An active composer and performer of computer music since the late 1970s, Rolnick performs on a portable computer music system and concertizes regularly in a wide variety of contexts throughout North America and Europe. He has appeared as featured soloist with ensembles such as The California E.A.R. Unit, Relache, Gerard Schwarz's Music Today Ensemble, Musical Elements, and the Albany Symphony Orchestra. Born in 1947 in Dallas, Texas, he earned a BA in English literature from Harvard College in 1969. He studied musical composition with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, with John Adams and Andrew Imbrie at the San Francisco Conservatory, and with Richard Felciano and Olly Wilson at the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned a Ph.D. in musical composition in 1980. He studied computer music at Stanford University with John Chowning and James A. Moorer, and worked as a researcher at IRCAM in Paris, France, from 1977 to 1979. He currently teaches and directs the EAR Studios at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Study scored for solo flute.
Music of composer/synthesist virtuoso Neil B. Rolnick featuring George Lewis, trombone, the New York New Music Ensemble, Robert Dick, flute, and Gordon Gottlieb, percussion. Classical contemporary chamber music elegantly integrating acoustic and electronic instruments.
With Todd Reynolds, violin; Andrew Sterman, woodwinds; Ron Horton, trumpet; Neil Rolnick, keyboards; Steve Rust, bass; Dean Sharp, drums
The core of this project has been the idea of letting a way of working develop over time. FISH LOVE THAT came together for a concert in New York City every month between September 1996 and June 1998, first at the Knitting Factory, and then at HERE. Since then, we have played several times a year. To keep the focus on freshness and improvisation, we don't rehearse a lot. We get together for an hour or two before each concert, and generally go over new material, but only enough to know how it's put together. We don't actually try to rehearse a full performance. Instead, we try to keep the focus sharply on the performance itself, with the audience listening while we explore the musical ideas.
Although I wrote all the music for the first concerts, other players started to bring in pieces for the band from very early on. Andrew Sterman, Steve Rust and Todd Reynolds all jumped right into the heart of the concept, putting together charts which challenge us to play freely and imaginatively together, but which give us a structure and focus which keep the individual pieces unique. When we're playing well, it seems to me that we find an exciting musical landscape -- one with coherent melodies, driving meters and harmonies, but with the ability to be transformed and shaped fluidly. It's not jazz. It's not "free" improvisation, but neither is it "composed music." It's somewhere in between.
Including Ever-livin Rhythm (for percussion and tape), Wondrous Love (for trombone and tape), Blowing (flute), and Loopy (Synclavier), performed by Gordon Gottlieb, George Lewis, Robert Dick, and Neil Rolnick. Out of print, but we have a few left.
Neil Rolnick's
FISH LOVE THAT
With Todd Reynolds, violin; Andrew Sterman, woodwinds; Ron Horton, trumpet; Neil Rolnick, keyboards; Steve Rust, bass; Dean Sharp, drums
The core of this project has been the idea of letting a way of working develop over time. FISH LOVE THAT came together for a concert in New York City every month between September 1996 and June 1998, first at the Knitting Factory, and then at HERE. Since then, we have played several times a year. To keep the focus on freshness and improvisation, we don't rehearse a lot. We get together for an hour or two before each concert, and generally go over new material, but only enough to know how it's put together. We don't actually try to rehearse a full performance. Instead, we try to keep the focus sharply on the performance itself, with the audience listening while we explore the musical ideas.
Although I wrote all the music for the first concerts, other players started to bring in pieces for the band from very early on. Andrew Sterman, Steve Rust and Todd Reynolds all jumped right into the heart of the concept, putting together charts which challenge us to play freely and imaginatively together, but which give us a structure and focus which keep the individual pieces unique. When we're playing well, it seems to me that we find an exciting musical landscape -- one with coherent melodies, driving meters and harmonies, but with the ability to be transformed and shaped fluidly. It's not jazz. It's not "free" improvisation, but neither is it "composed music." It's somewhere in between.