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| Elliott Sharp | |
|---|---|
| Name | Elliott Sharp |
| Birth date | 1951 |
| Birth place | New York City, New York, United States |
| Genres | Avant-garde, Experimental, Contemporary classical, Jazz, Noise, Electronic |
| Occupations | Composer, Musician, Guitarist, Saxophonist, Producer |
| Instruments | Guitar, Soprano saxophone, Electronics |
| Years active | 1970s–present |
| Labels | Tzadik, New World, Intakt, Atavistic, New Albion |
Elliott Sharp is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist, and experimental music pioneer based in New York City. He has worked across contemporary classical, downtown New York, avant-garde jazz, noise, and electronic music, producing an extensive catalogue of recordings, scores, and interdisciplinary collaborations. Sharp's career spans work with composers, performers, ensembles, filmmakers, choreographers, and visual artists from the late 1970s to the present.
Sharp was born in New York City in 1951 and raised on Long Island, where he developed early interests that led him into New York's experimental scenes. He studied at the State University of New York and later engaged with academic and informal networks connected to institutions such as The Juilliard School, New York University, and Columbia University through performances, workshops, and collaborations. During his formative years he encountered figures from the downtown scene and the larger American experimental tradition including connections to musicians associated with The Kitchen, Knitting Factory, and Merce Cunningham Dance Company projects.
Sharp emerged in the late 1970s and 1980s amid downtown New York venues, releasing recordings and leading ensembles that blended rock instrumentation with contemporary composition practices. He founded projects and ensembles that toured in North America, Europe, and Asia, appearing at festivals such as WOMAD, Montreux Jazz Festival, and events connected to Lincoln Center and Museum of Modern Art (New York City). Throughout the 1990s and 2000s Sharp expanded into studio production, score commissions, and collaborations with artists linked to Tzadik Records, New World Records, and independent labels that document experimental music.
Sharp's compositional approach integrates serialism, microtonality, algorithmic processes, and improvisation, drawing on influences from composers and performers associated with John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and the downtown practitioners around Philip Glass and Steve Reich. He frequently employs extended techniques for guitar and saxophone and uses electronics, signal processing, and software-based composition systems inspired by research in computer music groups at institutions such as Bell Labs and university laboratories connected to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Sharp's music also references popular music idioms associated with The Velvet Underground, Jimi Hendrix, and Captain Beefheart while engaging with contemporary classical frameworks tied to premieres at venues associated with Bang on a Can and New Music USA networks.
Sharp has led and collaborated with a wide array of musicians, conductors, choreographers, and filmmakers. He founded ensembles including Carbon, Smash Ensemble, and the Terraplane project, and worked with performers linked to John Zorn, Fred Frith, Nels Cline, Bill Laswell, and Arto Lindsay. Sharp's collaborations extend to contemporary classical figures and ensembles associated with Ensemble Modern, Bang on a Can All-Stars, and soloists who have performed works by Morton Feldman and Elliott Carter. He has provided scores and sound design for choreographers connected to Trisha Brown, Merce Cunningham, and Bill T. Jones as well as film directors and multimedia artists associated with Godfrey Reggio-style experimental cinema.
Sharp's discography spans solo albums, ensemble records, and collaborative releases on labels including Tzadik Records, New World Records, Intakt Records, and Atavistic. Notable recordings feature work with Carbon, live improvisations with guests from The Knitting Factory scene, and solo guitar/electronics albums that document his use of signal processing and algorithmic composition techniques. His recorded output has been distributed and reviewed in publications connected to The Wire, DownBeat, and classical music journals tied to Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine.
Sharp has composed scores and provided sound design for feature films, documentaries, theater productions, and gallery installations, collaborating with filmmakers and visual artists who have shown work at institutions like MoMA PS1, Whitney Museum of American Art, and international film festivals such as Sundance Film Festival and Berlin International Film Festival. His projects have included live theater compositions for companies associated with The Wooster Group and soundtracks for documentaries whose directors exhibited work alongside peers from Kartemquin Films and independent documentary circles.
Throughout his career Sharp has received commissions, grants, and fellowships from organizations and funding bodies connected to National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and arts foundations that support contemporary music and interdisciplinary practice. His work has been recognized in music and arts coverage by outlets such as The New York Times, The Village Voice, and curated programs at institutions including Carnegie Hall and international contemporary music festivals.