Stan Hoffman’s operas, music for experimental theater and dance, and concert music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra have been performed from Seattle to Germany. He has a keen interest in both narrative and non-narrative dramatic forms, microtonality, and instrument building.

Hoffman excels in collaboration and has served as music director for music theater productions, as composer and music director for an experimental theater company, and has taught world music, Javanese and Balinese music and performance, music history, theory, and other courses at Colorado Women’s College, Naropa University, and Cornish College of the Arts. In 1980 he co-founded Gamelan Pacifica for the performance of traditional and new music for Javanese gamelan and other instruments. In 2005 he founded the interdisciplinary SOMA Theatre to stage the premiere of Thirst.

Born in Rochester, New York, in 1951, Hoffman received a B.Mus. in Composition (1973) from the University of Michigan, studying with William Albright, George Cacioppo, and Leslie Bassett. In 1975 he received a M.A. in musicology and ethnomusicology (1975), also at the University of Michigan, studying with Judith Becker and William P. Malm. His master’s thesis, Epistemology and Music in Java, won the Charles Seeger Prize from the Society for Ethnomusicology (1974). In 2004, he received a M.M. in Composition from the New England Conservatory of Music under Michael Gandolfi.

Education

M.M. music composition, 2004, New England Conservatory of Music. Principal teacher: Michael Gandolfi. Studies with Malcolm Peyton, John Heiss, Robert Cogan, Peter Row, Robert Ceely, Gerald Zaritzky ,

M.A. musicology and ethnomusicology, 1975, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Thesis entitled Epistemology and Music in Java concerns the reflection of the Javanese conception of time in the structure of traditional gamelan music. Studies with Judith Becker and William P. Malm.

B. Mus. music composition, 1973, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Teachers: William Albright, George Cacioppo, Lesley Bassett.

Ferienkurs für neue Musik, 1972, Darmstadt, Germany. Attended lectures and performances by Karlheinz Stockhausen, Mauricio Kagel, György Ligeti, Christian Wolff, and others.

UCLA, 1969-1971. Studies in music theory, piano, performance of Yugoslav dance and music with Elsie Dunin an in and Balinese gamelan angklung with Mantle Hood.

Feldenkrais professional training in movement education, 1988-1991, Seattle, Washington.

Deep Listening retreat with Pauline Oliveros, June 1995, Castle Rock, Washington.

Seminar with James Macmillen, 1999, Barcelona, Spain.

Performance Workshop with Meredith Monk and Ensemble, June 2003, New York.

Professional Experience

SOMA Theatre. Founder, producer, and director of this interdisciplinary performance ensemble created as a laboratory for creation and development of new works, principally Thirst. Training included Suzuki theatre work, Viewpoints, improvisation, mask work, rhythm and music. 2005-2006

Gamelan Pacifica, Seattle, Washington. Co-founded this ensemble for the performance of traditional and new music in 1980.

Mudra Theater Group, Boulder, Colorado. Music director and resident composer. Experimental theater company using techniques and exercises derived from the work of Robert Wilson, Peter Brook, JeanClaude van Italie, and Tibetan ritual dance. Composed and improvised music for productions, acted, directed, taught, co-produced. 1976-1979

Colorado Women's College, Denver, Colorado. Instructor in world music and performance of Balinese gamelan angklung. 1977-1978.

Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle, Washington. Instructor in world music, music theory, music history, music for dancers, performance of Javanese gamelan. 1979-1980

Lawler-Rankin Productions, Seattle. Assistant producer for staging of La Serva Padrona. 1994.

Washington Composers Forum. Co-producer, publicity, program notes for concerts. 1995-1996.

Music director and conductor for productions of Die Drigroschenoper (Brecht/Weill) for the University of Michigan German Department (Spring 1974) and of Mother Courage (Brecht/Dessau) for the Theater Department (Fall 1974).

Opera Department, University of Michigan. Supernumerary and speaking roles, prop assistant, general assistant to director and production staff, accompanist at Interlochen Music Camp. 1973-1975.

Awards and Grants

National Defense Foreign Language Fellowship for study of Indonesian, 1973-1975. Awarded by the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan under the National Defense Education Act, Title VI.

Charles Seeger Prize for Epistemology and Music: A Javanese Example, paper presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, 1974, subsequently published in the Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology (January 1978).

Washington Composer's Forum recorded reading sessions with New Performance Group ( Ox Herding Music, 1995; Hungry Tigress and Spiders, 1996).

Professional Organizations

American Composers Forum
American Music Center
Opera America
National Opera Association
The Dramatists Guild
Living Music
New Opera and Musical Theater Initiative
Theatre Puget Sound.