Bruce Reiprich

Bruce Reiprich’s music has been described as having “unapologetic lushness” (NewMusicBox), “post-romantic radiance” (Danbury News-Times), and “a contemplative mood, its sedate pace subtly dilating the flow of time” (Eagle Rock Patch). It has also been characterized as “a deeply personal mediation on the poet’s feelings” (San Francisco Classical Voice), “very powerful” (All Music Guide), “lovely and evocative” (Guitar Review-New York), “very impressive” (Cumhuriyet-Turkey), and “of special interest” (Guitar International-England). With compositions that span the gamut from overt tonality and metric regularity to atonality and pronounced rhythmic flexibility, he explores the beauty of lyrical lines, lush harmonies, and colorful textures. Recently, he has been influenced by the long sentences with multiple subordinate clauses that Marcel Proust employed in his In Search of Lost Time, as well as the long, rhapsodic sentences of László Krasznahorkai, Claude Simon, and Mircea Cărtărescu. Ultimately, it is the beauty of the serene and quiescent in both nature and art that serves as his inspiration.

His music has been performed by violinists Miranda Cuckson and Goran Končar, pianists Vicki Ray, Ana Cláudia de Assis, Stephen Gosling, Mark Robson and Gary Barnett, the Indiana University New Music Ensemble, Washington Square Contemporary Music Society/League ISCM Chamber Players, Oficina Música Viva (Brazil), California E.A.R Unit, Ensemble Flageolet, Zeitgeist, Boston Modern Orchestra Project (Club Cafe Series), Composers, Inc., Boston New Music Initiative, Grand Circle New Music, Hartt Contemporary Players Ensemble, Society for New Music, Civic Performers Innovative Music, Gregg Smith Singers, Hradec Kralove Philharmonic Orchestra (Czech Republic), Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, Knox-Galesburg Symphony, Pro Musica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, and Oakland Civic Orchestra.

His music has been heard abroad with performances in Brazil, China, Poland, Germany, Romania, Portugal, England, Turkey, and Mexico, and throughout the United States. International, national, and regional festival performances include the Festival of New Music: Touchpoints (Portugal), Săptămâna Internatională a Muzicii Noi (Romania), Shenyang Conservatory Festival of American Music (China), Piano Spheres, Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA, International Double Reed Society Conference, North American Saxophone Alliance National Convention, Society of Composers National and Regional Conferences, San Francisco Chamber Wind Festival, and New Directions Concerts (California), among others.

After receiving B.M. and M.A. degrees in music theory from the Eastman School of Music, Reiprich attended the University of Iowa, where he was awarded a Ph.D. in music composition. A former faculty member of the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music and Wilkes University, he joined the Northern Arizona University faculty in 1999, where he is currently a Professor of Music Composition and Theory in the School of Music. In addition to composing and teaching, he is actively engaged in the promotion of contemporary music as Director of Flageolet, a professional new music ensemble.