B.F.A. in Piano, California Institute of the Arts (1982)
M.F.A. in Piano, State University of New York at Buffalo (1986)
Ph.D. in Composition, State University of New York at Buffalo (1990)
Principal teachers:
John Delavorays, Leonid Hambro, Yvar Mikhashoff, Stephen Manes (piano)
Fernando Valenti, Bess Karp (harpsichord)
Morton Feldman, Lou Harrison, Mel Powell, Lejaren Hiller, Stephen Mosko (composition)

Founding member, California E.A.R. Unit (1981-82)
Founding member, Buffalo New Music Ensemble (1982-92)

A prolific composer and extraordinary pianist, Michael McCandless was a founding member of two influential new music ensembles — the California E.A.R. Unit, still very much in existence today, and the Buffalo New Music Ensemble, active from 1982 to 1992.

McCandless co-founded the California E.A.R. Unit, originally known as the CalArts 20th Century Players, with fellow students at the California Institute of the Arts in 1981. He and Gaylord Mowrey performed Quintessence, a piece for two pianos by Rand Steiger, in the CalArts contemporary music festival that spring. Upon graduating in 1982, the group performed for several weeks in the Holland Festival in a series of concerts curated by Yvar Mikhashoff, and appeared for the first time under the name of California E.A.R. Unit at the American Center in Paris. Their recording of Ascent into Air by Morton Subotnick was released on LP by Nonesuch Records.

Later in 1982 McCandless left the group to pursue M.F.A. studies at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He co-founded the Buffalo New Music Ensemble, a group of composers and performers whose programs included fully-composed art music, new jazz, performance art, modern ethnic forms and other styles. The founding members were Michael Colquhoun (composer/flutes), Bernadette Speach (composer/pianist), Jeffrey Schanzer (composer/guitars), Michael McCandless (composer/pianist), Stuart Shepherd (composer), Steve Swartz (composer/conductor), Kyle Peterson (clarinets), Joyce Grant (composer), William Ortiz (composer) and Greg Piontek (composer/cello). Later members included Ferruccio Germani (composer/conductor/clarinet), Paul Schlossman (oboe/English horn), James Perrone (clarinets), Marsha Hasset (cello) and Marc Wooldridge (percussion).

The ensemble premiered works by Morton Feldman, Lejaren Hiller, Ruth Crawford-Seeger, Ferruccio Germani, Michael Colquhoun, Sarah Aderholdt, and McCandless himself, among others, and performed music by Steve Reich, John Cage, Lou Harrison, Conlon Nancarrow, Arvo Part, Ned Rorem, Witold Lutoslawski, George Crumb, Robert Ashley, Jo Kondo, Janice Giteck, David Lang, Arthur Jarvinen, Chester Mais, Andrew Stiller, Leila Lustig, Rocco DiPietro, Beth Wiemann, Frank Becker, Thomas Oboe Lee, Bruce Penner, Zoltan Jeney, Toshimitshu Tanaka, Carl Bergstrom-Nielson, Gyula Csapo, Michael Kosch, William Susman, Joyce Grant, A. Gordon-Wilcox, John Bergamo, Bernadette Speach, Jeffrey Schanzer, William Ortiz and Steven Swartz.

Guest performers with the Buffalo New Music Ensemble included Yvar Mikhashoff, Jan Williams, Frances-Marie Uitti, Nils Vigeland, Anthony De Mare, Junnieh Booth, Robert Black, String Trio of New York, Maelstrom Percussion Ensemble, Frederic Rzewski, Pauline Oliveros and Leroy Jenkins.

Michael McCandless died of AIDS in New York at the age of 36 on November 1, 1993. The inscription on his gravestone is "Ascent into Air."

—Nurit Tilles

WORKS:

Against Nature
for: flute (piccolo, alto flute), clarinet, percussion (1 player), piano, violin, cello
date: 1989 (revised 1990?)
note: Ph.D thesis piece; written for California E.A.R. Unit. "This piece is dedicated to my dear friend and colleague Ferruccio Germani, and bears the inscription ‘and Music shall untune the sky' (from John Dryden's ‘A Song for St. Cecilia's Day')."
premiere: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, Ferruccio Germani, conductor, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 9/17/89
premiere (of revised version?): California E.A.R. Unit, Rand Steiger, conductor, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 4/17/91
source (score): University at Buffalo
source (clarinet, percussion, violin, cello parts): Lee Donnel; Estate Project
source (recording): California E.A.R. Unit

Another Another: Homage to Charles Ives
for: piano (?)
date: 1985
duration: 6:00
note: in Yvar Mikhashoff's collection of annotated scores
source: University at Buffalo
source (version for violin and piano): Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Another Felicitude
for: violin, piano, percussion, bass
date: 1985
note: "Dedicated to my mother"
premiere: Thomas Halpin, violin, Yvar Mikhashoff, piano, Jan Williams and Bradley Amidon, percussion, Robert Black, contrabass, North American New Music Festival, Buffalo, NY 4/14/86
performed: Almeida Festival, London, June 1985
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project
source (recording): University at Buffalo

Crepuscular Alphabets
for: alto flute, violin, cello, percussion, piano
date: 1989
duration: ca. 17:00
note: "For my grandmother, Bernice Frye"
"Crepuscular Alphabets is dedicated to my grandmother, Bernice Frye, who was diagnosed as having Alzheimer's Disease early in 1988. The title refers to the gradual and cumulative loss of memory which occurs in Alzheimer's patients, progressively forgetting their lives in reverse. The motive which appears first in the piano at the beginning of the piece is derived from my grandmother's initials — B flat, G, D, F (including middle and maiden names). This motive becomes increasingly distorted and eventually disappears altogether, much like my grandmother's increasingly confused and vanishing perception of reality. The loss of the cognitive entity that was Bernice Frye was emotionally devastating for me. The piece is largely an emotional reaction to that experience."
premiere: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, Buffalo Seminary, Buffalo, NY 5/7/89
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Dancer from the Dance
for: violin, piano, percussion (1 player), conductor
date: 1984
note: "To Yvar Mikhashoff / '...O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,/How can we know the dancer from the dance?' — W.B.Yeats"
premiere: Thomas Halpin, violin, Jan Williams, percussion, Yvar Mikhashoff, piano, North American New Music Festival 4/9/84
performed: members of New York New Music Ensemble (Mineko Yajima, violin, Anthony De Mare, piano, Jonathan Haas, percussion, Robert Black, conductor), Composers Forum "Young Composers' Readings," The Kitchen, New York 5/9/84; Magnetic Band, Owen Underhill, conductor, Centre for the Arts, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver 2/1/85
source: University at Buffalo (score and recording); New York Public Library; Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Elastic Rainbow
for: piano
date: 1982
duration: ca. 20:00
note: chance composition; some graphic notation.
premiere: Anthony De Mare, piano, Baird Recital Hall, State University of New York at Buffalo 10/26/82
performed: Anthony De Mare, piano, Katherine Cornell Theatre, State University of New York at Buffalo 7/26/84 (Black Mountain College II New Music Festival, Buffalo New Music Ensemble concert)
source: Anthony De Mare; New York Public Library

Felicitude
for: mixed quintet
date: 1984
note: "Felicitude is an a-serious (as its name should imply) piece, rather obvious and intentionally unsophisticated. It is intended as both an exercise in non-elitism (not to be confused with anti-elitism) and a lo-cal after-dinner mint for Victorian teas. ‘Thine obesity o civilian hits the felicitude of our orb.' — James Joyce (Finnegan's Wake)"
premiere: Michael McCandless, piano, with unnamed ensemble, Baird Recital Hall, State University of New York at Buffalo (MFA degree recital), Buffalo, NY 12/10/84; Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY 4/85
source: Lee Donnel
source (flute/piccolo, marimba and incomplete vibraphone/glockenspiel parts only): Estate Project

For Morton Feldman
for: piccolo/flute/alto flute (optional bass flute), oboe/English horn, clarinet/bass clarinet, cello, marimba/glockenspiel, piano, offstage violin
date: 1988
premiere: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, Buffalo Seminary, Buffalo, NY 10/23/88
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Fricassee
for: piccolo, oboe, clarinet, cello, piano, percussion
date: 1987
note: "A fricassee (French for "hash") was a type of musical assemblage popular in 16th century France which featured successive quotations of disparate fragments. According to Grove's Dictonary of Music, "nonsensical hilarity is a hallmark of the fricassee." There are eleven known fricassees, one of which features over 100 quotations. Fricassee includes about 30 quotations of melodies from the standard classical music repertoire as well as the use of numerous musical cliches drawn from styles as disparate as Medieval polyphony and current country/western music. The resultant hash is intentionally nonsensical."
premiere: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, Allen Hall, State University of New York at Buffalo 7/27/87
performed: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, Amherst Unitarian Church, Williamsville, NY 10/23/87; Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts Auditorium, Buffalo, NY 2/22/88; CLL/Campus West, Buffalo, NY 3/21/88; Leonardo Da Vinci School, Buffalo, NY 3/22/88
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

The Garden of Forking Paths
for: flute/piccolo, English horn, clarinet, violin, cello, percussion, piano
date: 1990
duration: ca. 9:00
premiere: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, North American New Music Festival (not recorded), Buffalo, NY 4/8/90
source (score and piano part): Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Icarus and the Microwave
for: piccolos/flutes (4 players), percussion (4 players), conductor
date: ?
note: listed as "sextet" in an undated worklist, "scheduled" for 6/85 performance at Almeida Festival, London, and "commissioned" [by Almeida Festival?]
premiere: Karen Perone and Cheryl Gobbetti, piccolo, Killissa McGoldrick and Michael Colquhoun, flute and piccolo, Marc Wooldridge, Gary Rutkowski, Robert Accurso and Kirk Brundage, percussion, Dawn Corrado, conductor, Buffalo New Music Ensemble After Hours Cabaret IV, 1986
performed: Karen Perone and Kilissa McGoldrick, piccolo, Michael Colquhoun and Robert Cantrick, flute and piccolo, Marc Wooldridge, Gary Rutkowski, Robert Accurso and Kirk Brundage, percussion, Dawn Corrado, conductor, North American New Music Festival (not recorded), Buffalo, NY 4/19/86
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Lachrymae Christi
for: countertenor, tenor, baritone, flute, clarinet, string quartet, piano, percussion
date: 1990
text: Hart Crane poem ("Tears of Christ")
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Nocturne
for: string quartet
date: ?
source: Lee Donnel

Or What
for: vibraphone
date: 1986
duration: ca. 20:00
note: "Or What for solo vibraphone was written for Marc Woodridge, at his request, in July of 1986. Its inscription, ‘Every why hath a wherefore' (from the Comedy of Errors) refers to circumstances which everyone has experienced at one time or another in which actions of events are mistakenly interpreted, thereby causing a stream of increasingly confused consequences. This piece attempts to take such a set of circumstances and return them to their source. On the surface, the music is reflective of elided expectations and has a somewhat melancholy undertone which is my personal response to the real-life tragedy of misunderstanding."
performed: Marc Wooldridge, vibraphone, Hallwalls, Buffalo, NY 10/6/86 (Buffalo New Music Ensemble concert)
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Overture
for: actress
date: ?
text: ?
note: theater piece?
performed: Connie Schulz, actress, North American New Music Festival (not recorded), Buffalo, NY 4/11/94

Sonatine Bergoiserie
for: piano
date: ?
duration: ca. 4:00
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

String Trio
for: violin, viola, cello
date: 1978
duration: ca. 3:30
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Tangentangle
for: piano
date: 1984
premiere: Yvar Mikhashoff, piano, American Center, Paris 11/26/84
note: part of The International Tango Collection created by Mikhashoff
source: University at Buffalo

There Be Dragons
for: piano
date: 1990
source: University at Buffalo; Lee Donnel; Estate Project

Top 41
for: piano
date: 1982
published: The Buffalo Piano Collection: Fifteen Pieces for Piano Solo, compiled and edited by Ivar Mikhashoff, University at Buffalo (1982)
premiere: Anthony De Mare, piano, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY 5/18/86
source: University at Buffalo; New York Public Library; University of Toronto

Tragicommedia
for: multimedia
date: ?
performed: Cabaret 650, Buffalo, NY 5/83; Studio Arena Theatre, Buffalo, NY 4/85; Buffalo New Music Ensemble (Michael McCandless and Friends), After Hours Cabaret, North American New Music Festival, Buffalo, NY 4/19/86
source: University at Buffalo (recording only)

Versing
for: alto flute, English horn, Bb clarinet, cello, synthesizer (drone)
date: 1985
duration: 10:00
note: "Versing consists of many short "verses" separated by pauses. These verses themselves are very similar to each other, much like the similarities between segments of commercially popular music (or the similarities between any products [or their components] intended for the same market, be it artistic or otherwise. In keeping with our modernist aesthetic (in which nothing ever "happens") nothing happens several times in Versing. In keeping with our populist aesthetic (in which everything is basically the same) there is a high incidence of redundancy in Versing. Of course, "nothing" and "redundancy" are subjective terms in each case. This piece resulted from a desire to combine extremely austere (modernist) material, here represented by the sound of the ensemble, with extremely expressive (populist) material, here represented by the individual instruments. This desire resulted from the fact that at the time I wrote the piece I was studying with the late Morton Feldman and our aesthetics were somewhat at odds. I wanted to find some sort of common ground, and although I'm not sure that I did, I did omit the percussion parts which originally went with the piece in deference to Mr. Feldman, because they were too interesting."
premiere: Buffalo New Music Ensemble, Buffalo State College, Buffalo, NY 12/5/87
source: Lee Donnel; Estate Project

OTHER WORKS:

Chaconne on a Ground Bass by McCandless by Larry Karush
date: 1979
for: piano
note: Karush and McCandless listed as composers
source: New York Public Library

Design
for: string quartet
note: listed in an undated worklist as "scheduled" for 11/85 performance at Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, NY. The score has not been found, and it is not known if this performance actually took place.

UNCOMPLETED WORKS:
Unknown

WRITINGS:
Unknown

DISCOGRAPHY:
"Ascent into Air" by Morton Subotnick, CalArts 20th Century Players, (title of recording?), Nonesuch Records 78020-1 (LP, 1984).

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• Who's Who Among Students in American Universities & Colleges (1985-86 edition).

PERFORMING RIGHTS AFFILIATION:
ASCAP

RESOURCES:
John Bewley
Music Library
Baird Hall
University at Buffalo
Buffalo, NY 14260-4750
(716) 645-2924 ext. 1446
jmbewley@acsu.buffalo.edu
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/music

MUSICAL EXECUTOR:
Lenora "Lee" Donnel (mother)
857 Hierra Court
Los Altos, CA 94024
(650) 948-9618
lendon@mailstation.com

OTHER CONTACTS:
Bernadette Speach (composer and friend)
81 Ocean Parkway #6J
Brooklyn, NY 11218
(718) 972-3085
BSpeach@aol.com

Paul Schlossman (oboist and member of Buffalo New Music Ensemble)
4280 Chestnut Ridge Road, D-2
Amherst, NY 14228
(716) 691-5062
pschloss@adelphia.net

Anthony De Mare (pianist and friend)
698 West End Avenue #5C
New York, NY 10025
TdMTigerNYC@aol.com

Dorothy Stone, Artistic Director
California E.A.R. Unit
40544 San Francisquito Canyon Road
Green Valley, CA 91390
Tel/Fax: (661) 270-0722
DStone999@aol.com
www.earunit.org