American Music Center

InfoCompositionsPerformancesDiscographyResume

Contact Info

50 Chapman Place, #217

East Hartford, CT

06108

http://www.michaelgatonska.com/

The music of Michael Gatonska has been performed by the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, the Hartford Symphony, the Pacific Symphony, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, the Ossia Symphony Orchestra, the Krakow Radio Orchestra, the Talea Ensemble, the New York Miniaturist Ensemble, string quartet DAFO (Poland), the HSO Cello Quartet and at the Krakow International Composers Festival, the Mosaico Music Festival (Poland), the Teagu Festival of Contemporary Music (South Korea), the Festival Internacional de Musica Contemporanea (Bogota, Colombia), the MATA Festival, the CSN New Music Festival (Nevada), the Kosciuszko Foundation Chamber Music Series, the New Britain Museum of American Art, and twice he has participated in the Minnesota Orchestra Reading Sessions & Composer Institute. He has received numerous awards for his compositions, including fellowship and grant awards from the Civitella Ranieri Center, the Kosciuszko Foundation, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards, the American Music Center, Meet the Composer, the American Composers Forum, the Roberts Foundation, the Paul Underwood/ ACO Commission, the MATA Festival 2003 Commission, the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, the Field and he is a MacDowell Colony Fellow. In 2009 he was awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award in the Field of Arts by the CT Valley Education Foundation. He has composed solo and chamber music for the pianist/performer Kathleen Supove, the E-cellist Jeffrey Krieger and for the flautist Paul Lustig Dunkel and percussionist Joe Passaro.His music has been recorded on the Albany Records and Einstein Records labels. He studied music composition with Krzystof Penderecki, Marek Stachowski, and Zbigniew Bujarski at the Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland, and with Elias Tanenbaum at the Manhattan School of Music. [But] Gatonska’a orchestral writing is so evocative and surprising that it’s impossible to resist. -Joshua Kosman, Music Critic, San Francisco “Gatonska’s ‘The Whispering Wind’ may have been the best. It builds from a rustle to a fumbling menagerie, with clumped and jagged harmonies, blaring circus brass and thrusting plastic rhythms out of free jazz.” - Richard Scheinin, Music Critic, San Jose Mercury News “Indeed, Gatonska’s music (Wandering the Moon Nursery for symphony orchestra) sounded like a discursive dream, interspersed with moments of sheer enchantment and warm, masterful orchestration.” - Matthew Eriksen, Music Critic, Hartford Courant. Michael Gatonska's ‘Transformation of the Hummingbird’ is the closest of the four works to the textural experiments of today's avant-garde, but none of its gestures sound gratuitous, and its imaginative textures consistently captivate. -Classics Today.com --David Hurwitz ‘Sugar Maple Cosmica’ for Flute and un-pitched percussion: There were, of course, exceptional moments, especially a stunning passage in which the alto flute, played extremely lightly and with great agility, perfectly matched the percussion. Suddenly time stood still. If Mr. Gatonska achieved that even for a minute in this full-scale work it means that his gift commands respect and attention. –2010 New Music Connoisseur His work entitled Transformation of the Hummingbird was composed for SONYC, and was released on the Albany Records label (TROY941).


A Shaking of the Pumpkin for Piano, Mallet, and Optional Bass Drum • THE MEMORY OF ROSES (1992) by Louis Andriessen for Piano, Toy Piano, and Rose • A SHAKING OF THE PUMPKIN (2007) by Michael Gatonska for Piano, Mallet, and Optional Bass Drum • TREPIDUS (1983) by Louis Andriessen for Piano • INNER CITIES by Alvin Curr	3/26/2010 07:30 PM First Presbyterian Church 124 Henry Street Brooklyn Heights us	Phone: Email: Web:http://www.michaelgatonska.com/
'Sugar Maple Cosmica" by Michael Gatonska to be performed at Music with a View Sugar Maple Cosmica" is a duo for flute and percussion; teh piece was written in 2009 for the flute player Paul Dunkel.	12/13/2009 03:00 PM Flea Theatre White Street New York NY us	Phone: Email:michaelgatonskamusic@yahoo.com Web:michaelgatonska.com
World premier performance of Suger Maple Cosmica World premier performance of a 25 minute piece composed by Michael Gatonska this 2009. Other works on program include Bach, Debussy, Shostakovich, and Piazzolla.	12/7/2009 07:30 PM Christ and St. Stephen's Church 120 West 69th Street New York NY us	Phone: Email:michaelgatonskamusic@yahoo.com Web:michaelgatonska.com
Performance of Transformation of the Hummingbird SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht, Op. 4 (“Transfigured Night”) GATONSKA Transformation of the Hummingbird PIAZZOLLA Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas ("The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires")	11/13/2009 06:30 PM The Martin E. Segal Theatre Center The Elebash Recital Hall at the Graduate Center CUNY 365 Fifth Avenue at 34 St. New York NY us	Phone: Email:ossiasymphony@me.com Web:michaelgatonska.com