Adrian Knight

Adrian Knight (b. 1987) is a Swedish composer and multi-instrumentalist. His work, which “paints a curious American landscape filled with nostalgia and decay, violence and melancholic solitude” (NewMusicBox), is characterized by its lush harmonic language, rhythmic plasticity, and startling unpredictability underpinning its ruminative surface. A musical polymath and tireless experimentalist, his compositions and recordings defy easy categorization and attest to his pursuit of an entirely intuitive music rooted in an ongoing examination of symmetry and structure as spontaneous elements of our brains’ vocabulary. Knight’s scores are published by Project Schott New York and Svensk Musik.

Recent projects include the albums Mall Music (Pink Pamphlet) including solo and ensemble works from 2010-2020, Life of the Party (Pink Pamphlet), Damn the Flood (Regional Attraction), the evening length Idea to Life (Success Stories)commissioned by The Living Earth Show, and Twinlings for two pianos. Works for Longleash and Timo Andres are currently in production. The sophomore album by San Francisco’s Mobius Trio, also released in 2019, featured Knight’s composition Bon Voyage as its title track. His album length piano piece Obsessions, commissioned and recorded by R. Andrew Lee, was lauded as “a substantial achievement” (New York Classical Review), “gorgeous, haunting” (The Brooklyn Rail) and “quietly eccentric…enigmatic but irrefutable” (Musikworks Magazine).

Previous commissions by The Living Earth Show, Andy Meyerson, Karl Larson, Maya Bennardo, the Johnstone Foundation, Bearthoven, TIGUE, Post:ballet, the Yale School of Drama, Margaret Lancaster, Norfolk Chamber Music Festival and others have resulted in a sizable collection of works for diverse instruments, many of which have become mainstays of the ensembles’ repertoire.

His music has been presented worldwide at prominent venues and festivals including Spoleto Festival, Lincoln Center, Tribeca New Music Festival, Mass MoCA, (le) Poisson Rouge, Issue Project Room, Avant Music Festival, Norberg Festival, Roulette, Fylkingen, Audiorama, EMPAC, Toledo Museum of Art, Tokyo University of the Arts and at numerous universities and colleges across North America.

His recordings have been released on Cantaloupe, Irritable Hedgehog, Innova, Galtta Media, Thanatosis, Slashsound and Perfect Wave, and have been featured on New Sounds WNYC, ClassicalMPR, WFMU, Resonance FM and NTS Radio to name a few.

He has received numerous awards and grants from the Society of Swedish Composers, STIM Sweden, ASCAP and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. Knight holds degrees from the Yale School of Music (M.M. 2011) and The Royal College of Music in Stockholm (B.A. 2009).

In addition to his compositional work, Knight is an accomplished studio musician and and an active member of several groups, including Blue Jazz TV, Alice Cohen and the Channel 14 Weather Team, Private Elevators and Synthetic Love Dream. His steady output of solo albums released on Galtta Media has generated a dedicated following in the underground cassette community. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

 

 

Education

2009-2011

Master of Music

Yale School of Music

2006-2009

Bachelor of Music

Royal College of Music in Stockholm

2000-2006

Piano studies

Stellan Alneberg

2000-2001

Clarinet studies

Catarina Lundegårdh

1999-2001

Organ studies

Andrew Canning

1993-2000

Piano studies

Kristina Eriksson

Work

2011-

Composer, Performer

2011-

Music Engraving, Music Editing

Schott Music Corporation

2010-2011

Teaching Fellow

Yale College Department of Music

Awards

2020    FST (Society of Swedish Composers)
2020    STIM Sweden
2018    FST (Society of Swedish Composers)
2015    FST (Society of Swedish Composers)
2013    FST (Society of Swedish Composers)
2012    Musikens Hus Vänner Uppsala
2012    Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute
2011    STIM Sweden
2011    ASCAP Morton Gould Award for ‘Comblé’
2010    ASCAP Mortn Gould Award for ‘Manchester’
2010    STIM Sweden
2008    Royal Swedish Academy of Music
2005    Royal Swedish Academy of Music

Solo
 

2022    Sometimes I Dream

2014    Dead In The Water

2014    Obsessions

2014    Humble Servant

2009    Death Of Paneloux

2008    Vain Attempts

2007    Abide With Me

Small Ensemble (2-6)
 

2020    Twinlings

2019    Idea To Life (Success Stories)

2018    The Continuing Dream

2018    Five Dreams

2017    Damn The Flood

2015    The Ringing World

2015    Occultations

2014    The Royal Scotsman

2013    Bon Voyage

2012    Family Man

2011    Trio

2010    20 Maj

2010    The Caligari Project

2010    The Tears

2009    Livet Innanför Väggarna

2008    Unruhe

2007    Daedaldualism

Medium Ensemble (7-13)
 

2021    God’s Children

2011    Mary’s Waltz

Large Ensemble
 

2010    Comblé

2009    Till Minne Av

2008    Manchester

Electronics
 

2011    Ted Bundy’s Requiem

2009    The Dividing Line

2009    Världens Undergång

2008    Metahymn

2008    Ricky Bruch

 

Stage
 

2011    Doctor Faustus Lights The Lights