Composers
Devon Tipp
Pittsburgh based composer/performer Devon Osamu Tipp (they/them) creates unorthodox musical environments from ostensibly incompatible realms. Tipp’s music draws influence from their Japanese and Eastern European roots, experiences as a jeweller and painter, and studies of gagaku and hogaku in Japan and the US. Their compositions focus on rhythmic and timbral transmutation of cyclical materials, ranging from the orchestral, to string basses prepared with honey stirrers, to concerti for traditional Japanese instruments.
As a shakuhachi player, Tipp has collaborated with composers such as Gleb Kanasevich, Chatori Shimizu, Nicole Mitchell, Vicente Alexim, Lu-han Li, Victoria Cheah, Elizabeth Brown, and others. They have been commissioned by and collaborated with groups such as Canada's Thin Edge New Music Collective, the Sudbury Guitar Trio, Finland's MikroEnsemble, UK’s rarescale, Pittsburgh based ensemble Kamraton, the Partch Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. They have also collaborated with microtonal specialists Kjell Tore Innervik (quartertone percussion), Veli Kujala (quartertone accordion), and Tolgahan Çogulu (8 string microtonal guitar).
Their compositions have been featured at the Soundscape Festival, Bowdoin Festival, Beyond 2020: Microtonal Music Festival, the 2021 International Shakuhachi Festival in Prague, and Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge new music series. They have presented their research on intercultural music and issues of cross cultural composition and collaborations at Universities such as Harvard University, Columbia University, the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden Germany, and the University of Szeged in Hungary.
Tipp received their BMus from Montclair State University, where they studied composition and microtonal music with Dean Drummond, Marcos Balter, and Elizabeth Brown. They received their MA in Music Theory & Composition at the University of Pittsburgh under Mathew Rosenblum, and are a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. They are a shakuhachi student of Ralph Samuelson and Elizabeth Brown.
As a shakuhachi player, Tipp has collaborated with composers such as Gleb Kanasevich, Chatori Shimizu, Nicole Mitchell, Vicente Alexim, Lu-han Li, Victoria Cheah, Elizabeth Brown, and others. They have been commissioned by and collaborated with groups such as Canada's Thin Edge New Music Collective, the Sudbury Guitar Trio, Finland's MikroEnsemble, UK’s rarescale, Pittsburgh based ensemble Kamraton, the Partch Quartet, the TAK Ensemble, and Avanti! Chamber Orchestra. They have also collaborated with microtonal specialists Kjell Tore Innervik (quartertone percussion), Veli Kujala (quartertone accordion), and Tolgahan Çogulu (8 string microtonal guitar).
Their compositions have been featured at the Soundscape Festival, Bowdoin Festival, Beyond 2020: Microtonal Music Festival, the 2021 International Shakuhachi Festival in Prague, and Pittsburgh’s Music on the Edge new music series. They have presented their research on intercultural music and issues of cross cultural composition and collaborations at Universities such as Harvard University, Columbia University, the Herb Alpert School of Music at UCLA, the Hochschule für Musik Carl Maria von Weber in Dresden Germany, and the University of Szeged in Hungary.
Tipp received their BMus from Montclair State University, where they studied composition and microtonal music with Dean Drummond, Marcos Balter, and Elizabeth Brown. They received their MA in Music Theory & Composition at the University of Pittsburgh under Mathew Rosenblum, and are a PhD candidate at the University of Pittsburgh. They are a shakuhachi student of Ralph Samuelson and Elizabeth Brown.
Devon's website
Soundcloud
For Dean Drummond
Heila
Twenty Thousand Folds
31 Ways of Looking at a Truffle
Tokeru Reibo