Mark So
Encyclopedia
Mark So is an American
experimental composer
and musician
(mainly pianist
) active in Los Angeles, CA. His works, numbering over 500, are mostly text-based and influenced by New York School
aesthetics, Fluxus
, and the Wandelweiser
composers collective.
His work has been described as varied and exploring open "theaters" of the sensible by formalizing engagements with faint, passing subtleties of continuity and arrangement (time and harmony) that often demand great attention, through changing experiences of silence. As critic Petra Hedler writes: "Mark So strongly embraces the phenomenon of the just barely audible, taking up a broad palette of sound-producing devices (including glasses, stones)."
On July 10, 2006, So collaborated with composer James Orsher, artist Michael Parker of Routes and Methods and 16 area musicians in realizing a notable 3-hour performance of James Tenney
's In a large, open space (1994) at the 40000 square feet (3,716.1 m²) Cold Storage art facility in downtown Los Angeles.http://routesandmethods.org/pgs/7_10_06.html
A graduate of Pomona College
(BA 2000) and the California Institute of the Arts
(MFA 2006), So's composition teachers have included Michael Pisaro
, James Tenney
, Christian Wolff
, Stephen "Lucky" Mosko, Sara Roberts, Thomas Flaherty and Annetta Kaplan.
In Fall 2007, the week-long retrospective mark so: late early works took place at UC Santa Barbara and environs, and featured 12 works for various performers/instrumentation, diverse locations (many of them outdoors), and sometimes extreme durations (up to 6 hours).http://boredomanddanger.blogspot.com/2007/11/mark-so-late-early-works.html In 2007-8, So's article "nearing/hearing" appeared in Everybody Loves Difficult Music (the companion volume to the series Everybody Loves Difficult Music and You Too Can Play Difficult Music at Machine Project
)http://machineproject.com/projects/difficult/ as well as The Open Space Magazine. In 2009, So published BANGS, a book experimentally detailing Manfred Werder's ongoing performance (begun in August, 2006) of So's 2005 composition BANGS [to Manfred Werder], including the score, correspondence between the two composers over the course of the realization, reflection upon the process, and photographs of salient incidents.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
experimental 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 musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
(mainly pianist
Pianist
A pianist is a musician who plays the piano. A professional pianist can perform solo pieces, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers, solo instrumentalists, or other performers.-Choice of genres:...
) active in Los Angeles, CA. His works, numbering over 500, are mostly text-based and influenced by New York School
New York School
The New York School was an informal group of American poets, painters, dancers, and musicians active in the 1950s, 1960s in New York City...
aesthetics, Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
, and the Wandelweiser
Wandelweiser
The Wandelweiser Group is an international group of composers/performers. It was founded in 1992 by Dutch-born flautist Antoine Beuger and German violinist Burkhard Schlothauer...
composers collective.
His work has been described as varied and exploring open "theaters" of the sensible by formalizing engagements with faint, passing subtleties of continuity and arrangement (time and harmony) that often demand great attention, through changing experiences of silence. As critic Petra Hedler writes: "Mark So strongly embraces the phenomenon of the just barely audible, taking up a broad palette of sound-producing devices (including glasses, stones)."
On July 10, 2006, So collaborated with composer James Orsher, artist Michael Parker of Routes and Methods and 16 area musicians in realizing a notable 3-hour performance of James Tenney
James Tenney
James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
's In a large, open space (1994) at the 40000 square feet (3,716.1 m²) Cold Storage art facility in downtown Los Angeles.http://routesandmethods.org/pgs/7_10_06.html
A graduate of Pomona College
Pomona College
Pomona College is a private, residential, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. Founded in 1887 in Pomona, California by a group of Congregationalists, the college moved to Claremont in 1889 to the site of a hotel, retaining its name. The school enrolls 1,548 students.The founding member...
(BA 2000) and the California Institute of the Arts
California Institute of the Arts
The California Institute of the Arts, commonly referred to as CalArts, is located in Valencia, in Los Angeles County, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the United States created specifically for students of both the visual and the...
(MFA 2006), So's composition teachers have included Michael Pisaro
Michael Pisaro
Michael Pisaro is a guitarist and composer. A member of the Wandelweiser Composers Ensemble, he has composed over 80 works for a great variety of instrumental combinations, including several pieces for variable instrumentation...
, James Tenney
James Tenney
James Tenney was an American composer and influential music theorist.-Biography:Tenney was born in Silver City, New Mexico, and grew up in Arizona and Colorado. He attended the University of Denver, the Juilliard School of Music, Bennington College and the University of Illinois...
, Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (composer)
Christian G. Wolff is an American composer of experimental classical music.-Biography:Wolff was born in Nice in France to German literary publishers Helen and Kurt Wolff, who had published works by Franz Kafka, Robert Musil, and Walter Benjamin. After relocating to the U.S...
, Stephen "Lucky" Mosko, Sara Roberts, Thomas Flaherty and Annetta Kaplan.
In Fall 2007, the week-long retrospective mark so: late early works took place at UC Santa Barbara and environs, and featured 12 works for various performers/instrumentation, diverse locations (many of them outdoors), and sometimes extreme durations (up to 6 hours).http://boredomanddanger.blogspot.com/2007/11/mark-so-late-early-works.html In 2007-8, So's article "nearing/hearing" appeared in Everybody Loves Difficult Music (the companion volume to the series Everybody Loves Difficult Music and You Too Can Play Difficult Music at Machine Project
Machine Project
Machine Project is a Los Angeles based not-for-profit arts organization and community event space dedicated to making specialized knowledge and technology accessible to artists and the general public...
)http://machineproject.com/projects/difficult/ as well as The Open Space Magazine. In 2009, So published BANGS, a book experimentally detailing Manfred Werder's ongoing performance (begun in August, 2006) of So's 2005 composition BANGS [to Manfred Werder], including the score, correspondence between the two composers over the course of the realization, reflection upon the process, and photographs of salient incidents.