; Montclair, NJ; Seattle, WA; St. Louis, MO
1998 Symphony No. 11 (The Never Lands), The Holland Festival, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, performed by The Hilversum Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Ed Spanjaard
1992 Symphony No. 8 (The Mysteries Part 1), Expo 92, Seville, Spain, performed by the Glenn Branca Ensemble; released by Blast First, 1994; Atavistic, 1994
1984 Symphony No. 5 (Describing Planes Of An Expanding Hypersphere), UCLA Center for the Performing Arts, Los Angeles, performed by the Glenn Branca Ensemble; released by Atavistic, 1996
1983 Symphony No. 3 (Gloria), Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York, NY, performed by the Glenn Branca Ensemble; released by Neutral Records, 1983; Atavistic, 1993
1998 New York Foundation for the Arts Artist's Fellowship
1988 DAAD, Berlin Fellowship
1988 National Endowment for the Arts Grant
1983 CAPS Grant, New York State Council on the Arts
