1.39 - Alan Theisen
LAN THEISEN (b. 4 October 1981) is a composer, saxophonist, author, and educator. Influenced in his youth by the careers of Leonard Bernstein and Quincy Jones, Theisen soon established his personal ethos of creating and sharing new music with joyous enthusiasm across multiple artistic endeavors. He continues this commitment to comprehensive musicianship by tirelessly combining the disciplines of composing, performance, scholarship, conducting, advocacy, and pedagogy.
Theisen's compositions encompass a wide array of genres and instrumentation including chamber music, art song, solo piano, concerti, jazz, pop song, musical theatre, symphonies, improvisational music, and more. Praised as coming from “an extraordinarily talented and prolific composer,” his works are frequently commissioned/performed by musicians around the world to audience acclaim. Though Theisen's official catalogue of over seventy pieces is stylistically diverse, his compositions typically feature memorable melodic ideas, emotional sincerity, complex yet sensuous harmony, and dramatic formal designs. A fundamental characteristic of his music is the hybridization of genres. For example, it is common to hear twelve-tone rows in a new jack swing tune, Medieval organum weaved into improvisational music, film noir score tropes in a band piece, and jazz fusion chord progressions underpinning a string quartet. He regards his aesthetic as “Re-Modernist” – rooted in Modernist classical music from the early and middle 20th century yet also informed by contemporary jazz, hip hop, New Wave, and Motown. (Think Miles Davis meets Lutoslawski, Stravinsky meets Stevie Wonder.) The artistic goal is not ironic quotation and juxtaposition but an earnest desire to create surprising yet coherent musical communication between composer, performer, and audience.
Theisen is a collaborative composer, easily incorporating input from the performers for whom he is writing. His music is often inspired by ritual, history, myth, virtuosity, visual art, place, phantasmagoria, and the uncanny. Some recent premieres of Theisen's music have occurred at National Sawdust (Brooklyn), New Music Gathering, and the World Saxophone Congress (Strasbourg, France), and the North American Saxophone Alliance biennial conference.
An active saxophonist, Theisen concertizes in classical recitals, gigs with jazz bands and musical theater productions, directs multiple ensembles, and premieres/records the music of fellow contemporary composers. National appearances as a classical saxophonist include performances at Scorca Hall in OPERA America’s National Opera Center, at the 39th Festival of New American Music, at the U.S. Navy International Saxophone Symposium, and as guest recitalist at the Wichita State University New Voices Festival. His acclaimed voice/saxophone avant-pop band, MIATp, combines experimental music, multiple pop genres, and theatre in live performances across the United States. To extend his mission as a collaborative performer, he also founded the Resonance Saxophone Orchestra. Theisen’s curated NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music for Alto Saxophone, Vol. 1 was published in January 2020.
Theisen is an author whose writings about music and the arts take several forms and cover a variety of subjects. As a music theorist, he specializes in the analysis and pedagogy of post-1900 classical music, presenting award-winning research on these topics at national and regional academic conferences. Theisen has served on the executive and editorial boards of the South Central Society for Music Theory, Music Theory Southeast, and the Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy (online division). For the past decade, he has worked on a book analyzing the later music of Dutch composer Tristan Keuris. He runs The Theisen Journal, an online periodical exploring both his creative work as composer/saxophonist and happenings in the broader New Music community. Additionally, Theisen writes reviews, liner notes for professionally released albums, and program notes for concerts.
An energetic educator, he offers impactful professional development experiences (masterclasses, workshops, and lectures) for students and musically engaged audiences of all experience levels. Theisen has brought these educational programs to UMKC Conservatory of Music and Dance, University of Nevada Las Vegas, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, State University of New York at Fredonia, Louisiana State University, and more. Theisen was a tenured Associate Professor of Music at Mars Hill University (North Carolina) where he coordinated the music theory/composition curriculum from 2011 to 2021 before he resigned to devote more time to composition and performance. Prior to his decade at Mars Hill University, he was Visiting Assistant Professor of Music Theory at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University. Theisen received his Ph.D. in music theory and composition from Florida State University and degrees (B.M. Music History and M.M. Music Theory) from the University of Southern Mississippi.
A native of Michigan, he has spent the majority of his life in the Deep South of the United States. He currently resides in New Orleans and is a full-time Lecturer of Music at Xavier University of Louisiana.
