Rand Steiger

Composer/conductor Rand Steiger was born in New York City in 1957. His compositions have been performed at festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood, Ojai, Invetionen (Berlin), Darmstadt, Holland, and Togo (Japan), and by many ensembles including the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the American Composers Orchestra, Speculum Musicae, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, and the New York New Music Ensemble. He has received a Rome Prize, a National Endowment Composers Fellowship, and commissions from the Fromm Foundation, the Aequalis Trio, Zeitgeist, and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. His works are recorded on the New Albion, CRI, Crystal, and New World labels.

During the 1987 and 1988 seasons Steiger held the position of Composer Fellow for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with support from Meet the Composer. He assisted resident composers John Harbison and Steven Stucky in the programming and preparation of contemporary works. The Philharmonic has also performed five of his compositions including the recently commissioned The Burgess Shale a 27 minute work for large orchestra premiered in February 1995.

In 1981 Steiger co-founded the California EAR Unit, serving as artistic director through 1985 and for the past five years as principal guest conductor. In residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The EAR Unit has also toured widely in the U.S. and Europe, has recorded for Crystal, Nonesuch, New Albion, New World and WDR, and was recently featured in British (BBC) and Japanese television documentaries. Steiger has also conducted the Arditti Quartet, Aspen Chamber Ensemble, CalArts Twentieth-Century Players, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Group, New York New Music Ensemble and SONOR. He has conducted recordings of works by Carter, Paredes, Reynolds, Stockhausen, Subotnick, and Xenakis, and has lead many west coast and world premiere performances including works of Andriessen, Babbitt, Carter, Ferneyhough, Martirano, Reynolds, Riley, Rudders, Saariaho, Scelsi, Subotnick, Takemitsu, and Tuur.

Steiger traveled to Costa Rica for U.S.I.A. residencies in 1982 and 83 to lecture on electronic music and conduct musicians from the Simphonica Nacional in contemporary works. In 1987 he traveled to Russia with a delegation of composers for a series of concerts and seminars culminating in the signing of an agreement for a series of future musical exchanges, and he organized a reciprocal visit to Los Angeles by composers from several regions of the former Soviet Union. He was a member of the Faculty of California Institute of the Arts from 1982 through 1987, and is currently a Professor in the Music Department at the University of California, San Diego, where he served as department chair from 1992 through 1996.