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Nolan Gasser | |
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| Born | (1964-11-10)November 10, 1964 (age 61) |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, musicologist, pianist, artistic director |
Nolan Ira Gasser (born November 10, 1964) is an Americancomposer,pianist, andmusicologist. He was the chief musicologist forPandora Media, Inc. and the architect of theMusic Genome Project,[1][2] the proprietary musical analysis system that underlies the popularInternet radio service. His classical compositions have been performed by orchestras, chamber ensembles, and soloists around the world, in such venues asCarnegie Hall, theKennedy Center, and theRose Bowl.
Gasser scored his first film soundtrack, forLance Kinsey's comedyAll-Stars (starringFred Willard andJohn Goodman), which was released in October 2014.[3] Gasser was the subject of the documentary, “Musicology”, as part of “the Collectors” series on prominent data collectors / purveyors, byNate Silver'sFiveThirtyEight andESPN Films.[4]
Gasser is the Artistic Director of Classical Archives,[5] a leading online classical musical service.
Gasser received his Ph.D. in musicology fromStanford University. He frequently performs as well as lectures around the United States – on music, and the relationship between music and science. He is also working with the Chicago-based company Mission Metrics, to help develop an Impact Genome Project, on behalf of social impact program measurement across all social sectors (education, food security, poverty, culture and identity, health, etc.). The project has been subject to critique by the social science community who cite its opaque methodology and oversimplication of complex social issues.
Gasser began playing piano at age 4, and was composing by age 8. His professional career began at age 11, when he became the weekend pianist at the newly built La Mirada Mall – for which he credits his eclectic musical identity, being fluent inpop,rock,jazz,Broadway, andclassical styles.
In 1988, Gasser received aBachelor's degree in music fromCalifornia State University, Northridge, where he studied composition with Aurelio de la Vega, and piano with Charles Fierro.
Gasser then sojourned to Paris for two years, where he studied privately withBetsy Jolas and atFontainebleau with Jolas,Gilbert Amy, andTristan Murail. While in Paris, he began a fascination with Renaissance music (especially the music ofJosquin des Prez), spawning an interest in musicology.
In 1991, Gasser earned aMasters in composition atNew York University in New York, where he studied with Todd Brief and Menachem Zur. In 2001, Gasser earned a PhD. in musicology fromStanford University in California. Gasser's dissertation was "The MarianMotet Cycles of theGaffurius Codices: A Musical and Liturgico-Devotional Study".
In March 2000, Gasser was hired by Savage Beast Technologies (todayPandora Media, Inc.), where he helped flesh out theMusic Genome Project. Gasser became the Chief Musicologist at Pandora, and is the architect of all five Music Genomes (Pop/Rock, Jazz, Hip-hop/Electronica; World Music; Classical); he also helped design the means of analysis and training by which the company continues to this day, as the hugely successful Pandora Radio service.
In April 2003, Gasser became the Artistic Director of the Classical Archives website, which in May 2009 re-launched as a streaming and download service with classical content from most labels. Gasser designed for the site a proprietary database to properly categorize and display classical recordings, and runs the editorial operation – including conducting interviews with classical artists and composers such asRenée Fleming,Hilary Hahn,Alan Gilbert,Hélène Grimaud,Vladimir Ashkenazy,Jeremy Denk,Daniel Hope,David Lang,Eric Whitacre, andJohn Corigliano.[6]
Gasser is active as a pianist and bandleader, especially in jazz and popular styles – including with the San Francisco Jazz Quartet;.[7] He is an occasional adjunct professor in Medieval-Renaissance music history atStanford University. He periodically gives lectures, such as at theCarmel Authors and Ideas Festival in 2010,[8] at theUniversity of California, Santa Barbara in February 2011, and at a joint meeting of theNational Endowment for the Arts and theUnited States Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., regarding arts education.
Gasser's shift in focus to musicology, beginning in 1991, led to an extended disruption in his compositional output, with only a handful of works written before his graduation from Stanford in 2001. Since 2003, however, composition has become a principal focus of his career.
Among his substantial works includeAmerican Festivals – a four-movement work with poetry byRobert Trent Jones Jr.; each movement is dedicated to a distinct and quintessential American holiday: "Oration on July 4th" (2004), "Black Suite Blues" (for Martin Luther King Jr. Day; 2005); "Memorial Day" (2006); and "Thanksgiving" (2007). The work has been performed – in part and whole – numerous times by several orchestras (e.g.,Charleston, Memphis, Arkansas, andOakland East Bay Symphonies), including a complete performance at the 2008 IMG Festival del sole (Napa Valley, CA.).[9]
Gasser's most ambitious composition project in recent years has been a pair of works written in conjunction withNASA'sFermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope (formerly GLAST) – launched June 8, 2008. The first work, theGLAST Prelude, for brass quintet (2007), was recorded by theAmerican Brass Quintet, and presented at a pre-launch party inCocoa Beach,[10] the live premiere took place on November 2, 2009, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., and the work was released on the ABQ's 50th Anniversary CD on Summit Records.
The same Kennedy Center concert also saw the premiere of the second Fermi-related work, the narrated symphonyCosmic Reflection, with narration by Pierre Schwob and physicistLawrence Krauss that tells the full history of theUniverse.[11] The work was recorded by theBaltimore Symphony underMarin Alsop, and will be subsequently released as a full-feature DVD.
Among other serious works include hisWorld Cello for Cello and Orchestra (2008), which was premiered by cellistMaya Beiser and the Oakland East Bay Symphony underMichael Morgan, along with three "world" soloists:Jiebing Chen,erhu; Aruna Narayan,sarangi; and Bassam Saba,oud.[12] His3 Jazz Preludes (2007) were performed at Carnegie Hall by pianist Kimball Gallagher in March 2008. His operaThe Secret Garden, commissioned by theSan Francisco Opera, premiered on 1 March 2013; the opera was also performed at Opera Theater of Weston (Vermont) in January 2015. Gasser wrote the opening movement of the choral song cycleTyler's Suite, about the tragic story of Tyler Clementi (with other movements byStephen Schwartz,John Corigliano, andJake Heggie, among others), which was premiered in March 2014 by theSan Francisco Gay Men's Chorus at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, and which will be performed subsequently in Los Angeles, Dallas, and New York. His song cycleRepast: An Oratorio, about the life and career of civil rights figure Booker Wright, with text byKevin Young, will be premiered on October 26, 2014, by bass-baritone Justin Hopkins at theSouthern Foodways Alliance Symposium in Oxford, Mississippi
Gasser's book,Why You Like It: The Science and Culture of Musical Taste (Macmillan Publishing) was released on April 30, 2019.[13]
In 1994, Gasser married Lynn. They have two children, Camille (b. 1995) and Preston (b. 2001). Gasser and his family reside inPetaluma, California.
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