Aaron Krister Johnson

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Aaron Krister Johnson is a Chicago-based composer, musician, and teacher. His experience ranges from the Western classical keyboard tradition, to folk music, and to modern electro-acoustic free improvisation. [1] The Chicago Sun-Times called his composition "evocative", [2] [3] and his improvisations have been hailed by Keyboard Magazine as "challenging and creative". His work has appeared on National Public Radio, and has been lauded by Chicagocritic.com, the Chicago Tribune , [4] the Windy City Times , [5] and the online music journal Tokafi.com

Johnson is founder and artistic director of UnTwelve, [6] a group dedicated to writing music written in alternative tunings. [7] Through the UnTwelve organization Aaron Krister Johnson collaborated with 60x60 as a music director or "macro-composer" to create the 60x60 UnTwelve mix contain 60 one-minute works with a theme of microtonality. [8]

He has worked in the area of composition of incidental music and sound design for theatre. His score for Peer Gynt was nominated for a 2005 Joseph Jefferson award for outstanding original incidental music for a play. Other theatre music and sound design credits include Madwoman of Chaillot and the Jeff-nominated Natural Affection for the Artistic Home, and Lakeside Shakespeare of Michigan's productions of Twelfth Night and Julius Caesar .

Johnson originally received his education at the Manhattan School of Music Preparatory division, the State University of New York at Purchase (BFA Magna Cum Laude) and Northwestern University (MFA Magna Cum Laude) for his graduate studies.

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Sean Archibald, also known as Sevish, is a British electronic music composer from London. Described by Aaron Krister Johnson as "a well-known creative force in the world of online microtonal music," he is most known for his compositions which combine aspects of electronic dance music with microtonality. As a child Archibald was inspired by music in video games such as Chrono Trigger, Streets of Rage, and Sonic the Hedgehog. He would then go on to discover microtonality as a teenager by listening to gamelan music and Aphex Twin. At age 16 he began officially releasing music online and released his first solo album at age 20. He first gained notoriety in the microtonal music scene with his 2010 release, Golden Hour. Sevish's 2011 xenharmonic dance album, Subversio, created in collaboration with Tony Dubshot and Jacky Ligon was described by Andrew Hugill as "dub meets microtonal tunings."

References

  1. ↑ "Aaron Krister Johnson". akjmusic.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2012-03-12.
  2. ↑ "Chicago Sun-Times:: Search". newsbank.com. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  3. ↑ "Chicago Sun-Times:: Search". newsbank.com. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
  4. ↑ "Archives: Chicago Tribune - Doing right by 'Night,' but 'Bird' drags a bit long". pqarchiver.com. Archived from the original on July 15, 2012. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  5. ↑ "Theater: The Madwoman Of Chaillot - 2687 - Gay Lesbian Bi Trans News Archive". Windy City Times. 9 November 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  6. ↑ "UnTwelve : microtonal music concerts for Chicago and the midwest". untwelve.org. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Microtonal music, chicago, midwest, and beyond". untwelve.org. Retrieved June 2, 2015.
  8. ↑ Brianna Wellen, Microtonality in 60 seconds, The Columbia Chronicle , May 3, 2010.
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