Elliott Sharp

Elliott Sharp is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, author, and visual artist. His work draws on fractal geometry, chaos theory, and genetics, as well as radical sonics and improvisation.

Biography

Sharp, composer and multi-instrumentalist, is also a producer, sound designer, author, and visual artist who leads the projects Orchestra Carbon, SysOrk, Tectonics, and Terraplane and whose compositional strategies encompass fractal geometry, chaos theory, algorithmic approaches, genetic metaphors, and new techniques for graphic notation. He has been awarded the Berlin Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and fellowships from the Foundation for Contemporary Art and the Center for Transformative Media.

Sharp is the subject of the documentary Doing The Don't and has been featured on NPR's All Things Considered. His composition Storm of the Eye, for violinist Hilary Hahn, appeared on her Grammy-winning album In 27 Pieces. Sharp's collaborators have included Qawwali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan; pianist Cecil Taylor; Ensemble Modern; pop singer Debbie Harry; JACK and Arditti quartets; blues legends Hubert Sumlin and Pops Staples; jazz greats Jack Dejohnette and Sonny Sharrock; media artists Christian Marclay and Pierre Huyghe; the Radio-Sinfonie Frankfurt; and Bachir Attar of the Master Musicians Of Jajouka. 

Sharp was a visiting faculty member at Bennington for Spring 2024.

Photo credit: Ben Knabe