Thoughfully abstract compositions for solo piano and mixed ensemble of vibraphone, clarinet, viola and flute

2 MP3 Songs
AVANT GARDE: Modern Composition, AVANT GARDE: Experimental



Details:
Composer/Percussionist Aaron Siegel lives in Brooklyn, NY where he produces concert events and recordings involving his own music and collaborations with other members of the experimental arts community. His work ranges from solo compositions and chamber music to improvised ensembles and collaborative theater pieces.

Siegelâs music has been presented by Roulette, The Chocolate Factory, Ulrichsberg Kaleidaphon, Wet Ink Musics and AugustArt. Other works have been performed at the Friends Meetinghouse in Manhattan, the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and the Chashama Art Space in Times Square. Siegelâs music has been performed by the Flux String Quartet, pianists Emily Manzo and Walter Frank, cellist Sarah Biber and the Aaron Siegel Ensemble. In the spring of 2007 the New York-based mixed chamber ensemble Till by Turning commissioned and performed Chalk Line (for piano, bassoon, violin, viola and cello). In May 2008, Siegel will premiere a major new stage work for string quartet and 4 actors at the Chocolate Factory Theater in Long Island City, Queens.

His work has been supported by grants from Meet the Composer, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and Wesleyan University, and by the Consulate General of Argentina. He has presented his work at the Cybersonica Festival of Sound and Art in London, UK, the Art Academy in Dusseldorf, Germany and the University for Art and Design in Karlsruhe, Germany. Siegel has studied with Nora Davenport, Stephen Rush, Alvin Lucier, Ron Kuivila, Anthony Braxton and Bunita Marcus. He has an MA in composition from Wesleyan University.

Aaron has shared the stage as a percussionist with Fred Lonberg-Holm, Scott Rosenberg, Guillermo Gregorio, Stephen Rush, Boris Hauf, Jason Roebke, Nate Wooley and Sean Meehan. He is a member of Memorize the Sky, The Anthony Braxton Sextet, White, Blue, Yellow and Clouds, The Pavones, Assembly and his own group, Where from Here. In 2006, he founded the Aaron Siegel Ensemble, a New York-based group that performs his music in concert and on recordings. As part of these and other ensembles, Aaron has toured extensively in the United States and Europe.

Aaronâs most recent recording is the self-titled Memorize the Sky (2007, 482 Music) that documents a collaboration with Zach Wallace and Matt Bauder. The Cabinet, a solo percussion CD (2006, Longbox Recordings) was praised by The Wire in as âan exquisite set that has a meditative ease and grace.â He has released limited edition CDs of his electronic music including Rooms and Spaces and Sounding Place. His playing is featured on several recordings with Anthony Braxton including the mammoth 9-CD Box Set, 9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006. One of his tape pieces was selected to be part of a compilation entitled A Call for Silence that was curated by the London-based Sonic Arts Network. In September 2007, Brooklyn-based Peacock Recordings will release the first recording of the Aaron Siegel Ensemble, Every Morning, A History.

"An evocative composer" - New York Times

"[Siegel] is an improviser with a strong jazz background, but in a solo improv setting tends to throw all idiomatic reference out the window and head for the frontiers of sound research." - Chicago Reader

"Siegel runs the out-music gamut, comfortable in contemporary freeish jazz or the most abstract experimental music around.â â Baltimore Weekly