John Gibson

Biography

John Gibson composes electronic music, which he often combines with instrumental soloists or ensembles. He seeks to complement and extend the musical inflections of performers with electronic sound, sometimes generated in real time by the software he develops. Originally a composer of purely acoustic music, he retains in his electronic work an obsession with harmonic color and rhythmic pulsation, along with a timbral sensitivity born of his early years as a rock guitarist. His music embraces influences ranging from contemporary classical to jazz, funk, and electronica.

Gibson’s portrait CD, Traces, is available on the Innova label, along with other recordings on the Centaur, Everglade, Innova, and SEAMUS labels. Audiences across the world have heard his music, in venues including the D-22 punk rock club in Beijing, the Palazzo Pisani in Venice, and the U.S. Botanic Garden. His instrumental compositions have been performed by the London Sinfonietta, the Seattle Symphony, the Da Capo Chamber Players, Speculum Musicae, Earplay, and at the Tanglewood and Marlboro festivals. Presentations of his electroacoustic music include concerts at the Seoul International Computer Music Festival, the Bourges Synthèse Festival in France, the Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music, the Australasian Computer Music Conference, the Third Practice Festival, and many ICMC and SEAMUS conferences.

Significant awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Paul Jacobs Memorial Fund Commission from the Tanglewood Music Center, and a residency in the south of France from the Camargo Foundation. He was a Master Artist at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in May 2017.

Gibson holds a Ph.D. in music from Princeton University. He has taught composition and computer music at the University of Virginia, Duke University, and the University of Louisville. He is now Associate Professor of composition and electronic music at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.

For more information, please visit http://john-gibson.com.

ACE Publications

32 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
John Gibson Alliances vln, vla, vc
John Gibson Bagatelle
vln, pno
John Gibson Bao Qu
fl/alto fl, vln, vc, pno
John Gibson Beyond Our Reach
fl, bcl, bsn, pno, vln, vla, vc
John Gibson Blue Traces (piano solo and electronics)
piano and computer, with optional string orchestra
John Gibson Conveyor electronic - stereo
John Gibson Dancing on a Wire
3 sax, 2 synth, 2 el gtr, el bass
John Gibson Day Trip electronic - stereo and 5.1 surround versions
John Gibson Degrees of Freedom solo piano
John Gibson Detour electronic - stereo
John Gibson Driptick
electronic - stereo and 5.1 surround sound mixes
John Gibson EDGEWATER video with audio, fixed media
no score
John Gibson Elements video and 5.1 surround sound
John Gibson Fits and Starts trombone and electric guitar
John Gibson Flash of Green
orchestra
John Gibson Flights of Fancy
fl, ob, cl, bcl, bsn, hn, tpt, tbn, perc, hp, pno, 2 vln, vla, vc, cb
John Gibson House of the Dreamers orchestra
John Gibson In-between fl, cl, vln, vc, pno
John Gibson IN FLIGHT SSAATTBB, electronics
John Gibson In Summer Rain Octophonic Fixed Media
John Gibson Jangle two pianos
John Gibson Out of Hand
trumpet, trombone, and computer
John Gibson Red Plumes cello and electronics
John Gibson Sedimental Journey Stereo Fixed Media and Video
John Gibson Serenata solo cello

Additional Works