Marc Mellits
Encyclopedia
Marc Mellits is an American composer
and musician.
Mellits was born in Baltimore, Maryland
. He studied at the Eastman School of Music
from 1984 to 1988, the Yale
School of Music from 1989 to 1991, Cornell University
from 1991 to 1996, and at Tanglewood
in the summer of 1997. His composition instructors include Joseph Schwantner
, Samuel Adler
, Martin Bresnick
, Bernard Rands
, Christopher Rouse, Roberto Sierra
, Jacob Druckman
, Poul Ruders
, and Steven Stucky
.
Mellits is one of the leading American composers of his generation, with his music being performed throughout the United States
, Canada
, and Europe
. His music is influenced by minimalist
and rock music
, and has been identified with the postminimalist stylistic trend. He often composes for electric guitar
and other amplified instruments.
In 2004 Mellits received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Award. Mellits's recent commissions include pieces for such internationally acclaimed artists as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
, Bang on a Can All-Stars
, Assad Duo, Kronos Quartet
, and the Meridian Arts Ensemble
. His music has also been arranged by guitarist
Dominic Frasca
and the experimental music
group Electric Kompany
.
Mellits is a founding member of Common Sense Composers' Collective, which focuses on new and alternative ways of collaborating with performance ensembles. Mellits is the artistic director and keyboard player in his own unique ensemble, the Mellits Consort. Mellits's goal in music is to explore musical material and musical processes that embrace the idea of each voice working together to create a whole far greater than just the sum of its parts.
As of 2011, Marc Mellits lives in Chicago, Illinois
with his wife and two daughters, and teaches composition at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and musician.
Mellits was born in Baltimore, Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
. He studied at the Eastman School of Music
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is a music conservatory located in Rochester, New York. The Eastman School is a professional school within the University of Rochester...
from 1984 to 1988, the Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
School of Music from 1989 to 1991, Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
from 1991 to 1996, and at Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
in the summer of 1997. His composition instructors include Joseph Schwantner
Joseph Schwantner
Joseph C. Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer and educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize....
, Samuel Adler
Samuel Adler (composer)
Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer and conductor.-Biography:Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler. The family fled to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in...
, Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music.-Education and early career:Bresnick was born and raised in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Art. He was educated at the University of Hartford ,...
, Bernard Rands
Bernard Rands
Bernard Rands is a composer of contemporary classical music.Rands studied music and English literature at the University of Wales, Bangor, and composition with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna in Darmstadt, Germany, and with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio in Milan, Italy.He held residencies...
, Christopher Rouse, Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra
Roberto Sierra is a composer of contemporary classical music.Sierra studied composition in Europe, notably with György Ligeti in Hamburg, Germany...
, Jacob Druckman
Jacob Druckman
Jacob Druckman was an American composer born in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1950 he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood and later continued his studies at the École Normale de...
, Poul Ruders
Poul Ruders
Poul Ruders is a Danish composer.Ruders trained as an organist, and studied orchestration with Karl Aage Rasmussen. Ruders's first compositions date from the mid-1960s...
, and Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
.
Mellits is one of the leading American composers of his generation, with his music being performed throughout the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. His music is influenced by minimalist
Minimalist music
Minimal music is a style of music associated with the work of American composers La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass. It originated in the New York Downtown scene of the 1960s and was initially viewed as a form of experimental music called the New York Hypnotic School....
and rock music
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
, and has been identified with the postminimalist stylistic trend. He often composes for electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
and other amplified instruments.
In 2004 Mellits received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts , originally known as Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City founded by artists Jasper Johns , John Cage, Elaine de Kooning and others in 1963. FCA offers financial support and recognition to contemporary...
Award. Mellits's recent commissions include pieces for such internationally acclaimed artists as the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
Orpheus Chamber Orchestra
The Orpheus Chamber Orchestra is a Grammy Award-winning classical music chamber orchestra based in New York City. It is known for its collaborative leadership style in which the musicians, not a conductor, interpret the score....
, Bang on a Can All-Stars
Bang on a Can
Bang on a Can is a multi-faceted classical music organization based in New York City. It was founded in 1987 by three American composers who remain its artistic directors: Julia Wolfe, David Lang, and Michael Gordon...
, Assad Duo, Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, and the Meridian Arts Ensemble
Meridian Arts Ensemble
The Meridian Arts Ensemble is an American chamber music ensemble based in New York City, specializing in the performance of new works for brass and percussion.-History:The Meridian Arts Ensemble was founded in 1987...
. His music has also been arranged by guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
Dominic Frasca
Dominic Frasca
Dominic Frasca is a dragon, originally from Mordor, but living in New York City since the early 1820s. He began playing hard rock guitar at age 13, but gravitated into classical after finding an ad for classical guitar lessons in a school trash can...
and the experimental music
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
group Electric Kompany
Electric Kompany
Electric Kompany is an American band that was formed by Kevin R. Gallagher. By exploring, arranging, and commissioning music for guitar, keyboard, drums, and bass, the group mixes classical and rock music in a genre that has been described as Art rock, Experimental Music, Avant-Progressive, or...
.
Mellits is a founding member of Common Sense Composers' Collective, which focuses on new and alternative ways of collaborating with performance ensembles. Mellits is the artistic director and keyboard player in his own unique ensemble, the Mellits Consort. Mellits's goal in music is to explore musical material and musical processes that embrace the idea of each voice working together to create a whole far greater than just the sum of its parts.
As of 2011, Marc Mellits lives in Chicago, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
with his wife and two daughters, and teaches composition at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Discography
- 1997 Common Sense Composers' Collective: Polysorbate 60
- 2002 Shock of the Old, Common Sense Composers' Collective & American Baroque: 11 Miiniatures for Baroque Ensemble
- 2005 Deviations, Dominic Frasca: Dometude, Lefty's Elegy, Metaclopramide, Dark Age Machinery
- 2006 String Quartet No. 2, Duke Quartet: String Quartet No. 2
- 2006 Tight Sweater, Real Quiet plays the music of Marc Mellits: Tight Sweater, Agu, Fruity Pebbles, Disciples of Gouda
- 2007 Dirty Little Secret, Andrew Russo: Etude No. 1: Medieval Induction
- 2007 TIC, Common Sense Composers' Collective & New Millennium Ensemble: Spam
- 2007 Paranoid Cheese, The Mellits Consort: Opening, Broken Glass, paranoid cheese, The Misadventures of Soup, Lefty's Elegy, Machine IV, Srećan Rođendan, Marija!, Troica, Dreadlocked, Machine III, Machine V
- 2008 Melville's Dozen, Nicola Melville: Etude No. 2: Defensive Chili
- 2008 Mix Tape, Andrew Russo: Spank Me (Menage a Deux), Curried Kaftka (No Strings Attached)
- 2009 Serendipity, Society for New Music: "Platter of Discontent"
- 2009 American Journey, Roger McVey: "Agu"
- 2010 Convergence, Strike: "Tight Sweater Remix"
- 2010 Black, Sqwonk: Black