www.patrickgrant.com
Patrick Grant is a composer, performer, and producer living in New York City and creates audio for a wide range media and live performance. A native of Detroit, MI, he moved to NYC where he studied at the Juilliard School, worked on the production team for composer John Cage, and produced his first recordings in the studios of Philip Glass. For the stage he has created scores for theatrical visionaries The Living Theatre, Robert Wilson. Interest in world music brought him to Bali three times to study the gamelan which manifested itself in his work through the use of alternative tunings, ensembles with multiple keyboards, as Composer-in-Residence at Cornell University, and in his work with Robert Fripp & The Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists. He is the creator of International Strange Music Day (August 24) since 1998 and the mobile electric guitar procession (Tilted Axes) since 2011. He is a 2021 and 2023 recipient of a Composer Commissions Award from the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA), a two-time recipient (2020 & 2021) of a Creative Engagement Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and a multiple nominee of the Detroit Music Awards (2017-2019). He is a Post Production professor at NYU Tisch School of the Arts Film & TV and helps produce the “How To Be A Better Human” podcast for TED & PRX. In 2023 he was a composer/judge for ASCAP's Morton Gould Young Composer Awards.
PG Short Bio 2024
CV Resume 2024
iNSTAGRAM - visuals
fACEBOOK - groups
July 2024 in The New Yorker! — Read the article HERE
Creative Confidental Interview w/ Patrick Grant
Interview in It's Psychedelic Baby! Magazine
Interview in Esthetic Lens Magazine
Interview in Echoes and Dust (UK)
Interview in Ultimate Guitar
Profile by Fractured Atlas
Press 2019-23
Press 2018
Press 2017
Press 2016
“…a cogent ambient atmosphere in combination with classical and contemporary components...eccentrically sublime, emanating bright sonic colors.” - The Huffington Post
“…a fascinating merger of the universes Grant inhabits…there is a lot to be said for the energy Grant and his ensemble bring to these pieces, but the collection’s real joy is its variety.” - San Francisco Classical Voice
“Grant…has a brilliant baroque madness…blending together progressive, classical, and indie music to demonstrate his sweeping vision." - Alternative Nation
Grant's distinct sound has "...a driving and rather harsh energy
redolent of rock, as well as a clean sense of melodicism ... the music's momentum
and intricate cross-rhythms rarely let up, making the occasional infectious tunes
that emerge all the more beautiful for surprise." - The Village Voice
“I’ve lived in the neighborhood for 22 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” a passerby said as Patrick Grant and his small platoon of electric guitarists and percussionists filed into St. Mark’s Church on East 10th Street. - New York Times
PATRICK GRANT is a Detroit-born composer/performer living in New York City and creates music for a wide range of media. In the 90s he worked on the production team for composer John Cage and began producing his first recordings at the studios of Philip Glass. He spearheaded the compositional element of an international project for the Millennium which had him working with Quincy Jones. He is a 2023 and 2021 recipient of a Composer Commissions Award from the New York State Council on the Arts, a two-time recipient (2020 & 2021) of a Creative Engagement Award from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, a multiple nominee of the Detroit Music Awards (2017-2019), and a multiple recipient of the ASCAP Plus+ Award (2013 to present).
Interest in world music brought him to Bali three times to study the gamelan which manifested itself in his work through the use of alternative tunings, ensembles with multiple keyboards, and in his work with Robert Fripp (King Crimson, Brian Eno, David Bowie) & The Orchestra of Crafty Guitarists. He was host of the internationally acclaimed podcast sTRiNGS & tHiNGS and remains musically active in his hometown of Detroit and in cities over three continents. In 2017 he joined the NYU Tisch School of the Arts as an adjunct professor in the Film School.
He has created scores for theatrical visionaries The Living Theatre and Robert Wilson, and music for installations at the Louvre and the musée du Quai Branly in Paris. His music has been applied visually through seven collaborations with Obama portrait artist Kehinde Wiley, scores for feature documentaries, and music tech seminars.
Since 2012 he has consistently received ASCAP Plus Awards for continued musical excellence. Recently, he performed as music producer and co-arranger of NYFA Fellow Joseph Keckler's "I am an Opera" for a month of sold-out shows at Dixon Place in NYC.
He is the creator of International Strange Music Day (Aug. 24th) and the 'electric guitar procession' as a genre that began as Tilted Axes: Music for Mobile Electric Guitars. He has been granted rights from the Beatles' publishers to create a set of variations on Strawberry Fields Forever for chamber ensemble and rock band.
His music has been performed extensively by theater troupes in Brazil, appearing in the major cities and international festivals there. With radio producer Jocelyn Gonzales he created the MMiX Festival of Interactive Music Technology in NYC, an event co-sponsored by Ableton (LIVE 8), Cycling ’74 (Max/MSP), and WNYC Radio.
He music directed the European premiere of his electronic realization of the Morton Feldman/Samuel Beckett opera “Neither” in Vienna. In 2010, Grant returned to Europe and Brazil for new works in concert, theater, and multimedia and created H2Opus: Fluid Soundscapes by Multiple Composers for Make Music New York 2010. Grant also produces content for the new music blog The MMiXdown.
He has created musical scores for the Cornell Gamelan Ensemble and the Margaret Jenkins Dance Company in San Francisco (a piece called "the strangest and most ravishing dance of the year" by the SF Chronicle and nominated for Best Dance Score of 2003 by the Isadora Duncan Dance Awards). His work often involves elements found in the natural and physical sciences (Genome: The Autobiography of a Species).
He has been commissioned by the CUNY Graduate Center (BIG BANG 1.0), jointly by the artist Kehinde Wiley (for soprano Shequida), Deitch Projects (Rumors of War), and The Columbus Museum of Art (Historical Black Music Rollercoaster), and the Modern Museum of Fort Worth.
His works have been performed at the Bang on a Can Annual Marathon, MATA - Music at the Anthology, by Gamelan Son of Lion, The CUNY Graduate Center's Science & the Arts series, and the Forum Freies Theater in Germany.
As a presenter, Mr. Grant has produced scores of new music concerts in the alternative spaces of New York City, in art galleries, theaters, factory lofts and clubs, since 1988. He formed his own ensemble, the protean Patrick Grant Group, in 1998.
He is founder and artistic director of Strange Music Inc., an organization dedicated to releasing recordings and presenting compelling new work with performances and installations in New York and around the world. He formed Peppergreen Media in 2011 as a way of broadening music's reach into other media.
http://www.peppergreenmedia.com
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