Drake Ralph Andersen

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music
Drake Andersen

Drake Andersen is a composer whose work encompasses acoustic and electroacoustic music for diverse performing forces of all sizes and categories, collaborative projects for dance and theater, site-specific installations and interactive electronic environments. His compositions have been performed at venues throughout the United States and Europe, including Symphony Space, the Park Avenue Armory, New World Symphony Center, and Teaterhuset Avant Garden (Trondheim). 

Dr. Andersen’s research interests include electronic music, the performance practice of experimental music, and virtual scores. He teaches composition and electronic music at Vassar College.

BA, Macalester College; MM, Manhattan School of Music; PhD, CUNY Graduate School and University Center
At Vassar since 2017

Contact

845-437-7319
Skinner Hall
Box 18

Research and Academic Interests

Electronic Music
Performance Practice of Experimental Music
Virtual Scores

Departments and Programs

Courses

MUSI 215 Composition I
MUSI 219 Electronic Music I
MUSI 315 Composition III

Selected Publications

  • "Performance Spaces for Improvised and Notated Music." Journal of Music Theory 67/1. (forthcoming)
  • “Spaces for People: Technology, Improvisation, and Social Interaction in the Music of Pauline Oliveros.” Organised Sound 27/2. (forthcoming)
  • “Open Source Performance Practice: The Laptop as an Instrument of Musical Democracy” in Exploring the Performance Practices of Early and New Music. Eds. Rebecca Cypess, Estelí Gomez, and Rachael Lansang. (forthcoming)
  • “Hearing Epistemic Sound in Experimental (Music) Systems, 1958–1973.” Journal of the Society for American Music 16/4. (November 2022)
  • “Earle Brown and the Minimalist Dialectic.” Perspectives of New Music 59/1. (Winter 2021)
  • “(Per)forming Open Form: A Case Study with Earle Brown’s Novara.” Music Theory Online 26/3. (Sep. 2020) https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.20.26.3/mto.20.26.3.andersen.html
  • “What can they have to do with one another?”: Approaches to Analysis and Performance in John Cage’s Four2. Music Theory Online 23/4. (Dec. 2017) https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.17.23.4/mto.17.23.4.andersen.php

Photos

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