Short Bios — Neil Rolnick

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One Page Bio (571 words) [download pdf]

Composer Neil Rolnick pioneered in the use of computers in musical performance, beginning in the late 1970s. Based in New York City since 2002, his music has been performed world wide, including recent performances in Cuba, China, Mexico and across the US and Europe. His string quartet Oceans Eat Cities was performed at COP21, the UN Global Climate Summit in Paris in Dec. 2015.

Rolnick’s music often explores combinations of digital sampling, interactive multimedia, and acoustic vocal, chamber and orchestral works. In the 1980s and ‘90s he developed the first integrated electronic arts graduate and undergraduate programs in the US, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute’s iEAR Studios, in Troy, NY.

Though much of work has been in areas which connect music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of “experimental” music, his music has always been highly melodic and accessible. Whether working with electronic sounds, acoustic ensembles, or combinations of the two, his music has been characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging,” and as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.”

In the fall of 2022 One For The Ages, a 30 minute streaming event for 10 instruments and 4 dancers, will be premiered the Ensemble Échappé. Rolnick’s 22nd CD, including Lockdown Fantasies and Journey’s End is scheduled for an early 2023 release on Other Minds Recordings. En La Frontera, a large scale work for the Ónix Ensemble, will be premiered in Mexico City in 2023.

Rolnick’s Lockdown Fantasies for piano and computer was premiered by Geoffrey Burleson at the Tribeca New Music Festival in December 2021, and Rolnick spent January-April 2022 at the Wurlitzer Foundation in Taos, NM. His CD “Oceans Eat Cities,” was released in March 2021 on the Albany Records label.

In 2020 he received a New Music USA Project Grant, and his work was featured at the Primavera en la Habana festival in Cuba, and at the Higher Ground Festival in New York City. In 2019 he received an Individual Artist Grant from the New York State Council on the Arts and performed his work in New York, San Francisco, Portland OR, Seattle, Austin TX, Crested Butte CO, and Seoul S. Korea.

Rolnick was sidelined for most of 2018, caring for his wife of 45 years who passed away that summer. In 2019 he commemorated her memory with two pieces: Messages, for solo laptop and 2 dancers, which repurposes phone messages from before and during her illness; and Journey’s End for pianist Kahtleen Supové, focusing on his wife’s battle with cancer, and her grace in accepting her mortality.

In 2018 he wrote Declaration, a setting of the Declaration of Independence, for the School of Visual Arts in NYC. In 2017 Rolnick completed Deal With The Devil for pianist Kathleen Supové and violinist Jennifer Choi, and Mirages for solo pianist and computer.

Neil Rolnick was born in 1947, in Dallas, Texas. He earned a BA in English literature from Harvard College in 1969. He studied musical composition with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, with John Adams and Andrew Imbrie at the San Francisco Conservatory, and with Richard Felciano and Olly Wilson at UC Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in musical composition in 1980. He studied computer music at Stanford with John Chowning and James A. Moorer, and worked as a researcher at IRCAM in Paris, France, from 1977 to 1979. From 1981-2013 he was a Professor of Music at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

500 Word Bio [download pdf]

Neil Rolnick was born in 1947, in Dallas, Texas. He earned a BA in English from Harvard College in 1969. He studied composition with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, with John Adams and Andrew Imbrie at the San Francisco Conservatory, and with Richard Felciano and Olly Wilson at UC Berkeley, where he earned a PhD in musical composition in 1980. He studied computer music at Stanford with John Chowning and James A. Moorer, and worked as a researcher at IRCAM in Paris, France, from 1977-79. From 1981-2013 he was a Professor of Music at Rensselaer.

300 Word Bio [download pdf]

Though much of his work has been in areas which connect music and technology, and is therefore considered in the realm of “experimental” music, his music has always been highly melodic and accessible. His music has been characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging,” and as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.”

In the fall of 2022 One For The Ages, a 30 minute streaming event for 10 instruments and 4 dancers, will be premiered the Ensemble Échappé, and Rolnick’s 22nd CD, including Lockdown Fantasies and Journey’s End will be released on the Other Minds label. En La Frontera, a large scale work for the Ónix Ensemble, will be premiered in Mexico City in 2023.

Neil Rolnick was born in 1947, in Dallas, Texas. He earned a BA in English from Harvard in 1969. He studied composition with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Music School, and with John Adams at the San Francisco Conservatory. He earned a PhD in musical composition in 1980 from UC Berkeley. He studied computer music at Stanford with John Chowning, and was a researcher at IRCAM in Paris, France, from 1977-79.

150 Word Bio [download pdf]

A pioneer in the use of computers in performance since the late 1970s, Neil Rolnick’s music has been performed around the world, including recent performances in Cuba, China, Mexico and across the US and Europe, and appears on 22 commercial recordings.

His string quartet Oceans Eat Cities was performed at the UN Global Climate Summit in Paris in 2015. Since 2016 he has received support from CEC ArtsLink, the Bogliasco Foundation, New Music USA, the Marion Foundation, Millay Arts, the Wurlitzer Foundation, and NYSCA.

Throughout the 1980s and ‘90s he developed the first integrated electronic arts graduate and undergraduate programs in the US, at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Though much of his work connects music and technology, and is therefore considered “experimental”, Rolnick’s music has always been highly melodic and accessible, and has been characterized by critics as “sophisticated,” “hummable and engaging,” and as having “good senses of showmanship and humor.”