Alvin Curran
"My music is very simple. It consists of Melody, Harmony, Rhythm, Space, Time and Nature ... with purposeful ambiguity. "
Curran has composed nearly 100 eclectic works featuring a range between taped/sampled natural sounds, piano, synthesizers, computers, violin, percussion, shofar, ship horns, accordion and chorus. His works have included solo performances, sound installations, radio works and site-specific performances, utilizing computers, audio recordings, acoustical instruments, and other media.
Collaborators have included the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Kronos Quartet, Abel-Steinberg Winant Trio, Aki Takahashi, Ursula Oppens, Joan LaBarbara, Bang on a Can Allstars, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players ... His music has performed at the Donaueschingen Festival, Teatro Beat (Rome), Roulette (New York), New Music America (Minneapolis, New York, Montreal), Museum of Modern Art (New York) ... Awards include the Bearns Prize, BMI award, Ars Acoustica International, Prix Italia, Fromm Foundation ... He was co-founder (with Frederic Rzewski and Richard Teitelbaum) of the 1960s radical music collective Musica Elettronica Viva, with which he performed more than 200 concerts. Curran is also author of many articles and writings.
Alvin Curran is Milhaud Professor of Composition at Mills College
Available CDs
Photo by Marion Gray.
