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Alternative classical composer Phillip Bimstein lives in Springdale, Utah, where he also served two terms as mayor. A recipient of grants and awards from the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet The Composer and Austria's Prix Ars Electronica, Bimstein's music has been performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Bang on a Can Festival, the Aspen Music Festival and London's Royal Opera House.
Ensembles who have performed Bimstein's works include Relâche, Turtle Island String Quartet, Modern Mandolin Quartet, Present Music, Abramyan String Quartet, Sierra Winds, Equinox Chamber Players, the California E.A.R. Unit and Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues.
A Starkland CD of Bimstein's music, Garland Hirschi's Cows, garnered rave reviews internationally in such publications as Stereo Review, Wired, Fanfare, Stereophile, and this from Schwann Opus: "A highly entertaining, populist-oriented collection of serious modern music. Bimstein's compositions are a virtual breath of fresh air." Starkland will release a second CD of Bimstein's compositions, Larkin Gifford's Harmonica, in mid-2005.
Bimstein was born in Chicago and is a graduate of Chicago Conservatory of Music, where he majored in theory & composition. In the 1980's he led the new wave band Phil 'n' the Blanks, whose three albums and six videos were college radio and MTV hits. After further studies at UCLA in composition, orchestration and conducting, Bimstein took a hiking trip to southern Utah and never left.
Fascinated by language and the ability of music to tell a story, he frequently incorporates text in his work. Refuge, his string quartet based on the book by Utah naturalist Terry Tempest Williams, was described as "sublime - elegant perfection" by the Deseret News.
In 1997 Bimstein was awarded Meet The Composer's largest grant, the three-year New Residencies, during which he composed music that celebrates and explores the intimate relationship between the landscapes of the desert southwest and the many cultures that have inhabited the area.
In 2000 Bimstein received a Continental Harmony grant from the American Composers Forum, the National Endowment for the Arts and the White House Millennium Council to write The Bushy Wushy Rag, a work celebrating baseball and the city of St. Louis. It was featured in a nationally broadcast PBS special in October 2001.
Currently Bimstein is performing and writing for the chamber folk quartet blue haiku, whose CD, heat beneath the sand, was called "fascinating, fresh and engrossing" by Sing Out! Magazine.
Described by Outside Magazine as "America's only all-natural politician-composer," Bimstein served two terms as Springdale mayor. As mayor he was an outspoken advocate for protection of the environment and he has testified twice before Congress in support of Utah's wilderness. Due to his successful efforts to bring harmony to his previously divided community, Parade Magazine dubbed Bimstein, "The Man Who Brought Civility Back to Town."
Bimstein also serves as chair of the Utah Humanities Council, boardmember of the art and humanities residency center, The MESA, boardmember of the American Music Center, and is profiled in Who's Who in America. He is a frequent guest speaker on creativity, community and collaboration. Information about his music and other projects can be found at his website:
www.bimstein.com
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I am very excited and honored to be a part of this new Continental Harmony
project. I strongly believe community-based artist residencies like this
are critically important for both the creativity and the cohesion of our
society. Išve been fortunate to serve in two such residencies in recent
years, and I look forward to serving this one in my own community.
My heart is especially drawn to write this work about Zion and Springdale.
While serving as its mayor a short while ago, I saw this community evolve
from deep polarization to civility, consensus and collaboration in just a
few years. I know how such bonds must always be nurtured and sustained.
While some of this work is political, its seeds are first planted socially
and culturally. I believe this Continental Harmony project can cultivate
Springdalešs common ground, enhance our sense of place and develop deeper
understanding between generations.
I envision a cycle of songs and musical portraits which draw upon the
stories, voices and sounds of Zion Canyon. Inspired by the geology and the
culture that defines this community, the work will be many-layered, abutting
the old and the new stylistically and topically, crosscutting between the
stories and lives of a diverse people, embracing fault lines and natural
bridges alike.
The workšs texts will be a confluence of source materials (diaries, oral
histories, poems, etc.) and newly-composed lyrics based on these source
materials. Additionally, the actual voices of community residents may be
recorded, orchestrated and composed directly into the music. Similarly,
sounds of the environment and community life may be digitally recorded,
processed, orchestrated and composed into an integral part of the complete
score.
The original music itself may therefore be a meeting ground between
traditional folk and modern classical, between acoustic and electronic,
between nature and technology. I am especially pleased that
folklorist/musician Hal Cannon, guitarist/fiddler/singer Kate Macleod,
oboist Charlotte Bell, violinist Flavia Cervino-Wood, bassist Harold Carr,
and other local musicians will participate in the performances of the work,
which I am titling for now, "Red Rock Rondo."
I am also very pleased to be working on this project with Elaine Thatcher,
the Director of the Mountain West Center for Regional Studies, and the
wonderful partnership consisting of: Utah Arts Festival, Zion Natural
History Association, Zion Canyon Field Institute, Utah Public Radio,
KRCL-FM, Dixie State Collegešs Tanner Summer Series, and the Town of
Springdale.
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Springdale, Salt Lake City, and Logan, UT
Composer Phillip Bimstein will create a cycle of songs and musical portraits
which draw upon the stories, voices and sounds of Zion Canyon. The
residency will express the history and culture of this western rural
community, and explore its intimate relationship to the natural landscape of
Zion National Park.
learn more about this project
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