Frank J. Oteri

Frank J. Oteri's voracious musical appetite finds many avenues of expression, but ultimately all lead back to his musical compositions which range from full-evening stage works to chamber and solo compositions. In all of these works, Oteri combines emotional directness with an obsession for formal processes incorporating techniques from styles of music as seemingly unrelated as minimalism, serialism, Broadway show music and bluegrass. His music has been performed in venues ranging from Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall and the Knitting Factory in New York City to the Theatre Royal in Bath, England, and the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art to a Baptist church in the middle of Emanuel County, Georgia. MACHUNAS, a "performance oratorio in four colors" created in collaboration with Lucio Pozzi and inspired by the life of Fluxus founder George Maciunas, received its world premiere in August 2005 at the Contemporary Arts Center in Vilnius, Lithuania as part of the International Christopher Summer Festival conducted by Donatas Katkus. Other Oteri compositions, include Fair and Balanced? (for 1/4-tone saxophone quartet) and Imagines Overtures (for a 1/6-tone rock band). In addition to his activities as a composer, Frank frequently gives talks about music, writes for a variety of publications, and is the Composer Advocate at the American Music Center where he is also the founding editor of its web magazine NewMusicBox (www.newmusicbox.org).