Erik Griswold (born 1969) is an American-born, Australian-based composer and pianist from

Brisbane Brisbane ( ; ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and largest city of the States and territories of Australia, state of Queensland and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia, with a ...

Career

Griswold began playing piano at the age of five, and has cited his early influences as

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential 20th-century c ...

, Béla Bartok, and

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

, and later

Charles Mingus Charles Mingus Jr. (April 22, 1922 – January 5, 1979) was an American jazz Double bass, upright bassist, composer, bandleader, pianist, and author. A major proponent of collective Musical improvisation, improvisation, he is considered one of ...

and

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

as he became more interested in improvisation. He studied his undergraduate at

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...

, Los Angeles, and

University of California, San Diego The University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego in communications material, formerly and colloquially UCSD) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Diego, California, United States. Es ...

, before moving to Australia in 1999. Initially he moved to

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, before settling in Brisbane, and it was after his move to Australia that Griswold began to seriously explore

prepared piano A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sounds temporarily altered by placing bolts, screws, mutes, rubber erasers, and/or other objects on or between the strings. Its invention is usually traced to John Cage's dance music for ''Works for pr ...

and focus more on his work as a performer. He has released several albums on Australian record label Room40, beginning with 2004's ''Altona Sketches'', and album of prepared piano pieces. In 2020

ABC Classics ABC Music is Australia's largest independent record label. It operates under the ABC Commercial division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. It covers a wide range of music genres, including classical, children’s and adult conte ...

commissioned a new 15-minute work from Griswold to have its premier at the 2021 Brisbane Music Festival. The work ''How Strange the Change'' was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, while the title was in homage to

Cole Porter Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became Standard (music), standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway the ...

’s '' Ev’ry Time We Say Goodbye.''

Work with Vanessa Tomlinson

Erik Griswold has released music with his partner percussionist Vanessa Tomlinson as Clocked Out Duo. In 2000 they won two

Green Room Awards The Green Room Awards are Australian peer awards which recognise excellence in cabaret, dance, theatre companies, independent theatre, musical theatre, contemporary and experimental performance, and opera. The awards, which were established in ...

for their collaboration ''Dada Cabare'', and as Clocked Out won the Award for Excellence by an Organisation or Individual and Queensland State Award at 2011's APRA and AMC Art Music Awards. In 2015 they celebrated 15 years of making music together, having toured internationally and already released eight albums together at the time. In 2016 they collaborated on music for architect Bruce Wolfe's project

Piano Mill A Piano Mill is a hybrid building and musical instrument located at Willsons Downfall in Northern New South Wales, Australia. It was designed and purpose-built to house sixteen reclaimed pianos in a tower structure. The instrument is designe ...

, a tower located in Queensland

bushland In Australia, bushland is a blanket term for land which supports remnant natural area, remnant vegetation or land which is disturbed but still retains a predominance of the original floristics and structure. Human survival in bushland has a wh ...

housing 16 pianos. For 2017's

World Science Festival The World Science Festival is an annual science festival hosted by the World Science Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in New York City. There is also an Asia-Pacific event held in Brisbane, Australia. The foundation's go ...

in Brisbane, they performed ''Time Crystals'', a musical piece inspired by physicist

Frank Wilczek Frank Anthony Wilczek ( or ; born May 15, 1951) is an American theoretical physicist, mathematician and Nobel laureate. He is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Founding Director ...

's theories on time. The song previously appeared on their eighth album of the same name, released in 2014.

Awards

External links

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griswold, Erik Living people 1969 births 21st-century American composers 21st-century American pianists University of California, San Diego alumni University of Southern California alumni