|
|
Born in 1960 in Rio de Janeiro. In 1995 he won the
International Competition for Guitar Composition in Caracas, and in 1988
the Lamarque-Pons Competition for Guitar Composition in Montevideo. He is
widely known as a composer as well as a guitar virtuoso.
In his native country he is something of a OBrazilian Frank Zappa1,
combining popular local styles with contemporary guitar techniques. In
addition he has developed new techniques for playing the acoustic guitar.
In his cycle Percussion Studies for solo guitar he created a completely
new performance style called the Otapping technique1, combining the
traditional means of playing with boisterous percussion effects.
In 1994 he took part in the OSynthese1 Festival in Bourges, and in 1995
the festival of electroacoustic music in Aquila, presenting his work
Textorias for computer-generated guitar. In 1995 he was guest composer
with the OAvanti! 1 ensemble in Helsinki, where his work for solo viola
had its world premiere at the city1s Biennale. In the same year his
composition Variations/Phallanges for solo harp was performed in Zurich.
Kampela1s compositions have been chosen for the iscm festivals in
Copenhagen and Seoul (1996 and 1997), as well as for the International
Composers1 Rostrum in Paris (1995). In 1996 Kampela participated in the
OSonidos de las Americas1 project, playing in the Orchestra of Composers
of the Americas, which gave a concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. In
1997 he served as a juror at the International Guitar Competition in
Caracas. He received his doctorate in composition in 1998 from Columbia
University, where he studied under Mario Davidovski and Fred Lerdahl.
Previously, in 1993, he had studied privately under Brian Ferneyhough.
Last year his work Quimbanda for electric guitar was performed by Wiek
Hijmans at the OArchipel1 Festival in Geneva. Kampela1s works have been
played in South America, Europe, Asia and the United States. He has
received many commissions and awards from such institutions as the
Rio-Arte Foundation, the Fromm Music Foundation, the New Music Consort,
the OCarioca1 Guitar Quartet, the Biennale in Helsinki, and has also
received fellowships from the Brazilian government and Columbia University.
He recently completed a String Quartet, in which he
uses his own system of micrometric modulation, derived from the metric
ideas of Carter and Cowell. Kampela, as an active member of the new music
scene in New York, composes and plays in his own group, organizing
performance sessions in unusual locations and interiors.
Quimbanda (shortened version) (2000).
A resident of New York, Arthur Kampela has composed a hectic piece
inspired by the African-Brazilian spirit of the forest Quimbanda. The
work employs various electronic sounds and microtone scordatura. The score
of the composition could certainly be included in the strand of Onew
complexity1. During tonight1s concert Wiek Hijmans will perform, with the
composer1s consent, a special shortened version of the piece.
|
