Program - Krannert Center for the Performing Arts

theorist, writing and lecturing on György Ligeti, Björk, and Radiohead. He also collaborates with theband Pink Martini and rock singer Storm Large.Born in 1965, he grew up in Illinois and studied at Northwestern and Cornell Universities, and theCalifornia Institute of the Arts; his teachers include Steven Stucky, Karel Husa, Mel Powell, BillKarlins and Alan Stout. His music has won awards from Northwestern, Cornell, the ConservatoireAméricain de Fontainebleau, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Composers, Inc., theDebussy Trio, the Howard Foundation, the College Band Directors National Association, the NewYork State Federation of Music Clubs, the Illinois Arts Council, the American Music Center, andASCAP. Among his commissions are works for Northwestern University, University of Illinois, theSyracuse Society for New Music, Pink Martini and the Oregon Symphony, the Quad CitySymphony, the Chicago Symphony, Quartet New Generation and the New Philharmonic, PianoSpheres, and the American Composers Orchestra.Mason Bates was raised in Virginia where he studied piano with Hope Armstrong Erb andcomposition with Dika Newlin, Bates enrolled in the Columbia-Juilliard program in New York City.Earning degrees in music composition and English literature, he studied primarily with JohnCorigliano and also with David Del Tredici and Samuel Adler. He worked with Edmund Campionat the University of California, Berkeley, where the Center for New Music and Audio Technologiesbecame an important influence on his approach to electro-acoustic composition. Awards include theHeinz Award, the Rome and Berlin Prizes, a Charles Ives scholarship and fellowship from theAmerican Academy of Arts and Letters, the Jacob Druckman Memorial Prize from Aspen MusicFestival, ASCAP and BMI awards, and fellowships from Tanglewood, Creative Capital and theGuggenheim Foundation.Bates was appointed by Music Director Riccardo Muti, along with Anna Clyne, as one of ChicagoSymphony Orchestra's Mead Composers-in-Residence and took up the post in the 2010/11 seasonfor a term of two years. Maestro Muti extended both Bates's and Clyne's terms through the 2013/14season, which enables them to develop further the collaborations he has commenced with variouspartners in Chicago as well as new relationships.Bates has become a visible advocate for bringing new music to new spaces, whether throughinstitutional partnerships or through his classical/DJ project Mercury Soul, which has transformedspaces ranging from commercial clubs to Frank Gehry-designed concert halls into exciting, hybridmusical events drawing over a thousand people. Other collaborations include works toured by LevyDance. As a DJ, he often appears with upright bassist David Arend in spaces from San Francisco toBerlin, including Mezzanine, Temple, Volksbühne, John Colins and SFMOMA. (www.cso.org)