Percussionist, Musicologist, Dance Accompanist, Archivist, Conductor, Composer
About Ross Aftel works in many different areas of music academia. After studying performance and music theory/composition in his undergraduate studies at East Carolina, he then pursued a masters degree in performance at the University at Buffalo. After a year teaching with a non-profit at an elementary school in Virginia, he continued his studies with a second masters degree in music history/music theory, and a doctorate in musical arts at Stony Brook University. Aside from his studies, Ross served as archivist for the Emerson String Quartet from 2015-2020. He has helped them compile and display their work over the span of their 40 year history. Ross has also been heavily active in working with dance and theater. He has accompanied Bill Evans, Doug Varone, served as faculty at Perry Mansfield Dance Festival and at SUNY Brockport. In The winter of 2019, Ross composed and performed the music to Kiyou Kamisawa's modern adaptation of the Noh play Yuya in New York City. Since Covid, Ross has been doing projects and working in Taiwan. He has worked with TimeArt Studio, a new music group based in Taichung, given concerts at Taiwan C-Lab, Taiwan National Theater in Taipei, several local venues, and guest lectures at 6 universities. He is also an active member of many communities, learning 北管, and spending much time with 吳老師，one of the few remaining gong makers on the island. Ross has performed and taught around the world. From touring in Serbia with a string quartet, premiering new works in Beijing, he has been able to premiere new works and share research to many audiences. Recent research presentations have included issues of diversity in repertoire, disability in music performance, and 勢 (shì) as a hermeneutic model for contemporary performance studies. |
Recent Projects-Be ⁷記得—林亨泰音樂會. Taiwan (2023)
-A Christmas Concert for People Who Hate Christmas Concerts. Taiwan (2022) -The girl K project. NY (2020) -Resident Percussionist for the Europe/Japan "Virtual Residency for Musicians" (April. 2020) -Guest lecturer at UMass, Amherst (Jan. 2020) -Guest lecturer at University of Northern Iowa. Presented 3 separate lectures. (Sept. 2019) -Portrait Concert of jazz vibist, Teddy Charles. The Jazz Loft, NY (May 2019) -Morton Feldman's 5 hour For Philip Guston. Stony Brook University (Nov. 2018) -Frederic Rzewski's 80th Birthday Concert Series. Spectrum, NY. (Nov. 2018) -Premiere of Dylan Ebrahimian's Oath. Beijing. (Oct. 2018) |
Kiyou Kamisawa's play, "Yuya"
(2018-19)
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Xu Yi Project (October, 2019)
-Curator and director of Xu Yi Portrait Festival.
Stony Brook University (Oct.8-10,2019)
U.S. Premieres of:
-"Saveur"(2018) with Kanami Kusajima
-"Two Rotations (2019) with Haemin Lee
-"La Divine" (2004) Film score to
Wu Yong Gang's "神女" (1934),
for 10 players, electronics, and silent film
Stony Brook University (Oct.8-10,2019)
U.S. Premieres of:
-"Saveur"(2018) with Kanami Kusajima
-"Two Rotations (2019) with Haemin Lee
-"La Divine" (2004) Film score to
Wu Yong Gang's "神女" (1934),
for 10 players, electronics, and silent film
Videos
For a full list of repertoire, please see the "Portfolio" page
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