Resides in Portland, Oregon. Grew up in Berkeley, CA. Born in Seattle.  PhD, Harvard. “Gary Noland is one of the great composers of the 21st century.”—JACK RUMMEL, KGNU 88.5 FM, Boulder CO, “...iconoclastic, stylistic potpourri standards of giddy humor, no holds barred soup to nuts and high spirits.”—ROBERT LEVIN, pianist, musicologist, composer, "...a fleet-fingered, ebullient performer ... bright, witty and engaging.”—CHRISTIAN CAREY, SPLENDID MAGAZINE, “...distinctive, inventive ... subversive ... You can hardly be indifferent to Noland’s music and so I would urge you to try it.” —ROGER BLACKBURN, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, “...set in a dizzying harmonic language that loops uncontrollably through a wide-ranging gamut of possible and impossible tonalities ... The general effect is like watching wet paintings of 19th Century musical memorabilia drip into frazzled 21st Century oblivion...” —ALLEN GIMBEL, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “Mr. Noland writes as a ‘time traveler’ in styles long abandoned by most composers as well as styles so new as to not have been imagined but by him. This he accomplishes naturally, convincingly, with originality and true passion. His command of all musical languages and his ability to traverse musical time is nothing less than remarkable. Listen!”—DONALD MARTINO, Pulitzer Prize winning composer, “...mind-bending spiraling of focus which is truly breathtaking ... spectacular...”—CHARLES AMIRKHANIAN, composer, sound poet & radio producer, “I'm amazed at your harmonic skill. Haven't seen or heard anything like it from any one else—except yours truly—certainly not from your generation. It falls somewhere between Strauss and Mahler. Especially like how you are able to slip in and out from the tonal to the atonal—or near atonal...”—GEORGE ROCHBERG, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “...court jester to the classical establishment...”—PAYTON MACDONALD, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...florid and juicy...” —RICHARD BUELL, THE BOSTON GLOBE, “...an incredible aural web ... a great ostinato of American kitsch. Sul pont never sounded so good.”—RUSSELL STEINBERG, composer, conductor of the LOS ANGELES YOUTH ORCHESTRA, “...I am bowled over by the expertise of your music: you use certain elements from the 19th century and from jazz, etc., and just at the moment when I am about to say, OK, what else is new?, you do a number of things, such as speeding up, becoming wildly dissonant, modulating to a distant continent, stopping completely and throwing some kind of total surprise ... you seem to know exactly when to do what and how much. I don’t know anybody else who can do it!” —ANDREW IMBRIE, American composer, Pulitzer Prize finalist, “... remarkable stuff...”
—MAX MORATH, American ragtime pianist, composer, actor & author, “...a loony composer from Oregon...” —MAX SHEA, WMUA 91.1FM, Amherst, MA, “Gary Noland is one of those 21st Century composers seeking to forge a new aesthetic based on older models that do not traffic in serialism or minimalism ... Zany waltzes, ragtime riffs, chorales, toccatas, and much else romp and tear through these depictions of superheroes and villains from his ‘chamber novels’; other pieces spoof serial music ... to grand operas ... and Jewish guilt.” —JACK SULLIVAN, AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, “...Paranoid Ravel...”—ALEX DUNN, KZSU FM90.3, Stanford, CA, “...It’s a romantic romp, rhythmically robust yet melodically flirting with the nostalgia of cabaret, minus the sleazy diminution of spilled drinks and smelly ashtrays. Its elegance recalls Elgar, and the serious sides, a synthesis of those strange bedfellows Schubert and Ives. Composers hate it when their music reminds you of someone else’s, but writing within a tradition, Noland has incorporated divergent styles that, woven together, work. Cosmopolitan without snobbery, it’s intelligent, pleasurable and convincing.” —ROCKY LEPLIN, THE BERKELEY VOICE

Saxophonist/Woodwinds, Improvisor, Creative Collaborator

Contemporary concert works by Jewish American composer Alexander J. Petshaft.

Website: https://petshaft.wordpress.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/apetshaft
Compositions for media: on.soundcloud.com/bLfsb

Acclaimed for his “ethereal saxophone playing” (Vital Weekly), Dylan Ward is a musician/improviser/sound artist specializing in contemporary and electroacoustic music. Ward has released recordings on the Neuma, Mother Brain, and XAS record labels that have been described as “meditative, jarring, and cosmic…highly creative” (Take Effect Reviews) and praised for presenting music that is “clear and coherent in its discourse, original in its sounds, and as beautiful and intellectually stimulating as it is playful” (Pan M 360). Ward has performed nationally at the Bang on a Can LOUD Weekend Festival, Eighth Blackbird Creative Lab, Northwestern University New Music Conference (NUNC!), and NYC Electroacoustic Music Festival and appeared in venues including Lincoln Center, Constellation Chicago, Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, Mesa Arts Center, and Sheen Center for Thought and Culture.

In July 2022, Ward released his debut solo electroacoustic album, Tourmaline, through Neuma Records. The album explores ideas of sonic transmutation and alchemy, featuring music by Alexandra Gardner, Viet Cuong, Seth Andrew Davis, Kenneth Michael Florence, and Emma O’Halloran. From the Cave of Crystals to the cosmogonic Ogdoad, from Paul Klee’s depiction of the Angel of History to the structure of a Michael Jordan documentary, Tourmaline covers a wide range of creative concepts in pursuit of the alchemical magnum opus. 

Ward's creative work has received support from the NC Arts Council, Charlotte Arts & Science Council, City of Charlotte, Infusion Fund, Foundation for the Carolinas, UMKC School of Graduate Studies, Charlotte Street Foundation, Semans Art Fund, Thomas S. Kenan Institute for the Arts, and William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust. 

https://dylan-ward-saxophone.squarespace.com

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