Michael Gordon

Michael Gordon is a prolific American composer, arranger and producer who works with a wide variety of musicians of many different styles and collaborates with artists and film-makers on ambitious projects in varying forms and formats. His website states that for more than 30 years his body of work has ranged from large-scale pieces for high-energy ensembles to major orchestral commissions to works conceived specifically for the recording studio. One of the founders and artistic directors of the Bang On a Can Festival in New York, his work has been performed at Carnegie Hall and the Lincoln Center in New York, the Royal Albert Hall in London, the Opera House in Bonn, the Jewish Museum in Vienna and in festivals at Adelaide, Edinburgh, Rotterdam and St. Petersburg.

Born in Florida, Gordon spent time as a child in Nicaragua but he was back in Miami when he wrote his first orchestral work. He studied music at Yale University and performed in New York with local rock bands. In 1983, he formed the Michael Gordon Philharmonic, which toured North America and Europe providing a string backing for rock groups. Notable orchestral works include 'Natural History' which was written for Crater Lake in Oregon and the 100th Anniversary of the United States' National Parks, 'Observations On Air', a concerto for bassoon for soloist Peter Whelan, commissioned by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment, and 'The Unchanging Sea', a piano concerto for Tomoko Mukaiyama with a new film by Bill Morrison. The Beijing National Centre for the Performing Arts commissioned 'Beijing Harmony', which "projects the kaleidoscopic, perpetual sound of the orchestra to form a sonic architecture". He did a radical rewrite of Beethoven's 'Seventh Symphony' for the 2006 Beethoven Festival in Bonn and arranged 'Sunshine of Your Love' for more than 100 instruments. Conducted by John Adams, the Ensemble Modern Orchestra performed it in seven European capitals in 1999.

He has had many collaborations with multi-media artists in works for dance, theatre and cinema. He has worked often with film-maker Bill Morrison and Ridge Theater. Their epic 'Decasia' is performed at festivals around the world and they have devised symphonies about cities including 'Gotham' about New York City in 2004 and 'Dystopia' about Los Angeles in 2008. In 2017 Chinese singer Gong Linna premiered Bang on a Can's 'Cloud River Mountain' and the group created 'Road Trip' to celebrate its 30th anniversary for the Brooklyn Academy of Music.