Wet Ink Member Composers
Reiko Füting
was born in Königs Wusterhausen of the German Democratic Republic in
1970. He was educated at the State High School for Music in Wernigerode (as
a member of the Radio Youth Choir), the Conservatory of Music in Dresden (Diploma
in Composition with Jörg Herchet and Piano with Winfried Apel), Rice
University in Houston, Texas (MM in Composition), the Manhattan School of
Music in New York City (DMA in Composition with Nils Vigeland), and Seoul
National University in the Republic of Korea (studies in composition with
Sukhi Kang). He has attended master classes in composition (with Helmuth Lachenmann,
Gérard Grisey, Tristan Murail, and Christian Wolff, among others) and
vocal accompanying (with Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Olaf Bär, and Semion
Skigin) in Germany, Austria, France, the Czech Republic, and the U.S.
Mr. Füting has received numerous prizes, awards, scholarships, and grants
in both Europe and the U.S. His publications include choral compositions and
analytical papers (Edition Music Contact Werdau, Verlag Kamprad Altenberg).
Various choral compositions have been broadcast on radio (Middle German Radio,
Bavarian Radio, West German Radio, North German Radio) and television (Second
German Television), and released on CDs (B.T.M, Deutsche Schallplatten, OehmsClassics,
and Bayrischer Rundfunk labels).
Mr. Füting has appeared as a composer, pianist, and vocal accompanist
at many prestigious festivals and venues in Germany, Austria, France, Italy,
Greece, Czech Republic, Uzbekistan, South Korea, and the United States. He
is a member of the New York composers collective, Wet Ink Musics.
In the fall of 2000, Mr. Füting joined the theory faculty at Manhattan
School of Music; five years later, he became a member of the composition faculty
and was appointed department chair of theory. Mr. Füting has also taught
Vocal Accompanying at the Conservatory of Music and Theater in Rostock, Germany
and appeared as a guest faculty and lecturer at the New School University
in New York, the University in Leipzig, the American Academy in Berlin, and
the conservatories in Rostock and Dresden.
More information about Reiko Füting can be found at www.reiko-fueting.de
online.
Alex Mincek (b.1975) is a New York-based
composer and performer. His music has been influenced by a broad range of
styles and techniques stemming from his involvement with numerous musical
traditions as well as concepts and techniques associated with the visual arts.
In addition to composing with various notational practices, he is deeply committed
to the art of improvisation and has worked in various forms of jazz, punk,
electronic and experimental music.
Mincek’s music has been programmed by major music festivals such as the Royaumont Voix Nouvelles and Musiques Demesurees festivals in France, the Darmstadt and Magdeburg music festivals in Germany, the Ostrava New Music Days festival in the Czech Republic and the World Music Institute’s Interpretations series in New York City. Mincek has collaborated with groups including the Orchestra of the SEM Ensemble, Ensemble Cairn, the Janecek Philharmonic, the Second Instrumental Unit, Red Light, Tactus, the Vega String Quartet and the Scarborough Trio. Mincek’s music has also been recognized through commissions and grants from the New Mendelssohn Chamber Orchestra Leipzig, Ensemble XXI (France), MATA, Meet The Composer, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, and Present Music. Mincek has appeared as a composer and/or performer on the Tzadik, Planeria and Troubleman Unlimited recording labels.
From 2001 through 2005, Mincek was an original member of the experimental ensemble Zs, with whom he performed his own music, the music of others and improvisations. He currently composes for and serves as the saxophonist, bass clarinetist and music director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a group dedicated to experimental contemporary music, which he founded in 1998.
Mincek studied saxophone and clarinet with Bunky Green and Richard Oatts. He has studied composition with Tristan Murail, Fred Lerdahl, Nils Vigeland and Sabastian Currier. Mincek holds a bachelor’s degree in performance and a master’s degree in composition from the Manhattan School of Music and is currently a doctoral candidate in composition at Columbia University, where he is also a music history instructor.
“My most recent compositions are the result of my interest in what
might be thought of as the space in which pure difference mingles with sameness,
where bare repetition meets with complex distribution and where timbre, texture
and harmony are treated as equals.” AM
Katharine Soper (b.1981)
is a Michigan-born, New York-based composer and performer with a diverse background.
Currently pursuing her doctorate in music at Columbia University, where she
focuses primarily on concert music, she has written music for dance, film,
theatre and electronics and has worked as a sound designer and a dj. Currently
active as a new music vocalist, she has performed extensively as a piano-based
singer-songwriter, recording and producing four solo albums from 2000-2004.
She received her Bachelor of Music in composition from Rice University in
2003 and has attended summer programs at the Aspen Music Festival, June in
Buffalo, the Norfolk Contemporary Music Workshop, the Wellesley Composers
Conference, and the Tanglewood Music Center.
Jeff
Snyder (b.1978) is a composer, electronics performer and sound artist
working in New York City. His works, which characteristically employ combinations
of acoustic, electric, and electronic instruments, have been performed by
a variety of ensembles, most recently the Timetable Percussion Trio and L’Ensemble
Portique, both of whom performed commissioned works in 2006. His latest work
is for solo saxophone with custom-built feedback electronics, and was performed
several times around the country by saxophonist Eliot Gattegno in the fall
of ‘06. In addition to his concert works, he often collaborates with
artists from other mediums, most frequently with the modern dance group Fivefour,
the choreographer/video artist Nora Stephens, and the visual artist Gandalf
Gavan.
Jeff earned his undergraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he studied with Stephen Dembski. As a current doctoral candidate at Columbia University, Jeff continues his compositional studies under the direction of Joseph Dubiel, and works closely with robotics artist and Dorkbot founder Douglas Repetto. He focuses his research primarily on producing acoustic sound through mechanical or electronic means. For the past two years, Jeff has focused on the creation of several new electronic instruments.
As a member of the Wet Ink composers’ collective, Jeff has been presenting
and performing in concerts of new music in the New York area for over two
years, and has written several works for the Wet Ink Ensemble. Jeff can often
be seen performing solo electronic music under the moniker Scattershot, as
one-half of an analog modular synth duo with Sam Pluta, or as one quarter
of the video game rock band, The Power-Ups. In addition to his own electronic
works, Jeff enjoys remixing other artists and has produced remixes for artists
ranging from Public Enemy (working with collaborator Ryan Smith) to TV Pow
(released on Bottrop-Boy in 2006).
Eric Wubbels (b.1980) is a Virginia-born composer, pianist, and accordionist.
His music, influenced by studies in psychoacoustics, Buddhist philosophy,
and linguistics, attempts to reconcile extremes of complexity and visceral
directness, while seeking the roots of musical aesthetics in the physiology
of the human body.
Currently pursuing his D.M.A. in composition at Columbia University, he also
holds an M.A. from Columbia (2005) and a B.A. from Amherst College (2001).
His principal teachers have been Lewis Spratlan, Fred Lerdahl, and Tristan
Murail and he has participated in masterclasses with Jonathan Harvey, Michael
Jarrell, Toshio Hosokawa, Chaya Czernowin, Marc André, Adriana Hölszky,
Dieter Mack, and Marco Stroppa. In 2006, he was selected to be a Fellow at
the Wellesley Composers Conference, studying with Mario Davidovsky and Kurt
Rohde. His music has been performed by performers and ensembles such as the
Second Instrumental Unit, Zs, flutist Reiko Manabe, saxophonist Eliot Gattegno,
the Wet Ink Ensemble, and members of New York New Music and Ensemble Sospeso,
and he has received grants and commissions from the Worldwide Concurrent Premieres
and Commissioning Fund, Manabe/Moriyama Duo, the Wellesley Composers Conference,
and the Edward Poole Lay Fund of Amherst College, among others.
Also active as a performer, Wubbels is the pianist and accordionist for the Wet Ink Ensemble, and pianist for the Second Instrumental Unit and the Kenners.
He has taught at Columbia University, the University of California-San Diego,
and Amherst College, and from 2001-2002 held the positions of Graduate Associate
in Music and Assistant Director of Instrumental Music at Amherst.
