Ian Pace
Encyclopedia
Ian Pace is a British pianist.
Pace studied at Chetham's School of Music
, The Queen's College, Oxford
and the Juilliard School
in New York
. His main teacher was the Hungarian pianist György Sándor
.
He is particularly well-known for playing music of the 20th and 21st centuries, especially contemporary British, French, German and Italian music. Premieres he has given include works by Richard Barrett
, Luc Brewaeys
, Aaron Cassidy
, James Clarke
, Raymond Deane
, James Dillon
, Gordon Downie
, Pascal Dusapin
, Richard Emsley
, James Erber
, Brian Ferneyhough
, Michael Finnissy
, Christopher Fox, Volker Heyn, Wieland Hoban, Evan Johnson, Hilda Paredes
, Horaţiu Rădulescu
, Frederic Rzewski
, Howard Skempton
, Gerhard Stäbler
, Serge Verstockt, Jay Alan Yim
and Walter Zimmermann
.
His huge repertoire also includes more established works by Pierre Boulez
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
, Jean Barraqué
, Iannis Xenakis
, György Ligeti
, Luigi Nono
, Mauricio Kagel
and John Cage
, among others, as well as most of the standard repertoire from Ludwig van Beethoven
through to Béla Bartók
. In 1996 he gave a large-scale six-concert series of the complete piano works of Michael Finnissy, and in 2001 he premiered the same composer's five-and-a-half-hour The History of Photography in Sound. He regularly performs together with the Arditti Quartet
, and is also artistic director of the ensemble Topologies.
He has played in 20 countries, including at most major European festivals, and has recorded numerous CDs for the Black Box, Hat Art, Métier, Mode
, Naïve
, NMC
and Stradivarius
labels, including discs of Dusapin, Finnissy, Fox, Zimmermann and the new complexity
disc Tracts. From 2003-2006 he was AHRC
Creative and Performing Arts Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
. From 2007 to 2010 he was Lecturer in Musicology at Dartington College of Arts
and in 2010 took up a lecturership at City University, London
. He has written widely on music, co-editing and contributing large chapters to Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), as well as publishing articles on Barrett, Cage, Pascal Dusapin
, Fox, Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann
, Franz Liszt
, Salvatore Sciarrino
, Howard Skempton
and Xenakis. As a musicologist, his areas of speciality are nineteenth-century performance practice, music and society, the work of Theodor Adorno, and post-1945 modernism.
Pace is also known for his leftist views on music and musicology and his advocacy of modernist aesthetics.
Pace studied at Chetham's School of Music
Chetham's School of Music
Chetham's School of Music , familiarly known as "Chets", is a specialist independent co-educational music school, situated in Manchester city centre, in North West England. It was established in 1969, incorporating Chetham's Hospital School, founded as a charity school by Humphrey Chetham in 1653...
, The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, Oxford
The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture...
and the Juilliard School
Juilliard 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...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. His main teacher was the Hungarian pianist György Sándor
György Sándor
György Sándor was a Hungarian pianist, writer, student and friend of Béla Bartók, and champion of his music.- Early years :...
.
He is particularly well-known for playing music of the 20th and 21st centuries, especially contemporary British, French, German and Italian music. Premieres he has given include works by Richard Barrett
Richard Barrett (composer)
Richard Barrett is a British composer.-Biography:Barrett began to study music seriously only after graduating in genetics and microbiology at University College London in 1980 . From then until 1983 he took private lessons with Peter Wiegold...
, Luc Brewaeys
Luc Brewaeys
Luc Brewaeys is a Belgian composer, conductor, pianist and recording producer at the VRT...
, Aaron Cassidy
Aaron Cassidy
Aaron Cassidy is an American composer.-Education:Aaron Cassidy was born in Illinois. He received a Bachelor of Music degree, with distinction, from Northwestern University's School of Music in Evanston, Illinois, where his main instructors in composition were Jay Alan Yim, Alan Stout, and Michael...
, James Clarke
James Clarke (composer)
James Clarke is an English composer sometimes associated with the New Complexity school.-Education:According to fellow English composer and music scholar Christopher Fox, in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, "After studying at Southampton University and City University, London,...
, Raymond Deane
Raymond Deane
Raymond Deane is an Irish composer of classical music.-Biography:He was brought up on Achill Island and has lived in Dublin, Basel, Cologne, Berlin, Oldenburg, Paris and Fuerth....
, James Dillon
James Dillon (composer)
James Dillon, born October 29, 1950 in Glasgow, Scotland, is a Scottish composer often regarded as belonging to the New Complexity school. Dillon studied art and design, linguistics, piano, acoustics, Indian rhythm, mathematics and computer music, but is self-taught in composition.Honors include...
, Gordon Downie
Gordon Downie
Gordon Edgar Downie is a Canadian rock musician, writer and occasional actor. He is the lead singer and lyricist for the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. He has released three solo albums, Coke Machine Glow in 2001, Battle of the Nudes in 2003; and The Grand Bounce in 2010...
, Pascal Dusapin
Pascal Dusapin
Pascal Dusapin , is a French composer born in Nancy. He is one of France's best-known living composers; his works have been performed worldwide....
, Richard Emsley
Richard Emsley
Richard Emsley is a British composer, sometimes associated with the New Complexity school.Emsley initially studied with Arnold Whittall at University College, Cardiff, after which he moved to London, where he still lives...
, James Erber
James Erber
James Erber is a British composer of the New ComplexityBorn in London, Erber studied music at the universities of Sussex and Nottingham, and worked in music publishing from 1976 to 1979. His first work, Seguente for oboe and piano, appeared in 1976...
, Brian Ferneyhough
Brian Ferneyhough
Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...
, Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy
Michael Finnissy is an English composer and pianist. His music is characterised by the range of extremes often found in his work; opposing binary structures are found commonly, often seen as juxtaposing textures, register and tempi...
, Christopher Fox, Volker Heyn, Wieland Hoban, Evan Johnson, Hilda Paredes
Hilda Paredes
Hilda Paredes is one of Mexico's leading contemporary composers, and has received many prestigious awards for her work...
, Horaţiu Rădulescu
Horatiu Radulescu
Horaţiu Rădulescu was a Romanian-French composer, best known for the spectral technique of composition.-Biography:Rădulescu was born in Bucharest, where he studied the violin privately with Nina Alexandrescu, a pupil of Enescu, and later studied composition at the Bucharest Academy of Music ,...
, Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Rzewski
Frederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
, Howard Skempton
Howard Skempton
Howard Skempton is a British composer and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped organize the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music...
, Gerhard Stäbler
Gerhard Stäbler
Gerhard Stäbler is a German contemporary composer.In 1968 he enrolled in the composition program at the Nordwestdeutsche Musikakademie in Detmold and continued his education at the Folkwang Hochschule in Essen, where he studied with Nicolaus A. Huber and Gerd Zacher...
, Serge Verstockt, Jay Alan Yim
Jay Alan Yim
Jay Alan Yim is an American composer living in Chicago. During the 1995-96 concert season, he served as Composer/Fellow for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra...
and Walter Zimmermann
Walter Zimmermann
Walter Zimmermann is a German composer.Zimmermann studied composition in Germany with Werner Heider and Mauricio Kagel, the theory of musical intelligence at the Institute of Sonology in Utrecht , and computer music at Colgate University in New York.Zimmerman's works are infused by a personal...
.
His huge repertoire also includes more established works by Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez
Pierre Boulez is a French composer of contemporary classical music, a pianist, and a conductor.-Early years:Boulez was born in Montbrison, Loire, France. As a child he began piano lessons and demonstrated aptitude in both music and mathematics...
, Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen
Karlheinz Stockhausen was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th and early 21st centuries. Another critic calls him "one of the great visionaries of 20th-century music"...
, Jean Barraqué
Jean Barraqué
Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output of highly complex but passionate works.-Life:...
, Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis
Iannis Xenakis was a Romanian-born Greek ethnic, naturalized French composer, music theorist, and architect-engineer. He is commonly recognized as one of the most important post-war avant-garde composers...
, György Ligeti
György Ligeti
György Sándor Ligeti was a composer of contemporary classical music. Born in a Hungarian Jewish family in Transylvania, Romania, he briefly lived in Hungary before becoming an Austrian citizen.-Early life:...
, Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono
Luigi Nono was an Italian avant-garde composer of classical music and remains one of the most prominent composers of the 20th century.- Early years :Born in Venice, he was a member of a wealthy artistic family, and his grandfather was a notable painter...
, Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel
Mauricio Kagel was a German-Argentine composer. He was notable for his interest in developing the theatrical side of musical performance .-Biography:...
and John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
, among others, as well as most of the standard repertoire from Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
through to Béla Bartók
Béla Bartók
Béla Viktor János Bartók was a Hungarian composer and pianist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century and is regarded, along with Liszt, as Hungary's greatest composer...
. In 1996 he gave a large-scale six-concert series of the complete piano works of Michael Finnissy, and in 2001 he premiered the same composer's five-and-a-half-hour The History of Photography in Sound. He regularly performs together with the Arditti Quartet
Arditti Quartet
The Arditti Quartet is a string quartet founded in 1974. The quartet is associated particularly with contemporary music.-Early history:The quartet was founded in 1974 by violinist Irvine Arditti together with John Senter, Levine Andrade and Lenox Mackenzie...
, and is also artistic director of the ensemble Topologies.
He has played in 20 countries, including at most major European festivals, and has recorded numerous CDs for the Black Box, Hat Art, Métier, Mode
Mode Records
Mode Records is an AmericaContemporary classical music|n record label based in New York City, New York, whose primary focus is modern classical, avant-garde, and new music. Composers featured include John Cage, Morton Feldman, Iannis Xenakis, and Harry Partch. Performers include Aki Takahashi,...
, Naïve
Naïve Records
Naïve Records is a French independent record label based in Paris, specializing in electronic music, pop music, jazz and classical music. It was founded in 1997 by Patrick Zelnik, Gilles Paires and Eric Tong Cuong.-Artists:* Aṣa* Asian Dub Foundation...
, NMC
NMC
NMC may refer to:* NMC Records, an Israeli record label and music company.* NMC Recordings, a record label and music company in the United Kingdom* National Meteorological Center, now the National Centers for Environmental Prediction...
and Stradivarius
Stradivarius
The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...
labels, including discs of Dusapin, Finnissy, Fox, Zimmermann and the new complexity
New Complexity
In music, the New Complexity is a term dating from the 1980s, principally applied to composers seeking a "complex, multi-layered interplay of evolutionary processes occurring simultaneously within every dimension of the musical material" ....
disc Tracts. From 2003-2006 he was AHRC
AHRC
AHRC can refer to:* Asian Human Rights Commission* Arts and Humanities Research Council* Association for the Help of Retarded Children* American Homeowners Resource Center* Australian Human Rights Commission...
Creative and Performing Arts Research Fellow at the University of Southampton
University of Southampton
The University of Southampton is a British public university located in the city of Southampton, England, a member of the Russell Group. The origins of the university can be dated back to the founding of the Hartley Institution in 1862 by Henry Robertson Hartley. In 1902, the Institution developed...
. From 2007 to 2010 he was Lecturer in Musicology at Dartington College of Arts
Dartington College of Arts
Dartington College of Arts was a specialist arts institution near Totnes, Devon, South West England, it specialized in post-dramatic theatre, music, choreography, Performance Writing and visual performance, focusing on a performative and multi-disciplinary approach to the arts. In addition to this,...
and in 2010 took up a lecturership at City University, London
City University, London
City University London , is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1894 as the Northampton Institute and became a university in 1966, when it adopted its present name....
. He has written widely on music, co-editing and contributing large chapters to Uncommon Ground: The Music of Michael Finnissy (Aldershot: Ashgate, 1998), as well as publishing articles on Barrett, Cage, Pascal Dusapin
Pascal Dusapin
Pascal Dusapin , is a French composer born in Nancy. He is one of France's best-known living composers; his works have been performed worldwide....
, Fox, Kagel, Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann
Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...
, Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt
Franz Liszt ; ), was a 19th-century Hungarian composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher.Liszt became renowned in Europe during the nineteenth century for his virtuosic skill as a pianist. He was said by his contemporaries to have been the most technically advanced pianist of his age...
, Salvatore Sciarrino
Salvatore Sciarrino
Salvatore Sciarrino is an Italian composer of contemporary classical music.-Biography:In his youth, Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons from Antonino Titone and Turi Belfiore, he is primarily self-taught as a...
, Howard Skempton
Howard Skempton
Howard Skempton is a British composer and accordionist. Since the late 1960s, when he helped organize the Scratch Orchestra, he has been associated with the English school of experimental music...
and Xenakis. As a musicologist, his areas of speciality are nineteenth-century performance practice, music and society, the work of Theodor Adorno, and post-1945 modernism.
Pace is also known for his leftist views on music and musicology and his advocacy of modernist aesthetics.