My latest project as producer, an upcoming CD remixing Terry Riley's great work In C:
An excerpt from the first performance of my new composition On the Northern Front. The images are photographs taken by Alaskan Ken Tape. What you can't see are nine percussionists all around the room, and all-star electric violinist Todd Reynolds. He's right under the images:
Another recent project of mine, a new CD of Steve Reich's Music for 18 Musicians. For better quality audio & video, go
HERE.
I also compose, produce events, conduct, and teach. I run marathons. I cook. I backpack. I climb mountains. I use a mac. I take photographs. I own many power tools. I spend way too much time online.
Boring, more official bio:
Whether composing, conducting or teaching, or producing concerts or albums, Bill Ryan is passionate about contemporary music and bringing it to diverse audiences. Bill’s compositions are consistently heard on the concert stage, radio, and with dance throughout the country. Gramophone magazine describes his music as "Gritty and funky" and further wrote, "Rarely has music this earthy been so elegant…Ryan's music constantly threatens to burst at the seams, were those seams not so artfully tructured." He has received numerous composition honors, including an ASCAP Young Composers Award and a Meet the Composer Education Program grant. This past year Bill’s music was performed over fifty times in cities including New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, Philadelphia, Atlanta, St. Louis, Syracuse, Houston, Austin, and Long Beach. Other recent activity includes commissions by Opus 21, the Robin Cox Ensemble, violinist Todd Reynolds, and projects with Travesty Dance of Houston. Bill has produced over 45 concerts in his Open Ears and Free Play concert series, gaining national recognition with three ASCAP/Chamber Music America Adventurous Programming Awards. As a conductor he has commissioned and premiered dozens of works by composers including Phil Kline, Marc Mellits, Belinda Reynolds, Evan Ziporyn, and Pulitzer Prize winner David Lang.
In 2006 Bill founded the Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble and shortly after produced their critically acclaimed recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians. Hailed by critics worldwide, it was named among the top recordings of 2007 by the New York Times, L.A. Weekly, The Rest Is Noise, and New York Magazine, and was declared "The story of the year in classical music" by WNYC’s John Schaefer. In a rarity for new music ensembles, the CD reached the top of iTunes’ and Amazon’s classical charts, and spent eleven weeks on Billboard’s top 25 classical crossover chart. Bill and the ensemble have been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition, performed at the 2007 Bang On a Can Marathon in New York, at the 2008 College Music Society National Conference in Atlanta, and joined forces with the Kronos Quartet and other music luminaries in 2009 for the 45th anniversary performance of Terry Riley’s In C at Carnegie Hall. In 2008 Bill won the Michigan Governor’s Award in Arts Education for his work at Grand Valley State University, where he has been teaching since 2005. Previously he taught at Suffolk County Community College, the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College, and was Composer-in-Residence at Lawrence High School.
Hi, I just wanted to let you know that my new album Afrikan Machinery is out now on Tzadik Records. Check out some of the tracks on my profile! You can buy the CD here, here, or here. It's also available on iTunes.
Best Wishes, Lukas Ligeti
