Bernard Walasavage
Bernie Walasavage (b. 1989) is a Kalamazoo, MI-based composer and teacher from the coal region area of Pennsylvania. Having earned a B.M. from Mansfield University of PA (2012), he taught public school for a year before relocating to the Midwest for graduate studies in composition at Western Michigan University (M.M., expected 2015).
His work explores the motivic development and distortion of gesture and form, along with an obsession with noise, collage, and micro-tonality. Themes of sexuality, absurdity, and sociopolitical matters also drive his current aesthetic through large ensemble, chamber groups, synthesized sounds, and computers.
He has studied and had lessons with Andrew Walters, Lisa R. Coons, Christopher Biggs, James Mobberley, and Samuel Adler and cites György Ligeti, Iannis Xenakis, and Gérard Grisey as specific influences in his musical, philosophical, and research interests.
A 2014 Finalist for the ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award, he has been performed by various chamber ensembles comprised of his friends at other universities along with performances within the idiosyncratic community of Kalamazoo, MI.
