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Recent and Upcoming Performances
- 05/13/08 - Five for five performers was performed at the American Society for Cybernetics Conference in Urbana, IL. Performers: Eduardo Herrera - toy piano, Kari Besharse - guitar, Jacob Barton - udderbot, Jake Rundall - computer, David Cubberly - electric guitar
- 04/06/08 - percussionist Michael McCurdy and Dan Kennedy premiered my new work for two percussionists and live electronics entitled Hymn 320 at the Tenri Cultural Institute in New York, NY. The piece was also performed the following week at the UC Davis Percussion Festival.
- 03/29/08 - Micromovements: Book I for guitar was premiered at Illinois State University in Bloomington, IL as part of the College Music Society Great Lakes SuperRegional Conference, Tim Johnson performing.
May 2008
I am happy to announce that my dissertation defense at SUNY - Stony Brook was a success, and this semester finds me completing my PhD. studies. The dissertation piece is for orchestra, entitled Towers, Clocks, and Glass. Abstract:
Towers, Clocks, and Glass is scored for a full orchestra of three flutes (1st doubling piccolo), three oboes (3rd doubling cor anglais), three clarinets (3rd doubling bass clarinet), two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, percussion (three players), and strings. The harmonic structure of the piece is based upon a computer analysis of the frequency spectrum of a cowbell sample. With the assistance of the computer software Spear and Kyma, the frequency content of the struck cowbell was extracted at three different time points – beginning, middle, and end of the sample envelope. Each time point (or phase) differed in its numbers and types of frequency components. The spectral analysis of each time point became the basis for the harmonic content of one of three main sections of the work. For each section, the cowbell spectrum was analyzed for its harmonic content parallel to that of the natural harmonic series on the fundamental pitch F (175 Hertz). Thus, harmonic and inharmonic content of the cowbell spectrum was parsed out and distributed separately to different instrument families and groups through each of the three sections (frequency components were estimated to the nearest quarter-tone). This harmonic/inharmonic content was then assigned to melodic and rhythmic content as foreground, middle ground, and background material. Within each section, there is a progression either of harmonicity (where the natural harmonic series dominates the foreground and background textures) to inharmonicity (where the dissonant features of the cowbell spectrum dominate those same textures) or vice versa. This progression is often interrupted throughout the course of the work by solo passages or large tutti passages. Stylistically, the work possesses three distinct qualities: quiet, static, color-oriented sonorities; fast, repetitive, pulse-oriented passages; and intricate, arching, gesture-oriented interruptions. This work merges previous interests in music of a quiet, slowly evolving, intuitively conceived nature with new interests in a theoretical system of integrating timbre and harmony through the use of computer-assisted spectral analysis.
February 2008
Trio for percussion trio was performed at the SCI National Conference at Georgia State University in Atlanta, GA. Hats off to Nick Demos for hosting a particularly fine conference and to Stuart Gerber, director of the percussion department at GSU!
December 2007
Trio for percussion trio was performed in mid-Novermber at the Festival and Conference of New Music organized by Society of Composers, Inc. and the Long Island Composers Alliance at Queens College, Flushing, NY.
October 23rd, 2007
On Sunday, October 28, experimental violinist Eric km Clark will perform for the first time in the Bay Area with his Simplified Violin™, a traditional violin fitted with four E-strings. The concert will feature a new work of mine, Monochrome Variations II, written specifically for this concert. The concert takes place at 21 Grand Arts Space in Oakland.
Supercell was performed on Concert 3 of the Electronic Music Midwest Festival on Friday, October 12th at Kansas City Kansas Community College by Michael McCurdy.
August 20th, 2007
Having just returned from San Francisco for a performance of my piece Cloud of Unknowing at the 5th Annual Festival of Contemporary Music, I feel quite refreshed and invigorated. Graeme Jennings is a world-class performer. San Francisco is an amazing city with an explosive culture. Brian Bice has done a really fine job of organizing New Music Forum's annual festival.
August 2007
I just recently returned from participating in the Oregon Bach Festival where I performed my new piano work Interruptions II on July 7th at the University of Oregon. The performance was a success and I received some featured input from pianist Lisa Moore of the Bang on a Can All-Stars as well as guest composer Martin Bresnick. In addition, I completed and premiered a new work while I was there - a piece entitled Five for five musicians that entails an extended, structured improvisation.
July 2007
I just completed a new work - a one-minute tape piece entitled Bicycle Etude No. II.
May 2007
On May 6, I presented as part of a lecture/presentation on the opening of an exhibition of the graphic scores of Herbert Brun at the University of Illinois. Read more about the presentation here.
I have had the pleasure of joining The Collected, a composers /performers collective that organizes regional concerts throughout the East and West Coasts as well as in the Midwest.
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Recent Performances
- 10/12/07 - Supercell for percussion and electronics - Kansas City Kansas Community College, Electronic Music Midwest. Michael McCurdy - percussion
- 8/16/07 - Cloud of Unknowing for solo violin - Trinity Chapel in Berkeley, CA, New Music Forum. Graeme Jennings - violin
- 8/18/07 - Fairfax for two-channel digital audio playback - Futura Festival in Paris, France in August. More info at their website.
- 7/8/07 - Five - Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Wild Nights Cafe, Collier House, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Ryan Brown, Jon Russell, David Horton, Tom Peterson, Scott Ordway - performers
- 7/7/07 - Interruptions II - Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, Beal Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR Philip Schuessler - piano
- 5/18/07 - Two - Artomatic in Arlington, VA - The Bay Players
- 4/27/07 - Two - Artomatic in Arlington, VA - The Bay Players: Michael Boyd and Stephen Lilly.
- 4/10/07 - Theater Piece No. 2 - John Cage's "Musicircus" presented by ArtSounds, Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri
- 3/8/07 - Theater Piece No. 2 - Presented as a paper session at the 2007 SEAMUS National Conference at Iowa State University, Ames, IA
- 3/1/07 - Supercell - Day of Percussion Music Conference at Tarleton University in Stephenville, TX, Mike McCurdy - percussion
- 2/28/07 - Supercell - Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, TX, Mike McCurdy - percussion
- 2/22/07 - Supercell - Spark Festival hosted by the University of Minnesota in February, Mike McCurdy - percussion
- 7/29/06 – Preludes, Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, Milwaukee, WI Ed Martin – piano
- 7/15/06 – Omega Loops, Rivertree Center for the Arts, Kennebunk, ME
- 7/13/06 – Omega Loops, Bloomingdale School of Music, New York, NY Louella Alatiit – violin, Bathsheba Marcus-Conley – piano, Paul Cesarczyk - guitar
- 5/18/06 – Trio, The Tank, New York, NY Timetable Percussion Ensemble
- 5/12/06 – Roadside Picnic, Transits: Voices From Wilderness New Music Concert, Tenri Cultural Center, New York, NY Laura Barger and Oksana Ezhokina - pianos
- 5/12/06 – Splintered Refrains, Transits: Voices From Wilderness New Music Concert, Tenri Cultural Center, New York, NY, Glenda Goodman - viola, Laura Barger - piano
- 5/9/06 – Supercell, Michael McCurdy Doctoral Recital, Staller Center, SUNY – Stony Brook, Stony Brook, NY Michael McCurdy - percussion
- 4/25/06 – Trio, Bates College Noonday Concert, Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, Lewiston, ME, TimeTable Percussion Ensemble
- 4/5/06 – Wisdom and Surprise, John Donald Robb Composers’ Symposium, Keller Hall, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM Jenny Labonté - contrabass
- 3/30/06 – Void Chapel, SEAMUS National Conference, Beal Hall, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR
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Links
Additional Online Resources for Philip Schuessler
Other Composers of Interest
- Kari Besharse - my wife, Visiting Lecturer at University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, IL
- Dorothy Hindman - Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL
- Dennis Kam - University of Miami, FL
- Keith Kothman - Ball State University, Muncie, IN
- Charles Mason - Birmingham-Southern College, Birmingham, AL
- Daria Semegen - SUNY - Stony Brook, NY
- Sheila Silver - SUNY - Stony Brook, NY
- Dan Weymouth - SUNY - Stony Brook, NY
Organizations
- The Collected - a group of nationally active composers committed to advancing the publicity of recent music produced by living musicians
- Vox Novus - produces and promotes new music
- The School for Designing a Society - a project of teachers, performers, artists, and activists
- CCMIX - Center for Composition of Music Iannis Xenakis
Performers & Ensembles
- TimeTable - percussion trio based in New York
- Craig Hultgren - virtuosic cellist based in Birmingham, AL
- YarnWire - two piano/two percussion ensemble based in New York
- The Bay Players - an informal collection of composers and music theorists whose sole purpose is the performance and advocacy of experimental music from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries
- Michael McCurdy - percussionist and purveyor of new music based in New York
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