Bio
Benjamin O’Brien composes and performs acoustic and electro-acoustic music. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in Music Composition at the University of Florida. He holds an MA in Music Composition from Mills College and a BA in Mathematics from the University of Virginia. Benjamin has studied composition, theory, and performance with John Bischoff, Chris Brown, Ted Coffey, Fred Frith, Paul Koonce, Roscoe Mitchell, and James Paul Sain. His compositions have been performed at conferences and festivals including ICMC, Electroacoustic Music Studies Network conference, SEAMUS, International Competition for Composers Città di Udine (Italy), Musica Viva Festival (Portugal), among others. He performs regularly with the international laptop quartet Glitch Lich, the Florida League for Indeterminate Performance (FLIP), and his rock band Moby & The Dicks.
→ Click here for list of composition performances
SCHOLARSHIPS/AWARDS & NOTABLE PERFORMANCES
•Performances of new network computer music at the Network Music Festival with Glitch Lich
(Birmingham, UK) January 29, 2012
•Performances of new network computer music with Glitch Lich and Michael Straus
(Denver University, University of Colorado at Boulder, University of Northern Colorado, CO, USA) September 26-30, 2011
•Performance of all two clarinet at the International Computer Music Conference
(University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK) August 3, 2011
•Performance of all two clarinet at Electroacoustic Music Studies Network conference
(New York University, New York City, New York) June 18, 2011
•Performance of Diptiq at SEAMUS 2011
(University of Miami, Miami, FL) January 20-22, 2011
•Graduate Music Fellowship, University of Florida
(University of Florida, Gainesville, FL) Fall 2010
•Digital Sunrise of the New Era. A concert of new works for computer ensembles performed across three time zones. With the League of Art Game Composers (LAG)
(Oklahoma City, OK; Bozeman, MT; Oakland, CA) February 7, 2010
•New Music by Benjamin O’Brien at The Bridge. Featuring Benjamin O’Brien, Danna Thomas, Brandon Walsh, and Jonathan Zorn
(Charlottesville, VA) November 14, 2009
•Performance of a collection of works at Princeton University’s Free-Form Mash Up
(Princeton University, Princeton, NJ) November 10, 2009
•Performance of WT0: Feedback at Musica Viva Festival 2009 Sound Walk conference
(Lisbon, Portugal) September 13-20, 2009
•i.v. wins the Elizabeth Mills Crothers Award for Outstanding Music Composition
(Mills College, Oakland, CA) April 27, 2009
•Performance of Roscoe Mitchell’s Nonaah for four electric guitars. With Andrew Conklin, Karl AD Evangelista, Chad McKinney, Benjamin O’Brien
(Mills College, Oakland, CA) December 5, 2008
•Performance of Cornelius Cardew’s The Tiger’s Mind with Keith Rowe
(Mills College, Oakland, CA) November 8, 2008
•Performance of Monodon Monceras in the Village Radio Nomade Project
(Radio Broadcast across Europe) October 17, 2008
•Graduate Music Assistantship Scholarship/Stipend, Mills College
(Mills College, Oakland, CA) Fall 2007-Spring 2008
•Performance of cilq 1 at Taukay Music Publishing House and Delta Produzioni Associazione Culturale’s FrammentAzioni conference.
(Udine, Italy) October 11, 2008
•Performance of cila in the 60×60 2007-2008/Pacific Rim Mix
(Oakland, CA) April 14, 2008
(Happy, New Zealand) September 10, 2008
•Graduate Music Alumnae Scholarship, Mills College
(Mills College, Oakland, CA) Fall 2007-Spring 2008
