ONE Composer-in-Residence Mark Kuss
Mark Kuss, Composerwww.markkuss.com
Meet Mark Kuss, Composer-in-Residence with Orchestra New England
Recent collaborations with Mr. Kuss include
premieres of his Viola, Cello and Violin Concertos, which are slated
for recording by Parma Records in 2012!
You can read about the development of his recent Viola Concerto here:
Debut Duo: Orchestra New England Reaps Benefits of Collaboration. In addition to collaborating with ONE, Mr. Kuss has received awards from the American Academy and the Institute of Arts and Letters, the N.E.A., the Jerome Foundation, Meet the Composer, A.S.C.A.P., the Copland Foundation and others. His work has been performed by the 21st Century Consort, the Folger Consort, the New Hampshire Symphony Orchestra, at Merkin Hall, the 92nd Street Y, the MacDowell Colony, the Swannanoa Music Festival, the Monadnock Music Festival, San Francisco's Composers Inc., the Vancouver Chamber Music Festival, and throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe.
Other recent projects include music for the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston, music for the grammy-nominated jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon, a saxophone concerto and sax quintet for jazz great Branford Marsalis, music for cellist Fred Raimi, and for Hesperus--ensemble in residence at the Smithsonian Museum of American History.
His music, recorded on the Koch International and Gasparo labels includes two discs of chamber music and one of original
Ragtime. Reviews of his work in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Seattle Times include such phrases as:
. . .brilliantly conceived and structured, yet highly accessible. . .a fascinating amalgamation of cultural criticism and
unselfconscious immediacy. . .tuneful, exciting, diffident, gorgeous, hopeful, ambivalent. . . the highlight of the evening.
In addition to his compositional work with orchestral and chamber musicians, Mr. Kuss has produced soundtracks and sound
design for a number of independent films, and theater productions--is involved in the noise-rock scene building and performing on
Steampunk/Folktek synthesizers which employ non-traditional user interfaces--and plays Jazz piano with Hesperus, ensemble in residence with the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington, DC. For fun he plays viola in a number of local orchestras. In addition he has created custom cues for the libraries of "The Forensic Files" of court TV.
Hear samples of his work at
www.markkuss.com!
Mark Kuss
Professor: Southern Connecticut State Univ.
Composer-in-Residence: Orchestra New England
