B2 & TANK Residency!
For almost a week in late September 2024, I had the enormous privilege of being an artist-in-residence at the TANK Center for the Sonic Arts in Rangely, CO. I was joined in this residency by three phenomenal musicians (Jordan Grantonic, violin; Emma Reynolds, viola; Peyton Magalhaes, cello) who, after nearly 18 hours of rehearsal and recording in the TANK space, premiered a new string trio of mine; Rail Dynamics is a 45-minute, 10-movement work for string trio and fixed media that reflects on defunct rail near my childhood home outside of Santa Fe, NM, meditating on the high desert landscape, the role of the rail in the basin’s cultural and environmental history, my own complicated relationship with the rail, and the strange, liminal bridges that connect them all together. I also had the great pleasure of performing two new works for solo fujara; As a Sparrow Flies Into Darkness, a piece written for me by composer/pianist Holly McMahon, and two short improvised sets.
Check out Rail Dynamics here: https://soundcloud.com/alanmackwell/sets/raildynamics
American Prize 2023
Extremely honored to have been named winner of the American Prize 2023 in the student instrumental chamber music composition division! I am very excited that the selected work was Remains of a Permian Gas Station, a piece I wrote back in 2021 that has become an extremely important part of my career so far.
Check out the other winning works here: https://theamericanprize.blogspot.com/2023/11/national-winners-composers-instrumental.html?m=1
BMI Student Composer Award!
Hello again!
I am very excited and honored to report that I have won a BMI Student Composer Award! I’ve had an absolutely surreal last couple days in New York City at the awards ceremony and surrounding events, and it was an absolute privilege to be invited and surrounded by such incredibly talented and inspiring people. I am excited to keep in touch with the people I’ve met, and looking forward to exploring some crazy good music!
The score I submitted to the competition was Remains of a Permian Gas Station, a string trio I wrote in August 2021 that premiered at Tufts University a few months later on December 3rd. It’s a work that means a lot to me in many different ways; my music has always gravitated towards nuanced expressions of places and atmospheres surrounding the environments I grew up in, namely the Permian Basin and the Southern Rocky Mountains. Remains is specifically inspired by an abandoned gas station I used to pass by on family road trips across West Texas, and explores not only the sonic atmosphere of the structure itself in conjunction with the encroaching landscape, but also the similarly deteriorating economic system of resource extraction that has flung communities in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico into devastating financial turmoil.
I am grateful for my time at Tufts University for getting me here. My teachers, John McDonald and Kareem Roustom, have been incredible mentors and without their guidance I would not have accomplished what I have. I am in debt to the Tufts music department for creating an invigorating space that facilitates such a high level of creativity and academics while providing students with constant high-quality opportunities.
You can read more about the competition here
AND check out the links for recordings of the winning works here
Graduating Master’s Thesis
Hello all!
Just wanted to share the video recording of my master’s thesis recital from this last Thursday (January 27th, 2022). Thank you to all who attended, both in-person and on the livestream! It was a lot of tough work to put it all together, but I am really proud of what the recital turned out to be.
Composing in the Wilderness 2022!
Hello all! Very excited to have received news that I will be participating in the Composing in the Wilderness program hosted by the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival this coming summer (2022). There will be a lot of backpacking and bush plane riding in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park for me to look forward to, as well as a premiere inspired by the experience slated for early 2023 at the Federal Hall Historic Site in New York City. Excited to take pictures and some pretty phenomenal field recordings while I’m out there! Click here for details on the program.
