Joseph Klein (born 1962 in Los Angeles, California) is an American composer, conductor, and educator. He has taught at the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...

College of Music since 1992, where he is currently Distinguished Teaching Professor and Chair of Composition Studies. Klein's work has been recognized by the

National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the feder ...

, the

American Music Center New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media progr ...

, the

American Composers Forum The American Composers Forum is an American organization that promotes and assists American composers and contemporary classical music. It was founded in 1973 as the Minnesota Composers Forum and is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, with activities ...

, the

Gaudeamus Foundation The Gaudeamus Foundation and Contemporary Music Center organizes and promotes contemporary musical activities and concerts in the Netherlands and abroad. It focuses on supporting the career development of young composers and musicians, particular ...

Meet the Composer New Music USA is a new music organization formed by the merging of the American Music Center with Meet The Composer on November 8, 2011. The new organization retains the granting programs of the two former organizations as well as two media progr ...

, the

International Society for Contemporary Music 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 ...

, and the

American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadc ...

. He has collaborated with the

International Contemporary Ensemble The International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE) is a contemporary classical music ensemble, based in New York City. ICE performs a diverse and extensive array of chamber, electro-acoustic, improvisatory, and multimedia works. History The Internati ...

, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Locrian Chamber Players,

Voices of Change Voices of Change is a professional chamber music ensemble based in Dallas, Texas, United States. Voices of Change performs small ensemble works by 20th- and 21st–century composers. History Voices of Change was founded in 1974 by pianist Jo Bo ...

Orchestra 2001 Orchestra 2001 was founded at Swarthmore College, where it was Ensemble-in-Residence for over twenty-five years. In addition to concerts in the Philadelphia area, the ensemble has brought new American music to countless new audiences through nation ...

, and numerous solo artists including vocalist

Joan La Barbara Joan Linda La Barbara (born June 8, 1947) is an American vocalist and composer known for her explorations of non-conventional or "extended" vocal techniques. Considered to be a vocal virtuoso in the field of contemporary music, she is credited ...

, flutist Helen Bledsoe, cellist Madeleine Shapiro, and glass harmonica player

Thomas Bloch Thomas Bloch (born 1962 in Colmar, France) is a classical musician specializing in the rare instruments ondes Martenot, glass harmonica, and Cristal Baschet. Receiving a First Prize for ondes Martenot at the Paris Conservatoire National Sup ...

Education

Klein studied microbiology and music composition at

California State Polytechnic University California State Polytechnic University Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) is a public polytechnic research university in Pomona, California, United States. It is the largest of the three polytechnic universities in the California State University syst ...

, Pomona, where he received a B.A. in Music in 1984. He subsequently studied composition with

Robert Erickson Robert Erickson (March 7, 1917 – April 24, 1997) was an American modernist composer and influential music teacher. He was one of the first American composers to explore the twelve tone technique and to compose tape music. Education Erickson ...

and

Roger Reynolds Roger Lee Reynolds (born July 18, 1934) is an American composer. He is known for his capacity to integrate diverse ideas and resources, and for the seamless blending of traditional musical sounds with those newly enabled by technology. Beyond com ...

at the

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 ...

(M.A. in Music Composition, 1986), and with

Harvey Sollberger Harvey Sollberger (born May 11, 1938 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa) is an American composer, flutist, and conductor specializing in contemporary classical music. Life Sollberger holds an M.A. degree from Columbia University, where his composition instruc ...

and

Claude Baker W. Claude Baker Jr. (born April 12, 1948 Lenoir, North Carolina) is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Biography Claude Baker attained a B.M. degree, magna cum laude, from East Carolina University in 1970. He subsequently stu ...

Indiana University Jacobs School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

, where he received a D.Mus. in Composition in 1991, with minors in music theory and art history.

Music

Klein's creative output comprises solo, chamber, and large ensemble works, including instrumental, vocal, electroacoustic, and intermedia compositions. His music reflects an ongoing interest in processes drawn from sources such as

fractal geometry In mathematics, a fractal is a geometric shape containing detailed structure at arbitrarily small scales, usually having a fractal dimension strictly exceeding the topological dimension. Many fractals appear similar at various scales, as ...

chaos theory Chaos theory is an interdisciplinary area of Scientific method, scientific study and branch of mathematics. It focuses on underlying patterns and Deterministic system, deterministic Scientific law, laws of dynamical systems that are highly sens ...

, and

systems theory Systems theory is the Transdisciplinarity, transdisciplinary study of systems, i.e. cohesive groups of interrelated, interdependent components that can be natural or artificial. Every system has causal boundaries, is influenced by its context, de ...

, often inspired by natural phenomena. Klein frequently incorporates theatrical elements in his work, either as an extra-musical feature or as an organic extension of the musical narrative. Recent works, most notably the cycle of nineteen works collectively titled ''An Unaware Cosmos'' (2012-2018), explore modular, recombinant, and non-linear formal paradigms. Literary influences include

Franz Kafka Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a novelist and writer from Prague who was Jewish, Austrian, and Czech and wrote in German. He is widely regarded as a major figure of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of Litera ...

Elias Canetti Elias Canetti (; 25 July 1905 – 14 August 1994; ; ) was a German-language writer, known as a Literary modernism, modernist novelist, playwright, memoirist, and nonfiction writer. Born in Ruse, Bulgaria, to a Sephardi Jews, Sephardic Jewish fam ...

Alice Fulton Alice Fulton (born 1952) is an American author of poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Fulton is the Ann S. Bowers Professor of English Emerita at Cornell University. Her awards include the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in Literature, ...

W.S. Merwin William Stanley Merwin (September 30, 1927 – March 15, 2019) was an American poet who wrote more than fifty books of poetry and prose and produced many works in translation. During the 1960s anti-war movement, Merwin's unique craft was thematic ...

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera ( ; ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship ...

, and

Christina Rossetti Christina Georgina Rossetti (5 December 1830 – 29 December 1894) was an English writer of romanticism, romantic, devotional and children's poems, including "Goblin Market" and "Remember". She also wrote the words of two Christmas carols well k ...

. In particular, Canetti's writings ''Earwitness'' (''Der Ohrenzeuge,'' 1974) and ''Crowds and Power'' (''Masse und Macht,'' 1960) have inspired over twenty solo instrumental and open-form chamber works composed since 1997. Musical influences include

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

György Ligeti György Sándor Ligeti (; ; 28 May 1923 – 12 June 2006) was a Hungarian-Austrian composer of contemporary classical music. He has been described as "one of the most important avant-garde music, avant-garde composers in the latter half of the ...

Olivier Messiaen Olivier Eugène Prosper Charles Messiaen (, ; ; 10 December 1908 – 27 April 1992) was a French composer, organist, and ornithology, ornithologist. One of the major composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th century, he was also an ou ...

, and

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminacy in music, a development associated with the experimental New York School o ...

. He also specializes in the music of

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

, and has taught courses, organized performances, given interviews, and presented lectures on Zappa's life and work.

Selected works

Large ensemble works *''March Transforms'' — a deconstruction of Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever" for wind ensemble (1986; rev. 1993) *''Pathways: Opposing Forces'' for solo trombone and chamber orchestra (1993) *''Pathways: Revolution'' for solo percussion and chamber orchestra (1993/95) *''Pathways: Interior Shadows'' for solo soprano saxophone and chamber orchestra (1993/95) *''the road in its unfoldings'' meta-passacaglia for wind symphony (1996-97) *''Zwei Parabeln nach Franz Kafka'' for narrator, mixed choir, and computer music (2006) Chamber music *''IcarUS At thE caBARet VoLtairE: parT I (tHe RENdeZVOus)'' for two guitarists (1985) *''Parallaxes'' for four trombones (1988) *''Occam's Razor'' seven studies for ten players (1994/99) *''Interstices'' for flute/piccolo, soprano/tenor saxophone, and percussion (2013-14) *''An Unaware Cosmos'' modular work for multiple soloists and chamber ensembles (2012-18) *''Canetti-menagerie'' open-form work after Elias Canetti, for 5 to 8 players (2015) *''Recombinant'' for clarinet, violin, and piano (2019) Solo works *''Der Leichenschleicher'' for solo contrabass (1997) *''Die Tischtuchtolle'' for solo violin (1997) *''Die Silbenreine'' for solo glass harmonica (2000) *''Der Ohrenzeuge'' for solo bass flute (2001) *''Die Königskünderin'' for solo trumpet (2006) *''Die Sternklare'' for solo percussion (2006) *''Der Schönheitsmolch'' for solo bass saxophone (2008) *''Der Hinterbringer'' for solo piccolo (2013) *''Der Gottprotz'' for solo organ (2014) *''Die Schadhafte'' for solo violoncello (2015) *''Der Saus und Braus'' for solo piano (2017) *''Chain of Circumstances'' modular work for solo piano or piano four hands with optional live electronics (2020) Electronic and intermedia works *''Goblin Market'' for trombonist, pianist, and intermedia environment (1993) *''Dog (after W.S. Merwin)'' for female voice, bassoon, and intermedia (1997) *''Leviathan (after W.S. Merwin)'' for male voice, bass trombone, and intermedia (1998) *''Three Poems from Felt (after Alice Fulton)'' — poetry reading with computer music (2005) *''Cornell Set'' — poetry reading with computer music (2011)

Selected discography

*''Pathways: New Music for Trombone,'' Mark MCD-2645 (1998); Andrew Glendening, trombone. *''CEMISonics: The Threshold of Sound,'' Centaur CRC-2407, Consortium to Distribute Computer Music, Vol. 27 (1998). *''Equipoise: Music of Joseph Klein and William Kleinsasser,'' Innova 611 (2005). *''Facets 3: New American Music for Trumpet,'' Mark MCD-2645 (May 2009); John Holt, trumpet. *''Music from the University of North Texas Center for Experimental Music and Intermedia,'' Centaur CRC-3219, Consortium to Distribute Computer Music, Volume 39 (2012). *''Improbable Encounters: Music of Joseph Klein,'' Innova 873 (2014).

References

External links

Official Joseph Klein webpage

Joseph Klein at International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM)Joseph Klein at The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage

Joseph Klein at Innova RecordingsJoseph Klein on YouTube
{{DEFAULTSORT:Klein, Joseph 1962 births Living people 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American classical composers 21st-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American classical composers American contemporary classical composers American electronic musicians American male classical composers American music educators Classical musicians from California American contemporary classical music performers American experimental composers Jacobs School of Music alumni Musicians from Los Angeles Pupils of Claude Baker Pupils of Harvey Sollberger Pupils of Robert Erickson Pupils of Roger Reynolds University of California, San Diego alumni