Nolan Gasser

Last updated
Nolan Gasser
Nolan Gasser2.jpg
Born (1964-11-10) November 10, 1964 (age 57)
La Mirada, California
OccupationComposer, musicologist, pianist, artistic director

Nolan Ira Gasser (born November 10, 1964) is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist. He was the chief musicologist for Pandora Media, Inc. and the architect of the Music Genome Project, [1] [2] the proprietary musical analysis system that underlies the popular Internet radio service. His classical compositions have been performed by orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists around the world, in such venues as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Rose Bowl.

Contents

Gasser scored his first film soundtrack, for Lance Kinsey's comedy All-Stars (starring Fred Willard and John Goodman), which was released in October 2014. [3] Gasser was the subject of the documentary, “Musicology”, as part of “the Collectors” series on prominent data collectors / purveyors, by Nate Silver's FiveThirtyEight and ESPN Films. [4]

Gasser is the Artistic Director of Classical Archives, [5] a leading online classical musical service.

Gasser received his Ph.D. in musicology from Stanford University. He frequently performs as well as lectures around the United States – on music, and the relationship between music and science. He is also working with the Chicago-based company Mission Metrics, to help develop an Impact Genome Project, on behalf of social impact program measurement across all social sectors (education, food security, poverty, culture and identity, health, etc.). The project has been subject to critique by the social science community who cite its opaque methodology and oversimplication of complex social issues.

Early life

Gasser began playing piano at age 4, and was composing by age 8. His professional career began at age 11, when he became the weekend pianist at the newly built La Mirada Mall – for which he credits his eclectic musical identity, being fluent in pop, rock, jazz, Broadway, and classical styles.

Education

In 1988, Gasser received a Bachelor's degree in music from California State University, Northridge, where he studied composition with Aurelio de la Vega, and piano with Charles Fierro.

Gasser then sojourned to Paris for two years, where he studied privately with Betsy Jolas and at Fontainebleau with Jolas, Gilbert Amy, and Tristan Murail. While in Paris, he began a fascination with Renaissance music (especially the music of Josquin des Prez), spawning an interest in musicology.

In 1991, Gasser earned a Masters in composition at New York University in New York, where he studied with Todd Brief and Menachem Zur. In 2001, Gasser earned a PhD. in musicology from Stanford University in California. Gasser's dissertation was "The Marian Motet Cycles of the Gaffurius Codices: A Musical and Liturgico-Devotional Study".

Career

In March 2000, Gasser was hired by Savage Beast Technologies (today Pandora Media, Inc.), where he helped flesh out the Music Genome Project. Gasser became the Chief Musicologist at Pandora, and is the architect of all five Music Genomes (Pop/Rock, Jazz, Hip-hop/Electronica; World Music; Classical); he also helped design the means of analysis and training by which the company continues to this day, as the hugely successful Pandora Radio service.

In April 2003, Gasser became the Artistic Director of the Classical Archives website, which in May 2009 re-launched as a streaming and download service with classical content from most labels. Gasser designed for the site a proprietary database to properly categorize and display classical recordings, and runs the editorial operation – including conducting interviews with classical artists and composers such as Renée Fleming, Hilary Hahn, Alan Gilbert, Hélène Grimaud, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jeremy Denk, Daniel Hope, David Lang, Eric Whitacre, and John Corigliano. [6]

Gasser is active as a pianist and bandleader, especially in jazz and popular styles – including with the San Francisco Jazz Quartet;. [7] He is an occasional Adjunct Professor in Medieval-Renaissance music history at Stanford University. He periodically gives lectures, such as at the Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival in 2010, [8] at the University of California, Santa Barbara in February 2011, and at a joint meeting of the National Endowment for the Arts and the United States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington D.C. regarding arts education.

Composition

Gasser's shift in focus to musicology, beginning in 1991, led to an extended disruption in his compositional output, with only a handful of works written before his graduation from Stanford in 2001. Since 2003, however, composition has become a principal focus of his career.

Among his substantial works include American Festivals – a four-movement work with poetry by Robert Trent Jones Jr.; each movement is dedicated to a distinct and quintessential American holiday: "Oration on July 4th" (2004), "Black Suite Blues" (for Martin Luther King Jr. Day; 2005); "Memorial Day" (2006); and "Thanksgiving" (2007). The work has been performed – in part and whole – numerous times by several orchestras (e.g., Charleston, Memphis, Arkansas, and Oakland East Bay Symphonies), including a complete performance at the 2008 IMG Festival del sole (Napa Valley, CA.). [9]

Gasser's most ambitious composition project in recent years has been a pair of works written in conjunction with NASA's Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) – launched June 8, 2008. The first work, the GLAST Prelude, for brass quintet (2007), was recorded by the American Brass Quintet, and presented at a pre-launch party in Cocoa Beach, [10] the live premiere took place on November 2, 2009 at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the work was released on the ABQ's 50th Anniversary CD on Summit Records.

The same Kennedy Center concert also saw the premiere of the second Fermi-related work, the narrated symphony Cosmic Reflection, with narration by Pierre Schwob and physicist Lawrence Krauss that tells the full history of the Universe. [11] The work was recorded by the Baltimore Symphony under Marin Alsop, and will be subsequently released as a full-feature DVD.

Among other serious works include his World Cello for Cello and Orchestra (2008), which was premiered by cellist Maya Beiser and the Oakland East Bay Symphony under Michael Morgan, along with three "world" soloists: Jiebing Chen, erhu; Aruna Narayan, sarangi; and Bassam Saba, oud. [12] His 3 Jazz Preludes (2007) were performed at Carnegie Hall by pianist Kimball Gallagher in March 2008. His opera The Secret Garden , commissioned by the San Francisco Opera, premiered on 1 March 2013; the opera was also performed at Opera Theater of Weston (Vermont) in January 2015. Gasser wrote the opening movement of the choral song cycle Tyler's Suite, about the tragic story of Tyler Clementi (with other movements by Stephen Schwartz, John Corigliano, and Jake Heggie, among others), which was premiered in March 2014 by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and which will be performed subsequently in Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York. His song cycle Repast: An Oratorio, about the life and career of civil rights figure Booker Wright, with text by Kevin Young, will be premiered on October 26, 2014 by bass-baritone Justin Hopkins at the Southern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi

Publications

Gasser's book, Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste (Macmillan Publishing) was released on April 30, 2019. [13]

Personal life

In 1994, Gasser married Lynn. They have two children, Camille (b. 1995) and Preston (b. 2001). Gasser and his family reside in Petaluma, California.

Discography and media

Related Research Articles

John Paul Corigliano Jr. is an American composer of contemporary classical music. His scores, now numbering over one hundred, have won him the Pulitzer Prize, five Grammy Awards, Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition, and an Oscar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Moreau Gottschalk</span> American composer and pianist (1829–1869)

Louis Moreau Gottschalk was an American composer and pianist, best known as a virtuoso performer of his own romantic piano works. He spent most of his working career outside the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Tilson Thomas</span> American conductor, pianist and composer (b1944)

Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate is a Chickasaw classical composer and pianist. His compositions are inspired by American Indian history, culture and ethos.

Wayne Peterson was an American composer, pianist, and educator. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Face of the Night, the Heart of the Dark in 1992, when its board overturned the jury's unanimous selection of Concerto Fantastique by Ralph Shapey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schulich School of Music</span>

The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, rue Sherbrooke Ouest. The faculty was named after benefactor Seymour Schulich.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Hanson</span> American musician

Paul Hanson is an American bassoonist, saxophonist, duduk player, and composer with roots in jazz and classical music.

Margaret Brouwer is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dieter Lehnhoff</span> Guatemalan composer

Dieter Lehnhoff Temme is a German-Guatemalan composer, conductor, and musicologist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fernando Otero</span> Musical artist

Fernando Otero is a Grammy-award-winning Argentine pianist, vocalist, and composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jay Reise</span> American composer (born 1950)

Jay Reise is an American composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bob Cole Conservatory of Music</span>

The Bob Cole Conservatory of Music is the school of music at California State University, Long Beach. In March 2008, the music department was renamed the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music in honor of an endowment gift of $16.4 million from the estate of Robert "Bob" Cole. Cole, a Long Beach real estate investor, long-time music lover, and amateur pianist, died in 2004. Following its disbursement, the gift will benefit the students of the conservatory in the form of scholarships and other awards.

The Jazz Mafia is a young American musical collective that incorporates smaller ensembles into a larger family. The collective is based in the Mission District of San Francisco, California where it writes, plays, and arranges jazz music while incorporating genres such as electronica, soul, funk, big band, symphonic, and hip-hop. Its founder and leader, trombonist and bass guitarist Adam Theis, participates in at least ten bands, including Realistic Orchestra, Shotgun Wedding Quintet, Shotgun Wedding Hip-Hop Symphony, Jazz Mafia Horns, Supertaster, and the Joe Bagale Band.

Quartet San Francisco is a non-traditional and eclectic string quartet led by violinist and String Masters co-founder Jeremy Cohen. The group played their first concert in 2001 and has recorded five albums. Playing a wide range of music genres including jazz, blues, tango, swing, funk, and pop, the group challenges the traditional classical music foundation of the string quartet.

Mason Wesley Bates is a Grammy award-winning American composer of symphonic music and DJ of electronic dance music. He is the first composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and he has also been in residence with Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the California Symphony. In addition to his notable works Mothership, Anthology of Fantastic Zoology, and The (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, he composed the score to Gus Van Sant’s film The Sea of Trees. In a 2018 survey of American orchestras, he was rated the second-most performed living composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Colina</span> Musical artist

Michael Dalmau Colina is a GRAMMY-winning American musician, composer, producer and engineer. He has written music for television, film, theatre, dance and live performances on concert stages throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. Colina is best known as producer and writer on recordings for musicians Bob James, David Sanborn, Michael Brecker, Marcus Miller, Bill Evans and Michael Franks. He has won three gold albums, has received four Grammy Award nominations, and won three Grammy Awards for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sahba Aminikia</span>

Sahba Aminikia is an Iranian-American contemporary music composer, artistic director, performer, educator, and founder of Flying Carpet Festival. Born and raised in Tehran and based in San Francisco, California, his musical compositions have been widely performed around the world by contemporary classical ensembles orchestras, and bands, including Kronos Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Mahsa Vahdat, Shahram Nazeri, International Contemporary Ensemble, Carnegie Hall Ensemble Connect, Minnesotal Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony Parnassus, Ensemble Elefant, ZOFO Duet, San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, Mobius Trio, Delphi Trio, Amaranth Quartet, Living Earth Show, One Found Sound, and Afghanistan National Institute of Music. Aminikia is the founder and the artistic director of Flying Carpet Festival, a performing arts festival for children in war zones.

The Classical Style: An Opera is an American comic opera in seven scenes, with music by Steven Stucky and libretto by Jeremy Denk. The opera was a joint commission from the Aspen Music Festival, Carnegie Hall, the Ojai Music Festival, and Ojai North!, and was premiered under the conductor Robert Spano on June 13, 2014 at the Ojai Music Festival in Ojai, California. The opera is inspired by the musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen's 1971 book The Classical Style and thus follows composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn, and Ludwig van Beethoven as they descend from heaven into a modern-day classical music climate. The Classical Style was Stucky's last large-scale composition before his death in 2016.

Michael Gilbertson is an American composer, conductor and pianist. He was one of three finalists for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, making him one of the youngest finalists in the history of the award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Larry Vuckovich</span> American jazz pianist from Yugoslavia (born 1936)

Larry Vuckovich is an American jazz pianist from Yugoslavia.

References

  1. ↑ "Digging Into Pandora's Music Genome with Musicologist Nolan Gasser" by Matthew Lasar, Ars Technica (January 12, 2011)
  2. ↑ "The Song Decoders at Pandora" by Rob Walker, The New York Times (October 14, 2009)
  3. ↑ "All-Stars on iMDb" . Retrieved February 15, 2019.
  4. ↑ "Breaking Music Down To Its Genes" . Retrieved February 15, 2018.
  5. ↑ "New Ways to Buy Bach Online" by John Jurgensen, The Wall Street Journal (May 8, 2009)
  6. ↑ "Classical Archives: Exclusive Presentations". www.classicalarchives.com.
  7. ↑ "San Francisco Jazz Quartet Bios". www.sfjazzquartet.com.
  8. ↑ "Carmel Authors & Ideas Festival website".
  9. ↑ Carson, Pierce (July 7, 2008). "Brilliant young pianist, stirring world premiere provide symphonic fireworks". Napa Valley Register . Napa, CA: Lee Enterprises, Inc. Retrieved August 5, 2011.
  10. ↑ "The Symphony of Solar Science" by Holly Jackson, CNET News (August 26, 2008)
  11. ↑ "The Really Big Picture" by Barbara Hollingsworth, The Washington Examiner (November 3, 2009)
  12. ↑ "World Concerto Premieres" by Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle (January 29, 2009)
  13. ↑ "Why You Like It" . Retrieved May 7, 2019.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.