Peter V. Swendsen
Peter V. Swendsen explores the capacity of electroacoustic sound and digital media to challenge and extend our engagement with performance. His music has been called “highly skillful†by the San Francisco Bay Guardian and “the sonic equivalent of ether†nd “marvelous†by the San Francisco Chronicle. He will spend the 2006-07 academic year on a Fulbright Fellowship at the NOTAM computer music studios in Oslo, Norway. Swendsen is currently a Jefferson Scholars Fellow and Ph.D. student (ABD) in Composition and Computer Technologies at the University of Virginia, where he is also an instructor in the McIntire Department of Music. His dissertation project is a large-scale composition for electroacoustic music and interactive dance. He received his MFA from the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music
and his BM from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. His work has been heard throughout the United States and recently in Canada, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, France, India, Korea, Chile, and Argentina. Swendsen has studied composition with Gary Nelson, Richard Povall, and Kristine Burns, and more recently with Gail Wight, Maggi Payne, Fred Frith, and Pauline Oliveros. He is currently studying with Matthew Burtner and Judith Shatin, creating and performing with interactive environments, dance, installation, video, and sound.
He also serves as Assistant Editor, Publications for Journal SEAMUS. Swendsen is the co-artistic director of Prospect Dance Group, and works extensively in collaboration with choreographers.
Peter V. Swendsen participates in