Mason Bates / Masonic

Bates performing with The San Francisco Symphony in The B-Sides

"Be it mixing trip-hop and funk at a club or writing a symphonic or chamber work, composer Mason Bates is getting noticed for his straddling of classical music and electronica. ... Young, Juilliard-trained and already celebrated, he's become a fixture not only in concert halls but in the world of electronica as well. ... At a time when symphony orchestras nationwide are trolling for audience magnets - the type of new material that can lure members of generations X and Y along with older subscribers - Bates just might have that bait. "

-Concerto for Two Universes, Donna Perlmutter

"Mason Bates, 30 years old...knows how to command an orchestra just as well as he does his touchpad. Bates's Liquid Interface, a National Symphony commission that received its world premiere last night, surpassed in sheer sonic beauty even the works by Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky that rounded out the program." -From NSO, Electronic Beauty, Andrew Lindemann

Rehearsing at Cabrillo under Marin Alsop (Photo: Ron Jones)

"Take Mason Bates's Digital Loom for organ and electronics, a centennial commission. Definitely a voice from the younger generation, Bates reimagines the king of instruments as a surreal creature inventing its own space, the illuminated stops flashing like an enormous pinball machine and presided over by the organist as D.J. who programs wild sequences of hip-hop, funk, and ambient electronica" -Peter Davis

"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

"And never has a Beethoven's Ninth Symphony been so colored by the music that preceded it on the program. Mason Bates' Ode, commissioned by the Phoenix Symphony, takes the argument of the Beethoven and turns it backward ... So that when the Beethoven begins, and plays the music in the proper order, we have a different take on it."

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

The music of Mason Bates fuses innovative orchestral writing, the rhythms of electronica and techno, and imaginative narrative forms brought to life by cutting edge sound design. A composer of symphonic music who often includes live electronica in his orchestral music, he has become known as an artist who moves fluidly between those two worlds - performing on electronic drumpad and laptop, for example, under Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas at Carnegie Hall in The B-Sides at Carnegie Hall, or integrating members of the San Francisco Symphony into an evening of DJing and live electronica at the SF club Mezzanine. Awarded both a Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome and an American Academy in Berlin Prize, he is a member of the acclaimed New York-based Young Concert Artists.

This seasons features a variety of exciting performances by orchestras around the country, from a new ballet presented by the Chicago Symphony and Hubbard Street Dance, to the Los Angeles Philharmonic performance of Liquid Interface at Disney Hall, to the release of a new CD, Digital Loom, on MSR classics. A 'water symphony' brought to life by the rhythms and drama of electronica, Liquid Interface will be heard on the Left Coast Festival curated by John Adams, and the work will also by performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony under Leonard Slatkin. Later, the music of earthquakes will come to the Midwest, when Esa-Pekka Solonen conducts the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Music From Underground Spaces. The piece begins with the sounds of subway tunnels and ends with actual earthquake recordings, and the work is being choreographed and presented in four performances by Hubbard Street.

Also this season will be several large symphonic works in the Southwest, where Mason Bates will serve as composer-in-residence at Arizona MusicFest. In addition to performances of Liquid Interface and Rusty Air in Carolina, artistic director Robert Moody will conduct The B-Sides, which was commissioned and premiered in May by Maestro Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Tilson Thomas also brought an excerpt of the work to Carnegie Hall with the YouTube Symphony in April, and the piece returns to Carnegie this spring for six performances on their LinkUp series. Another large work premiered last spring - Sirens, which explores hypnotic and alluring siren poetry from various cultures - will tour with the renown choral group Chanticleer. And the California Symphony, where Mason Bates serves as composer-in-residence, will offer both a premiere and an additional performance of his Mercury Interludes. Finally, the Ringling Arts Festival in Sarasota will premiere a new horn trio this October. A variety of in-depth articles about his recent work can be found here.

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.

ACOUSTIC WORKS. A variety of purely acoustic works complement his diverse portfolio, including an orchestral prelude to Beethoven's 9th Symphony and a string quartet commissioned by The Naumburg Foundation (click here for a list of works). His solo piano work White Lies for Lomax, commissioned by Tanglewood Music Center, won the Van Cliburn Composers Invitational in May and will be performed around the country by several Cliburn medalists. A great deal of his chamber music has been performed by the musicians of Young Concert Artists, the renown New York organization that launched Emmanuel Ax and Dawn Upshaw, and he maintains an active role in the world of vocal and theatrical music. His California Fictions - an opera set in the heyday of San Francisco's dot-com boom - was recently read as part of New York City Opera's VOX Showcase and was workshopped last summer at Aspen Music Festival.

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.

Masonic performs live electronica as Benjamin Shwartz conducts at Mercury Soul in San Francisco

May 25-27, 2010
May 20, 2010
May 2&4, 2010
March 13, 2010
April 15-20, 2010
February 28, 2010
February 26, 2010
February 23, 2010
February 19-20, 2010
February 11-13, 2010
December 9, 2009
December 3&4, 2009
October 25, 2009
October 8, 2009
October 7, 2009
October 7, 2009
October 4, 2009
October 4, 2009
October 3, 2009
October 1, 2009
September 17, 2009
September 10 & 13, 2009
July 12, 2009
July 12, 2009
: "Warehouse Medicine" from The B-Sides returns to Carnegie Hall for six performances on the LinkUP series : The Baryshnikov Arts Center presents the NY premiere of Bates' horn trio : Bates' 3-year residency with the California Symphony comes to end with a final premiere : The Cornell Symphonic Winds perform Rusty Air in Carolina : Esa-Pekka Solonen conducts the Chicago Symphony in Music From Underground Spaces, with choreography by Hubbard Street Dance : Robert Moody brings The B-Sides to the Arizona Musicfest : The water symphony Liquid Interface comes to the desert at Arizona Musicfest : Robert Moody conducts Rusty Air in Carolina at the Arizona Musicfest : Leonard Slatkin conducts the Pittsburgh Symphony in Liquid Interface : Gary Hill conducts the Texas All-State Band in Rusty Air in Carolina : Pianist Tania Stavreva performs White Lies for Lomax at the American Musical Heritage series : John Adams conducts the Los Angeles Philharmonic in performs Liquid Interface : Jerry Junkin conducts the premiere of the symphonic wind version of Rusty Air in Carolina : The Ringling Arts Festival gives the world premiere of a new horn trio : Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts : Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at the Philip Lorenz Memorial Keyboard Concerts : Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at Portland Piano International : Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at Portland Piano International : The Santa Rosa Symphony performs Rusty Air in Carolina : Pianist Haochen Zhang performs White Lies for Lomax at Cal State (Chico, CA) : Mason Bates performs live electronica on the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival, with David Arend on upright bass : In Chicago, pianist Kuang-Hao Huang performs White Lies for Lomax at Roosevelt University (9/11) and Concordia University (9/13) : Pianist Yeol Eum Son performs White Lies for Lomax at the Portland Piano Festival : 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
Mason Bates performing on drumpad/laptop in the percussion section of The Winston-Salem Symphony

Mason Bates / Masonic

Mason 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.