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Jonathan bepler official site-- Gradually updating 2019

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Composer Jonathan Bepler was largely self-taught on many instruments before he attended Bennington College, where his studies focused on composition, improvisation, and performance. 


Bepler’s interest in collaboration and interdisciplinary work was further explored during the twenty years he lived in New York City, before later moving to Berlin for family reasons. His work often involves the co-mingling of seemingly disparate elements, a love of chaos, and a desire for reconciliation. He employs a wide variety of musical forces, including objects and alternative instruments with performers ranging from non-musicians and children to accomplished players from classical and other traditions. 


He has collaborated with choreographers including John Jasperse (California, Bessie award for Score), Sasha Waltz (S, Gezeiten), Jennifer Lacey (This is an Epic, Mhmmm, and Les Assistantes), and Wally Cardona (Tool is Loot, The Setup) Bepler has led ensembles of both improvised and pre-composed music in the US and Europe. His concert music includes works for the Ensemble Modern, the Glenn Branca Ensemble, the Basel Sinfonietta, and the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France. 


A multi-channel sound installation Dances for Broken Ensemble was recently exhibited at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. His 2008 score for The Rape of the Sabine Women includes 600 voices in the Herodeon Theatre at the Acropolis, a cliff-side Bouzouki ensemble, and a piece for butchers, knives and meat. 


Curtain Callers, a collaboration with artist Ann-Sofi Siden inside the Royal Dramatic Theater of Sweden, is showing in Berlin and Stockholm.


His close collaboration with artist Matthew Barney has spanned 20 years and has included some 7 films and 5 performances. Their 7 year Opera/Film project River of Fundament (co-authored by Bepler) involved large scale site-specific performances in 5 different cities (Act I, Los Angeles, 2008. Act II, Detroit, 2010. ACT III, NYC, 2012. Act IV, Brooklyn, 2013) has been presented at major theaters including Bayerische Staatsoper and Onassis Cultural Center since 2014.