Gustavo Aguilar
Unsettled On An Old Sense Of Place
Percussion is the primary focus but this creative ensemble also combines composed and improvised music.
GUSTAVO AGUILAR is a percussionist, composer, and improviser. He has been honing his craft as a music artisan for almost two decades. His commitment to combining pre-composed (notated) and present-composed (improvised) musical elements has earned him the reputation as an \"intuitive and a methodical mystic.\" His music has been called \"beautiful, introspective and passionate,\"(The Improvisor) as well as \"thought-provoking and thoroughly fresh\" (Signal to Noise). For well over a decade, Aguilar has dedicated himself to the Creative Musician approach to composition and improvisation with roots that can be traced to the 1960s and to Chicago\'s AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Music). He has been mentored by and performed with, Creative Music luminary and AACM member, Wadada Leo Smith, and has appeared as a soloist/group collaborator at major festivals throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia, and the Pacific, including IRCAM\'s Festival Agora (Paris), the Zagreb Biennale International Festival of New Music (Croatia), the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon International Jazz and Improv Festival (Austria), the Copenhagen Jazz Festival (Denmark), the American Composer\'s Orchestra Improvise! Festival (NYC), the Los Angeles Philharmonic\'s Green Umbrella New Music Series, and the Interpretations Music Series (NYC)
A Brownsville, Texas native, Gustavo has been on faculty at the University of California (San Diego), Del Mar College/Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Korea National University of the Arts, and The University of Akron, and has given lectures and master classes at universities and symposia across the United States and abroad. Over the years, his work has benefited from the support of the Ahmanson Foundation, Arts International, the Korean Ministry of Culture, the Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, National Presenter\'s Network, Ohio Arts Council, and the University of California.
Gustavo\'s current projects include the Gustavo Aguilar Get Libre Collective; the Aguilar/Howard Duo with saxophonist and electronics pioneer, Earl Howard; and soNu, an electro-acoustic ensemble that Downtown Music Gallery has called an \"intriguing gem.\" His discography includes solo and collaborative releases on Acoustic Levitation Records, Circumvention Music, Edition Modern, Mode Records, Mutable Music, Nine Winds Records, Samsung-Ak, Sang-Joong-Ha Music, and TaRaGa.
Gustavo holds the position of Music Director with GroundWorks Dance Theater of Cleveland,
Ohio — a position he has held since 1997 — and is Co-founder and Co-Artistic Director of Tug, a documentary production and artist/performance collective that serves as a platform for his critical thinking and creative energies. www.gustavoaguilar.com
The other eclectic and talented musicians on the CD:
Nina Eidsheim (voice) from Norway now living in North Carolina
Mary Oliver (viola) from San Diego now living in Amsterdam
Anne LeBaron (prepared harp) Los Angeles http://www.annelebaron.com/
Phil Curtis (live processing) Los Angeles http://www.philcurtis.org/music.html
Alan Lechusza (woodwinds) San Diego http://www.myspace.com/alanlechuszamusic/
Classical: Percussion Ensemble