Glenn Stallcop was already an established composer and a double bassist with Phoenix Symphony when he was introduced to the solo piano improvisation of Keith Jarrett in the mid-1970's. Glenn had improvised with rock and jazz bands and used improvisation in his compositions, but the quality of Jarrett's music was beyond what he had thought possible. It had contrast, variety, tremendous imagination and, yet, structural integrity. The music was solid enough to have been composed, but it obviously wasn't; it was too spontaneous and free. This mind-expanding experience triggered a life-long preoccupation with free improvisation that has influenced his composition, in one way or another, ever since.
Though he recorded two solo piano free improvisation sessions in the late 1970's and several sessions with violinist Dan DeSantis in 1978, his improvisation mainly served to influence his written music for several years. Then in 1993, after a few years off, he decided to revisit free improvisation as a spiritual practice. By focusing on what he was doing at the moment of creation, he was able to concentrate more on the music and less on the methodology. His improvisation not only became more satisfying, it became more interesting. By 1998, the quality had reached a high enough level that he decided to release his first solo CD. DREAMCATCHER (1998, AUR/Horizon 3007) was a critical success, and was nominated for a Grammy in two catagories. Since then, he has recorded several more CDs (nine and counting), and improvisation continues to be the main focus of his original music. Over the years, the music he writes and the music he improvises has become virtually the same. He now spends more time improvising than composing.
Though improvisation has been a major part of his creative life, it has always been an avocation. Originally from Seattle, he has been a double bassist with the Phoenix Symphony Orchestra since 1973. He is a successful classical composer with over 75 published compositions, and his music has been performed by symphonies, festivals, and chamber musicians around the country. The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra alone has performed nine of his orchestral works. His recent composition for bass and piano, Vision Quest, won the 2004 David Walter Composition prize from the International Society of Bassists. He founded and directed the Arizona Composers Forum from 1983-89. He was awarded the Performing Arts Fellowship in Composition from the Arizona Commission on the Arts in 1995. To hear recordings of his written works, go to his website, http://www.stallcop.com
His written music is published by BassScores and the American Composers Alliance (ACA). He has been a member of Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) since 1977, and was elected to ACA in New York in 1982. His major teachers include Robert Suderberg, William Bergsma, and Chinary Ung for composition, Ring Warner and Steve Brewster for double bass, and Frits Scavenius for piano. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Washington and a Master of Music degree from Arizona State University, where he was awarded Outstanding Graduate in Music History, Theory, and Composition.
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