The four works on this CD by Lars Graugaard (b. 1957) were composed especially for the ensembles of New York University Steinhardt in a joint search for a new rich and varied musical discourse. Endeavouring into the complex relationship between composition, perception and emotion, Graugaard uses the computer as a sophisticated performance vehicle and a compositional tool in scored and interactive music, creating a unique and radical sound experience.
Lars Graugaard (b. 1957) is active in a variety of musical areas. He has a strong academic background with a degree in flute performance from the Royal Danish Academy of Music and a PhD from Oxford Brookes University in interactive music. He has always been very active in music creation with more than 200 score compositions and numerous vinyl, CD and digital releases. Graugaard’s production comprises digital experiments into the latest trends of interactive music and cross-modal forms, as well as popular projects and compositions in the modernistic European tradition from opera and large-scale orchestral works to chamber music, vocal and solo works. Upon becoming Visiting Faculty Artist at New York University Steinhardt in 2010, Lars Graugaard set about using the rich and varied competences and sophisticated facilities found there to develop dedicated works that similarly traverse novel grounds. He often enters into sustained collaborations with orchestras and ensembles, in the manner that he became composer-in residence in 2013 at El Grup, Valencia, Spain; a similar position which he also held at Odense Symphony Orchestra, Denmark, 1996-1999. As performer Lars Graugaard has appeared all over the world, and when the flute was his principal instrument he recorded the music of his contemporaries as well as classical composers. In recent years he has turned to the computer as his performance tool, shaping it as a sophisticated performance vehicle in interactive and generative music. There is at times a strong eclecticism in this music that he often performs under the alias Lars from Mars, releasing this music on labels like Pueblo Nuevo, Chordpunch and clang. Lars Graugaard was professor of interactive music at the Carl Nielsen Academy of Music in Odense (today Danish National Academy of Music) and lectured for five years at Aalborg University’s Medialogy Department. He has participated in and directed several research projects, holds a handful of trusted positions in international organizations in the field of music and is on the board of the International Society for Contemporary Music.
The NYU Symphony Orchestra, directed by Professor Joseph Bongiorno, is the premier orchestral ensemble at NYU Steinhardt. The Symphony presents full seasons of concerts led by world- class conductors at NYU’s Frederick Loewe Theatre and Skirball Center for the Performing Arts, venturing off-campus in series at the Peter Norton Symphony Space and the Church of St. Joseph in Greenwich Village. The NYU Symphony is recognized not only for its superb orchestral training, and for its annual world premieres, film score presentations and recording sessions. Students have the opportunity to participate in musical theater and opera productions and collaborations involving jazz, world music, rock and pop featured in past apperances with members of the Silk Road Ensemble, Combo Nuvo, the Eagles, and more. As a result of NYU’s multifaceted curriculum, alumni of the NYU Symphony have built careers in performance and other areas of the music industry.
