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GORDON BEEFERMAN is a composer and pianist whose work spans opera, orchestral and chamber music, improvisation, and collaborations with dance and other arts. His compositions have been performed by the Minnesota Orchestra, Albany Symphony, California EAR Unit, Quartet New Generation recorder collective, American Brass Quintet, eighth blackbird, and others. His chamber opera “The Rat Land,†performed by the New York City Opera on its VOX 2007 showcase, was praised by the New York Times as "complex and daringly modern...Mr. Beeferman’s music, with its skittish melodic lines and pungent atonal harmony, is gritty, fidgety and intriguing." His newest project, “Music for an Imaginary Band,†was described by Time Out New York as a “commanding avant-jazz ensemble.†Beeferman has received commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the BMI Foundation, and Concert Artists Guild, among others, and prizes including three BMI Student Composer Awards. He was a fellow at Tanglewood and a resident composer at the Copland House. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan School of Music, where his teachers included William Bolcom and William Albright for composition and Anton Nel for piano. Since moving to New York in 1998, Beeferman has been an active member of the local music scene. He has performed in a wide range of settings, including Roulette, the Vision Festival, the Knitting Factory, MATA Festival, Columbia University's Italian Academy, and live on WNYC, WKCR and WFMU. His collaborations with choreographer Anita Cheng have been produced at the Joyce SoHo, Danspace, and Cunningham Studio. Beeferman’s recordings of improvised ensemble music are available on Generate Records; scheduled for release this year are chamber works on the Genuin and Summit labels. A native of Cambridge, Mass., Beeferman was born in 1976. He played piano from an early age; he studied jazz, Third Stream and piano privately at the New England Conservatory. He received his B.M. in composition from the University of Michigan and was awarded the Stanley Medal, the School’s highest undergraduate honor. His teachers have included William Albright, William Bolcom and Leslie Bassett for composition, and Steven Drury and Anton Nel for piano.
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