Ryan Carter
Associate Chair, Associate Professor of Music
Ryan Carter's music has been commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the National Flute Association, the MATA Festival, the Metropolis Ensemble, Present Music, The Milwaukee Children's Choir, and the Calder Quartet. Besides composing acoustic music, Carter is an avid computer musician and programmer.
Carter's iMonkeypants app, which is available for download, is an album of algorithmically generated, listener-interactive electronica synthesized in real time from code in the RTcmix audio programming language. Carter previously taught at New York University and Virginia Tech. He earned his bachelor's degree in music composition from Oberlin Conservatory and his master's from Stony Brook University. He received his doctorate in music composition from New York University.
Recent Courses Taught
Music Theory for Non-Majors
Introduction to Music, Sound, and Technology
Seminar in Musical Composition
Advanced Audio Production
Distinctions
- Red Jasper Award for Music Composition (winner), 2022
- New York State Council on the Arts (grant recipient), 2019
- MEGA JURY Concurso Internacional de Composición (selection), 2018
- LA Phil Prize, Hack Music LA (winner), 2017
- Lake George Music Festival Composition Competition (winner), 2015
- ISCM (Miami Section) for World Music Days 2015 official selection, 2012, 2014
- RED NOTE New Music Festival Composition Competition finalist, 2013
- Left Coast Composition Contest winner, 2012
- JFund Commission from ACF and Jerome Foundation, 2011
- Q2 and NPR Music's favorite "100 Composers Under 40," 2011
- Kanter/MIVOS Prize finalist, 2011
- Publikumspreis, Heidelberg Spring Festival winner, 2010
- National Association of Composers/USA Composer's Competition winner, 2009
- National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient, 2008
- Four Creative Connections awards from Meet the Composer, 2006-2012
- Definiens Project Commission Competition honorable mention, 2007
- Lee Ettelson Composer's Award winner, 2007
- ASCAP Plus Award, 2005-14
Publications, Recordings and Performances
Publications:
- On a better filtering algorithm. SCI Journal of Music Scores, 2019.
- The Rainbows of Kee-Mae-Won. Glendale: Fred Bock Music Company, 2017. (Distributed worldwide by Hal Leonard Music Company, and previously published by Alliance Music Publications.)
- A Robot For a Friend. Distributed by Carol Nussbaum Music Company, 2016.
- A Robot For a Friend. Distributed by Flute World, 2014.
- All other works distributed by Alexander Street Press
Recordings:
- On a Better Filtering Algorithm, portrait CD on KAIROS Records
- Chamber Works, portrait CD on KAIROS Records
- On a better filtering algorithm, included on SCI CD Series (No. 33) on Navona Records
- Memory Failure, released on Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States Electroacoustic Miniatures 2014: Transients
- Patty Darling, collaboration with the band Churchbuilder, Shelflife Records
- The Rainbows of Kee-mae-Won, released on Wisconsin Sings, Festival Choir of Madison Compilation CD
Performances:
- Seattle Symphony Artist-in-Residence Seth Parker Woods, cellist (for a work for cello and electronics)
- Hub New Music (for a work for quartet and electronics)
- Society for New Music (for a work for ensemble and electronics)
- Hausmann Quartet (for a string quartet)
- Argento Chamber Ensemble, Skirball Center, New York City
- Alexandria Le, Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), New York City
- Calder Quartet, L.A. County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
- Carnegie Hall Prof. Training Ensemble, Carnegie Hall (Weill Recital Hall), New York City
- Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Drinko Hall, Cleveland
- Color Field Ensemble, Constellation Chicago, Chicago
- Either/Or, Chelsea Art Museum, New York City
- Emanuele Torquati, New Music Art Book Festival, Kiev, Ukraine
- Eric Lamb, Krome Gallery, Berlin
- Glass Farn1 Ensemble, Italian Academy at Columbia University, New York City
- Idomcneo and Szymanowski Quartets, Heidelberg Spring Festival, Heidelberg, Germany
- International Contemporary Ensemble, Skirball Center, New York City
- JACK Quartet, The Tank, New York City
- Left Coast Chamber Ensemble, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, San Francisco
- Margaret Lancaster, Cornelia Street Cafe, New York City
- Maurice Quartet, Villa Romana, Florence, Italy
- Metropolis Ensemble, (le) Poisson Rouge, New York City
- Mimi Stillman, National Flute Association Convention, Chicago
- Milwaukee Children's Choir, Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist, Milwaukee
- MIVOS Quartet, Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City
- Nieuw Ensemble, Amsterdam Conservatory, Amsterdam
- NOW Ensemble, Teatro de Camara, Chihuahua, Mexico
- Orkest de Ereprijs, Young Composers Meeting, Apeldoorn, Netherlands
- Present Music, Discovery World, Milwaukee
- PLOrk (Princeton Laptop Orchestra), Taplin Auditorium, Princeton, N.J.
- Seth Woods and Brian Archinal, Museum for Contemporary Art, Basel, Switzerland
- Transit, Actors Fund Arts Center, New York City
- Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Wisconsin State Capital, Madison, Wis.
- Yarn/Wire, Tenri Cultural Institute, New York City
- Zephyr Quartet, Gaudeamus Music Week, Amsterdam
Selected Commissions:
- Quartetto Maurice (for a work for string quartet with or without fixed media)
- National Flute Association (for a work for flute with or without fixed media)
- Ogni Suono (for a work for saxophone duo and electronics)
- PLOrk (The Princeton Laptop Orchestra)
- Color Field Ensemble (for a quartet)
- Alexandria Le, pianist (for a piano solo)
- Metropolis Ensemble, chamber orchestra (for 2011 MATA Festival)
- La MaMa ETC (for an opera co-composed with Sasha Zamler-Carhart)
- Emanuele Torquati, pianist (for a piano solo)
- Transit (for a quintet with fixed media)
- Present Music (for a trio with fixed media)
- NOW Ensemble (for a quintet)
- Carnegie Hall (for a work for soprano, mezzo-soprano and large ensemble)
- Calder Quartet (for a string quartet)
- Present Music and the Milwaukee Children's Choir
Professional Affiliations
Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States
Appointed to the Faculty
2015Educational Background
Ph.D., New York University
M.A., Stony Brook University
B.Mus., Oberlin College Conservatory of Music
