Maurice Wright

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Maurice Wright (1949- ) is an American composer. Wright's works are (in his own words) "a synthesis of his diverse interests: vocal and instrumental music (new and old); technology and acoustics; and drama and film."

Maurice Willis Wright was born in Front Royal, Virginia, a small town situated between the forks of the Shenandoah River and near the Blue Ridge Mountains. He began composing at age 10. He attended Duke University and Columbia University, where he explored diverse interests that included music composition, computer science and film.

Wright has taught at Boston University, Columbia University, and the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently (2006) the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Music Composition at Temple University's Boyer College Of Music and Dance, where he co-founded the Interactive Arts and Technology Laboratory and the Presser Center for Creative Music Technology.

Wright was introduced to the craft and technology of film when he met Director Gene Searchinger in 1976 and contributed an electronic score for an unusual film about recycled aluminum, "Metallic Tales: The Social Life of a Non-Ferrous Metal." Wright has continued to work with Searchinger, most recently contributing music and special sound for the three-program series about linguistics, "The Human Language."

Wright's interests in image were incorporated into two electronic operas: The Trojan Conflict (1989), and Dr. Franklin, an opera (1990) about Benjamin Franklin. In both works a video screen was embedded in the set, and short scenes written and directed by Wright were integrated into the operatic fabric.

He has experimented with visualization of musical sound and with digital animation, making his first professional presentation as an animator in March, 1996. Shortly thereafter he was commissioned by the Network for New Music to create a work for computer animation and computer sound.

Wright is currently setting the poetry of the late William F. Van Wert, a Temple colleague whose work Wright first incorporated in The Lyric's Tale, "an entertainment" for baritone voice, actress, chamber orchestra and projected video, that plays themes of religion, existentialism and science against one another in a fast-paced, 45 minute work featuring dozens of characters, including Galileo, Sigmund Freud and Martin Luther.