Eclectic pianist-composer Erik Griswold embraces experimental, jazz and pop traditions, multi-media and cross-cultural collaborations to create works of striking originality.
Often employing prepared and toy pianos, he performs as a soloist, with his ensembles Clocked Out Duo and bluepoles quartet, and with En Rusk quintet and the Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble. He has composed a substantial body of chamber music for a variety of instruments, but especially for percussion and piano. His percussion compositions have been performed widely by Red Fish Blue Fish, Tambuco, Defying Gravity, Schlagwerkensemble Derndorfer, Los Angeles Percussion Collective, Steven Schick, Vanessa Tomlinson and many other ensembles and soloists.
Since the early 90s he has pursued an increasingly active interest in collaborative works involving innovative combinations of sound sculpture, music, text and installation. In Permanent Transit, for example, Griswold, artist Sarah Pirrie and writer Craig Foltz use sculpture, video projection, improvisation and spoken word performance to explore the theme “community in transit.” In addition he has collaborated with Chinese composer Zou Xiangping and choreographer Zhang Ping to create the concert-length Sichuan Fantasy, exploring points of contact between Chinese traditional and street music and Western experimental music.
His works have been presented at venues such as Shanghai International Festival, London Jazz Festival, Sydney Opera House, Improvisa Festival (Barcelona), Bang on a Can Festival (New York), Green Umbrella Concert Series (Los Angeles), Ii Festival Internacional Mœsica Y Escena (Mexico City), Australian Daehakro Festival (Seoul), Totally Huge New Music Festival (Perth), Big Sur Experimental Music Festival, Chengdu Arts Centre, Wangerratta Jazz Festival, and Drums in the Outback (Wogarno Station, W.A.) among others. His music can also be heard on these compact discs: More than my old piano and Other Planes (Erik Griswold), water pushes sand and Every Night the Same Dream (Clocked Out Duo), Kynan Robinson’s En Rusk, I Dig (Intergalactic Contemporary Ensemble) and Solar (Helios quartet).
He holds a Ph.D. in Music from the University of California, San Diego, where he studied composition with Roger Reynolds and improvisation with George Lewis.
