Mika
Pelo
COMPOSER
PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION
UC DAVIS
MP
SWEDISH COMPOSER MIKA PELO WRITES MUSIC FOR SOLOISTS, CHAMBER ENSEMBLES, AND ORCHESTRAS, WITH OR WITHOUT ELECTRONICS. HE HOLDS A DOCTORATE IN COMPOSITION FROM COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY AND IS PROFESSOR OF COMPOSITION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS. HIS PRINCIPAL COMPOSITION TEACHERS INCLUDE TRISTAN MURAIL AND BENT SØRENSEN. MIKA'S MUSIC IS PUBLISHED BY EDITION PETERS, GERMANY
Biography
Mika is Professor of Composition at University of California, Davis, where he has been on the faculty since 2008. Recent accolades include a Fromm commission from Harvard University, and being named a Guggenheim Fellow.
Pelo is inspired by the French so-called spectral composers and Scandinavian lyricism and describes his method of composition as “controlled dreaming.” The Strad magazine writes that Pelo’s music “fashions a fascinating mosaic of sonorities,” and the Irish Times writes that Pelo’s music is built by “gestures that were once the province of the avant-garde . . . here pliably exploited by a sensibility that sounded decidedly romantic.”
Recent pieces include Seagram Murals for Saxophone Quartet (a Chamber Music America commission) and a commission from the Royal Academy of Music in Sweden, Violin Concerto No. 2.
His music is published by Edition Peters, Germany.
