William Alves
William Alves is a teacher; composer; scholar of non-Western music; associate professor of music at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont, California; and member of the Society for Ethnomusicology. Dr. Alves has been an active performer of non-Western music for the past 10 years, mostly in various Javanese and Balinese gamelan orchestras but also West African drumming. In 1993-1994, he was a Fulbright Senior Scholar in Indonesia, where he also participated in these ensembles, conducted research, and taught. Dr. Alves has written many pieces for gamelan, often in combination with Western instruments. He also has written works inspired by Japanese, African, and Indian idioms. His works are recorded on the EMF and ICMC labels, among others, and his video works are syndicated by Offline and CinemaNow.com. His experience with cross-cultural influences allows him to show students how these sometimes-inaccessible cultures can be connected to familiar experiences, often in beautiful and unexpected ways. William Alves has been teaching at the university level for 22 years. Although most of his teaching has been at private colleges (USC, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Claremont Graduate University), he also has had residencies; given workshops; and guest lectures at community colleges, arts conservatories, and public universities. His writings on music have appeared in PERSPECTIVES OF NEW MUSIC, INTERCULTURAL MUSIC, COMPUTER MUSIC JOURNAL, MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES, 1/1, THE CSOUND BOOK, and SOCIETY OF ELECTRO-ACOUSTIC MUSIC in the UNITED STATES JOURNAL. Dr. Alves is co-director of the MicroFest Festival of Microtonal Music, and director of the American Gamelan and Electronic Music ensembles at the Claremont Colleges.
