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 new music and bringing it to diverse audiences. He 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 David Lang, Phil Kline, Marc Mellits, Belinda Reynolds, and Evan Ziporyn. In 2006 he 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 even 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, and will be joining forces with Kronos Quartet in 2009 for a performance at Carnegie Hall.
Bill’s own compositions are consistently performed on the concert stage and with dance throughout the country. Gramophone magazine has described it 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 structured." Recent activity include commissions by Opus 21 and the Robin Cox Ensemble, the premiere of his work Rapid Assembly in New York's Symphony Space (with subsequent positive review in the NY Times), and winning composition contests sponsored by the Noise Ensemble (San Diego), Tonoi Ensemble (Los Angeles) and Sonic Inertia (Chicago). One last bit of trivia: that eight-second bass clarinet solo heard every Saturday on NPR’s All Things Considered for the past three years is from his CD Blurred.
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
