Michael Century

Century, Michael

Michael (Louis) Century. Composer, pianist, conductor, musicologist, administrator, b Salt Lake City, Ut, 24 Jul 1955; ARCT 1975, BA (Toronto) 1976, Degré moyen (Sorbonne) 1977, MA musicology (Berkeley) 1979, MA conducting (Iowa) 1983. His family moved to Canada when he was 5. His teachers included Reginald Godden (piano) in Toronto; Nadia Boulanger (private study 1976-7) in Paris; Joseph Kerman (musicology), Bonnie Wade (ethnomusicology), C.K. Ladzekpo (African drumming), and Pak-Chokro and Daniel Schmidt (gamelan) at the University of California, Berkeley; and James A. Dixon (conducting) at the University of Iowa. In 1979 Century became associated with the Banff CA, where he organized workshops in improvisational composition and jazz, was head of the Leighton Artist Colony and the inter-arts program, and in 1988 was named head of the media arts program. He has written incidental music for Banff CA productions, including Fanfare, JPL for the opening of the Jeanne and Peter Lougheed Building, and was responsible for the specialized studios for sound, video, and computer graphics in that building. In January 1991 he became Director of Program Development for the Banff CA. In addition to performing as a pianist and conductor, Century has composed for voice, chamber music combinations, and rock and jazz groups, and he has written and lectured extensively on such topics as computer and electroacoustic music, Glenn Gould, minimalism, post-modernism, and the semiology of music.