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Aaron Cassidy (born ) is an American
composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...
.


Education

Cassidy was born in
Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. It borders on Lake Michigan to its northeast, the Mississippi River to its west, and the Wabash River, Wabash and Ohio River, Ohio rivers to its ...
. He received a Bachelor of Music degree, with distinction, from the
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
Bienen School of Music The Bienen School of Music (formally the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music) is the music and performance arts school of Northwestern University. It is located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States. The s ...
in
Evanston, Illinois Evanston is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States, situated on the North Shore (Chicago), North Shore along Lake Michigan. A suburb of Chicago, Evanston is north of Chicago Loop, downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skok ...
, where his main instructors in composition were
Jay Alan Yim Jay Alan Yim (born April 24, 1958) is an American composer of Chinese descent and recipient of a 1994 Guggenheim Fellowship. Early life and education Yim was born into a Chinese family in St. Louis, Missouri on April 24, 1958. He attended the U ...
, Alan Stout, and
Michael Pisaro Michael Pisaro (born 1961 in Buffalo, New York) is an American guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for v ...
. He went on to study composition with David Felder and Jeffery Stadelman at the
State University of New York at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public research university in Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. The university was founded in 1846 a ...
where he received a Ph.D. in composition in 2003. He also participated in masterclass and lessons with composers including Richard Barrett,
Chaya Czernowin Chaya Czernowin (, ; born December 7, 1957) is an Israeli American composer, and Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University. She is the lead composer at the Schloß Solitude Sommerakademie, a biannual international academy of c ...
,
Brian Ferneyhough Brian John Peter Ferneyhough (; born 16 January 1943) is an English composer. Ferneyhough is typically considered the central figure of the New Complexity movement. Ferneyhough has taught composition at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg and ...
, Jonathan Harvey,
Alvin Lucier Alvin Augustus Lucier Jr. (May 14, 1931 – December 1, 2021) was an American experimental composer and sound artist. A long-time music professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, Lucier was a member of the influential Sonic Ar ...
, and
Tristan Murail Tristan Murail (born 11 March 1947) is a French composer associated with the " spectral" technique of composition. Among his compositions is the large orchestral work ''Gondwana''. Early life and studies Murail was born in Le Havre, France. His f ...
, among others.


Style

Cassidy's music exhibits a radical approach to parametric organisation in composition, especially in his solo works, in a manner that he describes as to do with "decoupling". In works such as the ''ten monophonic miniatures for pianist'', he treats the sound of the pianist's fingers on the keys as a separate parameter in the music, and in this and other pieces he incorporates and integrates a wide range of extended instrumental techniques. He is concerned to explore the possibilities of fracturing between different musical parameters, and to defamiliarise aspects of traditional
performance practice Historically informed performance (also referred to as period performance, authentic performance, or HIP) is an approach to the performance of classical music which aims to be faithful to the approach, manner and style of the musical era in which ...
. Intellectual influences upon his music include the work of
Roman Jakobson Roman Osipovich Jakobson (, ; 18 July 1982) was a Russian linguist and literary theorist. A pioneer of structural linguistics, Jakobson was one of the most celebrated and influential linguists of the twentieth century. With Nikolai Trubetzk ...
and that of
Gilles Deleuze Gilles Louis René Deleuze (18 January 1925 – 4 November 1995) was a French philosopher who, from the early 1950s until his death in 1995, wrote on philosophy, literature, film, and fine art. His most popular works were the two volumes o ...
and
Félix Guattari Pierre-Félix Guattari ( ; ; 30 March 1930 – 29 August 1992) was a French psychoanalyst, political philosopher, Semiotics, semiotician, social activist, and screenwriter. He co-founded schizoanalysis with Gilles Deleuze, and created ecosophy ...
. His work is sometimes associated with the New Complexity. Cassidy's work has been performed by a wide range of leading contemporary music specialists, including
ELISION Ensemble The ELISION Ensemble (often referred to as simply ELISION) is a chamber ensemble specialising in contemporary classical music, concentrating on the creation and presentation of new works. The ensemble comprises a core of around 20 virtuoso musicia ...
, Ensemble SurPlus, the Ictus Ensemble, the
JACK Quartet The JACK Quartet is an American string quartet dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in 2005 and is based in New York City. The four founding members are violinists Christopher Otto and Ari Streisfeld, violi ...
, the Kairos Quartet, Quatuor Diotima, ensemble recherche, Mieko Kanno,
Garth Knox Garth Knox (born 8 October 1956 in Dublin, Ireland) is a violist and composer who specializes in contemporary classical music and new music. Biography Knox was the youngest of four siblings, and although he was born in Ireland, he was raised in ...
, Ian Pace, Christopher Redgate,
Carl Rosman Carl Rosman is an Australian clarinettist, singer and conductor. Rosman studied with Phillip Miechel in Melbourne, then with Peter Jenkin at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. He has performed in Europe, Asia, Australasia and both North and S ...
, and Peter Veale, at many venues and festivals including the Gaudeamus International Music Week (where he was a Jurors Prize nominee, in 2002 and 2004), the
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival The Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (also known by the acronym HCMF, stylised since 2006 as the lowercase hcmf//) is a new music festival held annually in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. Since its foundation in 1978, it has featu ...
, the Bludenzer Tage zeitgemäßer Musik, the Bienal Internacional de Musica y Tecnología (Mexico City), the Samtida Musik Stockholm, the festival June In Buffalo, and the
ISCM The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...
World Music Days (Zagreb 2005), as well as being broadcast by radio stations in Britain, France, Germany and Austria.


Writings

Cassidy has also written articles for ''New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century'' and is currently preparing an article on the compositional pedagogy of
Michael Finnissy Michael Peter Finnissy (born 17 March 1946) is an English composer, pianist, and pedagogue. An immensely prolific composer, his music is "notable for its dramatic urgency and expressive immediacy". Although he rejects the label, he is often reg ...
. He also works as a conductor and organist, and acts as conductor and pianist for Augenmusik, a Buffalo-based ensemble specializing in the performance of graphic scores and works in open form, frequently for unusual instrumentations. He has also worked recently as a CD producer, particularly for EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble in their discs of the music of Michael Finnissy, Christopher Fox, and Howard Skempton, which were released on the NMC label. In 2005, Cassidy was appointed to the composition faculty of the
Bienen School of Music The Bienen School of Music (formally the Henry and Leigh Bienen School of Music) is the music and performance arts school of Northwestern University. It is located on Northwestern University's campus in Evanston, Illinois, United States. The s ...
at
Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...
, where he taught and was also responsible for organizing the New Music Northwestern concert series. He was formerly a visiting assistant professor of music at
Buffalo State College The State University of New York Buffalo State University (colloquially referred to as Buffalo State University, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo State, or simply Buff State) is a public college, public university in Buffalo, New York. It is part of ...
. He joined the faculty of the
University of Huddersfield The University of Huddersfield is a public research university located in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, England. It has been a University since 1992, but has its origins in a series of institutions dating back to the 19th century. It has made te ...
in 2007 as senior lecturer in composition.


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cassidy, Aaron American male composers 21st-century American composers 1976 births Living people Musicians from Illinois Bienen School of Music alumni University at Buffalo alumni Northwestern University faculty Buffalo State College faculty Academics of the University of Huddersfield 21st-century American male musicians