Phil Kline
Encyclopedia
Phil Kline is an American
composer
. After graduating from Columbia University
with a degree in English Literature, he formed the New York No Wave
band The Del-Byzanteens
in the early 1980s with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch
and painter James Nares, collaborated with photographer Nan Goldin
on the soundtrack to her Ballad of Sexual Dependency, and toured the world as a veteran of Glenn Branca
's guitar ensemble.
Many of his works are moving sound sculpture
s which include multiple boombox
es, the most famous of which is Unsilent Night which debuted in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1992. Annual December performances have spread to such cities as Ann Arbor, Asheville, Baltimore, Boulder, Cambridge, Charleston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Melbourne (Australia), Middlesbrough (UK), Missoula, New Haven, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Vancouver, and the Yukon.
Kline's compositions have been performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
, the Brooklyn Academy of Music
(BAM), Miller Theatre, the Whitney Museum, MASS MoCA, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, and London's Barbican Centre.
His CD containing Zippo Songs, a song cycle based on poems that American GIs inscribed on their cigarette lighters in Vietnam, was named "Best of the Year" by The New York Times, Newsday, Time Out, and Gramophone. The New Yorker called Zippo Songs "one of the most brutally frank song cycles ever penned."
Kline has received grants and awards from the American Composers Forum, Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Meet The Composer, the New York State Council for the Arts, and the Virgil Thomson Foundation. In 2004, he was the only classical composer nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize
.
Kline’s largest work, the 65-minute Around the World in a Daze, was commissioned by the label Starkland
to premiere on a surround sound
DVD, which was released in March 2009. Several Kline recordings have also been released by Cantaloupe Music
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
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...
. After graduating from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
with a degree in English Literature, he formed the New York No Wave
No Wave
No Wave was a short-lived but influential underground music, film, performance art, video, and contemporary art scene that had its beginnings during the mid-1970s in New York City. The term No Wave is in part satirical word play rejecting the commercial elements of the then-popular New Wave genre...
band The Del-Byzanteens
The Del-Byzanteens
The Del-Byzanteens was a New York-based No Wave band active in the early 1980's. The band comprised Phil Kline ; Jim Jarmusch ; Philippe Hagen ; Josh Braun ; and Dan Braun...
in the early 1980s with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
and painter James Nares, collaborated with photographer Nan Goldin
Nan Goldin
Nancy "Nan" Goldin is an American photographer.-Life and work:Goldin was born in Washington, D.C., and grew up in the Boston, Massachusetts suburb of Lexington, to middle class Jewish parents whose ideas, moderately liberal and progressive, were put to the test when on April 12, 1965 their eldest...
on the soundtrack to her Ballad of Sexual Dependency, and toured the world as a veteran of Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca
Glenn Branca is an American avant-garde composer and guitarist known for his use of volume, alternative guitar tunings, repetition, droning, and the harmonic series. In 2008 he was awarded an unrestricted grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.-Beginnings: 1960s and early 1970s:Branca...
's guitar ensemble.
Many of his works are moving sound sculpture
Sound sculpture
Sound sculpture is an intermedia and time based art form in which sculpture or any kind of art object produces sound, or the reverse...
s which include multiple boombox
Boombox
Boombox is a colloquial expression for a portable cassette or CD player. Other terms known are ghetto blaster, jambox, or radio-cassette. It is a device capable of receiving radio stations and playing recorded music , usually at relatively high volume...
es, the most famous of which is Unsilent Night which debuted in New York’s Greenwich Village in 1992. Annual December performances have spread to such cities as Ann Arbor, Asheville, Baltimore, Boulder, Cambridge, Charleston, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles, Melbourne (Australia), Middlesbrough (UK), Missoula, New Haven, Philadelphia, San Diego, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Vancouver, and the Yukon.
Kline's compositions have been performed at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
, the Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music
Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....
(BAM), Miller Theatre, the Whitney Museum, MASS MoCA, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Philadelphia's Kimmel Center, and London's Barbican Centre.
His CD containing Zippo Songs, a song cycle based on poems that American GIs inscribed on their cigarette lighters in Vietnam, was named "Best of the Year" by The New York Times, Newsday, Time Out, and Gramophone. The New Yorker called Zippo Songs "one of the most brutally frank song cycles ever penned."
Kline has received grants and awards from the American Composers Forum, Mary Flagler Cary Trust, Meet The Composer, the New York State Council for the Arts, and the Virgil Thomson Foundation. In 2004, he was the only classical composer nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize
Shortlist Music Prize
The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as , was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination...
.
Kline’s largest work, the 65-minute Around the World in a Daze, was commissioned by the label Starkland
Starkland
Starkland is an independent record label based in Boulder, Colorado that specializes in alternative classical music. It was founded in 1991 by Thomas Steenland....
to premiere on a surround sound
Surround sound
Surround sound encompasses a range of techniques such as for enriching the sound reproduction quality of an audio source with audio channels reproduced via additional, discrete speakers. Surround sound is characterized by a listener location or sweet spot where the audio effects work best, and...
DVD, which was released in March 2009. Several Kline recordings have also been released by Cantaloupe Music
Cantaloupe Music
Cantaloupe Music is a record label founded in March 2001 created by the three founders of New York's legendary Bang on a Can Festival: Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe, and Bang on a Can Managing Director Kenny Savelson. Cantaloupe Music has made a massive impact in the new music...
.
Discography
- Around the World in a Daze (2009)
- John the Revelator (2009)
- Zippo Songs (2004)
- Messiah Remix (2004)
- Ethel, "Blue Room and Other Stories", ETHELEthel (string quartet)ETHEL is a New York based string quartet that was co-founded in 1998 by Ralph Farris, viola; Dorothy Lawson, cello; Todd Reynolds, violin; and Mary Rowell, violin. Unlike most string quartets, ETHEL plays with amplification and integrates improvisation into its performances...
(2003) - Unsilent Night (2001)
- Renegade Heaven (2001)
- Immersion (2000)
- Alternative Schubertiade (1999)
- Glow in the Dark (1998)
- Emergency Music (1997)
- New York Guitars (1996)
- Bang on a Can Vol. 2 (1993)