Ernst von Siemens Composer Prize 2023
Eric Wubbels
Biography
Eric Wubbels (*1980) is a composer and performer. Since 2004 he has been pianist and Co-Director of the Wet Ink Ensemble, a New York-based collective of composers, performers, and improvisers. His music has been presented at festivals and venues including LA Phil Green Umbrella Concerts, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, ISSUE Project Room, Roulette, Boulez Saal (Berlin), Unerhörte Musik, Bowerbird, Wigmore Hall (London), New York Philharmonic CONTACT, Bludenzer Tage Zeitgemäßer Musik, Contempuls (Prague), Barcelona Biennale, and Zurich Tage für Neue Musik.
Wubbels has been awarded grants and fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Fromm Foundation, Chamber Music America, ISSUE Project Room, MATA Festival, Barlow Endowment, Jerome Foundation, and Yvar Mikhashoff Trust; and residencies at the MacDowell Colony (’11, ’16, ’20), Copland House, L’Abri (Geneva), Djerassi Resident Artists Program, and Civitella Ranieri Center (Italy).
As a performer, he has given U.S. and world premieres of works by major figures such as Peter Ablinger, Richard Barrett, Beat Furrer, George Lewis, and Mathias Spahlinger, as well as vital young artists such as Rick Burkhardt, Erin Gee, Bryn Harrison, Clara Iannotta, Cat Lamb, Ingrid Laubrock, Alex Mincek, Sam Pluta, Katharina Rosenberger, and Kate Soper. As an improviser Eric Wubbels has performed with leading practitioners including Nate Wooley, Charmaine Lee, Darius Jones, Weston Olencki, Anna Webber, Etienne Nillesen, and Elias Stemeseder. He has recorded for hatART, Carrier Records, Out of Your Head, Intakt, New Focus, Pi Recordings, and quiet design, among others, and held teaching positions at Amherst College and Oberlin Conservatory.