As a composer, theorist, technologist and educator, Rosenboom helped define the evolution of contemporary music and continues to shape its future.
“Perhaps no composer has used more complex logical processes than David Rosenboom, a brilliant and multitalented musician who also performs virtuosically.” Kyle Gann, American Music in the Twentieth Century
The concert, on Saturday, October 12 at 6 pm, will top off CalArts Weekend, an annual event celebrating CalArts’s diverse community.
September 9, Valencia, CA—For David Rosenboom, the future is now. From advanced technologies and neuroscience to biofeedback, global internet-based collaboration and beyond, Rosenboom has pioneered new sources and strategies for creating music. In June, he will step down as Dean of The Herb Alpert School of Music at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), a position he has held since 1990. On Saturday, October 12, at 6 pm, CalArts will present a decades-spanning concert of his music: Propositional Music: David Rosenboom Portrait Concert. The concert takes place at the Wild Beast Concert Pavilion on the CalArts campus in Valencia, California.
As a composer, theorist, technologist and educator, Rosenboom, who holds the Richard Seaver Distinguished Chair in Music at CalArts, has helped define the evolution of contemporary music.
Over his 30 years at CalArts, Rosenboom has been a mentor to students, who in turn, have gone on to enjoy exceptional careers. Alumnx Ellen Reid, who received the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for Music, recalls, “Studying with David was completely freeing and inspiring. He found music in every living (and non-living) thing. I felt the limits of tonality disintegrating and a whole world of possibility opened up. David’s belief in me helped me believe in myself.”
The concert will feature Rosenboom performing with faculty, students, alumni and guests. The event opens with Portable Gold and Philosophers’ Stones (Deviant Resonances), a composition for brainwaves, performed live. Rosenboom began his work with brainwave music in the 1960s and this performance represents the latest phase of his explorations in musical composition and neuroscience.
The evening includes a solo performance by Rosenboom on piano, disklaviar and electronics; Quartet for the Beginning of a Time a preview of his newly commissioned work for the Isaura String Quartet; Choose Your Universe, a duet featuring Rosemboom on five-string electronic violin and modular synthesizer with experimental trumpeter and CalArts alumnx Sarah Belle Reid; and concludes with a high-energy ensemble performing a jazz and globally inflected interpretation of Rosenboom’s 1974 composition Is Art Is.
On December 11, Quartet for the Beginning of a Time will make its world premiere at REDCAT as part of hum, an evening of performances with Isaura String Quartet.
Heralded as an “avatar of experimental music” by the New York Times, Rosenboom refers to himself as an “explorer and an investigator” who welcomes “the freedom to learn from and draw musical insight from everything.” The Wire noted, “Biofeedback, intelligence swarms, solar vibrations and generative opera are among the utopian possibilities proposed by Rosenboom during 50 years of navigating new frontiers of music and technology.” Rosenboom and his work have been featured in concerts and exhibitions around the world including at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, which presented David Rosenboom: Propositional Music, a 50-year retrospective of his work, in 2015.
More about David Rosenboom and his work:
David Rosenboom.com
