Ryan Seward is a musician, composer, and artist living in Colorado Springs, Colorado. His work is situated within and across a number of forms, including composition, improvisation, installation, performance, phonography, photography, sculpture, and videography.
Ryan’s work has most recently been performed by TAK ensemble, Filament, and Sam Wells, and presented at CO-OPt Research + Projects (Lubbock, Texas); Blo Back Gallery (Pueblo, Colorado); Technische Universität Berlin (Berlin, Germany); Washington Street Art Center (Somerville, Massachusetts) for co-incidence festival 2020; Die Station (Neufelden, Austria); California Institute of the Arts (Valencia, California) for The Dog Star Orchestra 15; and Casper College (Casper, Wyoming) for the Second Annual New Music Day. His recordings have been released by Editions Glomar, emic rite, Marginal Frequency, and Sawyer Editions.
He has previously collaborated with Gabriela Areal, Nat Baldwin, Jaap Blonk, Eugene Chadbourne, Tashi Dorji, Sandy Ewen, Douglas Farrand, Simon Labbé, Llano Estacado Monad Band, Bob Marsh, Cecyl Ruehlen, Daniel Ryan, Bret Sexton, Susan Wolf, Ben Wright, and Jack Wright, among others; and currently collaborates with Kory Reeder and Andrew Weathers. He has also commissioned and premiered the work of composers Eva-Maria Houben and Alexis Porfiriadis.
Ryan holds the MA in Music from Wesleyan University, where he studied experimental music and composition with Ron Kuivila, Paula Matthusen, and Neely Bruce. He has also been mentored informally by composers Antoine Beuger, Michael Pisaro-Liu, and Emmanuelle Waeckerlé.
DISCOGRAPHY
Ryan Seward – surfaces (2024, Sawyer Editions [CD])
Kory Reeder/Ryan Seward/Andrew Weathers – Two Ballads from the High Plains (2024, Editions Glomar, GLOM4 [CD])
Ryan Seward & Andrew Weathers – Laminar Interiors (2024, Editions Glomar, GLOM3 [CD])
Ryan Seward & Andrew Weathers – On a cloudy day, wind mostly out of the SSW (2024, emic rite, emic 03 [CD])
Ron Coulter / Ryan Seward – Traces (2023, emic rite, emic 02 [cassette])
Ryan Seward & Daniel Ryan – Breccia (2022, Marginal Frequency, MFCS O [cassette])
Sandy Ewen / Ryan Seward – Live at thought//forms gallery (2019, self-release [digital])
Matt Smiley / Ryan Seward – Sense of Place (2017, emic rite, emic 01 [cassette])
Bob Marsh / Michael O’Neill / Ryan Seward – Pueblo 5&6 (2017, self-release [digital])
Bret Sexton / Ryan Seward – Live at Thee Haus Ov Where? Gallery (2017, self-release [digital])
WORKS
surfaces (2024) for reed organ
translucent (2023) for any number of performers
transparent (2023) for any number of performers
it is a question of surrendering (2022) for three snare drums activated by miniature loudspeakers and sine tones
scrims (1) (2022) for two performers
lines (for Agnes Martin) (2021) for five or so performers with sustaining instruments
two harmonicas and stones (2021) for two harmonicas and stones
mesh (2021) for two speaking performers with sustaining instruments and radios, and 2- or 4-channel fixed media (field recordings and sine tones)
a tremulous light (2021) for organ
Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically (2) (2021) for organ
untitled (for Alvin Lucier) (2020) for glockenspiel bars and sine tones
Steel and air, a mottled presence (2020) for trumpet, transducer, and suspended sheet metal
copper pipes drawn over various surfaces (2020) for copper pipes and surfaces
Take any flat, plain piece of land, give it a name— (2020) for fixed media (field recordings and sine tones)
Ultimately, engaging in the practice itself was enough for us (2020) for two or three people (or perhaps alone)
Irrational thoughts should be followed absolutely and logically (1) (2019) for two or more vibraphones
To knowe the spryng of the dawenyng and the ende of the evenyng, the whiche ben called the two crepuscules (2019) for two or more performers
plainsong (2018) for percussion sextet (glockenspiel, two vibraphones, low octave crotales, and two snare drums [with one or two optional radios])
an invincible summer (2015/2023) for string trio
Ryan Seward 