Biography
Brian Baumbusch, an American composer and musicologist, pursues wide-ranging experiments that encompass virtual reality environments, alternative tuning systems, and polytempic structures while also serving as a lecturer on Balinese Gamelan traditions and maintaining recognition as a scholar of Argentine-Quechua folklore. Born in California in 1987, he first pursued formal training at the Interlochen Arts Academy during high school. Subsequent study took him to Bard College, where Kyle Gann guided his work in microtonal composition, and then to Mills College for graduate work with Chris Brown, Zeena Parkins, and Roscoe Mitchell. He finished a DMA at the University of California, Santa Cruz, studying under Larry Polansky.
Between 2006 and 2011 Baumbusch toured Europe and the United States as a member of the Madrid-based Cacho Ensemble alongside José Luis Merlín, focusing on Argentinian folk repertoire. In 2013 he established the Lightbulb Ensemble to play “American Gamelan” instruments of his own design, whose tuning system drew on William Sethares’s investigations into the overtone series of metallic objects. That initiative prompted a collaboration with composer Wayne Vitale that produced Mikrokosma, a piece the ensemble recorded in 2017.
A 2016 grant from the Wallis Alexander Gerbode Foundation supported both a new set of Gamelan-inspired percussion instruments and the commission of a 90-minute work. Baumbusch began directing the University of California, Santa Cruz Balinese Gamelan Ensemble in 2014 and joined the faculty of the University of Santa Clara from 2016 to 2018. In 2020 he received a commission from the University of California Wind Ensemble for Isotropes; pandemic restrictions on physical proximity were addressed through remote instruction and individualized click tracks, allowing an online recording to be issued. He also completed Polytempo Music, which employs a player piano’s exact timing to realize rhythms beyond human capability and was conceived for an interactive virtual-reality presentation featuring visual elements and multiple moving virtual sound sources.
In 2022 Baumbusch donated both sets of gamelan instruments he had built to Nata Swara, the Balinese gamelan ensemble. The group subsequently used them in partnership with the JACK Quartet on the 2023 album Brian Baumbusch: Chemistry for Gamelan and String Quartet. Baumbusch resides in Alameda, California, and continues his activities at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Between 2006 and 2011 Baumbusch toured Europe and the United States as a member of the Madrid-based Cacho Ensemble alongside José Luis Merlín, focusing on Argentinian folk repertoire. In 2013 he established the Lightbulb Ensemble to play “American Gamelan” instruments of his own design, whose tuning system drew on William Sethares’s investigations into the overtone series of metallic objects. That initiative prompted a collaboration with composer Wayne Vitale that produced Mikrokosma, a piece the ensemble recorded in 2017.
A 2016 grant from the Wallis Alexander Gerbode Foundation supported both a new set of Gamelan-inspired percussion instruments and the commission of a 90-minute work. Baumbusch began directing the University of California, Santa Cruz Balinese Gamelan Ensemble in 2014 and joined the faculty of the University of Santa Clara from 2016 to 2018. In 2020 he received a commission from the University of California Wind Ensemble for Isotropes; pandemic restrictions on physical proximity were addressed through remote instruction and individualized click tracks, allowing an online recording to be issued. He also completed Polytempo Music, which employs a player piano’s exact timing to realize rhythms beyond human capability and was conceived for an interactive virtual-reality presentation featuring visual elements and multiple moving virtual sound sources.
In 2022 Baumbusch donated both sets of gamelan instruments he had built to Nata Swara, the Balinese gamelan ensemble. The group subsequently used them in partnership with the JACK Quartet on the 2023 album Brian Baumbusch: Chemistry for Gamelan and String Quartet. Baumbusch resides in Alameda, California, and continues his activities at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Albums
