John Oliver, composer, guitarist

About Me

Short version (good for programs)

Vancouver-born John Oliver began his musical studies with the guitar at the age of 8, studying classical guitar in his native Vancouver with Robert C. Jordan. Oliver went on to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied guitar with George Sakellariou, played in master classes for Leo Brouwer, Pepe Romero, Michael Lorimer, Abel Carlevarro and others, and also studied voice, piano and composition. His first composition teacher, the American composer John Adams, encouraged him to continue composing. After obtaining music degrees in composition from UBC and McGill (D.Mus.), Oliver studied briefly with Belgian composer Philippe Boesmans and completed perception research in Paris. During 1988/89 Oliver won six prizes for his compositions, including the Grand Prize at the CBC Young Composers' Competition. Since then he has been commissioned to write music for leading Canadian ensembles (Vancouver Symphony, Canadian Opera Company, National Arts Centre Orchestra, St. Lawrence String Quartet and others), and his music has been performed in North America and Europe. He has been Composer-in-Residence at the Music in the Morning Concert Series, the Canadian Opera Company, and most recently at the Windsor Canadian Music Festival. Oliver also performs a special "immersive sound" event using special guitars whose sound he transforms by realtime computer processing. His music appears on CDs from empreintes DIGITALes, earsay, CBC Records, ZaDiscs, SNE and McGill University Records.

About Me, longer version

Composing

Oliver writes opera, orchestral, chamber music and electroacoustic music. "My preferred creative axis is the meeting point of live music and technology. My electroacoustic music is often quite dense, and explores sounds unique to this medium. I am inspired by resonance, as well as natural forms and processes. My strongest influences come from spectralism, post-minimalism, microtonal music and the immersive electronic music that began with Stockhausen."

Recent successes include:
• Vancouver 2010 Olympics commission for the Turning Point Ensemble
• Commission to write for ARS NOVA ensemble (Sweden)
• the World Premiere of the opera ..Alternate Visions in Montreal,
• nomination of my piece DUST for "Outstanding Classical Composition" at the 2006 Western Canadian Music Awards,
• premiere of the FACES cycle of orchestral compositions commissioned by the Windsor and New Westminster symphony orchestras.

Oliver's music has been performed by the Vancouver Symphony, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Canadian Opera Company, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Nouvelle Ensemble Moderne and others.

Performing and electroacoustic projects

"I perform on special nylon-stringed, MIDI-capable guitars made by Quebec luthier Godin, specializing in their transformation by electronic and computer processing. I also sometimes will conduct my own music or mix a show of electroacoustic music."

Since co-founding the Group of the Electronic Music Studio (GEMS) in 1983 (Montreal), Oliver has written, performed and conducted music with live electronics, tape and instruments. He was active with the ensemble until 1987. From 1991 to 1993, Oliver played MIDI guitar with the Vancouver group MORE (with Sergio Barroso, Lori Freedman, and Peter Hannan) and since then has been developing personal repertoire for his own performance project involving guitars, MIDI guitar, computer, and electronics, and increasingly writes chamber music integrating his instruments.

In 1998, Oliver released a CD, Icicle Blue Avalanche on his earsayearsay label, which he co-founded that year with composer/pianist Andrew Czink and designer Tanya Petreman for the promotion of new music. Since then, he has performed as soloist and chamber musician with New Music Concerts, Vancouver New Music, Music in the Morning, Standing Wave Ensemble, Ensemble Symposium, Vancouver Chinese Music Ensemble, BC Chinese Music Ensemble; and at the at the Body Electric Festival (Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria) the Sacred Music Festival, and New Music America; as well as with musicians/composers François Houle, Paul Dolden, Sergio Barroso, Mei Han, and Jeremy Berkman.

In 2002 Oliver toured 11 Canadian cities with his group.. Structural Damage with guest improvisers Ron Samworth, Kasuhisa Uchihashi, and Yoshiro Otani, playing on the seasons of Groundswell, Upstream, New Works Calgary, among others. Oliver also plays in the ..Oliver Yu Duo and Duo Vita.

Oliver's music is published on CD by earsay, empreintes DIGITALes, SNE, McGill University Records, ZaDiscs, and CBC Records.
Most scores published by johnolivermusic.com.
Some older scores and parts available at at Canadian Music Centre (musiccentre.ca).

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Influences:

As a young classical guitarist I was influenced by Julian Bream and John Williams. For my compositions, it's more extensive, and includes John Adams, Louis Andriessen, Sergio Barroso, Berg, Berio, Cage (prepared piano period), Paul Dolden, Grisey, Charles Ives, Nikolai Korndorf, Leo Kupper, alcides lanza, Mauricio Kagel, Ligeti, Lutoslawski, Bruce Mather, Messaien, Nancarrow, Harry Partch, John Rea, Steve Reich, Terry Riley, Luigi Russolo, Frederick Rzewski, Satie, Scelsi, Stockhausen (Gesang & after Stimmung), James Tenney, Gilles Tremblay, Barry Truax, Varese, Claude Vivier, Ivan Wyschnegradsky, Xenakis, Walter Zimmermann; also the meditations of Stuart Dempster, Paul Horn, Terje Rypdal, David Hykes, David Byrne, David Bowie, & Brain Eno; Jimi Hendrix, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk; Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Glen Velez, Trichy Sankaran, Ravi Shankar; composers associated with classical guitar, like Villa-Lobos, Leo Brouwer, Albeniz, Granados and Luis Milan; and a host of earlier breeds, like J.S. Bach, Scarlatti, Debussy, Bartok, Mahler, Delius and Scriabine; Obrecht and Ockeghem; the polyglot madgridalists; and of course, the Troubadours. Also: Kandinsky, Bruegel, Turner, Jim Dine, Anselm Kiefer, Pablo Neruda, José Emilio Pacheco, Gaston Bachelard, Julian Jaynes, Nietzsche, John Berger, Marshall McLuhan, Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Sounds Like:

John Oliver of course!

purchase CDs at electrocd.com . earsay.com . musiccentre.ca