Mason Bates

Mason W. Bates (born January 23, 1977) is a Grammy nominated American composer of symphonic music and DJ of electronic dance music. Distinguished by his innovations in orchestration and large-scale form, Bates is best known for his expansion of the orchestra to include electronics. The second-most performed living composer in the United States, he has worked closely with the San Francisco Symphony and recently ended a three-year term as composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Earlier this year (January), he was named composer-in-residence of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts (their first ever composer-in-residence appointment), starting this fall and through the 2017-18 season.

Bates was raised in Richmond, Virginia, where he attended St. Christopher's School. He graduated from the Columbia University-Juilliard School Exchange Program, with a BA in music composition and English literature, where he studied with John Corigliano, David Del Tredici, and Samuel Adler. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a PhD in composition in 2008, where he studied with Edmund Campion. He was a DJ and techno artist, in Oakland, California.

Notable works include Alternative Energy, an energy symphony premiered by Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Liquid Interface, a water symphony commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra; and The B-Sides, a symphony commissioned by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 Bates was commissioned to write for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011, an ensemble composed of musicians from around the world. His piece Mothership was performed by the London Symphony Orchestra and went on YouTube a year earlier; it is a mixture of acoustic and electronic elements and features sections for improvisation. In 2014 Bates wrote the filmscore for Gus Van Sant's 2015 movie The Sea of Trees, starring Matthew McConaughey, Naomi Watts and Ken Watanabe.

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