This is a viola concerto commissioned by and composed for Ralph Farris, violist for ETHEL.

Electric Candlelight-Concerto for Viola

electronic dance, techno, pop, groove based music!

Sikkim

Rumtek

electronic dance, techno, pop, groove based music! drum & bass

Kumari Puja

Kanchenjunga

Secret Agent

Darjeeling

BC Groove

“Warner Bros. is a deranged attempt to capture the personalities of four of my favorites
characters from the WB cartoons of my youth. When I was growing up, some of my
earliest memories are of Bugs Bunny shaving Elmer Fudd to Rossini’s “Barber of
Seville”. Classical music was fun for me. I didn’t find it formal, stuffy, or any of those
other pejoratives. I thought it was the coolest stuff in the world, so recently I decided to
compose a tribute to some of my earliest heroes.
The first piece composed was the last movement “Daffy”. Out of all the Warner Bros.
characters, Daffy Duck was my favorite. He’s simply crazy. I wanted that in the music.
When “Daffy” was finished, it was obvious that he needed company. I decided to write
three more movements caricaturing Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, and Elmer Fudd. Bugs
was first, after all it is his show. Wile E. Coyote is second. While many people will
disagree with me, I found Wile E. Coyote to be much more interesting and poignant than
the Roadrunner. Elmer Fudd is next. He is such a sad character; I decided to have him
be the slow movement.
I hope that these pieces bring back memories of characters from your youth, your current
Saturday morning preferences, or simply make you smile.

Warner Bros.-I. Bugs

stranded

Ken Walicki is an American composer who is widely recognized and acknowledged for his dramatic, and engaging music, which reflects the times in which we live. Because of his unusual and interesting background, his sound world has evolved into a unique combination of Art, Pop, Jazz, and World music. Walicki‘s influences include Gyorgy Ligeti, the Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Public Enemy, and much more. He was one of the first composers to use turntables in his music and the first composer to have turntables and a D.J. as regular members in a standing ensemble. His music has been performed throughout the world by, among others, the Kronos Quartet, ETHEL, the New Century Saxophone Quartet, the Soldier String Quartet, the Divan Consort, and members of the New York Philharmonic, The Los Angeles Symphony, The Los Angeles Chamber Symphony, The Detroit Symphony, The Pacific Symphony, the Istanbul Borusan Orchestra, and the SWR Kaiserslautern Orchestra. He is the composer-in-residence for the new music ensemble The Divan Consort. Walicki has received grants and commissions from a variety of organizations and performing ensembles including the American Composers Forum, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Jerome Foundation, the Kronos Quartet, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, and Meet the Composer.
Growing up playing guitar in local Detroit garage bands, Walicki decided, at early age, he wanted to dedicate his life to music. His education included a two-year period in Germany as a Fulbright scholar where he studied with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Helmut Lachenmann, and Rolf Hempel. He was also an active participant in master classes with Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, and William Schumann. After returning from Germany, he studied with Jere Hutcheson at Michigan State University where he received his Ph.D. Walicki enjoys traveling and finds it to be a fantastic source of inspiration. After
spending a large amount of time in the Middle East and the Indian Subcontinent, he has found these cultures to be particularly close to his heart. Together these experiences have made him a composer of diverse, accessible, physically, and spiritually moving, yet intellectually rigorous music. In addition to his music being presented in traditional concert music venues such as Lincoln Center in New York and the Liszt Academy in Budapest, his music has also been performed in new music clubs such as CBGB’s, the Knitting Factory, and countless cafes and storefronts throughout the world. Without compromising his values, he has made a point of writing music that relates to people and their situations. Walicki has collaborated with a variety of artists in the classical, pop, theater, film, and dance worlds, including Lydia Lunch, Dora Ohrenstein, the Doug Elkins Dance Company, Emmy winning producer/director Mark Obenhaus, American Opera Projects, Bermuda Triangle, Bang on a Can All-Stars, the Kronos Quartet, Divan Consort, and Ensemble Green. He was the founder and composer of the Ken Valitsky Ensemble, which included Regina Carter and Thomas Chapin as members. Previously, besides being on the faculty at New York University, Walicki has taught composition in Istanbul, Turkey at the Center for Advanced Music Techniques(MIAM), a department of Istanbul Technical University. Currently, he lives in Southern California with his son, and the family dogs. His music is available on Knitting Factory Works, C.R.I., CRS Artists, Channel Records, Albany Records and Ravello Records.

Warner Bros.-I. Bugs

Ken Walicki

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