Tenzer, Michael

Michael Tenzer

Michael Tenzer is active as a performer, composer, scholar, and teacher.  As an ethnomusicologist his four books and many articles address topics ranging from aesthetics to category theory, and has been instrumental in the recent revival of music analysis techniques in the study of world traditions. Active in the international proliferation of gamelan music since 1977, he did years of fieldwork in Indonesia, co-founded Gamelan Sekar Jaya (now in its 44th year) in Berkeley in 1979, and was the first non-Balinese to compose for Balinese ensembles in Bali. His work has been cited there as “an important contribution to our cultural heritage”.  His 2000 book “Gamelan Gong Kebyar: The Art of Twentieth Century Balinese Music” (Chicago) received the Alan P. Merriam Prize of the Society for Ethnomusicology and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award.  Tenzer's music is written for diverse media and has been performed in the Americas, Europe and Asia with commissions and performances by the Koussevitzky Fund, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, American Composers' Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Chamber Players, and more. He has been Professor of Music at the University of British Columbia since 1996.