Thoughts From the
Artist
The classical guitar
has been called an "Orchestra in a Box". In the hands
of a master, Andres Segovia, or Julian Bream, the guitar is capable
of producing breathtaking colors. It is this multi-timbre aspect
that I love about this instrument, and in my own work, I attempt
to draw color from the instrument to illuminate the character
of the piece, a phrase, a contrast, a mood--the possibilities
are limitless!
Segovia was quite
vocal in his disdain of the electric guitar and its players.
Indeed from the cultured European viewpoint of the early 20th
century, rock and roll, jazz, and blues players were a lewd,
rowdy bunch playing loud, uncultured music.
In the 1960's the
paradigm changed. The Beatles brought a European sense of style
and intellectual acceptance to electric pop music. John Cage,
the Princeton composers, and a number of other musicians had
introduced electronic sound into the academic music sphere and
concert stage. Moog invented a workable music synthesizer triggered
with a keyboard, and Walter (now Wendy) Carlos stood the music
world on it's ear with the lush and beautiful recording "Switched
On Bach".
There still exists
a fairly strict paradigm in the contemporary concert world's
definition "Classical Guitar" which I hope to radically
expand.
To this end, I am
searching for and writing new material for the guitar that reflects
our "post modern" culture. We have instant access to
information, art, and culture from all over the world through
electronic means. Every day we are bombarded with sounds and
cultural bits from a great many sources, process them, and integrate
them in our daily lives. Picking up this cultural clue, you hear
on my concerts traditional classical repertoire, a jazz influence,
some Celtic folk music. I also plug the nylon strung guitar (my
orchestra in a box) into electronics and process the sound in
a search for more, new, interesting, beautiful, and useful colors.
I combine the sound of the guitar with sounds that I make on
a synthesizer, or record from the real world and process it.
The themes of the compositions are somewhat timeless, looking
ahead to new unknowns, while keeping the ties to the past. New
and old sounds, textures, and themes are combined, processed,
and recombined.
Michael Nix
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Michael Nix Biography
The work of composer
and guitarist Michael Nix is informed by a wide range of creative
practice: avant garde theater and play writing, classical and
folk music, electronic and computer music.
Michael Nix's solo guitar concerts have been described as "touching"
and "transcendent". He combines lyrical
expression with an insatiable musical curiosity to forge an intriguing
performance style. He is currently performing his original
compositions and guitar classics from his recent solo classical
guitar CD release "Preludes, Airs, and Dances".
Nix has performed traditional
classical repertoire, new classical, and original music on
guitar, lute, banjo and mandolin, throughout the United States
and Asia. He has composed solo music, songs, chamber music, symphonic
works, electronic music, and opera.
His awards and commissions includes
a 2002 assignment by The Ann Sorvino Dance Project, to compose
and perform a dance work "Labyrinth" commemorating
the 9-11 tragedy, which will tour the US and Europe in the summer
of 2003. Nix was awarded grants to perform "New Music From
the Northeast", a program of original music and works
by composers from New York and New England. In 1991 he was selected
as Massachusetts Music Teacher's Assn. composer of the year.
His work combines traditional classical
techniques, with influences from electronic music, folk, jazz
and world music, and avant-garde. Nix has gained attention for
his performances of new classical music for acoustic, amplified
and electric guitars, and with tape, computers, and other technologies.
Nix is currently on the Massachusetts
Touring Program as a member of The Moser/Nix Duo, performing
music for mandolin and guitar. He toured as a member of the Monadnock
Classical Guitar Duo, and as a soloist he was on the New Hampshire
Touring Program for four years. He was a featured performer for
the Connecticut Classical Guitar Society's Andres Segovia outreach
program "The Guitar About Town.
In the mid 1980's, Nix formed Mythos,
a flexible chamber ensemble performing newly composed and older
chamber music. Nix wrote the libretto for a children's opera,
"Liombruno" with music by Salvatore Macchia, premiered
at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 1989. In 1983
he was co-conductor and concert master with the guitar orchestra
at Keene State College, which toured the Phillipines, Hong Kong,
and California. In 1988, he performed at the Bushnell Hall in
Hartford CT, commemorating a 1931 Andres Segovia performance.
Madam Emilita Segovia was the honored guest. Nix produced a John
Cage memorial concert in 1992, incorporating musicians, dancers,
visual artists, and improvisational theater. Tom Leamon in a
letter to Merce Cunningham said "It very appropriate
and authentic and funny and touching and we were glad to be there..."
In 1994 he composed "Three American Folk Songs"
for the Providence (RI) Mandolin Orchestra, performed on a European
concert tour of American mandolin orchestra music."a
stellar addition to repertoire for mandolin "--Marilyn Mair
"Mandolin Quarterly", Vol. 2, No. 3; Summer 1997.
Recently Nix formed The NixWorks
Ensemble, bringing together multiple creative influences and
genre: music composition, performance. poetry, theater, film
and visual art.
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