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Per Bloland is a composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music whose works have been praised by the New York Times as “lush, caustic,” and “irresistible.” His compositions range from short intimate solo pieces to works for large orchestra, incorporate video, dance, and custom electronics, and often draw on a variety of other art forms. He is interested particularly in the intersections between literature and music, especially regarding issues of modernity in both disciplines.

Bloland has received awards and recognition from organizations including IRCAM, ICMA, SEAMUS/ASCAP, the Ohio Arts Council, Digital Art Awards of Tokyo, the Martirano Competition, ISCM, the Eastman Computer Music Center, SCI/ASCAP, the Dal Niente Composer Competition, Taukay Edizioni Musicali, and the Accademia Musicale Pescarese. His first opera, Pedr Solis, was commissioned and premiered by Guerilla Opera in 2015, and received rave reviews from the Boston Globe and the Boston Classical Review. In 2013 his work was selected for performance at the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) World New Music Days in Slovakia. He has received commissions from Hinge Quartet, Unheard-of//Ensemble, loadbang, Keith Kirchoff, Wild Rumpus, Guerilla Opera, the Ecce Ensemble, Ensemble Pi, the Callithumpian Consort, Stanford’s CCRMA, SEAMUS/ASCAP, the Kenners, Michael Straus and Patti Cudd. His music can be heard on the TauKay (Italy), Capstone, Spektral, and SEAMUS labels, on the 2015 ICMC DVD, and through the MIT Press. His first portrait CD, Chamber Industrial, was performed by Ecce Ensemble and is available on Tzadik. His second, Shadows of the Electric Moon, is available on New Focus Records.

Performers of Bloland’s music include Guerilla Opera, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Talea Ensemble, the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), the Quasars Ensemble (Slovakia), Bent Frequency, Insomnio, the Callithumpian Consort, Linea Ensemble, Ecce Ensemble, newEar, sfSound, Ensemble Moto Perpetuo, the Worn Chamber Ensemble, the Stanford Symphony Orchestra, Taka Kigawa, Elliot Gattegno, Keith Kirchoff, Bill Solomon, Patti Cudd, Margaret Lancaster, Sebastian Berweck, John Sampen, and Marianne Gythfeldt. His music has been performed at Bourges, Darmstadt, ICMC, SEAMUS, the ISCM World New Music Days, SIGGRAPH, Gaudeamus, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, the SCI National Conference, Stanford Lively Arts, the Third Practice Electroacoustic Music Festival, the Ingenuity Festival Cleveland, and the Bowling Green New Music Festival, among others. His collaborative video piece Graveshift has been widely viewed and acclaimed as part of the Visual Music Marathon.

Bloland is an Associate Professor and head of the Composition and Music Technology areas at Miami University, Ohio. He is also a founding board member and composition faculty at the SPLICE Institute, for which he currently serves as treasurer, webmaster, and chair of the Publicity Committee. He was previously a Visiting Assistant Professor of Computer Music at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where he served as the founding director of the Oberlin Improvisation and Newmusic Collective (OINC). Bloland has also taught at UC Santa Cruz, Stanford University, and the University of Texas. He received his D.M.A. in composition from Stanford University, where he studied with Mark Applebaum, Brian Ferneyhough, Chris Chafe, and Erik Ulman. At Stanford Bloland worked extensively at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He received his M.M. from the University of Texas at Austin, where he acted as the Electronic Music Studios (EMS) Manager and studied with Kevin Puts, Russell Pinkston, and Bruce Pennycook.

The Electromagnetically-Prepared Piano, an early invention of which he is the co-creator and primary composer, continues to receive attention. In addition to giving numerous lecture/demonstrations, he has composed a number of pieces for the device, written a paper (“The Electromagnetically-Prepared Piano and its Compositional Implications,” published in the Proceedings for the International Computer Music Conference 2007), and developed the website magneticpiano.com.

Bloland has participated in two research residencies at IRCAM, both focused on the Electromagnetically-Prepared Piano. His first, in 2013, involved the creation of a physical model of the coupling between a resonator (such as a piano string) and an electromagnet. The result, the induction connection, is available through IRCAM’s Modalys software. His second residency marked the launch of the CAPSICUM project, focused on implementing an active control system with electromagnets to widen the timbral possibilities of the piano. CAPSICUM is a joint venture across multiple institutions, including IRCAM, Mines Paris – PSL, and Cambridge University.

Bloland is the co-developer of the MaxOrch software package. Available as both a Max patch and a standalone application, MaxOrch is a widely adopted user interface for the Orchidea Max objects, designed for computer-assisted orchestration. He has given many workshops and presentations on its use, and offers a MaxOrch seminar annually at the SPLICE Institute.

Bloland’s previous research focused on the interaction between literature and instrumental music, examining strategies employed by composers in reaction to literary influences. He has written many pieces in response to novels and short stories. Of particular interest to him is the relatively obscure work of the Norwegian author Pedr Solis. Bloland has used his own analyses of the author’s poetry and prose to inform a number of pieces, starting with his dissertation, The Stillaset Cycle. His first opera, titled Pedr Solis, was based loosely on the author’s life and ideas. His article, “On Composition and Literature–Pedr Solis, the Author and the Opera,” was included in Arcana VIII: Musicians on Music -- Ten Year Anniversary Edition, published by John Zorn’s Tzadik Books.

Bloland often performs on the lap steel feedback banjo, an instrument of his invention. On this instrument he makes up half of Chainsaw Fugue, an audio-visual noise improv duo based in Cincinnati. As a trumpet player Bloland performed in a various jazz bands and orchestras in San Francisco and Austin. He was a core member of the Bay Area Guided Improv Ensemble and performed in OINC while at Oberlin.

Bloland was awarded an Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award for 2014.

Scores may be purchased at babelscores.com/perbloland