Steven Mackey has established himself as one of the most gifted and original American composers to emerge during the 1990s. Born 1956 in Frankfurt, Germany to American parents, he was raised and educated in the U.S. His early training in performance was as a classical and electric guitarist and Baroque lutenist. In 1977 he toured Europe as a lutenist under the auspices of the University of California; he graduated summa cum laude from that institution. His studies culminated in a Ph.D. in composition from Brandeis University. Mackey is now Professor of Music at Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985.
Mackey's idiom, a multi-layered world of rhythm and sonority, draws its expanded harmonic palette from western art music, its wit and vivacity from the imaginative transformation of popular music elements. His chamber music often features retuned instruments and microtones, as in ON ALL FOURS for string quartet. The Kronos Quartet commissioned a trilogy of works for electric guitar and string quartet: On the Verge, Troubadour Songs, and Physical Property. In addition to performing these pieces around the world with the composer as soloist, Mackey and the Kronos have recorded Physical Property for a Nonesuch release entitled Short Stories.
Mackey's orchestral works display consummate skill in their handling of instrumental color and texture. TILT, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra, received its premiere in 1992 under the direction of Dennis Russell Davies. Of that performance, Tim Page of Newsday wrote: "One was reminded of a radio caught between frequencies: timbres bang and shimmer, there are arpeggios and teasing references to musical cliches, and despite some occasional violent fortissimos, the mood throughout is lithe, subtle and more than a little playful. Anything can happen - and most of it does." TILT was succeeded by Eating Greens (1993), a lively seven-movement work commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and premiered by the ensemble under Dennis Russell Davies.
Two concertos followed: Banana/Dump Truck (1994), for cello and ensemble, and Deal (1995), for electric guitar and ensemble or orchestra. Banana/Dump Truck has been performed by soloist Fred Sherry with the Albany Symphony Orchestra and with the Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra. Deal, a commission from the Los Angeles Philharmonic, was given its premiere by the Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group under Esa-Pekka Salonen, with noted electric guitarist Bill Frisell and drummer Joey Baron as soloists. Deal has since been performed in Atlanta, Boston, London, Manchester, Princeton, New York, San Francisco, Shreveport (Louisiana) and Turin.
Mackey’s concert-opener Lost and Found, commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony, was given its premiere under Michael Tilson Thomas in September 1996. Tilson Thomas has become one of the composer’s most dedicated advocates: he has recorded an all-Mackey disc with the New World Symphony for BMG, and conducted the same orchestra in the premiere of Mackey’s guitar concerto Tuck and Roll, with the composer in the solo role, in April 2000. Subsequently he conducted the San Francisco Symphony in the February 2002 premiere of Mackey's Pedal Tones, for organ and orchestra.
Ravenshead, Mackey’s first music theater work, made its debut in November 1998. Scored for solo voice and chamber ensemble, Ravenshead is based on the true story of an ill-fated solo attempt to sail around the world. The piece was given its world premiere by the Paul Dresher Ensemble at Penn State University with librettist/ singer Rinde Eckert in the title role. Ravenshead was chosen by USA Today critic David Patrick Stearns as the best new opera of 1998; since its premiere it has been programmed in Berkeley (a four-week run at Berkeley Repertory Theater), Dallas, Hartford, New York, and several other American cities.
Steven Mackey is the recipient of numerous awards, including Guggenheim, Lieberson, and Tanglewood fellowships. He has twice won Kennedy Center Friedheim Awards, for his scores Fumeux Fume (in 1987) and Physical Property (in 1993). In addition to the performers mentioned above, the Koussevitzky and Fromm foundations, Dawn Upshaw, Fred Sherry, and the Concord String Quartet have all commissioned works from him. His music has been recorded on Bridge, CRI, Newport Classics, Nonesuch, and BMG.