Mark Gustavson (born September 19, 1959 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Biography Gustavson lives on eastern Long Island and teaches at various universities in the New York City area, including Adelphi University and Nassau Community College. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1981 and received the D.M.A. from Columbia University in 1990. Gustavson also studied at the Sweelinck Conservatory with Ton De Leeuw on a Fulbright Fellowship in 1985–86 and was a composition fellow at Tanglewood in 1979. His primary composition teachers were Chinary Ung, Ben Johnston and Fred Lerdahl.

Music Western classical music, folk music from around the world, and jazz blended with Eastern and Western philosophy have all influenced Gustavson's style. He mostly favors notated music that often sounds improvised. Form is often based on different approaches to variations influenced by naturally occurring cycles. Rhythm can be complex or deceptively simple; for example, the third movement of Quintet for clarinet, two violins, viola, and cello is a four-voice canon of continuous eighth notes that creates a background for the solo clarinet. An improvisatory quality is suggested by the unpredictable entrances of each voice. In A Fool's Journey, it is the complex textures that create the illusion of improvisation. The complex layering of lines or polyphony in this example from "A Fool's Journey" purposely avoids the coming together of the independent voices. The Prelude to "Lament" for piano solo demonstrates another way to create the sense of improvisation by using a basso ostinato in the left hand and a rhythmically free right hand. One more example from a recent work "Turning" for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, and double bass explores many ways of creating the illusion of improvisation. This example demonstrates metrical independence of the four instruments, and at times, simultaneously in four different meters.

His music has been recognized with various grants, awards, and prizes, including grants from the,Aaron Copland Music Fund Alice M. Ditson Fund, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Walter Hinrichsen Award (1987),American Academy of Arts and Letters, List of Walter Hinrichsen Award winners the Joseph H. Bearns Prize, the BMI Student Composer Award (1979, 1982, 1983),Broadcast Music Incorporated, BMI Student Composer Award Winners (1952 to 2008) and the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award.The ASCAP Foundation, Morton Gould Young Composer Award Recipients 1979-Present

Recently his collaborative audio-visual work with media artist Chris Myhr In-Between was a “Semi-Finalist” in the Blowup Film Fest,Blowup Film Fest an international film festival in Chicago; shown at the Psychedelic Music and Film Festival 2022 in New York City;Psychedelic Music and Film Festival 2022 in New York City and presented at the Convergence Leicester 2022 in Leicester, UK, "Immersions and Resonances" at NAISA North Media Center in South River, ON, Canada; and the.2022 Ammerman Biennial Symposium for Arts and Technology in New London, CT

In the first decade of the 21st century, Gustavson's attention turned to texts and vocal music. Two works of note are The Fisherman Songs for bass/baritone and piano and Lament, a monodrama for bass/baritone, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, female chorus, and contrabass, using a poem "Lament" by Dylan Thomas and the Welsh hymn “Llef”.

Prelude from Lament for bass clarinet, percussion, piano, and double bass is performed by the pianist Jacob Rhodebeck and Turning was performed by the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players. A recording with Quintet performed by ContempoContempo (the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players) is a collective dedicated exclusively to the performance of contemporary classical music and Dissolving Images for solo piano performed by Lisa Moore are available on Albany Records,Albany Records and "Dissolving Images" and "Quintet" are published by Edition Peters.Edition Peters, Gustavson, Mark

Select list of compositions Orchestra

Dust Dance (2010) Hymn to the Vanished (2001) for string orchestra Silent Moon (1998) Waves (1988)

Band and wind ensemble Hymn to the Vanished (2017) arranged for concert band The Emperor's Music (2000) for twelve antiphonal solo brass

Chamber Wheel (2014) for violin and piano Hymn to the Vanished (2013) for clarinet and piano Turning (2012) for bass clarinet, percussion, piano and double bass Chiftetelli (2010) for clarinet, 2 violins, viola and cello A Fool's Journey (1999) for flute (pic, alto), clarinet (bcl), percussion, violin and cello Two of Cups (1999) for clarinet and viola Albion (1997) for wind quintet Quintet (1993) for clarinet, 2 violins, viola and cello Bag o'Tales (1992) for saxophone quartet Plexus (1991) for flute(pic), harp, viola and cello Jag (1990) for flute, clarinet, trombone, violin and cello Twenty Variations (1982) for flute and piano

Vocal Lament (2021) text: Dylan Thomas and Welsh hymn “Llef” monodrama for bass/baritone, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, female chorus, and contrabass I Heard an Angel Singing (2016) text: Mark Gustavson for soprano and fixed media Fisherman Songs (2010) text: collection for bass/baritone and piano The Four Love Songs (1984) for soprano, 2 clarinets, 2 percussion, viola and cello The Three Mirrors (1979) text: Edwin Muir for soprano, flute(alto), clarinet, trombone, piano(hammond organ), 3 percussion (tuned water glasses)

Solo instrumental The Lounge Pianist (2010) for vocalizing pianist Trickster (1997) for clarinet solo Dissolving Images (1986) for piano solo

Electroacoustic Wingbeat (2021) for harp & 2-channel fixed audio I Heard an Angel Singing (2016) for soprano & 2-channel fixed audio Footfalls (2015) for fixed media Air (2014) for fixed media

Multimedia In-between (2020) for 2-channel fixed audio & video (Chris Myhr, artist)

Discography Dissolving Images, Lisa Moore, Edward Gilmore, Either/Or, Parnassus, Albany Records, Release date: July 1, 2013. Chiftetelli, Contemporary Chamber Players of the University of Chicago, CD Baby, Release date: September 10, 2010. Air: Music for Yoga and Meditation, Electroacoustic, Gustavson Sounds Records, Release date: September 2, 2016. In-Between, Soundtrack, CD Baby, Release date: September 30, 2021.

Bibliography Gustavson, Mark (1994) "Conversation in New York", Contemporary Music Review, Volume 10, American Composers: The Emerging Generation, pp. 121 – 132.

Notes and references

Sources Maurice Hinson and Wesley Roberts, "Guide to the Pianist's Repertoire, Fourth Edition", Indiana University Press, 2013, p. 459 Patrick Hanudel, Album Review: "Gustavson: Chamber Music", "American Record Guide", January/February 2014, p. 114

Gowan, Bradford, "Review: Dissolving Images by Mark Gustavson", The Piano quarterly, Issue 148, Winter 1988/89, p. 16 Griffiths, "Looking Eastward for Patterns and a Quiet Sensuality", New York Times, 10 October 1997. Accessed 2 March 2010. Kozinn, Allan, "The Classical and the Vernacular, a Cohesive Choice of the Contemporary", New York Times, 2 August 2006. Accessed 2 March 2010. Symphony Magazine, "BMI's 28th annual Student Composer Awards", Volume 31, Issues 3-5

External links NewMusicBox Sound Heard: Mark Gustavson—Dissolving Images Album Review, September 2, 2013 Mark Gustavson | American Composer Official Website Kalvos & Damian Chronicle of the NonPop Revolution: A Fool's Journey Interview with Mark Gustavson, November 29, 2003