What Matters to Me and Why: Michael Dessen

In Person AND Zoom

Composer and trombonist Michael Dessen Links creates highly interactive, improvisatory music in collaboration with leading artists, while also working as a university professor to expand institutional spaces and partnerships for cultural innovation. As a composer, he has been recognized with awards from Chamber Music America, New Music USA and the Fromm Foundation, and as a trombonist, his original sound and broad skills have made him a valued sideperson for many innovative musicians. He has also worked extensively since 2007 in telematic music, composing, performing and co-directing dozens of networked (multi-site) concerts with international collaborators, as well as leading programs connecting youth in California and South America to explore the pedagogical and intercultural potentials of musical telepresence. Dessen has published writings on topics including networked music, the Asian American creative music movement and intercultural African diasporic collaboration, and his teachers include Yusef Lateef, George E. Lewis, and Anthony Davis. He is a Professor at the University of California, Irvine, where he co-founded an MFA and PhD program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation and Technology (ICIT), and and currently serves as Chair of the Music Department, Jazz Program Coordinator and Director of the Gassmann Electronic Music Studios.

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