Jay C. Batzner (b. 1974) is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Central Florida where he teaches music composition and technology courses as well as coordinates the composition program. In his first year, Jay received two prestigious grants: one to create collaborative works with visual artist Carla Poindexter and the second to initiate electroacoustic music concerts in Orlando. Prior to this position, Jay was an active adjunct professor at several colleges in the Kansas City area while he completed his D.M.A. in Composition at the University of Missouri – Kansas City Conservatory. While at UMKC, Jay received honors including a Distinguished Dissertation Fellowship and a Dean's Doctoral Scholar Fellowship.
Jay's music ranges from instrumental chamber works to electroacoustic compositions. He has participated in numerous national and international festivals including the Wellesley Composers Conference and the International Young Composers' Meeting in the Netherlands. His music is published by Unsafe Bull Music and has been recorded on the Capstone and Vox Novus labels. Jay is a frequent contributor to the new music website Sequenza21.com and a founding member of the composers organization The Collected.
Jay is a sci-fi geek, an amateur banjoist, a home brewer, and juggler.
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1/12/2006
Happy HAL's-Day
True, this is the 80th birthday of The Man (or One of The Men, I usually refer to Carter as "The Man"...and sometimes Boulez). I've got a Feldman-fest happening on my iPod (up now, Atlantis). I feel I really understand the dichotomy in Feldman's boisterous personality and his delicate music. I think it was Rautavaara who said something to the effect of "We compose music for the world as we want it to be, not as it is." The more hectic my life becomes, the more I desire to write slow and sparse music. The more uncertainty there is in my life, the simpler I want my music to be. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying those notion necessarily apply to Feldman. Nor am I saying that I have some sacred kinship with The Man. I'm just saying that I can understand why someone would act one way and compose another.
That being said, we should also take time out to remember another historic birth. On this day in 1997, the HAL 9000 computer was first booted at the University of Illinois. Take a moment and sing "Daisy." Do it the way Feldman would have done it for a "two-for-one" birthday extravaganza.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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