Mark Trayle, born Mark Evan Garrabrant (January 17, 1955, in

San Jose, California San Jose, officially the City of San José ( ; ), is a cultural, commercial, and political center within Silicon Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area. With a city population of 997,368 and a metropolitan area population of 1.95 million, it is ...

– February 18, 2015, in

Ventura, California Ventura, officially named San Buenaventura (Spanish for "Saint Bonaventure"), is a city in and the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. It is a coastal city located northwest of Los Angeles. The population was 110,763 at the ...

) was a California-based musician and sound artist working in a variety of media including live electronic music,

improvisation Improvisation, often shortened to improv, is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. The origin of the word itself is in the Latin "improvisus", which literally means un-foreseen. Improvis ...

, installations, and compositions for

chamber ensemble Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

s. His work has been noted for its use of re-engineered consumer products and cultural artifacts as interfaces for electronic music performances and networked media installations.

Biography

Mark Trayle studied composition at the

University of Oregon The University of Oregon (UO, U of O or Oregon) is a Public university, public research university in Eugene, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1876, the university is organized into nine colleges and schools and offers 420 undergraduate and gra ...

with Homer Keller and at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

with

Robert Ashley Robert Reynolds Ashley (March 28, 1930 – March 3, 2014) was an American composer, who was best known for his television operas and other theatrical works, many of which incorporate electronics and extended techniques. His works often involve ...

David Behrman David Behrman (born August 16, 1937) is an American composer and a pioneer of computer music. In the early 1960s he was the producer of Columbia Records' ''Music of Our Time'' series, which included the first recording of Terry Riley's ''In C''.< ...

, and

David Rosenboom David Rosenboom (born 1947 in Fairfield, Iowa) is a composer, performer, interdisciplinary artist, author, and educator known for his work in American experimental music. Rosenboom has explored various forms of music, languages for improvisation, ...

. Under Berhman's tutelage, he began building hybrid digital-analog electronics and used those (often with electric guitar and homemade performance interfaces) throughout the 1980s. From the late 1980s through the mid-1990s his work focused on the use of alternative performance interfaces to guide algorithmic compositions, as well as composing for and performing with

The Hub The Hub may refer to: Places * The Hub, Bronx, an area of the South Bronx, New York, known for its convergence of subway and bus lines * The Hub (Edinburgh), former church in Edinburgh that is now home to the Edinburgh International Festival * T ...

. He also made his first sound/media installations during this period. In 1996 he moved from the

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

area to Southern California to teach at

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the ...

. Soon after, he composed several pieces for acoustic instruments with electronics. True North, Periodic Transmissions at Regular Intervals (are not allowed), and Propagation, Reflection, and Absorption are entirely acoustic in nature but use electronics and sensors to create real-time scores for the performers. Later works such as bitpool, sierranevada, and Bender use electronics that allow the players to trigger electroacoustic sounds. Trayle's music has been the subject of articles in ''Strumenti Musicali and Virtual'' (Italy), ''Keyboard'', and "Escape Velocity: Cyberculture at the End of the Century" (Grove/Atlantic), and he has written articles for ''Leonardo Music Journal'' (US/UK) and ''MusikTexte'' (Germany). He has recorded for the Artifact,

Atavistic Records Atavistic Records is an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois, known for its no wave and free jazz recordings. Atavistic has released albums by Glenn Branca, Nels Cline, Lydia Lunch, Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, Pinetop Seven, ...

, CRI, Creative Sources, Inial, Los Angeles River, Elektra/ Nonesuch, and

Tzadik Tzadik ( ''ṣaddīq'' , "righteous ne; also ''zadik'' or ''sadiq''; pl. ''tzadikim'' ''ṣadīqīm'') is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ...

labels. He taught in the Herb Alpert School of Music at

from 1996 - 2015. Mark Trayle died on February 18, 2015, of pancreatic cancer, in his home in Ventura, CA.

Performance

Trayle has performed and exhibited at experimental music and new media venues and festivals in the

U.S. The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 contiguous ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

, and

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

. He has received grants from Arts International, the American Composers Forum, The Japan Foundation, and 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 ...

. Commissions have come from

Radio Bremen Radio Bremen (), shortened to RB () is Germany's smallest Public broadcasting, public radio and television broadcaster and the legally mandated broadcaster for the city-state Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (which includes Bremerha ...

, Champs D’Action, Ensemble Zwischentoene, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, and Ensemble Mosaik. He has been an artist-in-residence at

, STEIM, and The LAB.

Discography

* ''Five Lines'' (quintet project with Casey Anderson, Jason Kahn, Norbert Möslang, Günter Müller) Mikroton Recordings * ''Timelines Los Angeles'' Jason Kahn Creative Sources * ''Stationary'' (duo project with Toshimaru Nakamura) Creative Sources * ''Goldstripe'' Creative Sources * ''Boundary Layer'' (

) Tzadik * ''Die Zeit, Eine Gebrauchsanweisung'' (Michael Wertmueller) GROB * ''Luminous Axis'' (

Wadada Leo Smith Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (born December 18, 1941) is an American trumpeter and composer, working primarily in the field of creative music. He was one of three finalists for the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for Music for ''Ten Freedom Summers'', released on ...

) Tzadik * ''RPM::MHZ'' Artifact * ''Music for Woodwinds & Electronics'' ( Vinny Golia + Mark Trayle) Nine Winds * ''Transmigration Music'' (compilation) CDCM/Centaur * '' Light Upon Light'' (Wadada Leo Smith) Tzadik * ''The Extended Flute'' ( Maggi Payne) CRI * ''State of The Union'' (compilation) Atavistic * ''Wreckin' Ball'' (The Hub) Artifact * ''Etudes and Bagatelles'' Artifact * ''Computer Network Music'' (The Hub) Artifact * ''Imaginary Landscapes'' (compilation) Elektra/Nonesuch * ''Yes, Philip, Androids Dream Electric Sheep'' (Daniel Rothman) Los Angeles River Records * '' Heart's Reflections'' (Wadada Leo Smith) Cuneiform

References

External links

*Golden, Barbara. “Conversation with Mark Trayle.�
''eContact! 12.2 — Interviews (2)''
(April 2010). Montréal: CEC. {{DEFAULTSORT:Trayle, Mark 1955 births 2015 deaths American male composers American composers California Institute of the Arts faculty Deaths from pancreatic cancer in California