Curriculum Vitae

BENJAMIN CARSON

Assistant Professor, University of California at Santa Cruz

Department of Music

Music Center Faculty Services University of California 1156 High St Santa Cruz, CA 95064

Office: 148 Music Center 831-459-5581 Fax: 831-459-5584 email: benja (dot) carson -- gmail

EMPLOYMENT

2003-present	Assistant Professor of Music Theory and Composition at University of California, Santa Cruz
	Undergraduate teaching: Baroque Counterpoint, Advanced Tonal Analysis, 20th century theory and practice, Composition Instruction, American Popular Music. Graduate Seminars: Music Perception and Cognition (DMA program in Composition), Composition Seminar, Interdisciplinary Approaches to Art Information (MFA program in Digital Arts and New Media), Psychology and Music (Ph.D. in Cultural Musicology) Department of American Studies, Affiliate Instructor: History of American Popular Culture
2002	Lecturer, Music Department, UC Riverside Baroque Counterpoint
	Lead Lecturer in Freshman Core Writing: Thurgood Marshall College (UC San Diego): National Identity and Popular Culture.
2001-2002	Adjunct Professor in Global Studies, National University (Torrey Pines, CA)
1999	Researcher/Artist-in-residence (Perception Laboratory), Institute de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
	Instructor--Teaching Associate, Music Department, UCSD: Seminar in Composition

EDUCATION

2001	Ph.D. in Music, University of California, San Diego. Dissertation Committee: Roger Reynolds, Gerald Balzano, Harvey Sollberger, Michael Davidson
1995	Master of Music, University of Washington. Thesis Committee Chair: John Rahn
1993	Bachelor of Arts (Music), Willamette University (Salem, OR). Thesis Chair: John Peel

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITY

Major Honors, Awards, and Grants

2007-2008	Faculty Senate Special Research Grant recipient, UC Santa Cruz
	Arts Research Initiative Grantee, UC Santa Cruz
2005	Invited guest lecturer and recitalist, Sydney Conservatory/Musicological Society of Australia: "Music and Social Justice" (Sydney, Australia)
2002-2004	Arts Research Initiative Grantee, University of California.
2001	First Prize, British and International Bass Festival/International Bass Society, London, England: Detáler (contrabass and chamber orchestra)
2000	Center for the Humanities Dissertation Fellow, UC San Diego Excellence in Teaching Assistance Award, UC San Diego Featured Young Composer, 25th Anniversary Festival of New Music, State University of New York, Buffalo

1999	Visiting Artist Grantee, French Ministry of Culture/Centre Georges Pompidou Featured Young Composer: International Festival Institute, Round Top, Texas
1998	Robert Erickson Prize for Excellence in Research (UC San Diego)
1993	Key to the University Outstanding service to Willamette University

WRITINGS and CREATIVE ACTIVITIES

Technology

2006	Unpulser (2.0, Beta 2.02): An Environment for Pre-compositional Planning and Analysis with Additive Rhythms. With Ian Saxton. In peer review.

Book (in progress)

2006-

Difference and Becoming: Locating the Listener in Musical Form. In progress.

Articles in progress or submitted

2007	Subject and Action in Schoenberg's Das Buch der hängenden Gärten, Song XIII. In peer review.
2004-	"Stream Segregation and Rhythm Cognition: a Multi-dimensional Approach to Analysis and Experiment." In peer review.

Articles in Professional Journals

2007	Perceiving and distinguishing simple timespan ratios without metric reinforcement. Journal of New Music Research (Accepted).
2006	What are Musical Paradox and Illusion? (Review Essay) American Journal of Psychology 120/1 (Spring 2007), 123-139.
2003	(With Christopher Williams) "On the Piano Music of Benjamin Carson: A Correspondence of Essays" The Open Space Magazine 5 (Fall 2003), 231-250.
2003	Review Essay "John Adams and a Counterpoint of Contemporary Reasoning: The Los Angeles Philharmonic's El Niño, March 2003, Echo V/1) (http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/echo/volume5-issue1/reviews/carson.html)

Contributions to Books (Interdisciplinary)

2004	"Tough Questioning," in Shock and Awe: War on Words – Feminist Provocations 1. Bregje van Eekelen, Jennifer González, Bettina Stötzer, and Anna Tsing, Eds. New Pacific Press: Santa Cruz, 2004. 153-154.

Compositions

2007	Takes to the Stage for solo cello. For Franklin Cox. Premier (Apr 07): UCSC "Hysterics / Reminiscences" [4'20"]; "Ana Agnosis / Paranoia" [4'00"] for solo piano.
2006	The Whole Gamut of Human Emotions. Multi-media collaboration with anthropologist Shelly Errington, in progress. "Sparagmos" [3'40"] and "Dissemblance" [6'30"] for solo piano.
	"Arionanum" [11'00"] for contrabass with violin, harmonium, and harpsichord.
	"Two Manyoshu Fragments," for bel canto tenor solo and 12-15 voices.
2005	"Ana Historic" [10'30"] for cello, three voices, and two percussionists with celeste and self-amplified electronic keyboards. Commissioned by UC Davis' Empyrean Ensemble. Premier (Apr 05): UC Santa Cruz "Pacific Rim" festival.
2004	"'Fors Seulement...', fors seulement condition" [4'30"] for piano, performed (Jun 04) at J.M. Harris' faculty recital, New England Conservatory's Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance; and by Carson (Apr 04) at UCSC and (Oct 05) at Sydney Conservatory's "Music and Social Justice" Conference.
2004	"Penance and Praise" [21'00"]. Six pieces for piano or keyboard. Commissioned by Erika Arulananthum. Premier (Berkley, Aug 05): Heather Heise.
	"X. temper, rain" [6'15"] for piano, contrabass, and two percussionists.
2003	"Detáler" [6'30"] for contrabass, three voices, and eight instruments. Commissioned by Christopher Williams. Premier (UCSD): Cond. Harvey Sollberger. Winner, 1^st prize, International Bass Festival (London)
2001	"When all of us find peace there will be time to search for other things." for saxophones, drum kit, and other instruments. Premier (Apr 06): Carson, Sylvain Carton, Joel Ford, Patrick Richey, UC Santa Cruz.
	"The Self and Its Pleasures" [38'30"] for piano. Premier (May 01): J.M. Harris.
2000	"Coda: 'You Are Not I'" [3'30"] for piano. Premier (Jun 04): J.M. Harris at New England Conservatory, and (Jun 00) at SUNY Buffalo.
1999	"Plain Clothes Cop" [2'00"] (revised 2004) for piano. Premier (Jun 04): J.M. Harris at New England Conservatory, and (Jun 00) at SUNY Buffalo.
	"True/False Phrase" [4'30"] for chorus and chamber orchestra. Reading (Mar 99) by the La Jolla Symphony, UC San Diego.
	"Janus Images" (8 works without notation) [14'00"] for piano. Recorded (by Carson, Feb 99) at Studio A, UC San Diego, with UC Center for the Humanities grant.
1998	"Tenors/Mediations" [12'30"] for vibraphone, marimba, and miscellany. Commissioned by Steve Schick; premier (May 99) with Yaiyun Huang, UCSD. "Piano and Percussion" [9'00"] for two players. Commissioned by Patti Cudd; performed (1998) at the University of California at San Diego.
1996	"Pari Passu" [15'15"] (revised 1999), for two violins, viola, and two cellos. Premiered at Round Top International Festival Institute by Jorja Fleezanis, Laura Park (soloists), and Harvey Sollberger (Jun 99).
1996	"One Trombone" [3'30"] for solo trombone. Commissioned by Kevin Karnes; premiered (May 95) at the University of Washington Annual Honors Concert; Meany Hall, Seattle, Washington.
1994	"Slowly a Sweetness" [4'15"] for baritone and six instruments. Premiered (Jul 92) at Aspen Summer Music Festival.
1992	"A Dream Before Sleeping" [8'00"] for seven instruments. Recorded (Jan 93) by Steven Mosko and members of the Portland New Music Ensemble.

Scores Published

2003	"Plain-clothes Cop," for piano. In The Open Space Magazine 5, Fall 2003. 236.

Activities as a Performer*

2006	Two Works for Piano. Daniel Brown. World Premier, December 2006.
2005	Subjectivity and Collectivity in Music for the Piano. A lecture-recital at Sydney Auditorium, for the Musicological Society of Australia. October 1, 2006.
2004	Guest conductor with the Empyrean Ensemble, performing Anahistoric (see "Compositions" above). April in Santa Cruz, 2005
2002	Schubert's Quintet for Piano and Strings Op. 114 in A Major "The Trout." May 2003, with members of the La Jolla Symphony. Pianist, Lindsay Vickary's "HDKKR," and other works, with winds and percussion trio. November 2002, San Diego, California.
2001	Baritone soloist, J.S. Bach's "Kaffe Cantata" (in the role of Schlendrian). March 2002, with University of California at San Diego's "La Banda Bastarda" Artistic director, harpsichord soloist and other continuo work: music of Campra, Mondonville, Monteverdi, Biber, Hottetterre, Morita, and Bach, with "La Banda Bastarda." [David Ryther, Charon Rosner, and Fiona Chatwin, co-directors] November 2001, San Diego, CA.
2000	Harpsichord soloist, Harvey Sollberger's "Cadenza Arioso," with the La Jolla Symphony. March 2000. Keyboardist and harpsichord soloist, music of Vivaldi, Bach, Walton, Bolles, Schoenberg, Webern, Strauss, with the La Jolla Symphony. October 2000.
*In the interest of space, this list does not include numerous performances of my own works for piano.

Public Lectures, Symposia, and Major Conference Presentations

2007	Perceiving and distinguishing simple timespan ratios without metric reinforcement. Society for Music Theory. Baltimore, November 15-18.
2005	Stream Segregation and Rhythm Perception. The Psychonomic Society's Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting. Toronto, November 10.
	Lecture-recital "Subjectivity and Collectivity in Late 20th-Century Piano Music." Musicological Society of Australia's Music and Social Justice Conference. Sydney Conservatory, October 2.
2004	Lecture "Compositional Economy and Self-Identical Bodies in New Music." Oakes College, UC Santa Cruz: Cultural Studies Colloquium, May 26.
2002	Developing Variation as Bodily Encounter: Subject and Crisis in the Book of the Hanging Gardens. Southwest/California Multi-Chapter meeting of the American Musicological Society. Stanford University, April 27.
2000	Pulsedness: indices and analysis techniques. "Musical Intersections": Toronto 2000 / Society of Music Perception and Cognition. Nov 3.
	Orfean Narrative and Time. UCSD Monteverdi Symposium. March 2000.
1999	Pulsedness: paradigms of experimentation on rhythm. Presented at the Conference on Philosophy of Perception, Consciousness, and Art, Vrije Universiteit Brussels. March-April 1999.
	Lecture "Pulse and special linear identity." Perception et Cognition Auditives, Paris Universite V. September 1999.

1999	Motive and expectancy in high modernism. At Beyond Babel, the 18th annual conference of the Western Humanities Alliance, San Diego. October 14-16.
1995	Having a word with you: computer music as text (A LiSP environment). Northwest/International Graduate Musicology Conference, Vancouver, British Columbia. January 1995.

Memberships Professional Associations

2004- Member, Society for Music Theory

2003- Member, Society for Music Perception and Cognition

2001- Member, American Composers' Forum

2000- Member, American Musicological Society

Editorial or Board Service to Publications

2001 Referee: Echo (University of California, Los Angeles)

Other creative activity

1993 Installation/Mural with paleontologist Patrick Spencer (1993) "A to-scale Representation of Geologic Time" [wood, acrylic, and sand, 46m x 0-2m]. Whitman College, Walla Walla WA. Reviewed in The Chronicle of Higher Education: "Stairwell Art Captures a World in Progress" (October 1993).

<http://chronicle.com/che-data/articles.dir/articles-40.dir/issue-08.dir/08a00704.htm>

UNIVERSITY SERVICE

University of California Santa Cruz Department Committees

2007-2008 Member, Graduate Committee (Fall and Spring Quarters)

2006- Member, Executive Committee of the Digital Arts and New Media M.F.A.

2005-2006 Member, B.M. committee (winter quarter)

Member, Scholarship Committee

Chair, Ensemble directors' workload equivalence committee

2004-2005 Member, Scholarship Committee

Fall advisory and Proficiency Juries, B.M. auditions.

2003-2004 Member, Search Committee, Scholar-performer

Member, Discretionary Funds Committee

Member, Curriculum Committee

Member, Graduate Committee

Other University Service

Developer and Coordinator: Music Education at the New Horizons School for Homeless and Home-transitioning Children (2006- )

Chair, Ensemble Workload Policy Committee (2006-2007)

Planning, document preparation, and research for Musicology Ph.D. Proposal (2003-2005)

Planning for the introduction of the DMA in Composition (2004)

Research and writing on behalf of the search committee for Indian Music Specialist (2004)