Jacob David Sudol(b. Des Moines, Iowa 1980) writes intimate compositions that explore enigmatic phenomena and the inner nature of how we perceive sound. He recently finished his M.Mus. at McGill University and currently resides in La Jolla, CA where he is working towards a Ph.D. in composition at the University of California at San Diego with Roger Reynolds, Chinary Ung, Philippe Manoury, and Rand Steiger.
Over the last five years some of Jacob's mentors in composition have included John Rea, Denys Bouliane, Philippe Leroux, Sean Ferguson, Dan Asia, and Craig Walsh. He has also participated in master classes with Danish composer Bent Sørensen and German composer Manfred Stahnke.
During 2005-2006, Jacob was the first-ever composer-in-residence for the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble under the direction of Denys Bouliane, in collaboration with the McGill Digital Composition Studio. He has also written music for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Contemporary Keyboard Society, percussionist Fernando Rocha, saxophonist Elizabeth Bunt, and clarinetist Krista Martynes. As an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, he composed the music for a collaborative dance project with choreographer Hillary Peterson, and he was the principal composer and pianist for El Proyecto de Santa Barbara, a chamber Latin jazz ensemble.
During the 2005 and 2007 Montréal/Nouvelles Musiques and 2006 MusiMars festivals Jacob was an electronic assistant for performances with Court-Circuit, Matt Haimovitz, Sara Laimon, Martin Matalon, Moritz Eggert, Manfred Stahnke, the Caput Ensemble, and the McGill Contemporary Music Ensemble. These concerts were broadcast by the CBC and the European Broadcasting Union in over fifty countries throughout the world. He is currently a studio research assistant for Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Roger Reynolds.
During his free time Jacob takes an active interest in religious phenomenology, cinema, acoustics, literature, poetry, and visual art. As a composer and performer, he always attempts to bring insights from these other fields into his work.
Disclaimer:
All music posted on this blog is posted out of love and the idea that for the truly great music of our time(s) to be known it must first and foremost be heard. If you like what you hear please support the artist by buying the recordings, scores, and/or encouraging the performances of the music in every way possible.
If you are the composer, performer, performing organization, artist or directly represent the composer, performer, performing organization, or artist of anything posted on this website and would like your material removed please contact me and I will happily oblige.
Both available on Thom Yorke’s new album The Eraser due out this Tuesday, July 11th.
Okay, I have a confession to make: I listen to a lot of ‘popular music.’ I probably listen to more ‘popular music’ than I listen to other ‘art’ music. Granted I listen to a lot of music (about four to eight hours every day) and I can only take in so much serious music in a day; however, I’m making no apologies, I love a lot of ‘popular music’ and – contrary to what some of my friends have thought – I see no contradiction in knowing some of the inner workings of, say, many of Grisey’s works as well as pages of Bob Dylan lyrics.
I’m not going to claim that Radiohead is definitively my favorite band, that they can do no wrong, and that they solely represent the vanguard of popular music today; however, I think they are remarkably consistent and easily one of the better restlessly searching acts out now. I’m also glad to know Jonny Greenwood is a composer-in-residence for the BBC and see Thom Yorke has worked hard to develop some of his own personal directions.
I’m also glad Radiohead is currently unsigned and Thom Yorke is releasing The Eraser on an independent label. If you feel sympathetically to any of my above thoughts, I highly recommend you run out and buy a copy of The Eraser on Tuesday from one of your local independent record stores like Cheap Thrills in Montreal.
