Upcoming and Recent, 2008:

September, 2008:
Geers' opera, Calling, will run September 12-28 at the La Mama ETC. in New York City.  For more information and to help support these performances, please see the Calling Website.

May 2008:
Sweep, a concerto for violin and laptop orchestra with percussion, was performed by the Princeton University Laptop Orchestra, PLOrk, with violinist Maja Cerar and percussionist Cameron Britt at Princeton University's Taplin Auditorum, May 17.

Geers' Tremor Transducer was performed by the University of Minnesota Contemporary Music Ensemble on May 11, Lloyd Ultan Recital Hall, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

April 2008:
Sweep, a concerto for violin and laptop orchestra with percussion, was premiered by the Princeton University Laptop Orchestra, PLOrk, with violinist Maja Cerar and percussionist Cameron Britt on the opening concert of the 2008 Sonic Divergence Festival in Evanstan, Illinois.    




March 2008:
New excerpts from Geers' in-progress opera, Calling, were premiered Monday, March 10 as part of Serial Underground. The premiere of the full-length opera is scheduled for September 12, 2008 at LaMama ETC. in New York City.

February 2008:
Excerpts from Geers' in-progress opera, Calling, were performed Wednesday, Feburary 28 at Ted Mann Concert Hall in Minneapolis, Minnesota. This performance was directed by David Walsh, and performers included members of the new music ensemble Zeitgeist.  The premiere of the full-length opera is scheduled for September 12, 2008 at LaMama Etc. in New York City.

November 2007:
New excerpts from Geers' in-progress opera, Calling, were premiered Monday, November 12 as part of Serial Underground. The premiere of the full-length opera is scheduled for September 12, 2008 at LaMama Etc. in New York City.

October 2007:
Geers was awarded a 2007 Jerome Composers Commissioning Program commission grant for his in-progress opera, Calling.

The Verge Ensemble performed Geers' Enkidu October 4th at John Zorn's The Stone in New York City and again October 28 at Corcoran Gallery, Washington, D.C.

August 2007:
Geers' electroacoustic work Mere Seer Jog was performed at the International Computer Music Conference 2007, in Copenhagen, Denmark, August 31.

June 2007:
Excerpts from the in-progress opera Calling by Geers and writer Wickham Boyle were premiered on the evening of June 11 as part of the Serial Underground performances presented by ComposersCollaborative at the Cornelia Street Cafe in New York City.

New York Times critic Steve Smith reviewed Geers' June 11, 2007 premiere, writing, "...soprano Erin Heisel offered a plainspoken lament that was sometimes echoed or harmonized by Lesley Watson, a mezzo-soprano. Mr. Geers, using a notebook computer, fashioned an accompaniment of street sounds, glitchy bursts and mechanical rhythms; Summer Boggess, a cellist, played keening whistles and scrabbling outbursts. Despite the clangor, the tone was generally contemplative."

May 2007:
Geers was awarded a 2007 McKnight Composer Fellowship. Funded by the Minnesota-based McKnight Foundation, these fellowships are intended to reward artistic excellence and to support composers who have reached a critical point in their career development. Composers are sought whose work shows consistent quality, extraordinary accomplishment, and outstanding potential in any musical genre.

March 2007:
Geers' work Ripples was performed on March 10 at the 2007 SEAMUS conference in Ames, Iowa.

February 2007:
Geers' work Shadow was performed by Maja Cerar, violin, and the composer on February 22 at the Southern Theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota as part of the 2007 Spark Festival of Electronic Music and Arts.

November 2006:
Geers' Syndrome Gear was performed at the International Computer Music Conference in New Orleans, Louisiana, Nov. 6-11.

October 2006:  
Geers' concerto for violin and orchestra (with multimedia components), Laugh Perfumes, was premiered on October 26 by violinist Maja Cerar and the Radio-Television Orchestra of Slovenia, under the baton of conductor Evan Christ.

For a list of Geers' previous activities, please see his news archive here.

Present projects Calling, an opera scheduled for fall 2008 premiere (concept and libretto by Wickham Boyle); Telling Time, a multimedia collaboration with artists Lynn Lukkas and Christopher Baker; Inanna, a multimedia theater work (Mirjam Neidhart, director); a song cycle, a work for percussion ensemble with computer, and an opera based on writer/filmaker Ichiro Toyoshima's short story "The Sickness of Love."

Recent awards include a McKnight Composer Fellowship, a Grant-in-Aid from the University of Minnesota, an American Composers Forum Composers Commissioning Project prize, a 2003 grant from the Experimental Studio of the Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung, several ASCAP Plus awards, a Dynamic Duos commission from Composers Collaborative, Inc., a grant award from the Lois Roth Foundation, a large grant to finance the production of Gilgamesh in 2002 from the Hochschule fur Musik und Theater Wintertur, and a grant to provide for my 2000-2001 Norwegian residency from the Fulbright Foundation.

Recent performances are listed here.

Recent compositions include Laugh Perfumes, a concerto for violin and orchestra; Outlier, for chamber orchestra; Mere Seer Jog, an electroacoustic work; Shadow, a work for solo violin with live electroacoustic music; and Tremor Transducer, for chamber ensemble and live electroacoustic music.  See the works page for more information.