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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11/28/2006
Something in the air
I don't know what has been going on lately, but I've really noticed some changes in my compositional process. I wish I knew why these things were happening, but I'm kind of enjoying the ride.
Issue 1: electro-acoustic music
Sure, I'm doing more of this. No big surprise here. I like it. It is fun. I've been playing with Max/MSP a lot and I'm ALMOST ready to get out of the "sound" stage and into the "music" stage. Almost. The amount of time and effort it takes to create musical gestures in Max/MSP is a real handicap to the program. I almost went with a Kyma system so I could get to the MUSIC faster.
Issue 2: improvisation
Part of dealing with electronic music has started to rub off on my acoustic stuff: I don't feel like writing anything down. Improv has become much more appealing. It all started with my Miniatures for piano and tape (the piano part is all improvised and no, I don't have a recording yet) and it is starting to affect (infect) all my other acoustic writing. I'm working on a marimba duo right now which is largely improvised. The score will take me about an hour to complete once I get around to actually writing it down. I never expected to take this kind of turn towards improvisation. It makes me wonder: is this driven by laziness?
Issue 3: I can't believe I'm going to say this
I'm seriously considering writing a work for middle-school band. I think it will be fun. The hard part is keeping it fun and not brooding (as I am want to do).
So, there it is. If all goes well next month I'll have the duo in the bag, my dissertation revised, and some serious progress made on recomposing Ashamed/Unabashed. In all likelihood, I'll get one of those things almost completed.
posted by Jay C. Batzner
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