Michael Gordon

Michael Gordon is an American composer born in 1956 in Managua, and his music is associated with classical and contemporary classical writing, as well as experimental and totalist tendencies. He grows out of a background that includes underground rock bands in New York City and formal composition study at Yale with Martin Bresnick. His work combines dissonance, minimalism, modality, and references to popular culture, producing music described as tuneful, rhythmic and raw.

Works with video, film and theatre

Gordon works extensively with video from 1991 onwards. He collaborates with video artist Elliott Caplan on Van Gogh Video Opera, which premieres in New York in 1991 and receives its European premiere in Vienna in 1992. Other Caplan collaborations include Grand Dairy, based on a diner on New York’s Lower East Side and produced in Vienna in 1996, and Weather, written for Ensemble Resonanz’s 16 string players on a vertical stage surrounded by video panels; the recording of Weather appears on Arthrob/Nonesuch.

He also works closely with filmmaker Bill Morrison and director Bob McGrath through New York’s Ridge Theater. Chaos, an opera with libretto by Matthew Maguire, premieres at The Kitchen in New York in 1998 and is presented as a fast-moving science-fiction work in 25 short scenes. Decasia, a large-scale symphony with projections commissioned for the Basel Sinfonietta, is staged with Morrison’s deteriorating found-footage film and later screened widely; the film appears at the Sundance Film Festival in 2002. Gotham, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, uses film, projections, lighting and an orchestra of 35 musicians to examine New York, and premieres at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in 2004. Shelter, a multimedia work commissioned by musikFabrik with Trio Mediaeval and a libretto by Deborah Artman, premieres in Köln in 2005 and receives its US premiere later that year. Both Shelter and The Carbon Copy Building are staged by Ridge Theater with Laurie Olinder, Bill Morrison and Bob McGrath. Gordon also collaborates with playwright Anna Deavere Smith on House Arrest, First Edition, which premieres at Arena Stage in Washington, DC in 1997.

Bang on a Can and collaborations

Gordon is one of the founders and artistic directors of New York’s Bang on a Can Festival, together with Julia Wolfe and David Lang. He collaborates with both composers on several projects, including the opera The Carbon Copy Building, made with comic book artist Ben Katchor and awarded the 2000 Village Voice OBIE Award for Best New American Work. Gordon, Wolfe and Lang also create the oratorio Lost Objects.

Work with ensembles and recordings

He works extensively with the London ensemble Icebreaker. Yo Shakespeare is recorded by Icebreaker on their debut Argo/Decca album Terminal Velocity and later re-released by Cantaloupe Music. Trance, written for Icebreaker with eight brass players, is originally recorded for Argo and later appears in a new re-mixed version on Cantaloupe. Link, written in 1998 with David Lang for a new ballet by Ashley Page for The Royal Ballet, is later revived by Page at Scottish Ballet.

Other recordings and collaborations include Light Is Calling, released on Nonesuch and made with producers R. Luke DuBois and Damian le Gassick, with Todd Reynolds featuring on violin. Gordon continues to work with DuBois on electronic backing arrangements for later pieces including All Vows for cellist Maya Beiser, Sad Park for the Kronos Quartet, and the opera What to Wear? with a libretto by Richard Foreman, all from 2006. Lost Objects is released on Teldec New Line, and Weather is recorded on Arthrob/Nonesuch.

Presentations and publishing

Gordon’s music is performed at venues including Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, The Kitchen, the Kölner Philharmonie, the Royal Albert Hall, the Bonn Oper and the Jewish Museum in Vienna. It also appears at the Rotterdam, Edinburgh, St. Petersburg, Holland, Adelaide, Huddersfield, Settembre Musica and Dresden music festivals, in the work of choreographers and dance companies including Eliot Feld, the Royal Ballet, emio greco/pc and Heinz Spoerli, and in the repertoires of Ensemble Modern and the Kronos Quartet. His commissions are supported by organisations including the New York State Council on the Arts, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the BBC Proms, the Siemens Kulturprogram, BAM’s Next Wave Festival and the Sydney 2000 Olympic Arts Festival. His music is published by Red Poppy, a division of G. Schirmer, and his recordings appear on labels including Cantaloupe Music, Nonesuch, Argo/Decca and Teldec New Line.