Pieter Snapper
Encyclopedia
Pieter Snapper is mastering engineer, producer, and composer of contemporary classical and electronic music
currently residing in Istanbul, Turkey. His works have been widely played throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia by groups such as KammarensembleN in Stockholm, and Klangforum in Vienna. He has garnered awards from BMI, ASCAP, UC Berkeley, the Union League Foundation, and commissions from such organizations as the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, The Yamaha Corporation of America, the ensemble Eighth Blackbird
, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Principal composition teachers included Andrew Imbrie and Edwin Dugger at the University of California, Berkeley, and Ralph Shapey and Howard Sandroff at the University of Chicago. He has performed and toured extensively as a player of live and interactive computer music. His music is available on the Gasparo record label.
After teaching composition and electronic music at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, in 1999 Snapper moved to Istanbul, Turkey to establish the composition and sound engineering programs at the Istanbul Technical University Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM - Müzik Ileri Arastirmalar Merkezi) miam.itu.edu.tr. He also founded and developed the renowned MIAM Studios. In 2003 Pieter co-organized an international conference at ITU on spectral musics, the first of its kind, culminating in an edited volume with two audio CDs, published in 2008. Working with digital art collective NOMAD, Snapper helped to organize ctrl_alt_del, the first international sound art festival in Turkey, in 2003 and again in 2005. In 2004 Snapper became a cult celebrity for his appearances as a musical judge on the Turkish television series Akademi Türkiye http://www.imdb.com. In 2006 he launched Soqrmom, a club-oriented intermedia music project incorporating live music and video, performed solo and with collaborator Reuben de Lautour. Snapper has also written for and collaborated with his sister, vocal artist Juliana Snapper, including sound design/live processing for the European premier of her underwater operatic performance “Five Fathoms Deep My Father Lies,” at the Aksioma Center for Contemporary Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia in June, 2008. Later that year he premiered insan/damat, his first work to directly integrate Turkish musical elements, at the Kreutzstanbul II festival in Berlin.
In 2009 Pieter Snapper co-founded Babajim Istanbul Studios & Mastering http://www.babajim.com, a state of the art recording, mixing and mastering facility designed by acclaimed studio architect Roger D'Arcy that opened its doors in April 2010. An experienced mastering engineer and producer, Pieter has hundreds of albums to his credit in musical styles from pop, rock, arabesque, experimental, jazz, metal, hip-hop and classical. Among his clients are both Turkish and international artists, including Stewart Copeland
, Smadj, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Talvin Singh
, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Erik Truffaz
.
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
currently residing in Istanbul, Turkey. His works have been widely played throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia by groups such as KammarensembleN in Stockholm, and Klangforum in Vienna. He has garnered awards from BMI, ASCAP, UC Berkeley, the Union League Foundation, and commissions from such organizations as the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, The Yamaha Corporation of America, the ensemble Eighth Blackbird
Eighth blackbird
eighth blackbird is a Grammy Award-winning contemporary music sextet based in Chicago. The group derives its name from the eighth stanza of Wallace Stevens' poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird...
, and the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. Principal composition teachers included Andrew Imbrie and Edwin Dugger at the University of California, Berkeley, and Ralph Shapey and Howard Sandroff at the University of Chicago. He has performed and toured extensively as a player of live and interactive computer music. His music is available on the Gasparo record label.
After teaching composition and electronic music at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, in 1999 Snapper moved to Istanbul, Turkey to establish the composition and sound engineering programs at the Istanbul Technical University Center for Advanced Studies in Music (MIAM - Müzik Ileri Arastirmalar Merkezi) miam.itu.edu.tr. He also founded and developed the renowned MIAM Studios. In 2003 Pieter co-organized an international conference at ITU on spectral musics, the first of its kind, culminating in an edited volume with two audio CDs, published in 2008. Working with digital art collective NOMAD, Snapper helped to organize ctrl_alt_del, the first international sound art festival in Turkey, in 2003 and again in 2005. In 2004 Snapper became a cult celebrity for his appearances as a musical judge on the Turkish television series Akademi Türkiye http://www.imdb.com. In 2006 he launched Soqrmom, a club-oriented intermedia music project incorporating live music and video, performed solo and with collaborator Reuben de Lautour. Snapper has also written for and collaborated with his sister, vocal artist Juliana Snapper, including sound design/live processing for the European premier of her underwater operatic performance “Five Fathoms Deep My Father Lies,” at the Aksioma Center for Contemporary Art in Ljubljana, Slovenia in June, 2008. Later that year he premiered insan/damat, his first work to directly integrate Turkish musical elements, at the Kreutzstanbul II festival in Berlin.
In 2009 Pieter Snapper co-founded Babajim Istanbul Studios & Mastering http://www.babajim.com, a state of the art recording, mixing and mastering facility designed by acclaimed studio architect Roger D'Arcy that opened its doors in April 2010. An experienced mastering engineer and producer, Pieter has hundreds of albums to his credit in musical styles from pop, rock, arabesque, experimental, jazz, metal, hip-hop and classical. Among his clients are both Turkish and international artists, including Stewart Copeland
Stewart Copeland
Stewart Armstrong Copeland is an American musician, best known as the drummer for the band The Police. During the group's extended hiatus from the mid-1980s to 2007, he played in other bands and composed soundtracks...
, Smadj, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh
Talvin Singh Matharoo , is a producer and composer and tabla player, known for creating an innovative fusion of Indian classical music and drum and bass...
, the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, and Erik Truffaz
Erik Truffaz
Erik Truffaz is a Swiss-born French jazz trumpeter, infusing elements of hip hop, rock and roll and dance music into his compositions. He signed with the French EMI label in 1996. Truffaz gained international attention with his second album on Blue Note, The Dawn, produced together with Pat...
.
Awards and commissions
- BMI
- ASCAP
- UC Berkeley
- The Union League Foundation
- The Fromm Foundation (Harvard University)
- The Yamaha Corporation of America
- Eighth Blackbird
- Memphis Symphony Orchestra
Selected compositions
- Chanber Symphony (1989)
- Planes of Lamentation and Light (Violin Solo, 1990)
- Diatribes (Flute Solo, 1991)
- Rapture (Piano, 1991)
- Dans l’oblique du froid (Soprano and piano, 1992)
- Sburator (Mandolin and Tape, 1992)
- Veins of Aether (Soprano, electronics, chamber orchestra, 1995)
- how we fall... (vln, vc, fl, cl, pno, 1996)
- The Madeleine in the Mercury (Clarinet and Live Electronics, 1998)
- Lament for a Lost Diva (String quartet, 1999)
- Eulogy for Verna Van Solkema (Tape, 1999)
- Zil (orchestra and live electronics, 1999)
- Malifornia (stereo soundtracks, 2001)
- Gradus ad Parnassum (surround soundtracks, 2003)
- Wrong (stereo soundtracks, 2003)
- Hyperv (stereo soundtracks, 2005)
- Whisky Tango (as Soqrmom, live electronics, 2006)
- Diva Tango (as Soqrmom, live electronics, 2007)
- No, you can’t have a pony (as Soqrmom, live electronics, 2007)
- Mutate (as Soqrmom, live electronics, 2007)
- Ape-Listening Monkey (live electronics, 2008)
- Bone to Breeze Continuum (live electronics, 2008)
- insan/damat (live electronics, 2008)
- Forgetting (for Necil Kazim Akses, live electronics, 2009)
External links
- Babjim Studios
- "Electronic Music in Turkey" by Bob Gluck