BUNITA MARCUS
415 Ocean Parkway, #3D
Brooklyn, NY 11218
347-715-6518

EDUCATION
Ph.D. Music Composition, S.U.N.Y. Buffalo, 1981. G.P.A. 4.0.
B.M. Music Theory, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1976.
Composition Studies: Morton Feldman, 1976-81; Leo Smit, 1979; Leslie Thimmig, 1973-76; Daniel Harris, 1974-76; Franz Loschnigg, 1967-73.


COMPOSITIONS

C o m m i s s i o n s
Trio Nexus, commissioned by Char and Gerry Dohm, premiere: Berlin September 2006
Bang-on-a-Can All-Stars, Meet the Composer/Reader's Digest Consortium, premiere: work in progress.
Orchestral work-in-progress, National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship.
Aki Takahashi, commissioned by Morton Feldman, premiere: Salon Concerts, NYC 1988, Revised: premiere: Tokyo 2000.
Aki Takahashi, EMI Records, Tokyo, premiere: Tokyo 1992.
Xenakis Ensemble, premiere: Middelburg Festival, 1987.
Special Commission for large ensemble by Director: Darmstadt Festival, 1986.
Kronos Quartet, premiere: Darmstadt Festival, 1986.
Feldman and Soloists, premiere: Almeida Festival, London, 1985.
Sound-Space ARK, premiere: Tokyo, 1983.
Eberhard Blum, premiere: Berlin, 1982.
Aki Takahashi, premiere: Buffalo, 1981.
Yvar Mikhashoff and Francis Uitti, premiere: Amsterdam, 1981.
Robert Dick and Albert Furness, premiere: Buffalo, 1978

S e l e c t e d   P e r f o r m a n c e s
ISCM World Music Days, Austria
Darmstadt Festival, Germany (86* & 88*)
Middeburg Festival (85*, 86*, & 87*)
Almeida Festival, London (85* & 86*)
Holland Festival, Netherlands Wind Ensemble
London New Music, Purcell Room (89* & 90)
Musem for Gegenwartskunst, Basel
Academie die Kunst, Berlin
Institute for Contemporary Arts, London
New York International Festival of the Arts*
Frankfurt Alte Oper Chamber series
Berlin Kunstlerhaus Concerts
ISCM Exhibition of Contemporary Music, Tokyo*
Sound-Space ARK ensemble, Tokyo*
WNYC "Americathon" Festival
Festival Musica Nova, San Paulo
Cambridge New Music Players, England
Dartington Festival*, England
ISCM Carnegie Recital Hall series, NYC
Stampa Gallery, Switzerland (1998)
Galerie Carla Rengli, Switzerland (1999)
Kronos Quartet: European Festivals, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Carnegie Hall, Walker Arts Museum, Minnesota, etc.
Bang-on-a-Can Festival (The Rugmaker, Adam and Eve, Julia), Lincoln Center, The Kitchen, Town Hall, etc., NYC & Europe (92 to present)
California Inst. Of the Arts Fest. (85*, 86*, 88*)
Den Haag, Netherlands
KomponistInnenportraits, Rote Fabrik, Zurich
Carnegie Recital Hall
North American New Music festival, Buffalo
Gageego Ensemble, Merken Hall, NYC
Mostly Women¹s Festival, Tarrytown, NY (1996)
New Jersey Chamber Symphony Shore Festival*
EAR Unit: Los Angeles & San Francisco
New Music Newark, NJ*
Los Angeles Co. Art Museum
North River Series, Greenwich House, NYC (1998)
Women On The Edge Multimedia Festival, NYC*
Errol Simpson Dance Company, NYC*
Salon Concerts, New York (85-90)*
Real Art Ways Gallery, Hartford
Bowery Ensemble, Cooper Union, New York*

*Participation as performer (piano, clarinets) or conductor.


AWARDS
Kranichsteiner Musikpreis, -The Rugmaker, Darmstadt International Music Festival, 1986
ISCM: Two Pianos and Violin, First selection by international jury, World Music Days, Graz 1982
Artist-in-Residence, California Institute of the Arts, 2000
ISCM: League of Composers, National Composers Competition, SOLO, 1983
Japanese ISCM Exhibition of Contemporary Music, Two Pianos and Violin, Tokyo, 1983
National Endowment for the Arts Composer's Fellowship 1988-90
Special commission by the Director for final ceremonies, Darmstadt Festival, 1986
Patenring Scholarship, Darmstadt Festival, 1986
NY Foundation for the Arts - Artist Fellowship 1990
Artist-in-Residence UC San Diego, 1986
Visiting Artist/Lecturer, Yale Summer School of Music and Art, 1984
Meet the Composer, 1982, 1985, 1986, 1990
McDowell : Selected Norton Stevens Fellow, 1990, Residencies 1990, 1991
Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, Grant 1990, 1993, 1996
Harvestworks - Programming Residency, PASS Studios, NYC, 1991
Curator, Earth Day Concert, Minnesota Composers Forum, Walker Arts Museum, 1992
Arts International's MUSICA International Travel Grant 1990
Edgard Varese Fellow in Composition, 1979-80 SUNY at Buffalo
Yale Summer School Composer's Scholarship, 1979
Woodburn Graduate School Fellowship, 1978-79


VISITING COMPOSER LECTURES
Composer-in-Residence, California Institute of the Arts, 2000
Huddersfield Music Festival, England, 1996
Brooklyn Art Museum, "Women Composers in the '90's", 1991
Darmstadt Festival, Germany, 1986, 88
Middelburg Festival, Holland, 1985, 86, 87
Princeton University, New Jersey
University of California at San Diego
Yale Summer School of Music and Art, Norfolk, Connecticut
Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, CUNY
Parsons School of Design, New York City
North American New Music Festival, Buffalo
State University of New York, Buffalo


CRITICAL STUDIES ON THE MUSIC OF BUNITA MARCUS
Zander, Margarite. "Nieue Musik Szene" Featured Composer, NDR, Hamburg, 1999.
Feldman, Ann. "Noteworthy Women:" Kronos in America interview with performance of The Rugmaker, 1997.
Featured Composer, WORT Public Radio, Madison, Wisconsin 1997.
Wolfe, Julia. "Analysis of Adam and Eve," partial requirement for Ph.D. Thesis, Princeton University.
Davidson, Tina. "Cassandra Sings" MS. Magazine, February 1992.
Feldman, Barbara Monk. "All Things Being Unmeasured", New Observations Art Journal, May 1989.
"Conversation with Morton Feldman, John Cage", Marcus, Bunita and Francesco Pellizzi. RES, Peabody Museum, Harvard University, vol. 6, 1983 and MusikTexte #5, Köln 1983.
Williams, Jan. "An Interview With Morton Feldman", Percussive Notes, vol. 21, n.6, Sept. 1983.
Los Angeles Public Library. Educational film on personal history and performances of Dr. Marcus' work.


SELECTED PUBLICATIONS BY BUNITA MARCUS

A r t i c l e s
"The Listening Mind" Reprinted in Communique, (Augustana College) March 1991.
Guest Editor, (contains "Preface" and "Random Notes from Manuscripts: 1979-86), New Observations Art Journal, May 1989.
"Maestro Bravissimo" (on conductor Marcello Panni), Elle Magazine, November 1989.
"The Listening Mind" (on conductor Catherine Comet), Elle Magazine, October 1989.
"Who's Afraid of New Music" (emerging composers), Elle Magazine, March 1989.
"Memorial Eulogy" (on Morton Feldman), MusikTexte #22, Köln 1987.
"The Finished Canvas" (Art catalog on the work of Mickey Parker) 1987.
"A Conversation on Composition and Improvisation" (with LaMonte Young and Feldman), RES (Anthropology and Aesthetics), Peabody Museum, Harvard University, vol. 13, 1987.
Participant in "Conversation with Morton Feldman, John Cage" RES, Peabody Museum Harvard University, vol. 6, 1983 and MusikText #5, Köln 1983.
"Why I Like Anonymous Music" and "Nature and Culture" Featured in The New Generation of Mystery: Artists of the 21st Century, World Edition, Koln, Germany, 2000
Writings: Excerpts and Aesthetic Statements, www.bunitamarcus.com, New York, NY, 2000.


D i s c o g r a p h y
"Julia" on Hyper Music from Lennon and McCartney, Aki Takahashi, pianist, Toshiba-EMI, 1991
"Adam and Eve" on Bang On A Can, Vol. 3, Composers Recordings Inc., CD# 672.
"Words & Music" Radio Play by Samuel Beckett with music by Morton Feldman, Bunita Marcus, piano. Voices International, NPR #BE-8904-16.
"Palais de Mari" by Morton Feldman, Bunita Marcus, piano. WNYC Archives, New York.
"Solo" on Positionen, Beatrix Wagner, Flute, Ambitus AMB 96831, (2/2000 release), Germany.
"Recent Piano Works," recording-in-progress, Lisa Moore, Pianist, Composers Recordings Inc.
"The Complete Piano Works," recording-in-progress, Hildegard Kleeb, pianist, Switzerland, WDR.
"Solo" for flute, February 20001 Release, Beatrix Wagner, flute, Positionen, Ambitus, AMB 96831.


PERFORMING EXPERIENCE
Piano (since 1966) : 33 years playing all literature, especially 20th Century
Bass Clarinet, Saxophone, Clarinet (1968-79) : 11 years orchestral playing, wind ensemble, symphonic band, dance and Dixieland bands, modern jazz
Improvisation (1968-present) Piano, winds, voice, percussion


CONDUCTING EXPERIENCE
Miss Marcus has worked with ensembles around the world, notably Sound-Space ARK in Tokyo, the London New Music Ensemble, the Xenakis Ensemble (Amsterdam), the California EAR Unit, UCSD's Sonor Ensemble, Composers Forum in Buffalo, and the Contemporary Ensemble at Brooklyn College. As a conductor she has appeared at numerous festivals including the New York International Festival of the Arts, the Darmstadt New Music Festival (Germany), the Shore Festival (New Jersey), the California Institute of the Arts' New Music Festival, and WNYC's "Americathon" Celebration.


BACKGROUND IN ELECTRONIC/COMPUTER MUSIC
1990-2000: Has developed a large catalogue of recorded sounds of endangered species, and endangered environmental areas and am blending these sounds with music and improvisation, creating a dialogue between the recorded sounds and the instrumental music. Dr. Marcus is currently using this sound source for a Gageego commission (pno, perc, tape) and for the Corn Palace Productions (CCP commission) theatre work.

1985-90:- All works require electronic modification, either post-production (Adam and Eve) or moving sound about a space (The Rugmaker) in a 4-channel manner from the corners of the hall, or by other means.

1984-86:While Assistant Professor of Composition at Brooklyn College, Dr. Marcus shared offices with Charles Dodge and worked closely with many of his students (Curtis Bahn, Frances White, etc.) on composition projects.

1981: Studied computer composition with Charles Ames. (SUNYAB)

1979: Engineered and produced recording of Why Patterns by Morton Feldman for CRI at SUNYAB's studio.

1976-78:Worked in electronic/Computer studio at SUNY Buffalo with Lejaren Hiller. Studied Computer composition with Hiller. Did information-theory computer analysis of Webern¹s Variationen. Wrote Reference Manual for GEN Functions to Music VI (1977) (Instruction manual used at SUNYAB in late '70's) 1973-76:Studied Electronic Music with Dan Harris (718-789-6669) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Used all types of equipment in the studio, composed works both with synthesized (Moog, Putnam, Electro-Comp, Sequencers) and concrete sounds (and combinations/modifications of the two), composed for and performed live electronic music (ARP 2500) and produced works for one concert a month for 2 years.