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.
(note all tracks are encoded as m4a, download the files first to play them)
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In contrast to “Riegen seliger Geister” where Helmut Lachenmann attempts to subvert almost all standard conceptions of pitch, sound, and playing in the string quartet these two string quartets represent a slightly more conventional, yet forward-looking approach to this ensemble.
I remember being quite amused when I first became quite interested in the music of the second Vienese school and discovered that while their complete solo piano music could easily fit on one C.D. their complete string quartets required at least four C.D.s. This String Quartet by Anton Webern is one of my favorite of the string quartets by the composers in the second Vienese school (second only to Alban Berg’s “Lyric Suite”) as well as one of my favorite works by Webern.
Over a decade ago Bela Bartok’s music served as my first real gateway into appreciating music from the Twentieth century and beyond. His fourth string quartet has since become my favorite Bartok composition. I first became enthralled with his string quartet (which I consider his strongest works) just before starting my own quartet. I also consider the two concerts where I saw the Emerson Quartet perform the complete Bartok string quartets in Aspen Colorado as one of the most defining moments in my musical development.
