Michael Page Carnes (1950) is an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Life and career

Carnes was born in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

. The son of a piano teacher, he received his first formal musical training on trumpet in the public schools. He formed and played in several rock bands beginning in the late 1960s. While originally a performer of popular music and jazz, Carnes became interested in classical music and resumed his education. He studied composition under

John Bavicchi John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Ep ...

and

Rudi Martinus van Dijk Rudi Martinus van Dijk (27 March 1932 – 29 November 2003) was a Dutch and Canadian composer of orchestral, chamber music, chamber and vocal music. In all Van Dijk's music, whichever of his stylistic trends it seems immediately to favour, the vo ...

Berklee College of Music Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...

where he received his BA in 1977, John Thow and

Theodore Antoniou Theodore Antoniou (, ''Theódoros Andoníou''; February 10, 1935 – December 26, 2018), was a Greek composer and conductor. His works vary from operas and choral works to chamber music, from film and theatre music to solo instrumental works. In ad ...

at Boston University where he received his Masters in Music in 1980 and later with

Gunther Schuller Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician. Biography and works Early years Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...

. His early works were largely built with extended tonality and reflective of jazz. These include a number of guitar etudes. In the years that followed, his music became more strongly chromatic, without an obvious tonal center. Principal works from this period include ''Fantasy Music 1'' (for flute and taped electronic sounds),'' Fantasy Music 2'' (for harpsichord and taped electronic sounds), and ''Marimba Concerto''. An intermediate period included ''Brass Quintet #2'', ''War Songs'' (for voice and taped electronic sounds), and ''Variations'' (computer). More recently, his style has moved into a more flexible variant of the 12-tone technique. Recent works include'' Brass Quintet #3'', ''Symphony: Challenger'' and ''Proper Motion'' (trio for flute, clarinet, piano) which had its world premiere at the Park City and Salt Lake City International Music Festival in 2005. During his years in Boston, Carnes was a member of the "Composers in Red Sneakers" collective. In 1985, the group inaugurated the 8th season of contemporary music at New York's

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theat ...

. Amongst the pieces on the program were two songs for mezzo-soprano and

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

by Carnes set to texts by e.e. cummings with

Nancy Zeltsman Nancy Zeltsman (born 1958) is an international marimba soloist who has taught at the Boston Conservatory and Berklee College of Music since 1993. Biography Zeltsman was born in 1958 in Morristown, New Jersey. In 1976, Zeltsman studied with Ever ...

on the marimba. From 1980 until 2020, Carnes managed a separate career in technology, mostly at

Lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word () ...

. In 2012, he founded Exponential Audio, eventually selling the company to

Izotope iZotope, Inc. is an audio technology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. iZotope develops professional audio software for audio recording, mixing, broadcast, sound design, and mastering which can ...

and retiring from the tech world. He has since resumed composing full time. Recent pieces include ''and so on'' (for pianist Jason Hardink) and ''Three Scenes for Woodwind Quintet'' (premiered by Intermezzo).

Recordings

''Fantasy Music 1'' is included on the 1984 Northeastern Records LP, ''Composers in Red Sneakers''. ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' (23 June 1985)

References

Sources

*Blotner, Linda Solow
"Michael Page Carnes"
''The Boston composers project: a bibliography of contemporary music'', MIT Press, 1983. *Cleary, David
"The Boston New-Music Scene: Present and Recent Past, with Special Emphasis on Composers in Red Sneakers"
''21st Century Music'', June 2000, Volume 7, Number 6 *Holland, Bernard

''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', 13 October 1985 *Page, Tim
"Numic Notes; Moderns in Red Sneakers"
''New York Times'', 6 October 1985. *Reichel, Edward

''

Deseret News The ''Deseret News'' () is a multi-platform newspaper based in Salt Lake City, published by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS ...

'', 21 August 2005 (subscription access) *''

Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', often referred to simply as ''The Inquirer'', is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded on June 1, 1829, ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is the third-longest continuously operating da ...

''
"Bostonians Make Their Own Album"
23 June 1985, (subscription access)

External links

*''Fantasy Music 1'' played o
Music from New England
''New Sounds'',

WYNC WYNC (1540 AM) is a radio station broadcasting a Gospel music format. Licensed to Yanceyville, North Carolina Yanceyville is a town in, and the county seat of, Caswell County, North Carolina, United States. Located in the Piedmont Triad regio ...

, 1 June 1987 {{DEFAULTSORT:Carnes, Michael 1950 births Living people People from McDowell County, North Carolina