Charles Norman Mason:
Biography
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Mason’s style of composition he refers to as
Hyper-Connectivism. He defines Hyper-Connectivism
as follows: “The word Connective refers to the idea of disparate parts working
together towards a common goal. The term
Hyper refers to on the one hand, the edge where great things happen; on the
other hand to the point where at any moment, all could fall into disarray, the
border right before chaos.”
CHARLES NORMAN MASON has received many awards for
his compositions, including the 2005 Samuel Barber Rome Prize Fellowship, the
1998 Premi Internacional de Composició Musical Ciutat de Tarragona Orchestra
Music prize, and a 1994 National Endowment of the Arts Individual Composers
Grant.
Among the commissions he has received are
commissions from the Alabama Symphony, the Goliard Ensemble, the Corona Guitar
Kvartet (Denmark), the Dale Warland Singers, Karen Bentley Pollick, Craig
Hultgren, William DeVan, Mildred Allen, Scott Deal, Wagner Campos, Roderick
Ferguson, Atlas Saxophone Quartet, Luna Nova Ensemble, Youth Opera Foundation,
Fairbanks Symphony Association, and ONIX ensemble (Mexico).
He has held residencies at the
Charles N. Mason was born in Salt Lake City, Utah
and has lived in Miami, Indianapolis, and Champaign-Urbana,
An strong advocate of
other composers and new music in general, Dr. Mason is executive director of Living Artist Foundation, an organization devoted
to promoting new music. Mason was editor
of the Living Music journal for fifteen years prior to taking over the
Foundation in 1999. Mason is also co-founder of the Birmingham Art Music Alliance,
an organization whose primary purpose is to present concerts of new music in
the