Peter Van Zandt Lane

Biography

Peter has composed music for International Contemporary Ensemble, The Lydian String Quartet, Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, Triton Brass, Xanthos Ensemble, East Coast Composers Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, NotaRiotous, The Quux Collective, and the New York Virtuoso Singers. Works have also been played by The Cleveland Orchestra, Ensemble SIGNAL, and Freon Ensemble (Rome). He has received commissions from the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition, the Composers Conference and Chamber Music Center at Wellesley College, Sydney Conservatorium Wind Ensemble, Juventas New Music Ensemble, Emory Wind Ensemble, and Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble. He has received fellowships at MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and was awarded a 2015 Composers Now residency at the Pocantico Center. He was a member of Composers in Red Sneakers.

Peter holds degrees from Brandeis University (M.A., Ph.D.) and the University of Miami Frost School of Music (B.M.). His composition teachers include Melinda Wagner, David Rakowski, Eric Chasalow, and Lansing McLoskey. He has held teaching positions at Brandeis University, Wellesley College, Harvard University, and is currently faculty at the University of Georgia.

Works

Peter Van Zandt Lane's 2013 ballet, "HackPolitik" was composed for and premiered by Boston-based Juventas New Music Ensemble and Brooklyn-based contemporary dance company The People Movers. Based on a series of cyber-attacks between 2010 and 2012 linked to the hacker groups Anonymous and LulzSec, the ballet depicts the rise and fall of Topiary (hacktivist) and Sabu (hacktivist) through a combination of “electroacoustic music, modern dance, and video projection" and "examine[s] how the Internet . . . blurs the lines between activism and anarchy.” The music and choreography (by People Movers Artistic Director Kate Ladenheim) aims to "translat[e] cyberspace into music and motion." In an interview with the Clyde Fitch Report, Lane cited the wider cultural implications of social networking as a motivation for composing the piece, stating that “whether or not we are engaged in cyber-activism… we are constantly thinking about ‘what do I write here? How do I portray myself to the rest of the world?’… We spend an enormous amount of effort into shaping our online personalities.” Described as "angular, jarring, and sophisticated . . . very compelling," the piece received positive critical reviews; the Boston Musical Intelligencer stated "Lane’s score was friendly to listeners, emotionally and texturally varied . . . Ballet needs live music and this one offered it on the highest level." Noting the poignancy of the premiere, Forbes writer Parmy Olson (whose book We Are Anonymous served as a primary resource for the ballet) noted that "the same day that hacker Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in the vigilante attacks of Anonymous, an altogether more artistic outcome for the online network took place. The hour-long premier of HackPolitik . . . reflect[s] the story of the Anonymous . . . and the rise and fall of its hacker splinter group LulzSec." The ballet was premiered in Boston, and subsequently at Here Space in Manhattan, where it was dubbed a New York Times Critic's Pick.

Selected works

Orchestral and Wind Symphony

Solo/Chamber Ensemble (with electronics)

Solo/Chamber Ensemble (without electronics)

Vocal

Solo (with or without electronics)

Electronic (Tape Pieces)