Alan Mackwell - Pedernal | EDME: New Music Festival 2025

Inspired by a trip to Abiquiú, home to Georgia O'Keefe's famed studio and the high desert landscape that inspired many of her New Mexican works, Pedernal meditates on the vast stillness that radiates across the basin; etching with its long, sweeping tones the skyline of O'Keefe's legendary painting of the same name.

Described as "an original composer with new ideas and a command of complex symphonic writing" (BroadStreet Journal), New Zealander-American Alan Mackwell is a two-time BMI award-winning young composer and performer based in Boulder, Colorado. In his work, Alan seeks to explore a unique blend of atmospheres inspired by his experiences in the Permian Basin, northern New Mexico, and Appalachian North Carolina using a highly resonant and bluegrass-influenced musical language as well as the utilization of original field recordings.

He earned his BM at the Boston Conservatory, where he studied with John Murphree, Dr. Eun Young Lee, Dr. Curtis Hughes, and Dr. Marti Epstein, and earned his MA at Tufts University where he studied with John McDonald and Kareem Roustom. Alan is currently pursuing his DMA at the University of Colorado Boulder where he teaches an Intro to Music Technology course.

From New Music Festival 2025, Concert 3

Performed by EDME

Jayne Cronin - Double Bass

https://alanmackwellmusic.com/
https://www.edmensemble.org/