Composer ImproviserTeacher
  



HOME

SONGS FOR THE JOURNEY

CURRENT EVENTS

WORKS

RECORDINGS

MUSIC OF THE MOMENT

BIOGRAPHY

LINKS

CONTACT
 

Biography

I'lana Cotton is a composer, improviser and pianist who has written extensively for acoustic chamber ensembles and choral groups. She has also collaborated with other musicians and artists in visual and theatrical media, and has created several commissions for choreographers and poets.

She began her piano studies at the age of 4, and was trained in Western classical technique and literature. During her middle school years, she began a life-long exploration of improvisation, which at first led to studying composition. Her undergraduate music study was with John Adams and Alden Jenks at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

She holds an M.A. in composition from the University of California at Los Angeles, where she studied with Paul Reale and Elaine Barkin, and where she also became exposed to the rich world of non-Western music. Here she studied Javanese gamelan with Max Harrell. During this time, she also began extensive work as a pianist for dance classes and choreography.

She then broadened her scope to other arts, in improvised performance with mimes, poets, and visual artists, as well as with other musicians. She wrote several works for chamber ensembles and chamber orchestra as commissions for choreographers. Returning to the San Francisco Bay area, she continued her work with dancers while studying north Indian classical vocal technique with Faquir Pran Nath. Three cassette albums of piano improvisations preceded her 2003 CD release, entitled "Songs for the Journey".

In the 1990’s she again focused on composition for chamber ensembles. Her concert music has been performed throughout the US and has won several awards. Recent performances include those by Max Lifchitz, Ives Quartet, North/South Consonance, SyZyGy, Southern Oregon University Faculty Brass Quintet, Menlo Brass Quintet, Pacific Sticks Percussion Ensemble, Southern Oregon and San Francisco Chapters of NACUSA, Masterworks Chorale, and Ernest Bloch Festival Composers' Symposium. She has received awards from the California-based Peninsula Community Foundation, ASCAP, and Britten-on-the-Bay, and was a participant at Oregon Bach Festival Composers' Symposium. Her works have been recorded by Max Lifchitz on North/South Recordings "American Women Composers" and by Menlo Brass Quintet on "A Simpler Life."

For over 20 years, she was on the music faculty of the College of San Mateo, in California, and is the author of "Music of the Moment: A Graded Approach to the Art of Keyboard Improvisation," available from New Music Publications. An active member of NACUSA (National Association of Composers, USA), she is now also Director of Threshold Choir Southern Oregon which serves the hospice community near her Medford home.