Howard Sandroff
Biography
Composer/Sound Artist

Howard Sandroff's concert works, written for soloists, mixed chamber ensembles and orchestra, often include live or pre-recorded electronics and have been performed, recorded and broadcast by major arts organizations throughout the world including New Music America, the Society of Composers, the Aspen Music Festival, New Music Chicago, the International Computer Music Conference in Ohio, Cuba and Singapore, the International Society of Electronic Arts, the Smithsonian Institute, the World Saxophone Congress in Japan and France, the International Clarinet Society in Quebec and Paris, Vermont New Music Ensemble, Chicago Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series, the Musik Factory in Bergen and the Ultima Festival in Oslo, Norway, the M-Cluster festival at the Berlin Academy of Art, the Week of Contemporary Music in Buckarest and ICMC in Singapore, the Sonic Peripheries festival in Bremen Germany, Musica Acoustica Festival in Beijing and many others.

In June 1996, Sandroff was invited by Maestro Pierre Boulez to the dedication of the new I.R.C.A.M. facilities at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris where Alain Damiens, soloist with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, performed Sandroff's 1990 composition, Tephillah: for clarinet and computer. In October 1999, he was featured composer at the Ultima Festival in Oslo, Norway and was the subject of a 90-minute broadcast on WNIB Radio Chicago.. On March 22, 2000, the Chicago Pro Musica performed a retrospective of Sandroff’s chamber works at Chicago's Symphony Center celebrating the composer’s 50th birthday. A 90 minute broadcast on WNIB featuring Sandroff and his work preceded the Symphony Center performance of five of his works spanning 25 years. In 2003 he received his fifth composition fellowship from the Illinois Arts Council. In September 2004, Sandroff’s works were featured during the m-cluster festival at the Berlin Academy of Art and in May 2005, he was guest composer of the Week of Contemporary Music in, Buckarest where in addition to a performance of his work he lectured to composition students at the George Enescu Academy of Music

In March 2008, Sandroff’s was one of four featured composers at the Music Institute of Chicago’s Four Score Festival. In addition to the five compositions performed by the Music for a While Ensemble, an exhibition of his recent welded steel sculpture was mounted. An interview with Andrew Patner, music critic of the SunTimes, was broadcast on WFMT radio the week before the concert in addition to two broadcasts on WNYU in New York. In 2009, Tephillah was arranged for Alto Saxophone and premiered by saxophonist Geoffery Diebel. In April, his works were performed by the NYU New Music Ensemble under the direction of Esther Lamneck and in May, three pieces were performed by CUBE on their Soundly Sandroff concert. In December Sandroff was featured artist at the Sonic Peripheries Festival in Bremen, Germany and visiting Professor at The Bremen University of the Arts. In October 2011, Sandroff was invited as guest composer at the Musicacoustica Festival at the Central Conservatory of Beijing, where he performed, lectured and judged their international festival of electronic and computer music. In February 2012, The Regenstein Library at the University of Chicago mounted an exhibition of Sandroff’s life and work. The exhibition included scores, CD’s, photos and other memorabilia and his most recent sound sculpture. In October he was featured Guest Composer at the Festival of New Music, University of Louisville and in the autumn of 2012 and exhibition featuring Sandroff’s works and career was mounted by the Columbia College Library.

Among Sandroff's works are: The Bride's Complaint, commissioned by soprano Susan Charles and recorded for a 2000 release from the Electronic Music Foundation, Concerto for Electronic Wind Instruments and Strings, commissioned by saxophone virtuoso, Frederick Hemke, received its premiere with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, Tephillah for Clarinet and Computer Controlled Signal Processors was commissioned by Yamaha Corporation of America for Chicago Symphony clarinetist, John Bruce Yeh. Yeh has recorded the work for Koch International Classics (KOCH3-7088-2 H1). Tephillah was also recorded by Alain Damiens, principal clarinetist of the Ensemble Intercontemporaign and released on Virgin Classics: American Clarinet (VC 5 45351 2). Eulogy for solo saxophone was commissioned by the Japan Saxophonist Association and is published by Editions Henry Lemoine, Paris and was recorded by Saxophonist Paul Bro for a release from Arizona University Recordings (Aur CD 30630). Chorale for Saxophone Quartet was commissioned and premiered by the Chicago Saxophone Quartet and the musical score to "A Child's Journey Through Auschwitz", a documentary film by Michael Rabiger was completed and recorded in Chicago. La Joie for clarinet trio, commissioned and premiered in Paris by Chicago Symphony clarinetists John Bruce Yeh and Larry Combs and Depaul University clarinet professor, Julie De Roche and was released by Helicon Records (HE 1028). Chant de femmes for flutes and electronic sounds, was commissioned and premiered by flautist Mary Stolper and recorded by flutist Leonard Garrison on his release from Capstone (CPS-8751) Superflute. “…shevet achim gam yachad” for seven instruments was premiered by the Chicago Pro Music at Chicago's Symphony Center and has been recorded for a release on Helicon Records. Two of his piano works, Adagio and “...there is a decided lack of enthusiasm at my end of the leash.” for two pianos and electronic sound are available on Centaur Records (CRC 2082). His most recent works, Untitled, is a composition for solo laptop computer and six channels spatialized sound system and Untitled Interactive Work for Sound Sculpture and Computer.

In addition to his work as a composer, conductor, technical consultant, teacher, author and sculptor, as a sound artist, Sandroff specializes in the live performance and recorded realizations of computer/electronic music. He has realized, programmed or performed works by Alvin Lucier, Edwin London, Robert Lombardo,, Steve Reich, Barney Childs, Matthew Malsky, Easly Blackwood, Morton Subotnik, Kaija Saariaho and Pierre Boulez and with CSO clarinetist John Bruce Yeh, is a member of the performing duo Double Dialogue.

An acknowledged expert in analog and computer-based electronic music and audio systems, Sandroff regularly tours, performs lectures and consults on the design of academic and commercial electronic music and digital audio systems. He has been guest composer at The Julliard School, Stanford University, Northwestern University, the Manhattan School of Music, the Capital Area Composers Consortium, Catholic University of America, Bennington College, State University of New York in Albany, Rennsilear Polytechnic Institute, Bowling Green State University, Queens College of the City University of New York, Catholic University, The University of Texas, Princeton University, Kunitachi College of Music, Japan Saxophonist Association, the Grand Rapids Michigan Chamber Music Society, Marian College, Cleveland State University, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Institut de Recherche' et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (I.R.C.A.M.), the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, The University of Oklahoma, The University of Tulsa, The University of Wisconsin, Colgate University and the Aspen Music Festival. He has appeared as guest artist with the Santa Fe Opera, the Chicago Symphony Chamber Series, the Ojai Festival, I.S.C.M. Boston, the Grand Rapids Chamber Music Society, the University of Tulsa, Contempo of The University of Chicago and many others. His published articles on musical and technical topics have appeared in a variety of publications including the International Computer Music Conference Proceedings, New Ways: In Music Education, The Computer Music Journal and Electronic Musician Magazine. His most recent article on Acoustic Ecology will appear in the January 2013 issue of the Journal of the National Speleological Society, Cave Diving Section.

Howard Sandroff is currently Professor of Sound Art at Columbia College Chicago, Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics and has been a member of the Columbia faculty since 1978. He was instrumental in creating curriculum in sound technology, computer applications in sound and music and is a founding member of the Department of Audio Arts and Acoustics and its predecessor, the Sound Department. He is also Senior Lecturer in Music and Founder and Director of the Computer Music Studio at The University of Chicago, Department of Music. Sandroff is formerly Music Director and Conductor of Chicago's New Art Ensemble. A Chicago native, Howard Sandroff received the Master of Music degree with Honors in Composition from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University and completed advanced studies in computer music and audio systems at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has received composition fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Athena Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, and research grants from Columbia College, Chicago Artists Abroad, The University of Chicago Women’s Board and Arts Council, the Yamaha Music Foundation and others.

In the early 2000’s Sandroff began sculpting in welded steel and has expanded that medium to include his interest in computer-controlled interactive sound installations and robotics. These works bear an uncanny aesthetic consistency with his compositions in that they are characterized by extreme economy of material and complexity, which is not borne of evolutionary development and his interest in arresting time and space. Sandroff likens his musical compositions to mobiles, a collection of fixed elements that are continually changing their association with other fixed elements. His works have been exhibited in group shows at the Evanston Arts Center, the DOVA Temporary Gallery, Columbia College Faculty Salon, Regenstein Library and a one-man show at the Nichols Concert Hall. His most recent project (in progress) is a large scale welded steel sound installation that portrays his own apocalyptic vision of the natural sonic world morphing into our mechanical and industrialized sound-scape.

Sandroff is the recipient of the 2012 & 2013 ASCAP Plus Award and the 2013 Distinguished Alumni Award from Niles Township Community High School.