composer

The music of Derek Hurst broadly exhibits a precarious balance between visceral solemnity and muscular jocularity. Derek's works (almost equally split between electroacoustic and acoustic concert music) have been performed throughout the United States and abroad. His compositional sensibilities are informed by his experience as a guitarist and work in the electronic music studio. Most notably, creative and investigative work done in electroacoustic /computer music has influenced the way in which he conceives both timbral development and adaptation of non-tempered sonorities in much of his acoustic music.

He has received a Fromm Foundation Commission, an Artist's Grant from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and awards and fellowships from The Copland House Residency, the Irving Fine Fellowship for Music Composition, Sacher Grant for Study Abroad, Brandeis University, and Wellesley Composer's Conference. His Interloper for piano trio was the winning composition of the 2001 Wayne Peterson Prize.

Derek has worked with many prominent young performers and new music groups, sometimes in close collaboration. These include: Brian Sacawa, Gilberto Bernardes, Winston Choi, Ian Pace, Stephen Gosling and ensembles such as Boston Modern Orchestra Project, The Firebird Ensemble, Left Coast Ensemble, Brave New Works, The Contemporary Keyboard Society and Firebird Ensemble, with works featured on concert events of League-ISCM, SEAMUS, ICMC (2001 and 2004), Boston Cyberarts and the Computer Arts Festival (Padova, It). His Bacchanalia Skiapodorum, for alto saxophone and electronics, was released on the critically acclaimed CD American Voices (Brian Sacawa, saxophones).

Derek received his Ph.D. in composition/theory from Brandeis University and has studied composition with Tomas Svoboda, John Melby, Eric Chasalow, Martin Boykan, Yehudi Wyner, and David Rakowski and electronic music with Scott Wyatt, Eric Chasalow, and Josh Skallar/ Mario Davidovsky. Currently he teaches courses in music theory, composition, and electronic music at Brown University and Berklee College of Music and has taught similar courses Brandeis University and Wheaton College.

Performances

Moonshine Room at Club Café | March 12, 2013
Club Oberon in Harvard Square | February 8, 2011
The Brooklyn Lyceum | April 1, 2008
Jordan Hall at New England Conservatory | March 29, 2008
Moonshine Room at Club Café | January 11, 2005

News and Press

[Concert Review] With orchestral offerings, festival passes a milestone

The MATA Festival is celebrating its 10th season, partly by showing off how far it has come since its early days as Music at the Anthology, a new-music series resident at the Anthology Film Archives. Since the Anthology days the festival has traveled a circuit of churches and small halls, but for the last couple of years it has been ensconced at the Brooklyn Lyceum, an old public bath converted into a concert hall.

The New York Times Full review
[Concert Review] Five things about BMOP @ MATA

I caught the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP) at the MATA Festival Tuesday night in Brooklyn.

1. Gil Rose and BMOP played a varied concert with conviction and panache Tuesday night. While there were wonderful soloists on the program, the ensemble really held the spotlight the entire night in the best possible sense - always blending well and making the most of lines, accompaniment and ensemble.

Sequenza21 Full review
[Concert Review] Bielawa, BMOP: performance provocateurs

On Saturday night the New England Conservatory’s teal and gilt Jordan Hall enjoyed the premiere of no fewer than four new works by living, breathing composers and performed by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, which parties where symphony orchestras fear to tread. Bucking both contemporary and traditional expectations, provoking appreciation and conversation, this was a night of risks that paid off handsomely.

The Boston Herald Full review
[Concert Review] For modern orchestra, a night of premieres

Four world premieres in one night is ambitious even by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project’s standards, but Saturday’s novelty at Jordan Hall was also an old-fashioned Boston tryout for a New York opening: This week, conductor Gil Rose and the group bring the program to Brooklyn’s MATA Festival, an annual new-music showcase previously run by BMOP’s current composer-in-residence, Lisa Bielawa.

The Boston Globe Full review
[Press Release] BMOP celebrates musical collaborations in its Double Entendre concert

The Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), the nation's leading orchestra dedicated exclusively to performing, commissioning, and recording new music of the 21st century, honors some of its long-standing cherished collaborations in a special Double Entendre concert at Jordan Hall (30 Gainsborough Street), Saturday, March 29th @ 8:00pm.

Full review
[Press Release] BMOP 07|08

BMOP's 11th season features Gil Rose's innovative programming, pairing 20th-century mavericks with today's foremost composers and performers.

World Premieres
Lisa Bielawa, Composer in Residence
Martin Boykan
Michael Colgrass
Derek Hurst
David Rakowski
Alejandro Rutty
Ezra Sims
Ken Ueno

Featured Guests
Firebird Ensemble
Colin Jacobsen
Kim Kashkashian
Carla Kihlstedt
Joanne Kong
Marilyn Nonken

Club Concerts
BMOP returns to downtown Boston, featuring new works by Lisa Bielawa composed in residence for solo artists.

Full review