James M. Bohn
Associate Professor of Music, Music Program Director, Music Technology Program Director
Biography
Associate Professor of Music James Bohn is a composer and music technology specialist. His music has been performed throughout the United States and internationally. It has been presented at the Bonk Festival, CYNETart, the Electronic Rainbow Coalition, the extensible Toy Piano Festival, the Florida Electro-Acoustic Music Festival, the La Crosse New Music Festival, the MAXIS festival of Sound and Experimental Music, MEDiA CIRCU[it]S, Most Significant Bytes, The Not Still Art Festival, the University of Alabama New Music Festival and the University of Central Missouri New Music Festival.
Bohn’s music also appears on several recording labels, including Capstone, The Experimental Music Studios, Frog Peak and The Media Cafe. He has received commissions from the Bonk Festival, the University of Illinois School of Music, The College of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, The Music Institute at Rhode Island College Choir, Part of the Oath Dance Ensemble, The Rhode Island College Choir, The Rhode Island College Wind Ensemble and the Boston and Chicago Chapter of the American Composer's Forum. He is the founder and artistic director of the Bleep Blorp festival of Synthesizer Music.
As a scholar, Bohn has presented papers at conferences for the American Musical Instrument Society, the Association for Technology in Music Instruction, the MAXIS festival, the Northeast Popular Culture Association, the Popular Culture Association, Technological Directions in Music Learning, the Theme Park Music and Sound Conference and the American Chemical Society. His book on Lejaren Hiller (the first composer to write a piece of music using a computer) is published by Edwin Mellen Press, and his book Music in Disney’s Animated Features: “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” to “The Jungle Book” is published by the University Press of Mississippi.
Education
- D.M.A., University of Illinois
- M.M., University of Illinois
- B.M. (Honors), University of Wisconsin
Courses Taught
- Cover Band
- Creating Music with Technology
- Introduction to Music Technology
- Music Theory
- Sound Recording Techniques
- Sound Synthesis
- Music in Disney's Animated Features
- Composition: Songwriting
Selected Publications, Awards & Accomplishments
- "The Music of American Composer Lejaren A. Hiller, Jr., and an Examination of his Early Works Involving Technology." Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004.
- "Music in Disney’s Animated Features: 'Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs' to 'The Jungle Book.'" Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2017.
- "Lejaren Hiller: Early Experiments in Computer and Electronic Music." "No Boundaries: University of Illinois Vignettes." Ed. Lillian Hoddeson (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004) 293-303.
- “Lejaren Hiller” "The Twentieth-Century Avant-Garde: A Biocritical Sourcebook." Ed. Larry Sitsky, Westport: Greenwood Press, 2002.
- "Lejaren Hiller: Sonatas" liner notes, New World Records, 80799-2 (2018).
- "Lejaren Hiller: a Total Matrix of Possibilities" liner notes, New World Records, 80694-2 (2008).
- "Point Nemo," as Darth Presley (with Steve Layton, Scott Lucas, Ana Popa, SpacepersonJ, Paul Yates, & S. NJ. Zweibel), streaming, 2024.
- "Rotate," as Darth Presley (with Slash Gordon), streaming, 2023.
- "ME7ROPOL17AN 7RANSPOR7A71ON AU74OR17Y," as Darth Presley (with Slash Gordon), streaming, 2021.
- ASCAP Standard Award – 1997-2015, 2017-2024
- Received a commission from the 2013 MIRIC Concert Choir for the creation of "Der Vampir" ($500) – 2013.
- Received a commission from the Rhode Island College Wind Ensemble for the creation of "Felix Dines and Pines" ($2,000) – 2012.
- Received a commission from the Rhode Island College Choir for the creation of "Metropolis: The Oratorio" ($6,000) – 2011.
- Vice President, Board of Directors, Newport Baroque Orchestra – 2006-2008.
- Guest Artist "Most Significant Bytes" – 2002, Alliance, OH
- Guest Artist "7-11 Festival" – 2001, Urbana, IL
- Appeared as guest composer on "Kalvos & Damian's New Music Bazzar", a radio show devoted to New Music, WGDR, Plainfield, VT – August 21, 1999
- "tOiZe" for 3 toy pianos and CD audio Bonk Emerging Artist Commission, Tampa, FL – 2003
- Received a commission from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Dean's Discressionary Professional Development fund towards the creation of "Hardguy" for Trumpet, and Digital Video and Sound ($400) – 2001.
- "How was it we were caught?" an oratorio for mixed choir, soloists, and piano commissioned by the Boston Chapter of the American Composers Forum ($1000) – 2001.
- "Permutations for Orchestra" commissioned by the Chicago Chapter of the American Composers Forum ($500) – 1998.
- "Fugue" for String Quartet read by Kronos Quartet – 1996
- "Dona Nobis Pacem" presented at the Midwest Composers' Symposium – 1996
- "Implosion" for Vibraphone and Computer-Generated Tape commissioned by the University of Illinois School of Music and Professor Scott Wyatt in Honor of the Centennial of the School of Music – 1995
- Included on the Incomplete List of Teachers as Ranked by Their Students at the University of Illinois, Fall Semester – 1995.
- Received an "Outstanding" rating on the Incomplete List of Teachers as Ranked by Their Students at the University of Illinois – Spring Semester 1994.