Dubbed "an excellent example of the new generation of composers who have corralled influences of pop music and minimalism into a rich and lively genre of chamber music" by Village Voice>> new music critic Kyle Gann>>, Max Giteck Duykers is a composer whose work is dedicated to unusual beauty.
RecentNews "Sea Bourne", a new dance docmentary by Iron Works on the Edge for which I wrote the score will be presented at Stony Brook Southampton's Avram Theatre at 3pm on Sunday May 9th>> "Theatre Music: The Singles" now available on iTunes, Amazon, Napster, and eMusic. >> 12/11/08: The Stony Brook Orchestra reads "Glance" >> 11/8/08: The Escher String Quartet records "Glass Blue Cleft" >>
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He has received commissions from various performers, including Rachel Beetz, Philip Everall, Lisa Dowling, John Duykers>>, Jill Sokol, as well as the Stony Brook Department of Theatre Arts, the Oakland Youth Orchestra>>, PS122>>, Walkerspace, HERE Arts Center>>, Dixon Place>>, Chashama>>, Fordham University, and Warren Wilson College. Trio Tara>> just premiered one of his most recent works, "The Clemency of Milk" for bass clarinet, viola and piano, in March 2008. He has also received premieres by The Seattle Chamber Players>>, Anti-Social Music>>, The Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players>>, violinist Esther Noh>>, violinist Sibbi Bernhardsson>>, Raw Impressions>>, and others. Duykers’ “Twilight for Adored and Breathless Moments” was featured at the Music08>> festival at the University of Cincinnati last summer, with guest composers Steve Reich>> and Frederic Rzewski>> and ensemble-in-residence Eighth Blackbird>>. Duykers was also featured at the soundSCAPE 2008>> music festival at the Vittadini School of Music in Pavia, Italy in July. He also was the recipient of a Meet-The-Composer Award>> for the performance of "Twilight for Adored and Breathless Moments", featured recently at the Seattle Chamber Players’ Icebreaker IV>> contemporary music festival. The piece was called “full of surprises” by The Seattle Weekly>>, and a “gem…beautiful…an absolute pleasure to hear” by artdish.com.>>. More reviews>>
In the past ten years Duykers has composed music for over 30 theatrical, dance, short film, and multimedia projects in New York City. His theatre music has been heard throughout the United States and in Romania, and with the theatre group Prototype>>, he was an Artist in Residence at HERE Arts Center>> in New York from 2002-2004. In 2000-2001 he worked for Philip Glass’ The Looking Glass Studios>> and Dunvagen Music Publishers>>, where he did studio recording, Pro-Tools post-production, music sequencing, music copying and music editing for the Philip Glass Ensemble>>, film scoring projects, and operatic works.
As a youth he studied with composers John Adams>> and Richard Zvonar>>, and continued his studies at Oberlin Conservatory>> with Randy Coleman>> and Wendell Logan>>. He is currently in his 5th year of the PhD program in music composition at Stony Brook University>> where he has studied with Sheila Silver>>, Dan Weymouth>> and Perry Goldstein>>. At Stony Brook he also teaches music theory, musicianship and private composition lessons to undergraduate music majors.
Max lives in Brooklyn, NY with his wife Rebecca Curinga>> and their son Quinlan>>.
Check out the Listen>> page for samples and the News>> page for updates and current performances.