Morris Palter
Born in Canada, Morris's wide-range of musical interests have found him performing throughout North America, Asia, and Europe at some of the most prestigious festivals and concert venues including his Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall debut under famed composer/conductor Pierre Boulez in 2001. Morris is a frequent guest at universities and conservatories worldwide and has commissioned and/or premiered over 100 new works, working with prominent composers and performers including Bob Becker, Christopher Adler, Roger Reynolds, Wu Man, Chou-wen Chung, John Luther Adams, Scott Deal, Evelyn Glennie, David Lang, Stewart Saunders Smith, Thomas DeLio, Michael Roth, Philip Manoury, Iancu Dimitriescu, Chris Tonkin, and Chinary Ung. Over the past ten years, Morris has worked closely with noted composer/technology artist, Matthew Burtner, premiering the majority of his percussion-based works including two operas and numerous individual pieces. Both are also co-founders of the duo group Metasax/DRUMthings. To date, the duo has performed in Paris, Seattle, Toronto, Alaska, San Diego, and several concerts in New York City including the EMF Festival at the Chelsea Art Museum and John Zorn’s, The Stone.
Morris is the Artistic Director of Ensemble 64.8 (University of Alaska Fairbanks resident percussion ensemble). The group performs chamber music with an emphasis on works by noted American and European composers. Some of the composers represented in the ensemble repertory include Steve Reich, John Cage, Toru Takemitsu, Christopher Rouse, John Wyre, Louis Andreissen, Robin Engelman, Iannis Xenakis, John Luther Adams, Giacinto Scelsi, Carlos Chavez, and Henry Cowell. The group has also performed concerts with famed performers/composers Christopher Adler and Bob Becker, and recently premiered six new percussion quintets composed by Alaskan, Matthew Burtner, at the Intermedia Festival in Indianapolis.
As a Novelty Jazz Xylophonist, Morris founded the Speak-Easy Duo (Colin McAllister, guitar) in 2003 and has appeared at the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival in Boulder, CO, the Bohem Festival in Hungary, the Rotterdam Conservatory, the Orange County RagFest, the Breda Jazz Festival, NL, the West Coast Ragtime Festival, the Ragtime Xylophone Institute in Delaware, the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival, and the Koninklijk Conservatorium, Den Haag.
In 2000, Morris co-founded NOISE (San Diego New Music), and was a member of the percussion group redfish bluefish (Artistic Director, Steven Schick) from 1999-2005. Morris is also actively involved with theatre, having been a composer and performer at both The Old Globe Theatre (A Midsummer Night's Dream) and the La Jolla Playhouse (The Scottish Play). Morris has also made recordings for various on and off-Broadway plays.
Morris was elected to the UAF Faculty Senate in 2009 (College of Liberal Arts “At Large” seat) and is the Artistic Director for the University of Alaska Fairbanks New Music Festival, the World Music Artistic Coordinator for the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival (2008), and the Co-Artistic Director for the soundON Festival of Modern Music each year in San Diego. Morris also recently hosted the Alaska Day of Percussion and is a member of the Percussive Arts Society New Music/Research Committee and has been published in PAS journal, the San Diego Troubador Newspaper, and on Mellen Press, and is currently endorsed by Black Swamp Percussion, and Paiste Cymbals and Gongs. Morris is a Yamaha Performing Artist and can be heard on New World Records, Tzadik Records, Mode Records, Innova, and RCA/BMG and his solo CD was released on Centaur Records in 2006. Morris has received degrees from the University of Toronto, the Royal Conservatory, The Hague, and the University of California, San Diego where he received his doctorate of musical arts in 2005. Morris was a Lecturer in Music at UCSD during the 2006/07 academic-year and is currently an Assistant Professor of Music at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
