Composer and computer music pioneer, David Jaffee has developed a personal approach that merges cutting-edge technology with elements of folk music. His Silicon Valley Breakdown was hailed as a landmark of the computer music medium by Le Monde and Newsweek, where it was described as "a high-tech hootenanny." As a mandolinist and violinist, he performs his music at international festivals and plays in ensembles ranging from bluegrass to Afro-Cuban charranga style. His work has been recognized by four NEA fellowships, Composer-In-Residencies, commissions from ensembles such as the Kronos Quartet, and performances by the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and others. He has taught composition at Princeton University, Stanford University and the University of California at San Diego. Jaffee has authored numerous articles on computer music and sound synthesis. Recordings of his work have been released by a number of international labels.
Marc Jensen is a composer, performer, and improviser, who recently received his Ph.D. in composition from the University of Minnesota. Much of his work is oriented around composing relationships rather than specific sounds - setting up situations in which performers follow simple sets of rules to interact and produce an unpredictably complex whole, structures without content. His principle teachers have included Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Curran, Fred Frith, and Alex Lubet. Jensen holds a teaching certificate through the Deep Listening Institute, and has edited several books on Deep Listening. As well as directing the Oklahoma Composers Association, he is an active performer with the improvisation ensemble earWorm. He has published articles in the journals Perspectives of New Music, Tempo, 1/1, the Musical Times, and Cinema Journal.
As composer, Brian Johnson (a.k.a. the Human Being) makes music for dance, theater, percussion and voice. As percussionist, he has premiered works by leading figures of the American experimental music tradition. He has worked as ensemble musician with the New York Shakespeare Festival, Loren Mazzacene, William Hooker and Joesph Celli. An accomplished soloist, he is a member of the International Percussive Arts Society.
Born in Colorado, Johnson received his B.A. and M.M. degrees from Yale and also studied with Morton Feldman. He is perhaps best known for The Four Note Opera, which was premiered in New York City in 1972 and which has since been produced over 50 times in English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Hungarian and Catalan. He has always considered himself a minimalist with his composing focused on logical progressions and highly predictable structures. In the 1970s, Johnson's weekly columns in the Village Voice covered the emergence and development of minimal music in New York City. Though traveling frequently, his residence since 1983 has been in Paris. "The world is easier to understand," he says, "when viewed from about halfway between Moscow and Washington." He recently completed the two largest works he has ever produced, the Bonhoeffer Oratorio, with texts of the theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Una Opera Italiana, an Italian opera.
Dan Joseph - Born in Washington, DC, now based in Brooklyn, plays the hammer dulcimer in solo performances and various ensembles. His style has evolved to include both ancient and modern techniques, as he melds traditions from China, Persia, Eastern Europe and the US (Appalachian) with the current language of electronic, experimental and contemporary composition. He has appeared with Pauline Oliveros, Thomas Buckner, Miya Masaoka, Fred Frith, Pamela Z, The Phoenix Spring Ensemble, Comma and many others.
John Ingle - Originally from Memphis, TN, now based in San Francisco, his music draws from many sources: modern concert music, traditional and free jazz, Asian folk music and Southern gospel and soul. He performs regularly with the new music quartet Shinola and with electronic artists Laetitia Sonami and John Bischoff. He has also performed with such diverse artists as Ed Finney, Fred Frith, Leo Smith, Stevie Wonder as well as with the Memphis Symphony and the Taipei Philharmonic. Was recently artist in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts in Sausalito.
A NY native, Karen Jurgens has played a standard drumset for most of her life in a myriad of styles. During the 60's she became interested in the philosophy of John Cage and the works of other 20th century musician/composers, especially the "free" jazz of that period. Her current work represents an extension of this, and a maturation that continues. She has recently recorded with Joe McPhee and the Deep Listening Band on "Unquenchable Fire", along with having performed solo and creating a tape composition for the Dance Theater Workshop.