Dennis Bathory-Kitsz
From Wikinfo
Dennis Bathory-Kitsz (born March 14, 1949, Plainfield, New Jersey) is a composer whose more than 700 works include sound sculpture, solo and chamber music, electronic music, stage shows, orchestra pieces, dance music, opera, interactive multimedia, sound installations, and performance art events. Bathory-Kitsz is also an author of books and articles in technology and the arts.
Bathory-Kitsz helped initiate the chamber opera resurgence with Plasm over ocean at the World Trade Center in 1977, using instruments of his own design; he presented the solo interactive performance work Echo with handmade instruments, sound sculptures and computers in Vermont in 1985; In Bocca al Lupo, an installation for quasi-intelligent systems, opened in Montana�s Yellowstone Art Center in 1986; the Vermont outdoor installation Traveler's Rest was a 1991 collaboration with sculptor Fernanda D'Agostino; and in 1999, he was the first American composer commissioned for Prague's legendary [[M�nes Museum]], conducting Zonule Glaes II for string quartet & electronic playback. His long-term opera project about Elizabeth Bathory (Erzs�bet B�thory) has been featured on the Discovery Channel and Travel Channel.
Parallel to his composition has been advocacy of contemporary nonpop music, from co-founding the Trans/Media arts collective in 1973 through ten years of co-hosting (with composer David Gunn) Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazaar, winner of the 2000 ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He has been project director for events from the 1974 Delaware Valley Festival of the Avant-Garde through the 2005 Vermont Composers Festival, co-founded the NonPop International Network, and promoted the experimental We Are All Mozart project.
Bathory-Kitsz is also Senior Editor for The Transitive Empire, is a computer programmer and hardware designer, co-founder of OrbitAccess evaluating website usability, and Executive Director of the Vermont Alliance of Independent Country Stores. Bathory-Kitsz lives in Northfield, Vermont.
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Commentary
Kyle Gann on Detritus of Mating (Village Voice): Glistening tones ring in the air, bits of deconstructed voices float by, a dark bass pulse starts up that's more felt than heard, in large-scale periodic cycles that would replicate the opening if allowed to continue for some 27 years. You don't get a distinct idea of his creative personality from this first disc, but it's enjoyable how the exquisite rings continually modulate even when nothing seems to be happening.
John Rockwell on Somnambula (New York Times): The best works (at the New York Avant-Garde Festival) were the biggest and the smallest... (The composer) sat far out in a field playing a recorder, accompanied by a tinny cassette machine... The effect was like a Chinese Pan.
Noah Creshevsky on L'Estampie du Chevalier: It's so hauntingly beautiful that I suspect that the composer himself is relatively haunted. It's a thoroughly and appropriately serious work, from start to finish. The piece flows seamlessly from beginning to end.
Recent works
- Eventide (2006) for piccolo, E-flat clarinet and bassoon
- L'Estampie du Chevalier (2005) for string quartet.
- Sweet Ovals (2005) for solo French horn.
- Syrens of the Collective Unconscious (2005) for 1-3 pianos.
- Jameo y el Delfin Mareado (2005) for orchestra.
- Rose Quartz Crystal Radio (2005) for saxophone and percussion.
- By Still Waters (2004) for solo voice and drone.
- Icecut (2004) for orchestra.
- Shahmat (2004) for solo flute.
- Northsea Balletic Spicebush (2003) for double bass.
- LiquidBirds (2003), for 3 Theremins, video, and playback.
- Spammung (2003), for extended voice and playback.
- Bales, Barrels, & Cones: Antebellum/Antibellum (2002), for drumkit and playback.
- T�rk�inistr�: 25 Landscape Preludes (2002), for piano.
- Mirrored Birds (2001), a flute concerto.
- Fuliginous Quadrant (2001), for chamber ensemble.
Discography
- The Warbler's Garden on "60x60" (Capstone)
- iskajtbrz on "UnLimit" (Three's Film Works)
- Snare:Wilding on "Free Speech For Sale" (pressthebutton)
- Music of English Literature, CD part of The Longman Anthology of English Literature, containing Sumer Is Icumen In (as conductor).
- z�yu, qu�nh, and sweeh on "The Frog Peak Collaboration Project" (Frog Peak Music)
- Detritus of Mating (Sistrum)
- Cs�rd�s on "Alive and Well: Music of Vermont Composers" (Ursa Minor)
External links
- Home Page
- Catalog of Music (includes downloadable scores)
- Westleaf Edition, publisher
- Frog Peak Music, distributor
- New Music Box study on composer productivity
Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dennis Bathory-Kitsz" http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dennis_Bathory-Kitsz
