David Behrman
Template:Short description Template:Distinguish Template:Infobox person David Behrman (born August 16, 1937) is an American composer and a pioneer of computer music. In 1966, Behrman co-founded Sonic Arts Union with fellow composers Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and Gordon Mumma. He was also the producer of Columbia Records' late 1960s Music of Our Time series, which introduced recordings by Terry Riley, John Cage, Steve Reich, and Pauline Oliveros to a wider audience.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Behrman wrote the music for Merce Cunningham's dances Walkaround Time (1968), Rebus (1975), Pictures (1984) and Eyespace 40 (2007). In 1978, he released his debut album On the Other Ocean, a pioneering work combining computer music with live performance.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="Gottschalk2016">Template:Cite book</ref>
Biography
Early life and education
Behrman's father, S. N. Behrman, was a successful playwright and Hollywood screenplay writer. His mother Elza Heifetz Behrman was the sister of violinist Jascha Heifetz.
Behrman attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, where his classmates included Carl Andre, Hollis Frampton and Frank Stella. There he also developed a lifelong friendship with composer and pianist Frederic Rzewski. While attending summer camp at Indian Hill in 1953 he was taught modern music by Wallingford Riegger.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite web</ref> He received a BA from Harvard in 1959.<ref name="Brandeis">Template:Cite web</ref> At Harvard, he formed a lifelong friendship with Christian Wolff and where he continued his friendship with Frederic Rzewski.<ref name=":0" /> He attended the summer school at Darmstadt in 1959, where he met La Monte Young and Nam June Paik.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He received a Master of Arts from Columbia University in 1963.<ref name="Brandeis"/>
Teaching
He has been a member of the Avery Graduate Arts Program faculty at Bard College since 1998.<ref name="dram"/> He was co-director of the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College in 1975–1980,<ref name="dram"/> and has taught also at the California Institute of the Arts, Ohio State University,<ref name="FCA">David Behrman: Foundation for Contemporary Arts. Biography.</ref> Rutgers University, and Technische Universität Berlin.<ref name="FCA"/><ref name="dram"/>
Music
Behrman began working as a tape editor for CBS's Columbia Records, and by 1967 he had been entrusted with curating and producing an album series entitled Music of Our Time highlighting contemporary American experimental music.<ref name="pfk">Template:Cite web</ref> The first release featured recordings by Steve Reich ("Come Out"), Pauline Oliveros, and Richard Maxfield.<ref name="pfk"/> He later recorded Terry Riley's famous pieces In C (1968) and A Rainbow in Curved Air (1969), which would have the greatest impact of the albums released in the CBS series.<ref name="pfk"/>
Behrman is known as a minimalist composer.<ref>Kenneth Goldsmith. "David Behrman: Composer as Record Executive" from "Don't Quit Your Day Job" Template:Webarchive. 2000. New Music Box / American Music Center.</ref> His music has often involved interactions between live performers and computers, usually with the computer generating sounds triggered by some aspect of the live performance, usually certain pitches, but sometimes other aspects of the live sound, such as volume in QRSL (as recorded by Maggi Payne on The Extended Flute (CRI807). Many of his significant works, such as On the Other Ocean, Interspecies Small Talk, are based on a pitch sensing computer music system.<ref name="dram">Template:Cite web</ref>
Personal life
Behrman was briefly married to Japanese video artist, sculptor and avant-garde performance artist Shigeko Kubota.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The marriage ended in 1969.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> He has been married since 1979 to media-artist Terri Hanlon.<ref name="FCA"/>
Behrman lives in New York City.<ref name="FCA"/>
Awards
- 1994, Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
Discography
- On the Other Ocean Lovely Music Ltd. (1977)
- Leapday Night Lovely Music Ltd. (1987)
- Unforeseen Events XI Records (1991)
- Wave Train Alga Marghen (1998)
- My Dear Siegfried XI Records (2005)
Films
- 1976 - Music With Roots in the Aether: Opera for Television. Tape 1: David Behrman. Produced and directed by Robert Ashley. New York, New York: Lovely Music.
- 2008 - Roulette TV: David Behrman. Roulette Intermedium Inc.
External links
- David Behrman Website
- David Behrman interview from Kalvos & Damian New Music Bazaar
- Lovely Music Artist: David Behrman
- David Behrman Interview by Theresa Stern (August 1997)
- David Behrman at UbuWeb
- David Behrman page at WFMU Template:Webarchive
- David Behrman at the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
- David Behrman at Diapason Gallery
- David Behrman at Bard College
- David Behrman at Arcane Candy
References
- 1937 births
- Living people
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 20th-century American classical composers
- 21st-century American male musicians
- 21st-century American classical composers
- Academic staff of Technische Universität Berlin
- American experimental musicians
- American male classical composers
- Austrian emigrants to the United States
- Bard College faculty
- California Institute of the Arts faculty
- Columbia University alumni
- Composers from New York City
- Harvard University alumni
- Mills College faculty
- Ohio State University faculty
- Phillips Academy alumni
- Pupils of Karlheinz Stockhausen
- Rutgers University faculty