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"The final piece was a composition of Ned's called “Chamundi Hill” where Keiko imitated the sound of the tambura by intriguingly ‘bowing' the strings of the piano, which earned them a shout for encores and a standing ovation." - Marianne De Nazareth, The Hindu

Who is Ned McGowan?


Photo by Hari Adivarekar

Ned McGowan (1970) is a composer, flutist, researcher and teacher, born in the United States and living in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Known for rhythmical vitality and technical virtuosity, his music has won awards and been performed at Carnegie Hall, the Concertgebouw and other halls and festivals around the world by many orchestras, ensembles and soloists. As a flutist he plays classical, contemporary and improvisation concerts internationally and he has a special love for the contrabass flute, in 2016 releasing the album: The Art of the Contrabass Flute. Ned McGowan is a Pearl Artist, playing the Pearl PFC-905 contrabass flute.
 
Compositions

His works include Concerto for iPad & Orchestra (2012) which has been performed in the Netherlands, the United States and Brazil, Workshop (2004) for recorder and tape, six pièces mécaniques (2012), written for Calefax & Eric Vloemans, Cleveland Times (2016), commissioned for the NFA Flute Convention, Bantammer Swing (2008), a concerto for contrabass flute and orchestra, which premiered in Carnegie Hall by the American Composers Orchestra, Garden of Iniquitous Creatures (2016), for the Grammy Award winning sextet Eighth Blackbird, and the recent Concerto for Indian Percussionist, for BC Manjunath.


Academics

Ned teaches composition, Advanced Rhythm and Pulse, and is Head of Artistic Research at the Utrecht Conservatory. He is also a research coach at both the Codarts University of the Arts Rotterdam and the Fontys School of Performing Arts Tilburg and is currently a PhD candidate at the Leiden University and the DocARTES program in Ghent. He holds degrees in composition from the Royal Conservatory The Hague and in flute from the Cleveland Institute of Music and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. In 2014, he was awarded the Alumni Achievement Award from the Cleveland Institute of Music. He is the founder and director of the International Rhythm Course, a series of course in Utrecht and India dedicated to learning, exploring and performing rhythm.

Website: www.nedmcgowan.com


Listening
As flutist
Moonrise (1998)
Salvatore Sciarrino - Come vengono prodotti gli incantesimi?
Brian Ferneyhough - Carceri d'Invenzione II

Orchestral works
Concerto for iPad and Orchestra (2012)
TEDx Lecture about Concerto for iPad
Tempest in a Teapot

Ensemble works
Sound Becomes Visible in the Form of Radiance (2010)
six pièces mécaniques (2012)
No Permission Without Trespassing (2015)
Plutoid (2008)
Stupid Neck Chain (2015)
Hymn (2008)

Flute works
Cleveland Times (2016)
Cleveland Times, notes from the composer
Workshop (2004)
Torrent (2011)
Original Torrent improvisation

Contrabass flute
Earthly Chants (2016)
Contrabass flute with Indian Percussion
Wurgelguik (2013/2016)

Advanced Rhythm and Pulse teaching
Musician 3.0 lesson with guest BC Manjunath
Advanced Rhythm and Pulse class description

Workshop performances
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Score preview