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George Lewis describes himself as a hybrid, multi-voiced experimental artist, in terms of culture, discourse and practice. Guided by virtuosity, curiosity and rigorous scholarship, Lewis is a trombonist who takes part in free improvisation, who constructs and performs computer music, creates technologically advanced multi-media installations and performance works, composes pieces for performers of notated music, develops alternative, transcultural methods of teaching improvised music, and writes and publishes theoretical papers in cultural and creative music studies. His interdisciplinary approach to making music proceeds from an awareness of sound toward the affirmation of identity, and the formation and nurturance of community. His collaborations with visual artists, poets and actors regularly integrate image, music and spoken text. |
| "My prime concerns in the creation of new work always involve the aesthetic, philosophical, cultural and social implications of music. The issues raised by my work deal with the nature of music and, in particular, the processes by which musicians produce it. I seek, through improvisation, to explore the nature of interactivityconfrontation and cooperation, gesture, intention, empathy, personal narrative, and cultural memory. One of my main activities has been the production of intellectual tools that will enhance the ability of musicians to study improvised music in all of its complexity and diversity. I feel that this work should feed back directly into new work, rather than simply chronicling or analyzing past performances." |
Lives in La Jolla, California
1974 B.A., Philosophy, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut
1971-4 Private study with Dean Hey, Muhal Richard Abrams, and others at the
School of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians(AACM)
1991-present Professor of Music, Critical Studies/Experimental Practice
Program, University of California, San Diego, California
1998 Conversations, George Lewis and Bertram Turetzky, Incus, London 1998 Duets, George Lewis and Miya Masaoka, Music and Arts 1997 Triangulations, with Vinny Golia and Bertram Turetzky, Nine Winds 1995 Slideride, Ray Anderson, Craig Harris, George Lewis, Gary Valente, Hat Hut 1994 Donaueschingen (Duo 1976), George Lewis and Anthony Braxton, Hat Hut 1993 Voyager, Disk Union, Tokyo 1992 Changing with the Times, New World 1980 Homage to Charles Parker, Black Saint Records, Milan, reissued 1993 1977 Shadowgraph, Black Saint Records, Milan, reissued 1994
1998 Ring Shout Ramble, commissioned by the ROVA Saxophone Quartet, premiered October 1998, Spruce Street Forum, San Diego, California 1996 North Star Boogaloo, for percussionist and computer; premiered February 1996, Mandeville Auditorium, UCSD, La Jolla, California, Steven Shick, percussion 1995 Collage, for poet and chamber orchestra; premiered November 1995,Society for Ethical Culture, New York, New York, Quincy Troupe, poet 1987-
presentVoyager, interactive compositions for computers and improvisors; numerous performances in Europe, Japan, U.S.A.
1998 Fellowship, Civitella Ranieri Center, Umbria, Italy 1995 National Endowment for the Arts, Commissioning Grant 1990 National Endowment for the Arts, Inter-Arts Fellowship 1989 National Endowment for the Arts, Jazz Performance Fellowship
http://www.ucsd.edu/music/lewis.html http://crca-www.ucsd.edu/95_96/faculty