Kyle Lewis - Composer

Kyle Lewis is a composer, theorist, and performer.  Lately, he’s been interested in extended notational systems and how they interact with performers’ cognition of the music, patient pacing, aleatory, subtleties in otherwise homogeneous sounds, variety in scale of works, small ideas as art, humor, multiple or variable time streams, using technology without using electronic sounds, and framing art from everyday moments.  He recently finished a residency at the Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA), where he held 6 concerts and co-wrote/premiered a new piece with his duo Guy Did Ail, an ensemble in which he regularly works and performs.  Guy Did Ail (@GuyDidAil on social media) also features visual artist Gunnar Tarsa and explores the balance between predictability and possibility in aleatoric art as well as other multi-sensory, experiential explorations.   His music has been played by Rote Hünd Musik, Incongruency Ensemble, Duo Damiana, Erik Krohg, Ann DuHamel, and Stuart Gerber, among others.  He has studied regularly with Cody Brookshire, Natalie Williams, Peter Van Zandt Lane, and Adam Roberts.  Outside of the new music world, he fronted a punkish, metal-type band called We by the Sea and sang with the UGA Hodgson Singers.  Kyle Lewis graduated Magna Cum Laude from the University of Georgia with BM degrees in Music Composition and Music Theory in December 2017 and will be pursuing an MA in Composition from SUNY Stony Brook, starting Fall 2018.

List of Concert Works:

(Works in-progress are listed at the bottom of this page.)

2018

  • Coaxing the Wind into a Visual Manifestation
    • Piano etude in creative decisions for the pianist
    • Variable length
  • One Round Monotonous of Change
    • Unaccompanied voice, any voice type
    • ca. 2'
  • Compulsive Behaviors
    • Solo performer
    • Notated on a 5"x5" wooden canvas
    • Variable length
  • Fork
    • Electric Guitar and Visual Artists
    • Written for Guy Did Ail in collaboration with visual artist Gunnar Tarsa as a part of our February 2018 residency at ATHICA.
    • ca. 18'

2017

  • I/you/we are not enough.
    • Any number of vocalists
    • Notated on deck(s) of cards
    • Variable Length
  • The Case for Forgetting in x minutes or so
    • One or more performers
    • Flashcard piece
    • Minimum 5', no maximum length
  • Surrender
    • One or more performers
    • Flashcard piece
    • Long duration, dependent on the process of the piece
  • Game-Lan
    • Two performers and two dealers
    • Notated on deck(s) of cards
    • Variable length
  • Strangling All That I Love
    • Percussion duo (high/low pairings of wood, glass, metal, and skins)
    • Written for Cisum Percussion
    • 10'
  • These Past Few Months Have Been a Kick in the Stomach
    • Percussion trio (metal kitchen mixing bowls, rice, beans, and marbles)
    • Written for New Music on the Point (2016) and Stuart Gerber, Bryan Wysocki, and Emerson Wahl
    • 6'
  • (silent music)
    • String quartet
    • [to be revised]
    • 6'
  • String Quartet 6, op. 66
    • String quartet and shenanigans
    • ca. 8'
  • Shoomn
    • 8+ voices mixed/unmixed
    • 8'
  • Multiverse
    • For electric guitar (with looping pedal) and visual artist
    • Written for Guy Did Ail in collaboration with visual artist Gunnar Tarsa
    • Variable length
  • Act Accordingly
    • Caged performer (playing with guitar pedals manipulating pre-recorded electric guitar as well as various percussion objects) and visual artist
    • Written for Guy Did Ail in collaboration with visual artist Gunnar Tarsa
    • 20'
  • Simple Shapes Singing, Snaking Sassily
    • Unspecified chamber ensemble of 2+ performers
    • Guided improvisation written for Incongruency Ensemble
    • Variable length
  • Vignette(yes)
    • Vocalist(s) and visual artist(s) at a 1:1 ratio of vocalists:artists
    • Written for Guy Did Ail in collaboration with visual artist Gunnar Tarsa
    • Variable, pre-decided length
  • Highroglyphs
    • Performer(s) and visual artist(s)
    • Written for Guy Did Ail in collaboration with visual artist Gunnar Tarsa
    • Variable, pre-decided length
  • Biography
    • Narrator reading the Nickelback Facebook "About" section
    • ca. 8'

2016

  • Ogopogo
    • Flute and guitar
    • Written for Duo Damiana for the Charlotte New Music Festival (2015)
    • 7'
  • March 1, 2013
    • Violin solo
    • Miniature written for the Charlotte New Music Festival (2015) speed writing concert
    • 2'
  • Raccoon Lunaire
    • Flute, bass clarinet, cello, piano, and percussion (pierrot ensemble; -violin, +percussion)
    • Written for Rote Hünd Musik
    • 11'
  • Poe et. Tree
    • Quadraphonic playback
    • 5'
  • Benjamin Fraser
    • Baritone and piano
    • Originally written in 2015 and revised
    • Performed as a part of MNSong (2017)
    • 7'
       

2015

  • Child of the Tree That Owns Itself
    • 16+ voice mixed choir
    • 7'
  • Uncertainty Principle
    • Multiples of 3 clarinets
    • 6'
  • Five Vignettes: What You Hear Is Gone
    • String quartet
    • Winner of GMEA's Composition Competition (2016)
    • 6'

In Progress

  • Poems & Private Thoughts
    • Book of small thoughts in words and graphic scores
  • The Breeze Speaks Through Trees
    • String orchestra (12, 10, 8, 8, 6), 44 part divisi
  • Perhaps, I Have Learned Equally from Forgetting as Remembering 
    • Solo piano
  • To Bend Time Across Three Moons
    • Saxophone (any) + other (unspecified)
  • To-Be-Titled Guitar Jukebox Piece
    • Solo guitar
    • For Tom Clippinger
  • To-Be-Tltled Collaboration with James Sanders
    • andering audience, narrators, and musicians in a large field.
  • To-Be-Titled Guy Did Ail remote-installation/video project.
    • Fixed playback and visual display(s)