Douglas Boyce
A founding member of counter)induction, composer Douglas Boyce writes chamber music that bridges the medieval and the modern, the visceral and the cerebral. Praising his Quintet “l’homme armé”, Allan Kozinn in The New York Times, wrote “he couches [the medieval melody] in such thoroughly modern scoring that the ear is lured to other things, including the juxtaposition of eerie string writing with playful material for the clarinet and piano, or the lively interplay among all five instruments.” Regarding his Book of Songs (2006), the Washington Post wrote that they “can only be described as drop-dead beautiful. Easily the most captivating works on the program, these songs of love and death are extraordinarily well written and insightful.”
Douglas Boyce was born in New York City in 1970. After performing with various punk rock bands in the greater New York metropolitan area, he attended Williams College, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in Physics and Music, with honors, in 1992. He holds an MM from the University of Oregon, and a PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. His work Palimpsest: A Composition of Maps, commissioned by Concert Artists’ Guild for violinist Asmira Woodward-Page, was recently premiered at Carnegie Hall’s Well Hall in New York. His work Song of Rain and Wind for violin, cello, piano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and baritone was commissioned by Catholic University as part of the Songs of the Forgotten War project. His work La Guerra de la Drěada has been published in the Society of Composers, Inc. Journal of Music Scores, and his work Quintet l’homme armé was a winner in the 2005 League of Composers/ISCM Composers Competition. Recently, his work 102nd & Amsterdam for string trio won the 2006 Salvatore Martirano Memorial Composition Award, and is slated for release on an SCI/Capstone Records release in Spring of 2009. He is Associate Professor of Music at the George Washington University in Washington, DC.
Current projects include A Book of Songs, a song cycle for tenor, piano, cello and clarinet, Concerto Grosso, a concerto for cello, clarinet, harpsichord and orchestra, commissioned by the George Washington University Music Department, Piano Quartet #2, commissioned by the Maryland Music Teachers Association, a work for guitar and string quartet commissioned by guitarist Marco Cappelli, and memory/occasion/song, for viola, and piano for c)i’s 10th anniversary season.
- The General Schemed (2008)
- Paisaje con dos tumbas y un perro asirio (2007)
- Piano Quartet (2007)
- Etude II from A Book of Etudes (2007)
- Blue Lines (2007)
- A Book of Etudes (2006)
- Study for Etude (2006)
- Day of Electricity (2005)
- 102nd & Amsterdam (2005)
- Aristeia (2004)
- La Guerra de la Dríada (2004)
- Quintet l'homme armé (2003)
- Palimpsest: A Composition of Maps (2003)
- Ox, House, Camel, Door (2002)
- Reptile Brain (2001)
- Trio for Violin, cello and Piano (1998)
- The Essential Tension (1998)
- ...merely circulating (1997)
- A Book of Songs