Ned McGowan

Ned McGowan (born 1970) is an American composer and flutist based in Amsterdam. Ned holds degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatory Den Haag and in flute from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

When playing the flute, Ned focuses mainly on creative projects and he has collaborated with Aka Moon, Derek Bermel, Gabriel Bolkosky, George Brooks, Oguz Buyukberber, Larry Coryell, Oene van Geel, Stephen Gosling, Dr. Marshall Griffith, Wiek Hijmans, Rozalie Hirs, Guus Janssen, David Kweksilber, Dr. Gregory Oakes, Erkan Ogur, Keiko Shichijo, Fahrettin Yarkın, mime-ist Virag Dezso and Zapp 4 in addition to many renowned Indian artists. He has also performed with the musikFabrik, Beethoven Academie, the Erie Philharmonic, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Non Sequitur, Axyz Ensemble, Spinifex Orchestra and his own quintet Hexnut. His specialty is also the contrabass flute, where he often performs solo and in 2008 he composed the first concerto for contrabass flute and orchestra. Premiered at Carnegie Hall with the American Composers Orchestra, he “proved there’s still plenty of life in old-fashioned virtuosity with Bantammer Swing, a playful, athletic concerto for his unwieldy contrabass flute," according to Steve Smith of the New York Times. He has composed often for flute and also for recorder in solo and chamber ensembles, and will compose both the competition piece for the National Flute Convention High School Soloist Competition in 2016 and a work for piccolo specialist Ilonka Kolthof.

ORCHESTRA Hydraulic Principles (2012) - orchestra | pianola Tempest in a Teapot (2006) - orchestra

ORCHESTRA WITH SOLO Concerto for iPad and Orchestra "Rotterdam Concerto 2" (2012) - solo iPad and orchestra Bantammer Swing (2008) - solo contrabass flute and orchestra

NOT Trio - Injured (2013) American Composers Orchestra - Playing it UNsafe (2009) Steve Horowitz - Stations of the Breath (2009) Gregory Oakes - New Dialects (2009) Axyz Ensemble - Medcezir (2008) Spinifex Orchestra (2008) Hexnut (2007) Tools (2006) Nandi Dasaru (2005) Non Sequitur (2005) Paximadi (2005) Rickshaw Chase (2001)

CHAMBER ENSEMBLE Ricochet (2014) - contrabass flute and percussion Building Music (2013) - large ensemble six pièces mécaniques (2012) - six players Stop Horn Please OK (2012) - jazz ensemble The Deccan Queen (2012) - jazz ensemble Chamundi Hill (2012) - flute and harp | flute and piano SMAK! (2011) - woodwind sextet, mezzo-soprano and actor Destroy Recycle Construct (2011) - mixed quintet Three Amsterdam Scenes (2011) - voice, viola and keyboards Solar Neon (2010) - mixed septet Sound Becomes Visible in the Form of Radiance (2010) - mixed sextet LITH / A Mausoleum of Redshifted Endeavors (2009) - two pianos Chaaya (2009) - music for dance Heads or Tails (2008) - jazz ensemble Hymn (2008) - improvising string quartet | string quartet | saxophone quartet | flute octet Plantae Magnoliophyta Liliopsida Poales Poaceae Spinifex (2007) - jazz ensemble Second City (2007) - mixed quintet Spectra (2007) - solo contrabass flute, flute and flute orchestra Not Pseudopetiolate Triodia 2 (2006) - jazz ensemble Devil's Dust (2006) - string quartet Alap (2005) - soprano and chamber ensemble Wood Burn (2005) - reed quintet | chamber ensemble | chamber ensemble 2 Annabel (2004) - narrator and chamber ensemble | narrator and chamber ensemble 2 | narrator and woodwind sextet Capsule (2003) - chamber orchestra Song (2003) - mixed quartet Tools (2003) - mixed quartet | mixed sextet; winner Henriette Bosmans Prize, 2003, Netherlands In the Land of Cheese (2001/2002) - flute octet | flute orchestra Stone Soup (2001) - jazz ensemble Tusk (2001) - mixed quintet Urban Turban (2001) - two marimbas | alto saxophone and marimba | flute and marimba | flute and piano | fl, b.cl, pno | fl, vln, pno | a.sax, gtr, pno | mixed quartet Ios Duo (1999) - flute and clarinet Melting Igloos (1998) - mixed quartet; Finalist Gaudeamus Foundation Prize, 2000

SOLO INSTRUMENT Hallucination (2014) - solo fortepiano The Beating Heart of the City (2014) - installation Rhythmic Etudes - Book One (2014) - piano solo Torrent (2011) - solo flute For Crying Out Loud (2004) - harpsicord | piano Workshop (2004) - alto record and tape | flute and tape Moonrise (1998) - flute; finalist Gaudeamus Foundation Prize, 1999 Why (1994) - flute solo

“McGowan’s music strives for an idiom in which various musics – American popular, European classical and avant-garde, Carnatic, a fascination with proportionally intricate rhythms, the use of microtones in the search for new subtleties of melody – and many others, rub against each other and generate new meanings.” - musicologist Bob Gilmore.