Ian Moss
IAN DAVID MOSS began his musical studies at the age of 12 by transcribing classics from the Wee Sing songbook for his computer’s monophonic PC speaker. His first major composition was a “rock symphony” written as an independent study project during his senior year in high school. Despite not receiving any formal musical training before the age of 17 (he didn’t even know what a chord was), he graduated from Yale University with distinction in the music major, intensive track, serving as the Undergraduate Assistant Conductor of the Yale Glee Club and for two years as President of the Yale College Composers’ Group (now known as Igigi), an organization he founded in the fall of 2000.
Moss’s music unabashedly combines the ethereal with the gutteral, as demonstrated by the long-held lush harmonies in his choral works and the intense metrical syncopation found in his pieces for electric chamber ensemble. In 2004, Ian founded the groundbreaking experimental rock band Capital M, which seeks real and total integration of the instruments and sounds from rock music into a post-classical conceptual milieu. The band appeared on the 2005 CMJ Music Marathon and presented two annual World Premieres Extravaganzas to widespread acclaim. In addition to Capital M, Ian’s music has been performed or read by ensembles including the Princeton Singers, Forecast Music, Cerddorion, Due East, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and the Way Blue Bucket. His piece Miniatures for violin and marimba premiered in Alaska at the 20th Annual Juneau Jazz & Classics Festival in May 2006.