Role

:

Composer Conductor Performer

Country

:

United States of America

Birth

:

April 14, 1933 in Los Angeles, CA

Genre

:

Avant-Garde

 

 

Electronic/Computer

 

Morton Subotnick is an American composer and pioneer in the field of electronic music. He was born on April 14, 1933, in Los Angeles, California. Subotnick grew up in a musical family, with his father playing the violin and his mother singing in a choir. He began playing the clarinet at a young age and later switched to the saxophone. Subotnick attended the University of Denver, where he studied composition with Vincent Persichetti. He later earned a master's degree in music composition from Mills College in Oakland, California, where he studied with Darius Milhaud and Leon Kirchner. In the early 1960s, Subotnick became interested in electronic music and began experimenting with tape recorders and other electronic equipment. He co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center in 1962, which became a hub for experimental music and the development of new electronic instruments. Subotnick's most famous work is "Silver Apples of the Moon," which he composed in 1967 using the Buchla synthesizer, one of the first electronic instruments. The piece was commissioned by Nonesuch Records and was the first electronic music composition to be commissioned by a major record label. "Silver Apples of the Moon" is a groundbreaking work that combines electronic sounds with traditional musical structures and has been hailed as a masterpiece of electronic music. Subotnick continued to explore electronic music throughout his career, creating numerous works for tape, live electronics, and multimedia performances. He also collaborated with other artists, including choreographer Anna Halprin and video artist Steina Vasulka. In addition to his work as a composer, Subotnick has been an influential teacher and advocate for electronic music. He has taught at numerous universities, including the California Institute of the Arts and New York University, and has been a mentor to many young composers and electronic musicians. Subotnick's contributions to electronic music have been recognized with numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Rockefeller Foundation grant, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States. He continues to compose and perform, and his work remains an important part of the electronic music canon.

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