Mark Alburger is a San Francisco Bay Area composer and conductor. He is the founder and music director of the San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra

San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra

The San Francisco Composers Chamber Orchestra is a chamber orchestra based in San Francisco, California, United States. It was established in 2002 and is dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music, most often works by the orchestra's members...

, as well as the music director of the San Francisco Cabaret Opera. Alburger is also the editor-publisher of 21st-Century Music Journal, which he founded in 1994 as 20th-Century Music.

Biography

Alburger studied composition with Gerald Levinson

Gerald Levinson

Gerald Levinson is an American composer of contemporary classical music.-Life:At university, he studied with George Crumb, Richard Wernick, and George Rochberg. After college, Levinson went to study composition with Olivier Messiaen at the Paris Conservatory...

 and Joan Panetti at Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College

Swarthmore College is a private, independent, liberal arts college in the United States with an enrollment of about 1,500 students. The college is located in the borough of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, 11 miles southwest of Philadelphia....

, and with Jules Langert at the Dominican University of California

Dominican University of California

Dominican University of California is a four year, accredited, private, Catholic-heritage, and co-educational institution located in San Rafael, California. Founded in 1890 as Dominican College, Dominican is one of the oldest universities in California. The U.S. News and World Report ranks...

, and with Roland Jackson, Thomas Flaherty, and Christopher Yavelow

Christopher Yavelow

Christopher Yavelow , the son of a film professor and visual artist, is a composer and proponent of computer assisted composition....

 at Claremont Graduate University

Claremont Graduate University

Claremont Graduate University is a private, all-graduate research university located in Claremont, California, a city east of downtown Los Angeles...

, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in Musicology in 1996. He also studied privately thereafter with Terry Riley

Terry Riley

Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...

. Alburger is best known for his use of troping

Trope (music)

A trope or tropus may be a variety of different things in medieval and modern music.The term trope derives from the Greek τρόπος , "a turn, a change" , related to the root of the verb τρέπειν , "to turn, to direct, to alter, to change"...

 techniques, combining structures and musical passages from a wide variety of pre-existing works across cultures and eras. He has a large opus list, including many concerti, operas, song cycles, symphonies, and a ten-hour theatrical setting of the Bible.

As a music journalist, he has published interviews with many notable composers across the new music scene, including Henry Brant

Henry Brant

Henry Dreyfuss Brant was a Canadian-born American composer. An expert orchestrator with a flair for experimentation, many of Brant's works featured spatialization techniques.- Biography :...

, Earle Brown

Earle Brown

Earle Brown was an American composer who established his own formal and notational systems...

, George Crumb

George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

, Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis or Tony Davis may refer to:* Anthony Davis , American basketball player for the University of Kentucky* Anthony Davis , American composer and jazz pianist...

, Paul Dresher

Paul Dresher

Paul Joseph Dresher is an American composer. Dresher received his B.A. in music from the University of California, Berkeley and his M.A. in composition from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied with Robert Erickson, Roger Reynolds, Pauline Oliveros, and Bernard Rands.He also...

, Philip Glass

Philip Glass

Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...

, Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan

Ali Akbar Khan , often referred to as Khansahib or by the title Ustad , was a Hindustani classical musician of the Maihar gharana, known for his virtuosity in playing the sarod...

, Joan La Barbara

Joan La Barbara

Joan La Barbara is an American vocalist and composer associated with contemporary music. She is a former student of Helen Boatwright...

, Steve Mackey

Steve Mackey

Steve Mackey is a British musician and record producer best known for playing bass guitar in the band Pulp. He also played bass for Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker in the latter's solo career, and worked as a songwriter and producer with artists such as M.I.A...

, Tod Machover

Tod Machover

Tod Machover , is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist....

, Meredith Monk

Meredith Monk

Meredith Jane Monk is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. Since the 1960s, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording extensively for ECM Records.-Life and work:Meredith Monk is primarily known for her...

, Pauline Oliveros

Pauline Oliveros

Pauline Oliveros is an American accordionist and composer who is a central figure in the development of post-war electronic art music....

, Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

, Erling Wold

Erling Wold

Erling Wold is a San Francisco based composer of opera and contemporary classical music. He is best known for his later chamber operas, especially A Little Girl Dreams of Taking the Veil and his early experiments as a microtonalist...

, Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff

Christian Wolff may refer to:* Christian Wolff , German actor* Christian Wolff , German composer* Christian Wolff , American composer of experimental classical music...

, and Pamela Z

Pamela Z

Pamela Z is an American composer, performer, and audio artist who works primarily with her voice and live electronic processing.-Music career:...

, and is a contributor to The New Grove Dictionary of American Music.

Dr. Alburger currently resides in northern California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

with his partner Harriet March Page, a mezzo-soprano and artistic director of San Francisco Cabaret Opera.

External Links