Sean Friar

Sean Friar

Sean Friar

Title: Before and After
Commission: 2013
Completed: 2017
Instrumentation: bass, guitar, clarinet, piano, and flute
Premiere Location: May 6, 2017 at UCLA
Premiere Ensemble: NOW Ensemble
Notes:


Composer and pianist, Sean Friar (b. 1985) grew up in Los Angeles, where his first musical experiences were in rock and blues piano improvisation. While his focus soon shifted toward classical music, his composition has always kept in touch with the energy and communicative directness of those musical roots, now along with an expansive and exploratory classical sensibility that is “powerfully engaging and incredibly fun” (I Care if You Listen) and “refreshingly new and solidly mature . . . and doesn’t take on airs, but instead takes joy in the process of discovery—in the continual experience of suspense and surprise—that good classical music has always championed” (Slate Magazine).

He thrives on composing for ensembles both within and outside the realm of traditional concert music, and his recent commissions run the gamut from works for orchestra and string quartet to a junk car percussion concerto, music for laptop orchestra, and a microtonal piano duo. His music has been performed throughout the world by ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Scharoun Ensemble (Germany), the American Composers Orchestra, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, Alarm Will Sound, the Redlands Symphony, Argento Ensemble, So Percussion, Crash Ensemble (Ireland), Ensemble Klang (Netherlands), Camerata Pacifica, New York Youth Symphony, Alter Ego (Italy), Orkest de Ereprijs (Netherlands), Psappha (UK), Darmstadt Staatsorchester (Germany), ensemble Interface (Germany), Newspeak, Janus, Brightwork, Line C3 Percussion, Quintet of the Americas, Formalist Quartet, Matmos, members of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, and percussionist Glen Velez, Festivals featuring his music include Aspen, Bang on a Can, Bowdoin, Cabrillo, Carlsbad, Cresc. Biennal für Moderne Musike, GAUDEAMUS Muziekweek, International Young Composers Meeting, Klangspuren International Ensemble Modern Academy, La Pietra Forum for New Music, Norfolk, Nuova Consonanza, Nuovi Spazi Musicali, RadialSystem, SONiC, the Venice Biennale, and the World Saxophone Congress.

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