FEBRUARY 7 - 27, 2005

application deadline: October 22, 2004

LARRY AUSTIN, composer

Composer Larry Austin born in 1930 in Oklahoma) was educated in Texas and California, studying with Canadian composer Violet Archer (University of North Texas), French composer Darius Milhaud (Mills College), and American composer Andrew Imbrie (University of California-Berkeley). Subsequently, he enjoyed extended resident associations at the University of California, Davis, in the '60s with composers John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and David Tudor. There, he founded and edited the seminal journal of new music, Source: Music of the Avant Garde (1966-74).

Highly successful as a composer for traditional as well as experimental music genres, Austin's works have been performed and recorded by the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony and National Symphony orchestras, as well as many other major ensembles in North America and Europe. Reviewing the compact disc recording of Austin's completed realization of Charles Ives's Universe Symphony, for multiple orchestras, Richard Taruskin wrote in the New York Times, "Nothing I can write will give you an idea of the experience you are in for. All I can do is urge it upon you....Whoever [Ives] started it or finished it [Austin], the work is what it is, and it is wonderful....it is sheer metaphysical sorcery....."

Since 1964, Austin has also composed more than 75 works incorporating electroacoustic and computer music media: combinations of tape, instruments, voices, orchestra, live-electronics and real-time computer processing, as well as solo audio and video tape compositions. In 1996, Austin was the first US composer to be awarded the prestigious Magistère (Magisterium) prize/title in the 23rd International Electroacoustic Music Competition (Bourges, France) for his work BluesAx (1995-96) for saxophonist and computer music/electronics and for his work and influential leadership in electroacoustic music genres for the past 40 years.

Working in and out of his Denton, Texas studio, gaLarry, Austin continues his active composing career with commissions, tours, performances, lectures, writings and recordings, and anticipating future extended composer residencies in North America, Japan, and Europe.

Residency Statement

I look forward to working individually and collectively with the composer Associates who have demonstrated creative experience and talent not only as composers of acoustic-based compositions but as practitioners of computer music in any of its diverse genres: solo fixed-media (tape, CD, computer); fixed-media plus acoustical instrument(s) and/or voice(s); real-time computer music; real-time interactive computer music with instrument(s)/voice(s)/video; algorithmic composition; and computer music installations. At the beginning of the residency, individual Associate projects can be at any stage: new, in-progress, or near completion. Throughout the three-week residency, the group will meet regularly to present talk/demos of current and past work of mutual interest, also discussing topics of professional concern: career development, opportunities as composers, and technical issues such as notation and performance synchronization.

Application Requirements

Prospective Associate composers should submit a current resume/bio along with several examples of recent performances of compositions for acoustic-based and/or computer music-based works recorded on compact disc, with accompanying scores and program notes for the pieces. A brief statement should be included concerning the applicant's plans for the residency and the creative work to be undertaken.