Randy Nordschow

Biography

Born Los Angeles, California, 1969
Education:
Mills College
MA music composition : 2002
Berklee College of Music BM film music composition : 1994
private studies with Alvin Curran and Pauline Oliveros

Randy Nordschow's music emphasizes the energetic and experiential act of performance and its relationship to sound, often drawing upon elements and concepts associated with the visual arts rather than musical tradition. Time Out New York described his work as "a landscape of enigmatic rumination," and The New York Times hailed his music for its "bravura and intensity." Renowned musicians including Fred Frith, Tosiya Suzuki, Daan Vandewalle, Marco Cappelli, Apartment House, the Janácek Philharmonic, and many others have performed his music in museums, galleries, nightclubs, and concert halls throughout NorthAmerica and Europe at festivals such as Global Ear (Germany), Spoleto Festival USA, Ostrava New Music Days (Czech Republic), International Gaudeamus Music Week (Netherlands), Voix Nouvelles (France), and the New Music Miami ISCM Festival.

In addition to gallery exhibitions of his sound and visual work, Nordschow actively created performance art in a variety of contexts. His video-performance work Somatic Lapse was featured in the exhibition Slow Dive: Sculpture and Performance in Real Time at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco. Nordschow received grants and awards from Meet the Composer, ASCAP, and the Dutch Ministries of Culture and Foreign Affairs, commissions from Music At The Anthology, Essential Music, and the Santa Fe International Festival of New Music, and a residency from the Djerassi Resident Artists Program. Nordschow lectured on music, contemporary art, and digital media at the San Francisco Art Institute, the University of California, Santa Cruz, and The Julliard School. As a performer he collaborated, improvised, and performed with artists ranging from Christian Wolff to indie rock Deerhoof. He appears on recordings and videos released by Kill Rocks Stars, Decomposition, and Bananafish. While attending Mills College, where he studied music composition with Alvin Curran and Pauline Oliveros, Nordschow was awarded two alumni scholarships. In addition he participated in workshops and master classes with composers Maria de Alvear, Brian Ferneyhough, Vinko Globokar, Toshio Hosokawa,Jo Kondo, Alvin Lucier, Bernard Rands, Kevin Volans, and others. Nordschow's writing has appeared in Chamber Music magazine, Interrobang?! , along with regular contributions to NewMusicBox.org here he worked as associate editor from 2003-2008.

His composition Detail of Beethoven's Hair was recorded by pianist Jenny Lin and released by Koch International Classics. Fanfare magazine called the piece "a walk on the moon, by a composer with solid technical skills and imagination." The same pianist recently premiered Nordschow's Superdecke Hyperdecke at the Austrian Cultural Forum. His later projects included on a composition for piccolo based on the flashy solos of legendary rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen.

Randy passed away in February, 2019, after a brief illness.

 

  • solo instrumental (non-keyboard)
  • ACE Publications

    12 title(s)
    Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
    Randy Nordschow COMBINATIONS 2 vcl, singing bowls, piano
    Randy Nordschow DETAIL OF BEETHOVEN'S HAIR for PIANO solo piano
    Randy Nordschow FOR SOL LEWITT solo piano
    Randy Nordschow FOR WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS 3, 4, or 5 singers, matched with 3, 4, or 5 percussionists
    singers, percussionists
    Randy Nordschow MUSIC THAT HAS TIME AND THE SPEED OF EQUIVALENTS solo piano
    Randy Nordschow Piano Piece (1995) for Brett Terrien solo piano
    Randy Nordschow SUB-FORENSIC PICNIC solo percussion
    Randy Nordschow SUCK-BLOW amplified trumpet
    Randy Nordschow TWO PIANOS 2 pianos with ebow placements
    Randy Nordschow UNE SECONDE SCULPTURE flute a bec, gongs
    Randy Nordschow une seconde sculpture tenor recorder and gongs
    Randy Nordschow VARIATIONS trio: flute, violin, piano

    Additional Works