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Meridian Music Composers in Performance: Nils Bultmann and David WesselPost an Event »

Meridian Gallery

March 13 - March 13, 2013

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http://www.meridiangallery.org/

535 Powell Street San Francisco, CA 94108

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Nils Bultmann

Meridian Music Composers in Performance Series presents new works by Nils Bultmann, San Francisco-based violist, improviser, and composer with CNMAT composer, improvisor, David Wessel on electronic slabs. Rooted in classical technique and tradition, Nils Bultmann has developed his own voice within the context of a wide variety of musical styles and art forms. Active as a performer in the United States and Europe, he plays both classical repertoire as well as his own compositions and is involved in collaborative projects of dance, video, and avant-garde improvised music. He has generated an expansive body of work in the recording studio, including solo and multi-track viola music as well as collaborative and improvised musical textures. He also writes through- composed works for traditional instrumentation including solo pieces, string quartets, and orchestral music. Nils was born in 1975 to a German father and American mother and was raised in Madison WI, while traveling often to Germany. His mother introduced him to music at an early age and he began to study viola and piano. Nils received his B.A. from the University of Madison-Wisconsin on a music scholarship, studying viola performance with Sally Chisholm as well as German Literature. He briefly explored pursuing the path of an orchestral violist, participating in the National Repertory Orchestra, the Jerusalem International Symphony, and as a fellow in the New World Symphony under conductor Michael Tilson-Thomas from 2000-2001. Since then he has turned his focus towards improvisation and composition, performing in enviorments ranging from Indian classical music, electronic DJ settings, and with dance companies. He self-produced and recorded two solo CDs of his own compositions, “Forgiveness” (2003) and “Terminally Unique” (2007) He was also featured as a member of the Transatlantic Art Ensemble performing new works by jazz Saxophonists’ Roscoe Mitchell and Evan Parker released on ECM records. Upcoming projects include a new CD featuring recordings of his series of viola duets with Hank Dutt of the Kronos String Quartet, as well as premiere recording of a solo viola piece by Roscoe Mitchell written for him for the Rogue Art label. Nils has been the recipient of many awards including the Music Omi composer’s residency fellowship in upstate New York, the Djerassi artist residency in northern California, and at the Ucross Foundation’s resident artist program in Wyoming. He has received several Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission arts grants and was the recipient of the Madison Arts Council Signature Arts Grant. He is currently a fellow at UC Berkeley working with David Wessel and Edmund Campion at the Center for New Music and Technology, creating interactive works and video installation pieces. From his high school years onwards, David Wessel's musical activities were central to his life and after his PhD in Psychology he committed himself to blending his science and technology skills with his musical interests. In 1976, at the invitation of Pierre Boulez, he moved to Paris to work as a researcher at the then nascent Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustic/Musique IRCAM where he remained until 1988. For his work at IRCAM he was recognized as Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture.??In 1988, he arrived at UC Berkeley as Professor of Music with the charge of building the interdisciplinary Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT). He organized CNMAT as a laboratory wherein both science and technology people interact on daily basis with musicians. Wessel insists on an instrumental conception - the computer as musical instrument equipped with gesture sensing devices and sound diffusion systems. This concert is funded in part by the Zellerbach Family Foundation. Meridian Gallery 535 Powell Street San Francisco, CA