Awarded the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts’ 1998 Martin E. Segal Award, composer Jon Magnussen is recognized as an exciting talent with an expressive and rhythmically sophisticated musical style. His music combines richly textured rhythmic and melodic patterns with a deft sense of form, rendering works at once emotionally appealing and intellectually stimulating. Uniting the acoustic and electronic worlds, Magnussen also creates computer interactive environments for live performers.
Magnussen’s compositions span the disciplines of the concert hall, drama, and dance and have been received with critical acclaim. His music has been heard nationally and internationally, from such distinguished performers as the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, the New York Percussion Quartet, and The Juilliard Orchestra. The Salt Lake Tribune described his new score for the 1967 José Limón ballet, Psalm (2002), as “hauntingly beautiful.” Magnussen conducted the world premiere performance at the 2002 Salt Lake Olympic Arts Festival, with baritone André Solomon-Glover, members of the Weber State University Choir and the Kay Starr Singers, and chamber ensemble. The Los Angeles Times praised his ballet score Death and Eros (2000) as a “bold, new score.” Composed for Donald McKayle’s ballet of the same name, the score unites classically- and jazz-trained instrumentalists, vocalists, and MAX/msp, a real time, interactive graphic programming environment for music and the Macintosh computer.
Magnussen has received numerous commissions with support from such organizations as the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, and others. Commissioners have included St. Luke's Chamber Ensemble, The Juilliard School, Limón Dance Company, Donald McKayle with the Lula Washington Dance Theatre (for UCLA's “Artists WithOut Limits” series), The Shakespeare Theatre, Washington D.C., and The New Juilliard Ensemble. His works have been performed at venues including New York City's Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, the Juilliard Theatre, Merkin Concert Hall, and Los Angeles' Royce Hall. Magnussen holds doctoral and masters degrees from The Juilliard School, and degrees from Conservatoire Nationale Supérieure de Musique de Paris and Cornell University. He is Artist-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, where he leads the annual concert series, introduces new works to the community, and presents lectures, associated with the concerts, on new music.