Bruce Hamilton, DM
About
Doctorate of Music: Indiana University
Master of Music: Indiana University
Bachelor of Music: Indiana University
Bruce Hamilton holds DM and MM degrees in Composition and a BM in Percussion Performance from Indiana University, where he received the Performer’s Certificate, the Dean’s Prize in Composition, and the Cole Porter Memorial Composition Scholarship. His music is published by Non Sequitur Music and can be heard on the Albany, Capstone, SEAMUS, Linear Obsessional, Mark, Memex, split notes, Spectropol, and Tangy Citrus labels.
Hamilton has received honors, awards, and commissions from Alea III, AMC, ASCAP, PAS, ACF, Barlow Endowment, Carbondale Community Arts, National Society of Arts and Letters, Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Russolo-Pratella Foundation, Whatcom Symphony Orchestra, and SEAMUS. Recent concert works include munk punq tezilo, a mixed quintet commissioned by the KOMPULZ new music group in Ljubljana, Slovenia; Four Pieces, a mixed quintet for the Bellingham Chamber Music Society; Comminglings, for the Fifth Inversion woodwind quintet; frekvenca avtohtona for Drumartica+ Trio; and Double Concerto for INVERSE Percussion Project and Musique Militaire Grand-Ducal du Luxembourg, and electroacoustic music for NYC choreographer Liz Gerring. In March 2024 Hamilton toured Europe with percussionist Max Gaertner in concerts that included Chasing Alignment, a duo for Lumatone and percussion. Current work includes microtonal etudes for Lumatone and a xenharmonic work for multiple voices. His experimental pop music projects include Jostaberry and Scrap Fiasco.
He has given masterclasses and lectures in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Salzburg, Strasbourg, Dinkelsbühl, Dudelange, Ljubljana, Namur, Portland, Seattle, Bloomington, Olympia, Greensboro, Harrisonburg, and Carbondale. Hamilton is a professor of music at Western, where he teaches theory, composition and electroacoustic music. He serves as director of the WWU Electroacoustic Music Studio (WWEAMS) and is a co-organizer of the Sound Culture Adventures Festival, the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival (BEAF), and the Microtonal Adventures Festival.