Composition

Kyle Gann of the Village Voice calls Arthur Jarvinen "one of the subtlest composers of his generation".

Arthur Jarvinen (b.1956) is a familiar figure in the contemporary music community, having been a featured composer and performer on prominent concerts, festivals and broadcasts internationally for over twenty-five years. He was a founding and longtime member of the acclaimed California E.A.R. Unit and has led several of his own bands and ensembles of various kinds. His musical activities both as composer and performer range from contemporary chamber and experimental music to songwriting, instrumental surf music, electronics, improvisation and multimedia, and his creative output includes visual art, experimental theater, and "word works".

Recordings of Jarvinen's music are released on O.O. Discs, M.A Recordings, Los Angeles River Records, and his own label, Lakefire Records, among others. He is published by Leisure Planet Music, a company he created in 1982.

Jarvinen has received commissions from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation (for X-tet), the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University (for the New York New Music Ensemble), the Minnesota Composers Forum (for both the California E.A.R. Unit and Helios), the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Rel‰che, Zeitgeist, Alea III, and others. He received a 1990 NEA composer fellowship for The Paces of Yu, a unique percussion work for Brazilian berimbau (a folk instrument) and homemade instruments. He was awarded a 1991 California Arts Council fellowship, received Ohio University's 1997 Achievement In Music Award, and in 2002 was awarded a City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A.) Individual Artist Fellowship for the creation and presentation of Nighthawks, a staged song cycle on paintings by Edward Hopper.

Arthur Jarvinen received the Bachelor of Music in applied percussion from Ohio University (1978) where he studied with Guy Remonko, and the Master of Fine Arts from the California Institute of the Arts (1981) where he studied percussion with John Bergamo, Karen Ervin, and Ruth Underwood, and composition with Morton Subotnick, Stephen Mosko, and Earle Brown.

http://www.leisureplanetmusic.com/aj/jarvinen.htm
ajarvine@calarts.edu
Contact Arthur: NotNed@aol.com