William Susman

William Susman
Background information
Birth name William Joseph Susman
Born August 29, 1960
Origin Chicago, United States
Genres classical, orchestra, electronic, film
Occupation(s) Composer
Instruments Piano, Keyboards, Percussion
Years active 1983–present
Labels Belarca (NAXOS) (record label)
Website www.susmanmusic.com

William Joseph Susman (born August 29, 1960) is an American composer of concert and film music and a pianist. He belongs to the generation of American composers that came of age in the late twentieth century and received traditional academic training while remaining thoroughly engaged with popular music (in his case, jazz).[1] Susman has written orchestral and chamber music for concert performance, as well as documentary film scores.[2]

His first major work and earliest recognition was for Pentateuch for soprano, three choral groups and divisi orchestra, which caught the attention of Earle Brown at the BMI awards in 1985.[3] At Brown's recommendation, he received a commission from the Fromm Music Foundation. For his Fromm commission he composed Trailing Vortices (1986) for chamber orchestra which had performances at the Aspen Music festival as well as the Alicante and Gaudeamus music festivals both conducted by Ernest Bour.[4] Trailing Vortices was inspired by photographs found in An Album of Fluid Motion by Milton Van Dyke. He then applied the acoustical concepts of Shepard tones and the studies of Jean Claude Risset to create an "aural translation" of trailing vortices.

Music

His music integrates diverse influences spanning the western classical and jazz tradition to science and numerology. Rhythm plays a strong role in his compositions through musical devices such as the Afro-Cuban montuño, medieval hocket and isorhythm. The New York Times has described his music as ".. vivid, turbulent, rich-textured..."[5] and The Folk and Acoustic Music Exchange said his album Music for Moving Pictures[6] is "A flawless gem...of rare beauty and consummate aesthetic discretion".[7]

In addition to performances of his music in the U.S. and Europe, his compositions have been featured on radio such as New Sounds on WNYC,[8] Echoes[9] on NPR and Concertzender[10]

He founded the record label Belarca for the ensemble OCTET with distribution by Naxos of America. Its mission is to record and widely disseminate contemporary music by living composers who push artistic boundaries.[11] Scatter My Ashes released by Belarca was the album debut for Octet Ensemble.[12]

Influences

His earliest orchestral works such as Openings, Pentateuch and Trailing Vortices pay tribute and demonstrate an affinity to the explorations of Iannis Xenakis and György Ligeti.[13] His interest in algorithmic composition can be attributed also to his composition teacher Herbert Brun at the University of Illinois and John Chowning at Stanford's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).[14] His early use of microtonal composition was influenced by another University of Illinois teacher Ben Johnston as well as Xenakis.[15]

Other influences that make their appearance early on include numerology in works such as Pentateuch and the Fibonacci number series in Twisted Figures and Uprising.[16] He also studied piano with Pauline Lindsey (a student of Artur Schnabel), Steve Behr (pianist with Louis Armstrong) and Alan Swain.[17]

Awards

Works

Orchestra

Chamber ensemble

Wind quintet

Brass quintet

Vocal/Choral

Percussion

String quartet

Piano Trio

Clouds and Flames (2010)

Piano

Solo and duo

Electronic

Film music

Discography

Radio archives online

References

  1. ↑ Classical Music Review M. McDonagh, Piano performance of music by D. Ellington and B. Strayhorn, Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
  2. ↑ "All Music" William Susman Biography
  3. ↑ Contemporary Music Review, Volume 26, Issue 3 & 4 June 2007, pages 371 - 375, Earle Brown: From Motets to Mathematics - Available Recollections
  4. ↑ El Pais, Enrique Franco, Enviado Especial - Alicante - 23 September 1987
  5. ↑ "The New York Times Review, A. Kozinn"
  6. ↑ "All Music Guide" Music for Moving Pictures
  7. ↑ Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange M.S. Tucker, Review for Music For Moving Pictures
  8. ↑ "New Sounds, WNYC" Psychosounds, J. Schaefer, New Sounds, Broadcast on WNYC
  9. ↑ "Echoes Radio Show" Syndicated to NPR (Public Radio International)
  10. ↑ "Concertzender" Radio broadcasts, archive listings
  11. ↑ "Yahoo Finance" Naxos of America Launches Four Labels for Distribution
  12. ↑ "textura reviews" Octet Ensemble: William Susman: Scatter My Ashes
  13. ↑ Opus One Memphis Interview with William Susman
  14. ↑ All Music Guide Stephen Eddins Biography for William Susman
  15. ↑ "The Internet Movie Database" Biography for William Susman by Michael McDonagh
  16. ↑ All Music Guide Stephen Eddins Biography for William Susman
  17. ↑ "The Internet Movie Database" Biography for William Susman by Michael McDonagh

External links