Bio
Aaron Myers-Brooks is a composer, educator, and performer of diverse interests who comes to music-making by way of rock and metal’s avant-garde. Born and raised in Greenville, North Carolina by visual artist parents, he developed an interest in creativity at a young age, first via drawing as a child, and later with 4-track home recording during his teenage years, subsequently finding a home in the contemporary classical and DIY rock worlds in college. He completed doctoral studies in theory and composition at the University of Pittsburgh in the spring of 2014. He is currently active as a Pittsburgh-based composer and teacher, and as a guitarist in math-metal bands AutoReplicant and Monochromatic Residua, and filk duo Familiar. Aaron has composed in various styles, but always attempts to maintain a quirky and exciting approach to rhythmic energy in his music. Much of his recent work has focused on microtonal electric-guitar writing, both through alternate tunings, and on his recently acquired 17-notes-per-octave instrument. He has written pieces at the request of the North Carolina New Music Initiative, Collide-O-Scope Music, Patchwork, and Kamratōn, among others. He has participated in the Beyond 2020: Microtonal Music Festival, the Wellesley Composers Conference, the soundSCAPE Festival, the PSO Young Composers Reading, and the Cleveland Composers Recording Institute. As an educator, Aaron has largely focused on teaching Electronic Music and Theory, recently developing The University of Pittsburgh's first Ableton beat-making course, and assisting in the development of a music theory curriculum which integrates a broad variety of musics and perspectives.