BIOGRAPHY
Evan Ziporyn
Evan Ziporyn (b. 1959) is a composer/clarinetist whose work draws equally from world and classical music, the avant garde, and jazz. As a member of the Bang On A Can All-stars, he has performed at international venues across the globe, collaborated with Don Byron, Meredith Monk, Henry Threadgill, and Cecil Taylor, and co-produced and arranged Bang's acclaimed recording of Brian Eno's Music for Airports. He has also recorded and toured with Paul Simon, Steve Reich, Arnold Dreyblatt, Matthew Shipp and Tan Dun. In Boston, he is founder and director of the Gamelan Galak Tika, a Balinese music and dance troupe, for whom he has composed numerous works combining gamelan with western instruments and electronics, recorded on two volumes for New World Records. His recent genre-defying solo CD, This is Not A Clarinet (Cantaloupe), was featured on All Things Considered, The World, and appeared on numerous 2001 Top Ten lists, in both classical and jazz categories. He has also written for Wu Man, the Kronos Quartet, Ethel, Nederlands Blazers, the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra, Orkest de Volharding, Gamelan Sekar Jaya, Sarah Cahill, the Arden Trio, Basso Bongo, and red fish, blue fish. He has received commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation, Meet the Composer, and the New England Foundation for the Arts. His works have been recorded on Sony Classical, Koch, New World, CRI, and New Tone. He received his BA from Yale University and his MA and PhD from UC Berkeley, where his principal teachers were Martin Bresnick, Gerard Grisey, and John Blacking. He is Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor at MIT, where he is also Head of Music and Theater Arts. His puppet opera, Shadow Bang, a collaboration with Balinese puppeteer I Wayan Wija, was recently released on Cantaloupe Music. Upcoming projects include a new work for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, a concerto for p'ipa and gamelan, and music for the American Repertory Theater's upcoming production of Oedipus.