The American composer Mark Gustavson was born in Brooklyn, NY and grew up in the Chicago suburbs. He began studying clarinet at eight and self-taught himself to compose and play piano at sixteen. In high school he began to play saxophone in jazz band and continued clarinet studies at the Music Institute of Chicago. He later went on to study clarinet and composition at Northern Illinois University, University of Illinois, Columbia University and Conservatory of Amsterdam.

Since the 1980’s Gustavson’s music has run counter to many of the tendencies in music including the rejection of serial and minimal music. His music undertakes the quest to renew characterization and symbolism through a deep entanglement of many music worlds. The music can be heard as a transmutation of cultural and musical systems, not looking for common ground with various cultures but is making the statement that music is necessarily global.

From the outset, Gustavsonrsquo;s music has been informed by the general idea of improvisation. At first he explored improvisation by using graphic notation for intricate dynamic changes during long durations in my wind and percussion compositions Rainbow and String Quartet #1. Next, through participating in free improvisation with various groups of musicians for a few of years he captured in his compositions the experience of the interactions between the players. This is on display in his strictly notated mixed ensemble piece The Three Mirrors for soprano, flue, clarinet, trombone, violin, cello, double bass and two percussionists. Later, in Twenty Variations for flute and piano he discovered variation form as an excellent vehicle to exhibit the qualities of improvisation. In other words, creating music about improvisation. Soon he came to use the technique of expanding variations to make the music more fluid.

Fisherman Songs, a 40-minute song cycle for baritone and piano, is autobiographical. It is the result of Gustavson’s deep interest in fresh and saltwater fly fishing. In his own words, “After moving to eastern Long Island from Manhattan, I spent the better part of five years fly fishing Long Island’s estuaries, creating flies (some of the designs are published in books and magazines) for the sole purpose to catch the wondrous striped bass, mostly wading late at night from shore.” Each of the seven songs explores a unique aspect of fishing that captures humor, history, nature, philosophy, culture, and spirituality.

Another vocal work from this time is the 50-minute Lament,a monodrama for bass/baritone, bass clarinet, percussion, piano, contrabass and female chorus based on a Dylan Thomas text.

His latest work is Wingbeat for harp and 2-channel fixed media. It is a 17-minute work that explores various mythologies that surround the lyre (transformed into the harp) and the swan. The work uses Pythagorean tuning and the hansadhwani raga, as well as processing samples of a swan’s wingbeat and designing other swan sounds.