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-Concerto for Two Universes, Donna Perlmutter
Rehearsing at Cabrillo under Marin Alsop (Photo: Ron Jones)
"Mason Bates's Digital Loom, for organ and electronics...transformed the hall into something between a decaying cathedral and an East Berlin club." -Alex Ross
With Maestra Marin Alsop at Cabrillo (Photo: Ron Jones
"Contemporary composers can integrate high-definition recordings of sounds they want to evoke, as Mason Bates does in his cleverly constructed Liquid Interface. The first movement, "Glaciers Calving," begins with an ominous recording of glaciers crashing into the Antarctic Ocean, soon followed by dense, haunting swirls from the strings and electronic beats that accelerate to lively drum and bass rhythms. Mr. Bates's colorful four-movement tone poem, which uses a vast orchestra and electronics to evoke water in both soothing and menacing forms, received its New York premiere at Carnegie Hall ... Mr. Bates, who is also a D.J. (working under the name Masonic), has written other works blending classical and electronica. ... For the listener it was like wandering down a road with a string quartet playing on one side and a D.J. spinning on the other.-Vivian Schweitzer
With Robert Moody at the premiere of Rusty Air in Carolina
"If Mason Bates' Rusty Air in Carolina is any indication, this 30-year-old composer (who is based in the East Bay and has a parallel career as a DJ) also has a voice...A Virginia native who summered as a teenager in South Carolina, his new work recalls sticky Southern nights, filled with the chatter and buzz of katydids and cicadas. ...You could feel the humidity, while luxuriating in Bates' exquisite, almost Impressionistic, atmospherics." -Richard Scheinin
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SPECIAL PROJECTS. The Mercury Interludes originated with the project Mercury Soul: An Electro-Acoustic Evening, which attracted 1,400 people at its premiere at the famed San Francisco club Mezzanine. A collaboration between visual installation artist Anne Patterson and Maestro Benjamin Shwartz of the San Francisco Symphony, the event embeds sets of classical music in an evening of groovy electronica and beautiful, surreal visuals in spaces normally associated with rock and electronica artists (go to www.MercurySoul.org for more info). Having DJed in a variety of spaces in the San Francisco and Berlin scenes, he has often appeared at venues such as 111 Minna, John Colins, Sip, Fuse, and Temple. In Rome, his sets of trip-hop and funk have been heard at Scarabocchio and Metaverso in Testaccio, a thriving electronica scene tunneled inside an ancient pottery dump. He has performed his live electronica with upright bassist David Arend at the SFMOMA (San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art), the San Jose Jazz Festival, the Doug Fir club in Portland, and many others.
STUDIES. Raised in Virginia where he studied piano with Hope Armstrong Erb and composition with Dika Newlin, Mason Bates enrolled in the Columbia-Juilliard program in New York City. Earning degrees in music composition and English literature, he studied primarily with John Corigliano, and he also worked under David Del Tredici and Samuel Adler (in addition to playwriting studies under Arnold Weinstein and Kenneth Koch). He worked with Edmund Campion at the University of California, Berkeley, he has found Berkeley's Center For New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) an important influence on his approach to electro-acoustic composition. Awards include a Charles Ives scholarship and fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jacob Druckman Memorial Prize from Aspen Music Festival, ASCAP and BMI awards, and a Fellowship from Tanglewood. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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May 25-27, 2010
: "Warehouse Medicine" from The B-Sides returns to Carnegie Hall for six performances on the LinkUP series
May 20, 2010
: The Baryshnikov Arts Center presents the NY premiere of Bates' horn trio May 2&4, 2010
: Bates' 3-year residency with the California Symphony comes to end with a final premiere March 13, 2010
: The Cornell Symphonic Winds perform Rusty Air in Carolina
April 15-20, 2010
: Esa-Pekka Solonen conducts the Chicago Symphony in Music From Underground Spaces, with choreography by Hubbard Street Dance February 28, 2010
: Robert Moody brings The B-Sides to the Arizona Musicfest February 26, 2010
: The water symphony Liquid Interface comes to the desert at Arizona Musicfest February 23, 2010
: Robert Moody conducts Rusty Air in Carolina at the Arizona Musicfest February 19-20, 2010
: Leonard Slatkin conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony in Liquid Interface February 11-13, 2010
: Gary Hill conducts the Texas All-State Band in Rusty Air in Carolina
December 9, 2009
: Pianist Tania Stavreva performs White Lies for Lomax at the American Musical Heritage series December 3&4, 2009
: John Adams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performs Liquid Interface October 25, 2009
: Jerry Junkin conducts the premiere of the symphonic wind version of Rusty Air in Carolina October 8, 2009
: The Ringling Arts Festival gives the world premiere of a new horn trio October 7, 2009
: Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts October 7, 2009
: Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts October 4, 2009
: Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at Portland Piano International October 4, 2009
: Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at Portland Piano International October 3, 2009
: The Santa Rosa Symphony performs Rusty Air in Carolina
October 1, 2009
: Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at Cal State (Chico, CA)
September 17, 2009
: Mason Bates performs live electronica on the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, with David Arend on upright bass September 10 & 13, 2009
: In Chicago, pianist Kuang-Hao Huang performs White Lies for Lomax at Roosevelt University (9/11) and Concordia University (9/13)
July 12, 2009
: Pianist Yeol Eum Son performs White Lies for Lomax at the Portland Piano Festival July 12, 2009
: West Wave Dance Festival presents The Life of Birds, with choreography by Amy Seiwert Appearing on the cover of the UK's MUSO Magazine May 28, 2008
: Mezzanine (for Mercury Soul) May 20-31, 2009
: The Van Cliburn Foundation showcases its semifinalists in performances that include White Lies for Lomax, for solo piano May 20-23, 2009
: The San Francisco Symphony under Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas premieres The B-Sides, for orchestra & electronica April 15, 2009
: The YouTube Symphony performs The B-Sides, for orchestra & electronica, at Carnegie Hall March 20-22, 2009
: Chanticleer, 'an orchestra of voices,' premieres Sirens, a large work for a cappella chorus, at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music March 8 & 10, 2009
: The California Symphony under Maestro Barry Jekowski premieres a new orchestral work for at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek, CA January 28, 2009
: Isabelle Demers performs Digital Loom, for organ & electronica, on Juilliard's Focus! Festival
December 10, 2008
: Red River, for mixed ensemble & electronica, is performed on a concert featuring the music of Young Concert Artists composers at Merkin Concert Hall members of The Berlin Philharmonic's Scharoun Ensemble performing String Band at Berlin's Roter Salon December 8, 2008
: Red River, for mixed ensemble & electronica, is performed on a concert featuring the music of Young Concert Artists composers at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts November 9, 2008
: The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony's performance of Omnivorous Furniture is broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Company at 1pm EST
November 7, 2008
: The Charleston Symphony under Maestro Robert Moody performs Rusty Air in Carolina, for orchestra & electronica October 7, 2008
: The Portland Symphony opens their season with Liquid Interface, for orchestra & electronica, at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine under the direction of newly-appointed Maestro Robert Moody October 6, 2008
: DJ Masonic teams up with members of the Portland Symphony for an evening of ambient electronica & classical music at Portland's reknown Space Liquid Interface, for orchestra & electronica, at Merrill Auditorium in Portland, Maine under the direction of newly-appointed Maestro Robert Moody September 27-28, 2008
: The Virginia Symphony under Maestro Robert Moody performs Rusty Air in Carolina, for orchestra & electronica September 25-26, 2008
: The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony under Maestro Edwin Outwater features Mason Bates in its Intersections series, performing Omnivorous Furniture, for sinfonietta & electronica September 13, 2008
: The Seattle Chamber Players gives the European premiere of The Life of Birds, for mixed ensemble, at the Figura Festival in Copenhagen August 21, 2008
: Icarian Rhapsody is performed by Benjamin Shwartz at the Magic Magic Orchestra at San Francisco's Herbst Theatre
August 2, 2008
: Liquid Interface, for orchestra & electronica, is performed by Marin Alsop at the Cabrillo Festival July 27, 2008
: The National Repertory Orchestra performs Rusty Air in Carolina in Breckenridge, CO July 24, 2008
: Excerpts from the opera California Fictions are performed at Aspen Music Festivlal May 22, 2008
: Antares gives the NY premiere of Red River at the Chelsea Art Museum |
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Mason Bates / MasonicMason Bates / Masonic : electronica and classical composer in San Francisco, Mason Bates is a member of Young Concert Artists. Official site of Mason Bates / Masonic (DJ and electronica / techno artist). ©2003 by Mason Bates / Masonic. |