“This is music of fascination and profundity.”
“Delicate and poetic, with subtle, shimmering, imaginative colors.”
“…an intensely communal encounter for our own time.”
John Aylward
Contemporary Multimedia Composition
John Aylward is an American composer, multimedia artist, pianist and conductor whose work cuts across genres, aesthetics and forms. His music — characterized by lyrical depth and philosophical inquiry — is shaped by his upbringing in the Sonoran Desert and by literary, mythological, and spiritual texts. Aylward's music has been recognized by awards from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fulbright and DAAD foundations, the Kousevitzky Commission, the Fromm Foundation, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard, and many other cultural organizations, music residencies and fellowship programs. Aylward is the founder of the Ecce Ensemble and the Etchings Festival for Contemporary Music. He teaches music composition at Clark University and lives in Northampton, Massachusetts.
Music
Angelus Novus.
2019.
From Angelus. Movement II.
2'54". Text by Walter Benjamin
Ecce Ensemble. Jean-Philippe Wurtz, conductor
Life in the Abstract.
2019.
From Angelus. Movement IV.
2'47"
Ecce Ensemble. Jean-Philippe Wurtz, conductor
Ananke.
2018.
From Celestial Forms and Stories.
Commission from Ensemble Court-Circuit. Recording by Klangforum Wien.
Narcissus.
2018.
From Celestial Forms and Stories.
Commission from Ensemble Court-Circuit. Recording by Klangforum Wien.
Film
Moondial.
2024.
Performance time, 12′. Installation loop time: sets of 48′.
For cello & video.
Cellist, Robbie Bui.
Concept, Music & Direction by John Aylward
Assistant Director & Costumes and Wardrobe, Alexandra Posen
Throne by James Maurelle
Director of Photography, Gyani Pradhan Wong Ah Sui
Oblivion.
2022.
Scene 3. 6' 3'38"
Nina Guo, soprano. Ty Boque, baritone
Laura Williamson, viola; Mizu, cello; Greg Chudzig, contrabass; Daniel Lippel, guitar; John Aylward, electronics; Stratis Minakakis, conductor
Oblivion.
2022.
excerpt from Scene 6. 3'57"
Nina Guo, soprano. Ty Boque, baritone
Laura Williamson, viola; Mizu, cello; Greg Chudzig, contrabass; Daniel Lippel, guitar; John Aylward, electronics; Stratis Minakakis, conductor
"It is well worth paying close attention. Aylward’s suite is at turns mysterious, iridescent and daring."
"John Aylward manages to condense with absolute originality the linguistic innovations that have evolved over more than a hundred years of avant-gardes, while never resorting to sterile twists and turns nor to exaggerations suitable only for épater le bourgeois.”
"We hear brilliant energetic rhythmic figures, imaginative sonorities in complex instrumental combinations, momentum generated by nervous, inventive figuration, lines and harmonies that always move, always inflect. Also striking are the zones of suspended motion and otherworldly calm."
-American Academy of Arts and Letters
"Gripping music of a high order" ... "The manner by which Aylward conjoins his vocal and instrumental elements in the work sometimes calls to mind Berg's handling of orchestration in Wozzeck and Lulu — a comparison any living composer, I'm guessing, would be happy to accept."
"This kind of compositional eloquence comes only from a combination of discipline and intuitive formal mastery."
- The Boston Musical Intelligencer
"...textures of efficient richness, delicate and deep all at once."
In the Presses…
A Transcendent Journey, by Richard Duckett
Artists Alone, by Keith Powers
Messina Opera Film Festival, program 2025
Oblivion CD Review, by Joe Cadagin, OperaWire
BMOP October 7, 2023 Program, by Clifton Ingram