Donemus Webshop — McGowan, Ned

Ned McGowan is born in the United States in 1970. He is living in the Netherlands since 1994.

Education: Ned holds degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatory Den Haag and in flute from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Compositions: Ned’s compositions are often informed by his experiences as a flutist in European contemporary, improvisational and non-western musical circles and his main artistic goal is to create self-contained musical worlds through a process of cross-genre translation. By utilizing the possibilities of notation and a variety of performance practice approaches, he seeks to create practical methods to universal, cultural and personal expressions. Many of his works utilize unusual instrumentations, extended techniques or theatrical setups.

He has composed often for flute and also for recorder in solo and chamber ensemble. His most recent works include ‘Ricochet: Version for baritone saxophone and percussion’ (2014), ‘Ricochet: for contrabass flute and percussion’ (2014) and ‘ Rhythmic Etudes (Book 1): for solo piano’ (2014). Also McGowan composed the worlds first Concerto for iPad (tablet computer) and orchestra, which saw it’s premiere with soloist Keiko Shichijo and the Rotterdam Sinfonia, conducted by Conrad van Alphen.

Ned works have been performed throughout Europe, the Americas and Asia and has been presented at many festivals.

Other professional activities: Ned McGowan is a composer, teacher, flutist, improviser and curator.

Ned’s teaching has focused on three areas – teaching composition at the HKU University of the Arts in Hilversum, his own Advanced Rhythm and Pulse course at the Utrecht Conservatory and creative musicianship (new instrumental sonorities, improvisation, creativity).

He has also lectured on a variety of topics, including the perception of time, European and Carnatic music and on his own music, as a Barlow lecturer at the Brigham Young University and on TEDx.

When playing the flute, Ned focuses mainly on creative projects and he has collaborated with many musicians and ensembles. His specialty is also the contrabass flute, where he often performs solo.

As an artistic leader Ned has curated a new music concert series in Amsterdam for 12 years, been artistic director of several new music ensembles (Axyz and Hexnut) and has served as artistic leader of several collaborations with Indian and Turkish musicians.

Awards: Known for rhythmical vitality and technical virtuosity, his music has won awards and been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw and other halls and festivals around the world by many orchestras, ensembles and soloists.

Ned’s piece Tools, winner of the Henriette Bosmans Prize, was described as “brutal and humorous” (Geneco), while at the same time “packed with discreet acoustic rooms, some more resonant than others, but all proving that... subtlety pays off”(Guy Livingston, Paris Transatlantic).

As winner of the Harvey Gaul competition from the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, he composed ‘Sound becomes visible in the form of radiance’, which is built around the bowing of a piano.

In 2014, he was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music.