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.

  • solo audio or video fixed media
  • 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