Will Redman (b. 1975) is a composer, percussionist, and educator living in Baltimore, MD. He composes chamber music that explore static complexity and kinetically energized melodic variation as well as open form graphically-fantastic scores that use unsystematic notation to engage the extremes of individual musicians’ unique interpretive abilities. Recent works include conventionally notated chamber pieces such as True Devils Chronology, as well as scores such as Scroll (an eight foot long scroll of radically unsystematic notation) and Book (a collection of 98 modular compositions). Will's music has been performed, broadcast, and written about in the U.S. and abroad (including Time Stands Still conference at Wesleyan University, the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, June In Buffalo, SCI National Conferences, Neue Toene Open in Stuttgart, and Livewire and High Zero in Baltimore). Excerpts from Book are included in, and featured on the cover of, the anthology of graphic scores Notations 21. Will has been profiled by NewMusicBox, The Baltimore Sun, and the Baltimore City Paper.
Will plays drum set, vibraphone and other percussion instruments in several ensembles including the improvising avant-rock band Microkingdom, for whom he also acts as co-engineer/-producer. He also leads The Compositions, an ensemble dedicated to his own chamber music and plays in the percussion quartet Umbilicus. Within these and other performing situations Will has performed at various venues and festivals, and has had the privilege to perform with John Dierker, Michael Formanek, Dave Ballou, John Berndt, Audrey Chen, Steve Baczkowski, Marc Miller, and many others.
Will has earned a BA from the University of Maryland at Baltimore County, an MA from the University of Southampton (England), and a PhD in composition from the University at Buffalo, where he was a Dean’s Fellow and adjunct lecturer. He has studied percussion with Tom Goldstein and Kevin Norton; composition with Stuart S. Smith, Michael Finnissy, and Jeffrey Stadelman; and computer music with Cort Lippe; and has participated in masterclasses with composers such as Brian Ferneyhough, Christopher Rouse, and Alvin Lucier. Will is currently an adjunct faculty member in the Music department at Towson University, where he teaches Rock History, History of Audio Technology, and Composition; he also teaches privately. Research interests include innovative music notation, underground experimental/improvised music communities, and Hip Hop and Punk Rock.