Gordon Monahan
{{Short description|Canadian pianist and composer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Gordon Monahan
| image = Gordon Monahan explaining his stringed instrument, Robotics & Music Workshop, NIME 2007.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1956}}
| birth_place = Kingston, Ontario
| death_date =
| death_place =
| nationality =
| other_names =
| occupation = Artist, musician
| years_active =
| known_for = Sound artist, sound sculptor
| notable_works = Speaker Swinging
| website = {{URL|www.gordonmonahan.com}}
}}
Gordon Monahan (born 1956 in Kingston, Ontario) is a Canadian pianist and composer of experimental music. He has been active since at least 1978. Along with his own work, he has performed works by other composers such as John Cage, James Tenney, Udo Kasemets and Roberto Paci Dalò. He has also created site-specific sound installations. In 1992-93 he was artist-in-residence with the DAAD in Berlin where he lived until 2006.See literature Linda Jansma and Carsten Seiffarth (eds.): Gordon Monahan, 2011 and [http://www.singuhr.de/page.php?ID=715&language=ENG Biography] on singuhr.de (Berlin), retrieved September 8, 2012
Life and career
Gordon Monahan was born on June 1, 1956 in Kingston, Ontario. He originally was interested in a being a physicist and studied physics at the University of Ottawa from 1974-1976. He transferred to Mount Allison University where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Music in 1980 after four years of study. There his teachers included Janet Hammock (piano) and Michael R. Miller (composition). After graduating he lived in Toronto for seven years, and then moved to New York City in 1987.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gordon-monahan-emc|title=Monahan, Gordon|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia|author=Udo Kasemets|date=February 7, 2006}}
Awards
Monahan won first prize at the 1984 CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers.
He is one of six Laureates to receive Governor General's Awards for Visual and Media Arts in 2013.[http://www.gordonmonahan.com/pages/gord_bio.html Biography on personal homepage]
- 2016: Sound Artist of the City of Bonn, Germany.
Notable works
- Piano Mechanics (1981-1986){{cite web |first1="Blue" Gene |last1=Tyranny |url=https://nmbx.newmusicusa.org/88-Keys-to-Freedom-Segues-Through-the-History-of-American-Piano-Music/12/ |title=88 Keys to Freedom: Segues Through the History of American Piano Music |date=October 1, 2003 |accessdate=22 June 2020}}
- Speaker Swinging (1982){{cite book|author=Professor Simon Emmerson|title=Music, Electronic Media and Culture|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ddyhAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT163|date=28 January 2013|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-9368-6|pages=163–}}{{cite book|author1=Nick Collins|author2=Julio d'Escrivan|title=The Cambridge Companion to Electronic Music|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mx5DAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA50|date=13 December 2007|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-49532-6|pages=50–}}
- Piano Mechanics (1982)
- Long Aeolian Piano (1984/88){{cite book|title=Sound Art and Spatial Practices: Situating Sound Installation Art Since 1958|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KMbdlbj7J98C&pg=PA312|year=2008|isbn=978-0-549-40235-0|pages=312–}}
- Music From Nowhere (1989){{cite web|last1=Dunn|first1=Scott|title=Art for the ear and mind|url=http://www.owensoundsuntimes.com/2013/04/03/art-for-the-ear-and-mind|website=Owen Sound Times|accessdate=2 June 2016}}
- Aquaeolian Whirlpool (1990)
- Spontaneously Harmonious in Certain Kinds of Weather (1996)
- Multiple Machine Matrix (1994-8){{cite book|author1=Ars Electronica|author2=Gerfried Stocker|title=Ars Electronica 98|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kZOABwAAQBAJ&pg=PA261|date=17 December 2013|publisher=Springer-Verlag|isbn=978-3-662-38430-5|pages=261–}}
- Theremin in the Rain (2003)
- Theremin Pendulum (2008)
- Resonant Platinum Records (2011/12, Soundinstallation at Singuhr Hörgalerie, Berlin).
Literature
Linda Jansma and Carsten Seiffarth (Eds.): Gordon Monahan: Seeing Sound, Sound Art, Performance and Music, 1978-2011, 159 pages plus DVD. Toronto : Doris McCarthy Gallery [et al.], 2011 (Exhibition Catalogue), {{ISBN|978-1926589091}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [http://www.gordonmonahan.com Official Site]
- [http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/gordon-monahan-emc/ Biography] at the Canadian Encyclopedia
- [http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/speakers-swinging/video/1/ Video of his piece "Speaker Swinging"]
- [https://www.thesil.ca/dancing-to-our-own-rhythm Dancing to Our Own Rhythm] at the Silhouette Newspaper (McMaster University Dance Brain Project)
{{Authority control}}
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Category:Canadian male composers
Category:Canadian contemporary artists
Category:Canadian sound artists
Category:Musicians from Kingston, Ontario
Category:Canadian male pianists
Category:21st-century Canadian pianists
Category:21st-century Canadian male musicians
Category:Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners
Category:Mount Allison University alumni
Category:University of Ottawa alumni
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