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.
I used to think that I could easily do multiple things at once and never lose my concentration. In the last year or so I’ve begun to realize that this was really an incorrect perception – when I am really involved in something it overwhelms my entire concentration. This is particularly the case with composing. For example whenever I become deeply involved in a compositional project the rest of my life falls into severe disorder.
I bring this up because in the last week I’ve become deeply absorbed in working on my new composition “Sing/Lose” for the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne. In this time I’ve also lost all regularity in my sleeping, eating, and working schedules. I used to have a routine where I would wake regularly at noon, work until 7 or 8 P.M., cook and eat dinner, work a little more, and either read or spend time with friends until I went to sleep. This week, in contrast, I’ve woken up at completely different times every day and even spontaneously taken a nap one evening at 8 P.M., worked on my score for as much as twelve hours straight or as little as two hours straight, had absolutely no idea what to do for dinner every day except one, and spent most evenings pondering what my piece needs or spontaneously taken walks around Montréal.
I bring this up because this irregularity will probably continue for the next month or few weeks until I feel satisfied with the score. As a result I doubt I will remember to check comments and post that many long entries. That said I do intend to continue posting music – I just may not have as much to say about it as I’ve had to in the past.
posted by Jacob Sudol
