Ari Benjamin Meyers
Encyclopedia
Ari Benjamin Meyers is an American classical
composer
and conductor working in the experimental
/ electronic
/ new music scene in Germany
. He is also active in the field of contemporary art
.
While primarily known for his work with the ground breaking dance club-orchestral mash-up, Redux Orchestra, he has also worked with many other artists most notably Einstürzende Neubauten
. Other collaborators include Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
, Anri Sala
, Tino Sehgal
, La Fura dels Baus
, The Residents
, raumlabor.berlin, Ricardo Villalobos
, Staatsoper Dresden, Staatskapelle Berlin
, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, Morton Subotnick
and The Orb
.
Meyers' catalog includes operas, music for plays, dance, and film as well as music for diverse chamber ensembles. As evidenced by his arrangements for the live performances Redux Orchestra versus Einstürzende Neubauten, Meyers’ work often takes the form of productive sabotages: he constructs and deconstructs musical situations and deliberately plays on the expectations of a given audience. Although personally distancing himself from the term “Crossover”, his work is often discussed within that context.
Pre-College Division. During this time, he spent two summers at the Tanglewood Institute as a composer. It was here that he met Leonard Bernstein
, who encouraged him to pursue conducting. He then attended Yale University
where he majored in composition and studied under Jacob Druckman
, Anthony Davis
, and Martin Bresnick
. At the same time, he was pursuing his conducting studies privately in New York with Laszlo Halasz
. In his last two years at Yale, he was music director of the Yale Undergraduate Opera Company and conductor of the Yale Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus; here he presented programs of mostly new music, including the commissioning of composer Michael Gordon
’s first orchestral work. In the summer of 1993 he had a conducting internship at the Bavarian State Opera
, where he had the opportunity to work with Wolfgang Sawallisch
. After graduating with a B.A. (cum laude) from Yale University, he went on to receive his M.M. in conducting from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied under Frederik Prausnitz
. He was the recipient there of a conducting fellowship and was named assistant in the conducting department. Throughout his classical training, Meyers was a member of various East-Coast rock bands.
In 1996 he came to Berlin on a Fulbright scholarship. After getting involved in the German avant-garde
music scene, he remained, currently residing in Kreuzberg
.
Appears On:
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
and conductor working in the experimental
Experimental music
Experimental music refers, in the English-language literature, to a compositional tradition which arose in the mid-20th century, applied particularly in North America to music composed in such a way that its outcome is unforeseeable. Its most famous and influential exponent was John Cage...
/ electronic
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
/ new music scene in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. He is also active in the field of contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
.
While primarily known for his work with the ground breaking dance club-orchestral mash-up, Redux Orchestra, he has also worked with many other artists most notably Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten
Einstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
. Other collaborators include Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster
Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, born in 1965 in Strasbourg, is a French artist working with video and installations. Gonzalez-Foerster lives and works in Paris and Rio de Janeiro. She won the Marcel Duchamp Prize in 2002.-Exhibitions:...
, Anri Sala
Anri Sala
Anri Sala is a contemporary artist whose primary medium is video. He studied art at the Albanian Academy of Arts from 1992 to 1996. He also studied video at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs, Paris and film direction in Le Fresnoy-Studio National des Arts Contemporains, Tourcoing...
, Tino Sehgal
Tino Sehgal
Tino Sehgal is a British-German artist based in Berlin. His works, which he calls "constructed situations", involve one or more people carrying out instructions conceived by the artist.-Early life and education:...
, La Fura dels Baus
La Fura dels Baus
La Fura dels Baus is a Catalan theatrical group founded in 1979 in Barcelona, known for their urban theatre, use of unusual settings and blurring of the boundaries between audience and actor. "La Fura dels Baus" in Catalan means "vermin from the sewers"....
, The Residents
The Residents
The Residents is an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs....
, raumlabor.berlin, Ricardo Villalobos
Ricardo Villalobos
Ricardo Villalobos is a Chilean-German electronic music producer and DJ. He is well-known for his work in the minimal techno and microhouse genres, and is one of the most significant figures in today's minimal techno scene....
, Staatsoper Dresden, Staatskapelle Berlin
Staatskapelle Berlin
The Staatskapelle Berlin is a German orchestra, the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera .The orchestra traces its roots to 1570, when Joachim II Hector, Elector of Brandenburg established an orchestra at his court...
, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum New York, Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick
Morton Subotnick is an American composer of electronic music, best known for his Silver Apples of the Moon, the first electronic work commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch...
and The Orb
The Orb
Throughout 1989, the Orb, along with Martin Glover, developed the musical genre of ambient house through the use of a diverse array of samples and recordings. The culmination of its musical work came toward the end of the year when the group recorded a session for John Peel on BBC Radio 1...
.
Meyers' catalog includes operas, music for plays, dance, and film as well as music for diverse chamber ensembles. As evidenced by his arrangements for the live performances Redux Orchestra versus Einstürzende Neubauten, Meyers’ work often takes the form of productive sabotages: he constructs and deconstructs musical situations and deliberately plays on the expectations of a given audience. Although personally distancing himself from the term “Crossover”, his work is often discussed within that context.
Biography
Born 1972 in New York, he began his musical training at the age of five on the piano. Between the ages of fifteen and eighteen, he studied piano and composing at The Juilliard SchoolJuilliard School
The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...
Pre-College Division. During this time, he spent two summers at the Tanglewood Institute as a composer. It was here that he met Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, who encouraged him to pursue conducting. He then attended Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
where he majored in composition and studied under Jacob Druckman
Jacob Druckman
Jacob Druckman was an American composer born in Philadelphia. A graduate of the Juilliard School, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1950 he studied with Aaron Copland at Tanglewood and later continued his studies at the École Normale de...
, Anthony Davis
Anthony Davis (composer)
Anthony Davis, better known as Tony Davis , is an American composer, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan music.-Biography:...
, and Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick
Martin Bresnick is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music.-Education and early career:Bresnick was born and raised in the Bronx, and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Art. He was educated at the University of Hartford ,...
. At the same time, he was pursuing his conducting studies privately in New York with Laszlo Halasz
Laszlo Halasz
Laszlo Halasz was an American opera director, conductor, and pianist of Hungarian birth. In 1943 he was appointed the first director of the New York City Opera; a position he held through 1951...
. In his last two years at Yale, he was music director of the Yale Undergraduate Opera Company and conductor of the Yale Bach Society Orchestra and Chorus; here he presented programs of mostly new music, including the commissioning of composer Michael Gordon
Michael Gordon (composer)
Michael Gordon is an American composer and co-founder of the Bang on a Can festival and ensemble. His music is associated with the genres of totalism and post-minimalism.-Early life:...
’s first orchestral work. In the summer of 1993 he had a conducting internship at the Bavarian State Opera
Bavarian State Opera
The Bavarian State Opera is an opera company based in Munich, Germany.Its orchestra is the Bavarian State Orchestra.- History:The opera company which was founded under Princess Henriette Adelaide of Savoy has been in existence since 1653...
, where he had the opportunity to work with Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch
Wolfgang Sawallisch is a retired German conductor and pianist.-Biography:Sawallisch was born in Munich, and studied composition and pianoforte there privately: at the conclusion of the war, in 1946 he continued his studies at the Munich High School for Music and passed his final examination for...
. After graduating with a B.A. (cum laude) from Yale University, he went on to receive his M.M. in conducting from Peabody Conservatory, where he studied under Frederik Prausnitz
Frederik Prausnitz
Frederik William Prausnitz was a German-born American conductor and teacher. His grandfather, Wilhelm Prausnitz, was the dean of the medical school at Graz, as well as a Privy Counsellor...
. He was the recipient there of a conducting fellowship and was named assistant in the conducting department. Throughout his classical training, Meyers was a member of various East-Coast rock bands.
In 1996 he came to Berlin on a Fulbright scholarship. After getting involved in the German avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
music scene, he remained, currently residing in Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg
Kreuzberg, a part of the combined Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg borough located south of Mitte since 2001, is one of the best-known areas of Berlin...
.
Discography
Production:- 2009 SYMPHONY X (Redux Orchestra)
- 2006 Redux Orchestra Versus Einstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
Appears On:
- 2009 SYMPHONY X (Redux Orchestra)
- 2009 Halo (celan)
- 2008 The Demolition Series (Jasmine Maschine)
- 2007 Alles Wieder OffenAlles wieder offenAlles wieder offen is an album by the German avant-garde/experimental band Einstürzende Neubauten. It was released on October 19, 2007 in Europe and November 6 in America...
(Einstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende NeubautenEinstürzende Neubauten is a German post-industrial band, originally from West Berlin, formed in 1980. The group currently comprises Blixa Bargeld , Alexander Hacke , N.U...
) - 2006 Redux Orchestra versus Einstürzende Neubauten
- 2006 KlaviermusikKlaviermusikKlaviermusik is the sixth release of Einstürzende Neubauten's Musterhaus project, a series of highly experimental CD releases that were only available via an annual subscription through their website or from shows during their 25th Anniversary Tour...
- 2002 Kammermusik der Moderne
Opera/Music Theater
- 2009 Musikmaschine (with La Fura Dels Baus)
- 2009 Eichbaumoper (with Bernadette Lahengst)
- 2005 Nico. Sphinx aus Eis (commissioned by the Semper Opera Dresden)
- 2004 Epidemic (Music Theater after Lars von Trier) (with Sebastian Baumgarten)
- 2003 Hure - damit keine Stille entsteht (Whore) (with Isabelle McEwen)
- 1999 Defendants Rosenberg (State Theater of Magdeburg)
Music for Stage Works
- 2008 Berlin Alexanderplatz (Döblin), Theater Freiburg
- 2006 Der gute Mensch von Sezuan (Brecht), Theater Freiburg
- 2004 Der Kirschgarten (Checkov), Schauspielhaus Dortmund
- 2004 Bach (Werner Fritsch), Straatstheater Darmstadt
- 2003 Nachtasyl (Gorki), Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin
- 2003 Macbeth (Shakespeare), Straatstheater Darmstadt
- 2002 Die drei Schwestern (Checkov), Straatstheater Darmstadt
Concert Works
- 2005 String Quartet Nr. 2 (Die Drei Schwestern) for string quartet
- 2004 Three Days in September for trombone choir
- 2003 Beckmann in New York – A Tryptich for saxophone quartet
- 2003 Six Shakespeare Songs for children's voices and harpsichord
- 2001 A Brief History of Dance for chamber ensemble
- 2001 Beckmann in New York – A Tryptich for alto saxophone and piano
- 2000 Millennium Daze for trumpet and chamber orchestra
- 1999 Gift Fish/Dead Sea for solo violin
- 1999 König, König (drei kleine Rilke Lieder) for mezzo soprano and piano
- 1999 L.T.I. (Lingua Temporem Imperii) for double brass marching band
Film Scores
- 2009 La Meute; Franck Richard, Performed by: Ari Benjamin Meyers and Chris Spencer
- 2009 Pink Taxi; Director Uli Gaulke, Performed by: Ari Benjamin Meyers and the Pink Taxi Band
- 2008 Forgetting Dad; Director: Rick Minnich, Performed by: Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
- 2006 Die Unzerbrechlichen; Director: Dominik Weseley, Performed by: Redux Orchestra
Conductor Credits
- 2008 Forgetting Dad; Director: Rick Minnich, Performed by: Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg
- 2007 Il Tempo del Postino, Manchester Opera House; Co-curated by: Hans Ulrich Obrist and Philippe Parreno
- 2005 Nico. Sphinx aus Eis, Kleine Szene Semper Opera Dresden
- 2005 Einstein on the Beach (Wilson/Glass) ParochialkircheParochialkircheThe Parochialkirche is a Reformed church in the Klosterviertel neighbourhood of the Mitte borough in Berlin. The church, now a listed building, was built between 1695 and 1703, it is the oldest church in Berlin built as a Protestant place of worship. The church is now used and owned by the...
, Berlin, performed by Redux Orchestra - 2004 Die Dreigroschenoper (Brecht/Weill), Maxim Gorki Theater Berlin
- 2002 Thoratorium (Klit/Nielson), Den Anden Opera, Copenhagen,performed by Athelas Sinfonietta
- 2002 Die Flut + Four Quartets (Blacher /Cage), Theater am Halleschen Ufer, Berlin
- 2001 Einstein on the Beach 2001 (Wilson/Glass), Staatsbank, Berlin
- .ensemble weil...Focal point of the ensemble was the performance of works by Kurt Weill.
- 2001 DSCH (Fleischman/Schostakowitsch), Staatsbank Berlin, a production of .ensemble weil…
- 2000 Die Dreigroschenoper (Brecht/Weill), Kesselhaus, Kulturbrauerei BerlinKulturbrauereiThe Berlin Kulturbrauerei is a building complex. Originally built and operated as a brewery, its courtyards and unique architecture have been protected as a monument since 1974 and it is one of the few well-preserved examples of industrial architecture in Berlin dating from the end of the 19th...
, a production of .ensemble weil... - 1999 Mahagonny Songspiel, Songs aus Happy End (Brecht/Weill)
Art-Related Projects
- 2009 K.62/K.85 (Performa '09 commission with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster)
- 2009 SOUNDFAIR (curatorial project with Clara Meister)
- 2009 Il Tempo del Postino (Art Basel)
- 2009 Performances for Nobody (ongoing series)
- 2008 NY.2022 (with Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster)
- 2008 SOUNDFAIR, founder (Platform for Music Art)
- 2007 MODEM-Space for Contemporary Music and Art, artistic director
- 2007 Il Tempo del Postino (Manchester International Festival)
- 2007 Black Room Project (Theater Freiburg/raumlabor.berlin)
- 2006 Diameter 761 (Skanu Mezs Festival Riga)