Role

:

Composer Performer

Birth

:

June 26, 1945

Genre

:

Avant-Garde

 

Barry Schrader is a renowned American composer of contemporary classical music. He was born on January 9, 1945, in Los Angeles, California. Schrader grew up in a musical family, with his father being a jazz pianist and his mother a singer. He began playing the piano at a young age and later learned to play the trumpet and French horn. Schrader attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in music in 1967. He then went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in music composition from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 1972. During his time at CalArts, Schrader studied with some of the most influential composers of the time, including Morton Subotnick, Mel Powell, and Leonard Stein. He also became interested in electronic music and began experimenting with synthesizers and other electronic instruments. Schrader's early works were heavily influenced by the avant-garde and experimental music of the 1960s and 1970s. His compositions often featured unconventional instrumentation and techniques, such as using tape loops and manipulating recorded sounds. One of Schrader's most notable early works is "Lost Atlantis," a multimedia piece that combines live performance with electronic music and video. The piece was first performed in 1977 and has since been performed around the world. In the 1980s, Schrader began to incorporate more traditional instrumentation into his compositions. He also began to focus more on the emotional and expressive qualities of music, rather than just the technical aspects. One of Schrader's most well-known works from this period is "EAMIR," a piece for solo piano and electronic sounds. The piece was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and premiered in 1985. Schrader continued to explore new sounds and techniques throughout the 1990s and 2000s. He also began to incorporate more elements of world music into his compositions, such as African rhythms and Middle Eastern scales. One of Schrader's most recent works is "The Barnum Museum," a multimedia piece based on the short stories of Steven Millhauser. The piece was commissioned by the California E.A.R. Unit and premiered in 2010. Throughout his career, Schrader has received numerous awards and honors for his work. He has been awarded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the California Arts Council, among others. Schrader has also been recognized for his contributions to the field of electronic music. In 2015, he was awarded the SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. Today, Schrader continues to compose and perform music. He is also a professor of music composition at the California Institute of the Arts, where he has taught since 1972.

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