K   E   V   I   N     M   A   L   O   N   E

Composer
Lecturer

The work of Kevin Malone spans genres and media beyond any conventional labelling. He is equally at home with live electronics, multimedia and harpsichords to choirs and orchestras, embracing postmodernist and polystylist approaches across his work over the past decade. Performances and broadcasts in Europe, North America and Australia have attracted enthusiastic - and sometimes bewildered - comments from the press.

Malone was born in New York and read mathematics and computer science at university before changing to a music degree course. Between the awards of BMus in Analysis from the New England Conservatory in Boston and MMus in Composition from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), he was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship for composition and saxophone studies in Paris. The openness and varieties of European cultures attracted him to England where he earned a PhD in Composition from Goldsmiths' College University of London. The most influential composition teachers throughout early academia were Leslie Bassett, Stanley Glasser, William Bolcom and Morton Feldman.

Over the last 12 years, his compositions often focus on global events, such as "Gently Tread" which he conducted at the crash site of United Airlines Flight 93 at the fifth anniversary memorial ceremony of the events of Sept 11, 2006, and on an awareness of the roles of performers and the audience in public arenas, the sound of the spoken voice and its use in broadcast media, interdisciplinary work including film soundtracks and installations, and comedic timing. He has recently composed music for three films: "To Kill a Killer" (Alphaflicks), "Lockout" (distributed by Warner Bros) and "The Assembly" (including sound design in surround sound) for the Manchester International Festival 2007.

Malone is a Senior Lecturer in Composition and 20thC music at the University of Manchester, England.

Visit the Ethos page by clicking on the rainbow.

Recent works and key performances

• E pluribus unum a concerto after 9/11 for viola, orchestra and computer-processed voices - in progress
• Gently Tread a song of Flight 93 and Shanksville, for choir and piano (Shanksville, Pennsylvania Sept 10 and 11 2006)
• Buffalo for wind band (Manchester, March 2006; BASBWE conference December 2006; Sheffield 2007)
• Count Me In for piano and computer-processed sound (Manchester and Chicago 2005; International Contemporary Piano Competition 2006, Guilford, Surrey; National Concert Hall Dublin 5 March 2007)
• Chorus sound installation with altar speakers and interactive confessional booths (Gorton Monastery, Manchester May 12-30 2004)
• Blue Screen of Death (aka SYNC) for computer motherboard, amplifier, electric drill and coffee maker (University of Manchester New Music Ensemble Concert, 21 November 2003; FACT Centre, Liverpool, July 2004; Sonic Arts Network national exposition, Manchester June 2006)
• Concerto for Two Double Basses and String Orchestra, after 11 September 2001: Eighteen Minutes premiere Kiev 13th Int'l Contemporary Music Festival, 7 April 2003, supported by the American Embassy; UK premiere Bass Fest London 14 April 2003; further performances: Rotterdam, Helsinki, London, Manchester, Somerset 2004-06 and in Kiev on 11 Sept 2006 for the fifth anniversary memorial concert at Philharmonic Hall, sponsored by the American Embassy and Ministry of Culture Ukraine.
• Aims, Goals, Targets and Objectives (string quartet commissioned by the University of Manchester for The Lindsays; premiere 4 October 2003; The Ukrainian String Quartet, Kiev 14th Int'l Contemporary Music Festival March 2004; Salford March 2006)
• Bassoon Concerto, after 11 September 2001: Vox humana, Vox populi premiere Kiev 12th International Contemporary Music Festival, April 2002; Manchester 23 Nov 2002
• Remote Control for two amplified harpsichords, CD and interactive audience electronics. Commissioned by the Brighton Festival for the ensemble HPSCHD, May 2000; further performances in Chicago 2004, and Manchester 2001 and 2004
• Modem for two violins (premiere Kiev 11th Int'l Contemporary Music Festival May 2001; UK premiere Estival Festival Manchester 2001; USA premiere San Diego by Janos Negyesy and Paivikki Nykte 2005
• Part Worn Tyres for guitar and marimba (premiere Lake District Summer Music Festival August 2002)
• Three Ancient Nightclubs (1998, commissioned by Psappha; performances Manchester & St Louis)
• Creations for choir and orchestra (1997, commissioned through the SPNM/NFMS Adopt-a-Composer scheme)
• The Radio Song (featured at the ISCM World Music Days 1998)
• Metrotechnic Suicide (aka Out of a Box) (performed at BBC Live! Manchester Music Days 1997; FACT Centre Liverpool July 2004)

Selected Recordings

• Noise Reduction (Harwood/Gordon and Breach 2001)
• Saturday Soundtrack (Forsyth)
• Four Pieces for Cello (Centaur)
• Fast Forward (ASC Classical Series)
• The Last Memory (ASC Classical Series)
• Chorus (Fletcher/Malone limited edition)
• Eighteen Minutes (Campion)
• Aims, Goals, Targets and Objectives (Campion)

Current/recent teaching (University of Manchester, England)
Undergraduate Music Admissions Tutor and Senior Lecturer for the:
MusB programme: Composition (acoustic and electronic), Schenkerian Analysis, Experimental and Postmodern Music, Style and Context in Western Music, Dissertation, Music Theatre
MusM programme: Composition, Electronic Music, Special Topic, Special Subject, Dissertation
PhD: Composition, Dissertation.

Selected Articles -- 'One Man's Noise is Another Man's Music' (Pamela Nash, co-author) (Contemporary Music Review, Harwood 2001)
'Soundbites and Personal Identity: A Composer's Perspective' (Living in a Material World, Coventry, 1999)
'The Naked Truth: Composing for the Harpsichord' (Harpsichord and Fortepiano, Ruxbury, vl.7 no.2, 1999)

Contact Details
Department of Music, Martin Harris Centre, Coupland St, Manchester M13 9PL
Tel. +44 (0)161 275 3289, Fax +44 (0)161 275 4994
Email: khmalone@aol.com (compositional) or kevin.malone@manchester.ac.uk (university)