www.johnolivermusic.com
to hear excerpts from my compositions
and to see example scores.
BUY MY SOLO CD at CD Baby (as CD or high quality MP3s), where I get the best cut of the sale:
or buy mp3 (only) version at iTunes.
Sheet music available to browse and download at Sibelius Music
or available directly from me (as PDF file or printed and bound music at John Oliver Music
I write opera, orchestral, chamber music and electroacoustic music. My preferred creative axis is the meeting point of live music and technology. My electroacoustic music is often quite dense, and explores sounds unique to this medium. I have worked with resonance as an inspiration, as well as natural forms and processes, from the earliest pieces of a more avant-garde tendency, to the more recent works inspired by a mix of spectralism and post-minimalism. (I'm a post-minimalist at heart.)
Recent successes include the World Premiere of the opera Alternate Visions in Montreal, nomination of my piece DUST for "Outstanding Classical Composition" at the 2006 Western Canadian Music Awards, as well as the premiere of the FACES cycle of orchestral compositions commissioned by the Windsor and New Westminster symphony orchestras.
My music has been performed by the Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne and others.
OFFICIAL BIO
Composer and guitarist John Oliver came to international attention during 1988/89 when he won six prizes for five compositions ranging from chamber to orchestral to electroacoustic music. Among these the "City of Varese Prize" at the 1988 Luigi Russolo Competition (Italy), and the Canada Council's Grand Prize at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 8th National Competition for Young Composers for his live electroacoustic work El Reposo del Fuego. The Canadian Opera Company commissioned Oliver's first opera, Guacamayo's Old Song and Dance which they produced in Toronto and at the Banff Centre in 1991. Oliver's second opera, Alternate Visions, was presented in Montreal May 1-5, 2007 by Chants Libres.
In addition to his electroacoustic music, Oliver has produced a significant body of chamber and orchestral music commissioned by leading Canadian ensembles. His symphonic work Raven Steals the Light was commissioned by the CBC Radio Orchestra and broadcast to all 21 member stations of the European Broadcasting Unions network in 1999 on their special series Myths and Music.
Studies
Oliver studied guitar with George Sakellariou (USA) and Gilbert Biberian (UK). While a young guitarist at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Oliver was encouraged by his first composition teacher, John Adams, to pursue composition. After studies at Canadian universities with composers S. Chatman, J. Rea, and Bruce Mather, (D.Mus. McGill 1992) and a year at the Banff Centre for the Arts where he attended master classes with Roger Reynolds, Xenakis, and Leo Brouwer, Oliver went to Europe to study briefly with Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans. In 1984 he took in the famed Darmstadt Summer New Music course (Germany), where he experienced a collision of the aesthetics of Morton Feldman and Walter Zimmermann; Hespos, Xenakis and the neo-complexity movement; and the burgeoning neo-romantic/minimalist axis. After time spent in Paris coming to terms with the legacy of Boulez vs. Grisey, with independent study of perception, he returned to Canada to settle in Vancouver where he has worked since the early 1990s.
Performing and electroacoustic projects
"I perform on special nylon-stringed MIDI-capable guitars made by Quebec luthier Godin, specializing in their transformation by electronic and computer processing. I also sometimes will conduct my own music or mix a show of electroacoustic music."
As an advocate for electroacoustic music, Oliver has written and performed music for live electronics (with synthesizers, microphones, etc.), instrument(s) and tape, and tape alone. He was a founding member, in 1983, of G.E.M.S. (Group of the Electronic Music Studio), and was active with the ensemble, as composer, performer, and conductor, until 1987. From 1991 to 1993, Oliver played MIDI guitar with the Vancouver group MORE (with Sergio Barroso, Lori Freedman, and Peter Hannan) and since that time has been developing personal repertoire for his own performance project involving guitars, MIDI guitar, computer, and electronics and increasingly writes chamber music integrating his instruments. In the fall of 1997 he performed a set of this new music as part of the Body Electric Festival (Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria) and released a CD Icicle Blue Avalanche . He has performed with New Music Concerts, Vancouver New Music, Groundswell, Upstream, New Works Calgary, Music in the Morning, Standing Wave Ensemble, Ensemble Symposium, Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, BC Chinese Music Ensemble, the Sacred Music Festival, and New Music America, as well as with musicians/composers François Houle, Paul Dolden, Sergio Barroso, Mei Han, and Jeremy Berkman. In 2002 he toured 11 Canadian cities with his group Structural Damage with guest improvisers Ron Samworth, Kasuhisa Uchihashi, and Yoshiro Otani. He currently plays in the Oliver Yu Duo . In 1997 he founded a CD label called earsay with composer/pianist Andrew Czink and designer Tanya Petreman for the promotion of new music.