York, Wes(ley)

York, Wes(ley), American composer; b. Portland, Maine, May 27, 1949. He studied theory privately with John Heiss, electronic music at the Mass. Inst. of Technology, and composition with Robert Cogan and Thomas DeLio at the New England Cons. of Music (B.M., 1981; M.M., 1984). York has composed works for theater, film, television, and dance, as well as for the concert hall and is also a respected writer on contemporary American music, especially Philip Glass and Morton Feldman. He moved to N.Y. in 1992, becoming closely affiliated with the American Music Center.

Works

dramatic: Incidental Music T o : Much Ado About Nothing (1970); A Full Moon in March (1973); At the Hawk’s Well (1973). F i 1 m : Hearing Voices (1989); Resilient Spirits (2000). CHAMBER: Two spirits, one inside the other, both of them singing for Chamber Orch. (1984); Reminiscence 2 for Flute, Clarinet, and Piano (1986);Muscle Music for Chamber Orch. (1991); For Cello and Piano (2000). Piano: Music for Strings (1989); Bartlett’s Rhapsody (1989); Reminiscence (1989); Right at the Center of the Sky (1992); For the day the time changes (1998). VOCAL: Alleluia for Chorus (1983); Three Native Songs for Soprano, Baritone, Piano, Percussion, and 2 Flutes (1985); Two Songs on a Poem of Su Tung for Tenor, Bass, and Piano (1985); For the Sleepwalkers for Baritone, Piano, Cello, Bass, and Chorus (1986); Songs from the Levertov Scores for Soprano, Violin, and Marimba (1986); My Heart is Different for Soprano and Piano (1988); Solitary Songs for Baritone (1992); Protest Song for Soprano, Piano, and Double Bass (1993); Songs from the Lakota for Soprano and Piano (1996); Journey for Tenor, 2 Percussion, Piano, Violin, Cello, and Double Bass (1997); Wedding Song for Soprano and Piano (2000). COMPUTER: Microtonal Musicbox (1983).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire