John McGuire

"My work is devoted entirely to the exploration and development of a synthesis of the minimalism that had appeared in my native California in the 1960s and the generalized serialism with which I had became acquainted during my studies in Germany. I am interested, in particular, in the fusion of elemental tonal functions with chromatic time structures."

John McGuire is a composer of instrumental, electronic and vocal music. His interest in contemporary music developed during his studies, in the 1960s, with Krzysztof Penderecki at the Folkwang-Schule in Essen, with Karlheinz Stockhausen at the International Summer Courses in Darmstadt, and through lectures at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht.

His music has been performed at International Gaudeamus Music Week (first prize in 1971), ISCM festivals in Paris, Amsterdam, and Aarhus, Darmstadt Summer Courses, Festival Musica (Strasbourg), ICA (London), International Computer Music Conference, Zagreb Biennial, Festival d'Automne (Paris), and Holland Festival. McGuire's work was the focal point of Winter Musik in Karlsruhe, Minimalisms Festival of the Berliner Gesellschaft für Neue Musik, Ussachevsky Memorial Festival of Electronic Music (Pomona College).

John McGuire lives and works in New York.