biography

Dean Rosenthal (b. Concord, Massachusetts, 1974) is an American composer and performer of electronic and instrumental music. He was first recognized in his early twenties, while pursuing undergraduate studies in music and philosophy at McGill University for conceiving, directing, and presenting a concert  of the late English experimentalist Cornelius Cardew's music.  He studied composition with Tom Johnson, Morton Subotnick, Wadada Leo Smith, and many other prominent musicians in the American tradition primarily while at CalArts, but also at the Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe.

 

His music has been performed at Galapagos Art Space (Brooklyn), Electronic Music Foundation (NYC), Taipei Contemporary Art Center (Taiwan), Stratford Circus (London), Axiom Center for New and Experimental Media (Boston), Teatro San Giorgio (Udine, Italy), The Sheldon Theater (St. Louis), The Academic Film Center (Belgrade), AudioGraft (Oxford, UK), The Music Gallery (Toronto), and numerous other venues and performance spaces in Europe, Asia, and North America and appears on Trace Label (Paris). Dean Rosenthal has been commissioned by noted Franz Rosenzweig scholar Barbara E. Galli and electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick.

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His music might reflect concerns of integrity, pattern, structure, simplicity, and elegance (see the sextet for winds "I Think So, Too" (2009) and "Our Gazes" (2009)), and shows a recent interest in found "readymade" objects, considering the music that comes from buoys (see "Menemsha Village" (2010)  and my notes to it), EKGs ("Unconfirmed Report" (2011)), and perfect tilings ("Perfect for ... " (2011)).

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In addition to his work as a composer, Dean Rosenthal currently co-edits The Open Space Web Magazine and is active as an engraver for the James Tenney Estate.