Suite of Incidental Music for “Fuddy Meers”

Composition for Adirondack Wind Ensemble, Dan Gordon, director. Performed at Saranac Lake High School Auditorium, Saranac Lake, NY and E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium, Plattsburgh, NY. 2020.

Interlocking Colors

Composition. Live performance, Duo Extreme, Dr. Christopher Nichols, clarinet and Joshua Watkins, steel pan, St. Stephen’s Lutheran Church, Wilmington, DE and Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE. 2019.

Quintet for Saxophone Quartet and Piano

Composition. Live performance, Frontier Saxophone Quartet (Todd Pray, Dan Gordon, Linda Sullivan, Gary Scavone) and Piano (Rose Chancler), Plattsburgh Memorial Chapel, Plattsburgh, NY. 2019.

Chorale

Composition. Live performance, Dr. Elsa Yung Yung Lee, piano, College Music Society Northeast Composers Concert, Winter Visual and Performing Arts Center, Millersville, PA. 2019.

Artifacts

Composition. Live performance, Dr. Christopher Nichols, Bb clarinet, Reed Day, East Tennessee State University, Johnson, Tennessee. 2019.

Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story

Film screening and discussion with Dr. Paul Zolbrod and filmmakers Pfaff and Aurora Jayne, Krinovitz Recital Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh. 2018.

First Year Experience Program, Youngstown State University

Dr. Paul Zolbrod and I were invited by the FYE program director, Dr. Karen A. Becker, to present a variety of events. Our program was designed to engage students in discussions around the documentary film that I produced: Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story. Prior to time at YSU, I contributed to and edited a glossary of concepts relating to Diné people and culture, relevant sociological and anthropological themes, and history of the American west for dissemination to students in the First Year Experience Program (FYE). Throughout our visit, students were encouraged to engage with the fundamentally unique aspect of the historic creation story as well as the contemporary and daily challenges faced by many on the Navajo Nation. Read more.

Presentation: film, Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story, followed by panel discussion on themes of difference and inclusion.
Presentation: Listening to My Heart in a World Not My Own, a multi-media description of my experience as an artist-in-residence at Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site in Arizona, with a focus on my role as an outsider in the Navajo community.

Youngstown, OH, October 20-24, 2018

Eastern Frontier Educational Foundation/Norton Island Residency Program

Artist in residence, Jonesport, ME. 2018.

RESONANCE :: LUMINOSITY :: ACCRETION

Mike Testa and Bill Pfaff performing as the electronic duo, The Cepheid Variable, present new music and multimedia works based on gravitational waves, Cassini orbiter recordings, Huygens probe and NASA video, E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium, SUNY Plattsburgh. 2018.

The Cepheid Variable

Live performance, Pfaff and Mike Testa, UnchARTed Gallery, Lowell, MA. 2018.

Elegy

Composition. Live performance, JW Turner, violoncello, Krinovitz Recital Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh. 2018.

Chorale

Composition. Performance, Thoreau Piano Trio: Susan Jensen, violin, Darry Dolezal, violoncello, Paul Jacobs, piano, Chelmsford Center for the Arts, Chelmsford, MA. 2018.

IMAGINE :: COMBINE :: REFRACT

Solo show — Pfaff: soundplane, ipad, electric guitar (prepared and scordatura), fixed media — new compositions and works for video/film. Krinovitz Recital Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh. 2017.

Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story

Lecture/presentation of the film at the 62nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology, at the Denver Marriott City Center Hotel, Denver, CO. 2017.

North Country Electronic Music Festival

Solo show: Invited to perform Cascade, soundplane and fixed media, (12:00). Sponsored by TURNmusic as part of ArtsRiot, 400 Pine Street, Burlington, VT. 2017.

Departing Landscapes

Performance, Thoreau Piano Trio: Susan Jensen, violin, Darry Dolezal, violoncello, Paul Jacobs, piano, Chelmsford Center for the Arts, Chelmsford, MA. 2017.

Dedications

Dedications (CD), Bill Pfaff: acoustic/electric guitar, animoog, autoharp, soundplane. Engineered and mastered by Mike Testa. Includes: Ephemeris, Passacaglia, Antiphon, Fantasy, Prelude/Chorale. 2017.

Departing Landscapes

Composition. Performed by Thoreau Piano Trio: Susan Jensen, violin, Darry Dolezal, violoncello, Paul Jacobs, piano, E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium, SUNY Plattsburgh. 2016.

North Country Electronic Music Festival

Live solo performance. Festival sponsored by TURNmusic as part of ArtsRiot, 400 Pine Street, Burlington, VT. Solo performance — invited to perform Navigation Stout, soundplane and fixed media. 2016.

UnchARTed Gallery

Live performance, soundplane and fixed media, with Mike Testa, Lowell, MA. Invited to perform soundplane solo, Navigation Stout. 2016.

There Is No Silence

CD, Bill Pfaff: soundplane. Engineered and mastered by Mike Testa. Includes: Apertures, Una Voce, Night Ocean, Jóhonaa’éí, Adagio for Piano and Soundplane, Stratigraphy and There Is No Silence. 2016.

Ripples

CD. Performers: Matt Sharrock, marimba, Karolina Rojahn, piano. Pfaff’s Lichen, is released on this compilation album by Navona Records (division of Parma Records, Parma Records, North Hampton, NH). 2016.

Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story

Screenings and discussions. 2016.
With Dr. Paul Zolbrod and filmmakers Pfaff and Jayne, Diné College, Navajo Nation, Crownpoint, NM.
Screening and discussion with Dr. Paul Zolbrod, Bookworks, Albuquerque, NM.
Screening and discussion with Dr. Paul Zolbrod, Bakersfield Community College, Bakersfield, CA.

Ice Bridges

Pfaff composition and performance for amplified acoustic guitar, (scordatura), Bluseed Studios, Saranac Lake, NY. 2016.

RIVERS :: ELECTRONS :: STARS

Solo show — Pfaff: soundplane, ipad, electric guitar, (scordatura), and fixed media — new compositions and works for video/film. Krinovitz Recital Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh. Read more. 2015.

Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story

Screening and discussion (world premiere) with filmmakers Bill Pfaff and Aurora Jayne, Krinovitz Recital Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh, Plattsburgh, NY. 2015.

Diné bahane’: Dr. Paul Zolbrod’s Journey into the Voice of the Navajo Creation Story

Documentary film. Interview with Dr. Paul Zolbrod – includes my photos, archival photos from Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site (Pfaff, Artist-in-Residence, 2012), Pfaff soundtrack: Jóhonaa’éí performed on soundplane with guest appearances by Deborah Begay (Navajo recitation) and Herman McCray (song). The film details Zolbrod’s twelve-year ethnopoetic quest to translate Diné Bahane’ into English – with the approval of Diné (Navajo) elders. Co-produced with Aurora Jayne, 45:00. 2015.

Night Ocean

Film. Edited NASA video (Creative Commons), Pfaff soundtrack: soundplane and fixed media. World premiere, Krinovitz Recital Hall, SUNY Plattsburgh. 2015.

The Looping Pool

CD, Drew Waters, electric piccolo bass and looping devices, Asilowerks Productions. The disc is a compilation album that includes three Pfaff works: RipTide, Looping_1 (Surfaces), and Cairns. 2015.

Stratigraphy: Time and Movement

Collaboration: Lacina Coulibaly, choreographer/dancer, Stratigraphy: Time and Movement, Pfaff: live electric guitar, soundplane and fixed media, including samples of music from Burkina Faso as foundation for granular synthesis. World premiere: E. Glenn Giltz Auditorium, SUNY Plattsburgh. Live performance. 2014.

There Is No Silence

Film. Pfaff photos, archival images, Pfaff soundtrack: soundplane, iphone, guitars, perc, bass. 2014.

Canyons of the Ancients National Monument

Artist-in-Residence, Dolores, CO, produced and donated: There Is No Silence per Artist-in-Residence agreement. Read more. 2014.

Birdsong Academy of Music, Tunapuna

Artist-in-Residence, Trinidad and Tobago. About: Birdsong Academy of Music is a non-profit community organization devoted to music instruction for underprivileged students, ages six to eighteen. It operates after school programs and a month-long (daily) summer music camp that consists of classroom instruction, individual lessons, chamber music with steel pan as well as large steel pan ensembles.
Composed a work for the ensemble that mixes concert instruments and steel pans – ensemble consisted of flute, clarinet, trumpet (2), tuba, electric bass, tenor pan (2), double tenor pan (1), double seconds pan (2) and 4-cello pan (2). Conducted the premiere of my composition, ballad_for_birdsong, at Queen’s Hall, Port of Spain. 2014.

This Perfect Universe

Composed soundtrack (electric guitars and fixed media) for documentary film about the Country Corner Diner, West Chazy, NY. 2014.

Cytherean

Composition, Pfaff: amplified acoustic guitar (scordatura), prepared piano, tam tam. Audio recording. 2014.

Diné be’ iiná (sheep is life)

Diné be’ iiná (sheep is life), produced for the Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site, Navajo Nation, Ganado, AZ, per Artist-in-Residence agreement. Composed by request to enhance the park interpretation forvisually-impaired visitors. Pfaff composition includes found sounds from the Trading Post, fixed media, guitar ensemble, chamber orchestra. 2013.

North/South Consonance, Inc. Presents Premieres by Composers from Ireland and the US

Tuesday, March 12th at 8pm, North/South Consonance, Inc. presents March Madness! Premieres by Composers from Ireland and the US. Featuring Harry Bulow, Frank Corcoran, Binnette Lipper, Joyce Solomon Moorman, and WIlliam Pfaff at Christ & St. Stephen’s Church, 120 West 69th Street, NYC. Visit www.northsouthmusic.org for more information. 2013.

Escape to Create

Artist Residency Program, Seaside, FL. 2012.

The Runaways (film)

Film, photos by Kerry Brooks, Pfaff soundtrack: fixed media, world premiere at Escape to Create. 2012.

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site

Artist-in-Residence, Navajo Nation, Ganado, AZ. 2012.

UMASS Lowell

Composer-in-Residence. For the course: MUS 76.170 Contemporary Electronic Ensemble: Explores the electronic production and manipulation of music in a live ensemble setting, students incorporate synthesis, signal processing, sampling, etc. into a musical framework. 2012.

Creativity, Process and Craft—Threads Across Stylistic Boundaries

My UMASS Lowell public lecture/presentation which described the interaction of these three elements from the perspective of composer and audio engineer with a particular focus on creating new acoustic and electronic instruments and exploiting their characteristics. 2012.