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Kyle Gann (b. 1955) is an American composer, musicologist, critic, writer, and journalist, Chair of the Division of the Arts and Taylor Hawver & Frances Bortle Hawver Professor of Music at Bard College. He grew up in a musical family and started composing at the age of 13. His son, Bernard Gann, is a guitarist in the New York transcendental black metal band Liturgy. Gann received a B.Mus. degree from The Oberlin Conservatory of Music in 1977, as well as M.Mus. (1981) and D.Mus. (1983) degrees from the Northwestern University. His principal teacher was Peter Gena, and additionally, Kyle studied composition with Ben Johnston (1984–86) and briefly Morton Feldman.

In 1980, Kyle Gann co-founded a short-lived radical performing group Chicago Interarts Ministry with Phil Winsor and Peter Gena. He also worked for the New Music America festival in 1981 and lectured at The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago in 1986–88. After a few part-time teaching positions at Bucknell University, Brooklyn College, and Columbia University, Gann joined the Bard College faculty in 1997.

As a composer, Gann writes microtonal electronic music, rhythmically complex compositions for Disklavier (computer-driven acoustic piano), as well as solo piano and ensemble pieces. Most of his music expresses the concept of repeating loops, ostinatos, and isorhythms going out of phase with each other; he sought inspiration in the studies of astrology (particularly Dane Rudhyar's writings) and Native American music, such as Hopi, Zuni, and other Southwest Pueblo tribes.

He started writing for The Village Voice in 1986 and had a weekly column on new music there until 1997. Kyle Gann also worked as a journalist at the Chicago Reader, Tribune, Sun-Times, and The New York Times. As a musicologist, Gann authored over 3,000 articles for 45 publications, including original studies on La Monte Young (in Perspectives of New Music), Henry Cowell, John Cage, Edgard Varèse, Earle Brown, Julius Eastman, Mikel Rouse, John Luther Adams and other prominent American composers. He published a few books, such as The Music of Conlon Nancarrow (Cambridge University Press '95), American Music in the 20th Century (Schirmer Books '97), Music Downtown: Writings from the Village Voice (University of California Press 2006), No Such Thing as Silence: John Cage's 4'33 (Yale University Press 2010), as well as Robert Ashley (2012) and Essays After a Sonata: Charles Ives's Concord (2016) at the University of Illinois Press.

APPEARANCES +


Kyle Gann
Custer And Sitting Bull
1999, 4xFile, MP3, 192, Not On Label (Kyle Gann Self-released)
Richard Maxfield
Electronic Music
2025
George Frederick Bristow, William Henry Fry, The Orchestra Now, Leon Botstein
Classics Of American Romanticism
2022, CD, Album, Bridge Records (4)
John J. Becker
Soundpieces 1-7
2020, 2xCD, Album, New World Records
David Garland
Verdancy
2018, 27x File, ,
Abstract/Musique Concrète/Experimental/Avantgarde/Drone
Emanuele Arciuli
Walk In Beauty
2017, 2xCD, Album, Innova Recordings
Ensemble PTYX
Einmal, Da Hörte Ich Ihn ...
2017, CD, Album, Bin, Vous Ne Rêvez Pas Encore ..., ,
Contemporary
Ben Johnston, Kepler Quartet
String Quartets Nos. 6, 7, & 8
2016, CD, Album, New World Records, ,
Twelve-tone/Contemporary
Sarah Cahill
A Sweeter Music
2013, CD, Other Minds, ,
Contemporary
Aron Kallay
Beyond 12, Volume 1
2013, CD, Album, Microfest
Dennis Johnson
November
2013
Gloria Coates, Kreutzer Quartet*
String Quartets 1-9
2012, 3xCD, Comp + Box, Naxos
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra / Paavo Järvi — Tüür* / Sallinen* / Salonen* / Pärt* / Sumera*
Baltic Portraits
2011, CD, Comp, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Media, ,
Modern/Post-Modern/Contemporary
Meredith Monk
Songs Of Ascension
2011, CD, ,
Contemporary/Vocal
Jeroen Van Veen (2) & Friends Elizabeth Bergmann, Marcel Bergmann, Tamara Rumiantsev, Sandra Van Veen
Minimal Piano Collection Volume X-XX: Compositions For 2 To 6 Pianos
2010, 11xCD + CD-ROM + Box, Brilliant Classics
Gloria Coates • Kreutzer Quartet* • Peter Sheppard Skærved* • Neil Heyde • Roderick Chadwick
String Quartet No. 9 • Sonata For Violin Solo • Lyric Suite For Piano Trio
2010
Elodie Lauten
The Death Of Don Juan
2008
Paavo Järvi, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Rachmaninoff*
Symphony No. 2 / Dances From Aleko / Scherzo
2007
Gloria Coates - Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra*, Boder* · Talisker Players, Ars Nova Nuremberg*, Heider*
Symphony No. 15 • Cantata Da Requiem • Transitions
2007
Gloria Coates, Siegerland Orchestra, Rotter*, Munich Chamber Orchestra*, Poppen*, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra*, Henzold*
Symphonies Nos. 1, 7 And 14
2006, CD, Album, Naxos
Julius Eastman
Unjust Malaise
2005, 3xCD, New World Records, ,
Contemporary/Minimal
Dane Rudhyar, Steffen Schleiermacher
Works For Piano
2004, CD, Album, Ltd, hat[now]ART, ,
Modern
Beth Anderson
Swales And Angels
2004, CD, Album, New World Records
Tim Brady
Unison Rituals
2003, CD, Album, Ambiances Magnétiques, ,
Contemporary
Gloria Coates, Kreutzer Quartet*
String Quartets Nos. 2, 3, 4, 7 And 8
2003
Bernadette Speach
Reflections
2002, CD, Mode
Gloria Coates
Indian Sounds (Symphony No. 8), Cette Blanche Agonie, The Force For Peace In War, Wir Tönen Allein, Fonte Di Rimini
2002, CD, Album, New World Records, ,
Contemporary
Ernst Toch, NDR Symphony Orchestra-Hamburg*, Leon Botstein, Todd Crow
Piano Concerto No. 1 / Peter Pan, A Fairy Tale For Orchestra / Pinocchio, A Merry Overture / Big Ben, Variation Fantasy On The Westminster Chimes
2002, CD, Album, New World Records
Gloria Coates - Kreutzer Quartet*
String Quartets Nos. 1, 5 And 6
2002
Phill Niblock
Touch Works, For Hurdy Gurdy And Voice
2001, CD, ,
Modern Classical/Minimal/Experimental/Avantgarde
Various
Immersion
2000, DVD-A, Comp, NTSC, Starkland
Conlon Nancarrow
Lost Works, Last Works
2000, CD, Album, Other Minds
Various
OHM: The Early Gurus Of Electronic Music (1948-1980)
2000, ,
Musique Concrète/Experimental
Various
The Alternative Schubertiade
1999, CD, Album, Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI)
Richard Maxfield / Harold Budd
The Oak Of The Golden Dreams
1999, CD, ,
Modern Classical/Avantgarde/Contemporary
Guy Klucevsek
Transylvanian Softwear
1999, ,
Modern/Avantgarde/Experimental/Contemporary
Eve Beglarian
Overstepping
1998, CD, Album, OODiscs
Roland Dahinden Trios*
Naima
1997, CD, Album, Mode
Essential Music
Ten Years Of Essential Music
1997, CD, Album, Monroe Street Music, ,
Modern/Experimental
Mikel Rouse
Dennis Cleveland
1996, CD, Album, New World Records, ,
Contemporary
Takashi Kako
Norwegian Wood
1996
Lois Svard
With And Without Memory
1994, CD, Album, Lovely Music, Ltd.
Elodie Lauten
Tronik Involutions
1994
Morton Feldman - ensemble recherche
Routine Investigations
1994, CD, ,
Post-Modern
Karlheinz Stockhausen - David Tudor
Klavier Stuecke
1994
Ben Johnston, Music Amici
Ponder Nothing
1993, CD, Album, New World Records, ,
Contemporary/Post-Modern/Serial
Kathleen Supové / Randall Woolf, Lukas Foss, David Lang, Marti Epstein, Frederic Rzewski
Figure 88
1993, ,
Contemporary
Arditti String Quartet*
U.S.A.
1993
Thomas Buckner
Full Spectrum Voice
1991, CD, Album, Lovely Music, Ltd., ,
Contemporary
Laurie Spiegel
Unseen Worlds
1991
Roger Reynolds - Members Of SONOR*, The San Diego Symphony Ensemble*
Whispers Out Of Time / Transfigured Wind II
1990, CD, Album, New World Records, ,
Contemporary/Experimental
William Duckworth - Neely Bruce
The Time Curve Preludes
1990, CD, ,
Contemporary/Minimal
Charles Ives, Maurice Wright, Marc-André Hamelin
Sonata No. 2 ( "Concord, Mass., 1840-1860") - Sonata
1989, ,
Contemporary/Modern
Milton Babbitt, Rolf Schulte, Alan Feinberg
Sextets / The Joy Of More Sextets
1988, ,
Contemporary
George Perle - Dorian Wind Quintet*
Complete Wind Quintets
1988
Robert Davidovici, Steven De Groote, Paul Schoenfield
Works By: Hugh Aitken, Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Paul Schoenfield, Gunther Schuller
1987, ,
Contemporary
Petr Kotik
Many Many Women
1981, 5x Vinyl, Box Set, ,
Modern/Contemporary
Beth Anderson
Chamber / Choral Music By Beth Anderson
CDr, Comp, Promo, Not On Label
Various
PRF​/​BLM
2020, 37xFile, FLAC, Comp, Not On Label
John Halle
Outrages And Interludes
2014, CD, Album, Innova Recordings, ,
Contemporary
Orkest De Volharding, Jussi Jaatinen
The Minimalists
2009, 2xCD, Comp, Mode, ,
Contemporary/Modern
Various
Musicworks 101: Summer 2008
2008, CD, Comp, Musicworks
Relâche
Pick It Up
1997, CD, Album, Monroe Street Music