Phil Acimovic is a composer and gamelan musician in Easthampton,
MA. He writes quiet, austere music for solo and chamber
ensembles. In 2018 he served as Artist-In-Residence at the Cold
Hollow Sculpture Park in VT. Acimovic’s music taps into abstract
emotional states, the quiet corners of the mind that are
obstructed in our hyperactive world. His most recent project is a
set of solo instrumental works inspired by abstract visual
artists and complementing the disquietude of the Covid pandemic.
His works have been performed by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble,
the Empyrean Ensemble, the St. Louis Symphony, and at various new
music festivals across the country. Acimovic studied Javanese
Gamelan for two years in Central Java and performs regularly
around the northeast U.S.
Acimovic teaches music theory at Clark University since Fall
2021. He previously taught music theory at Smith College and has
directed Javanese Gamelan ensembles at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz,
Mynah Music School, Tufts University, and Smith College.
Awards / grants / Performances
Artist-in-Residence, 2018, Cold Hollow Sculpture Park:
He served as their first ever artist-in-residence and gave a
public presentation on his compositions. This was a major
turning point being invited to serve as artist-in-residence
while still a graduate student at UC Davis.
Performance, 2018, St Louis Symphony – Quiet Streams for
orchestra (dissertation piece) Performed at UC Davis as part of
Revision/s festival. This was an opportunity to work with a major
American orchestra under the direction of one of the most
prominent conductors, David Robertson.
Commission, 2017, Left Coast Chamber Ensemble – Reverent Murmurs
for 2 pianos Performed in Feb 2018 at Berkeley Piano Club & SF
Conservatory. This was a professional commission from a leading
new music ensemble. The piece was performed three times and
reviewed by multiple critics in the SF Bay Area.
Bilinski Fellowship, UC Davis – Dissertation Year Fellowship,
a highly regarded fellowship at UC Davis for a doctoral
student in the final year of study.
Performances at various summer new music festivals, 2016-2018:
June in Buffalo (Buffalo, NY); Summer Institute for Contemporary
Performance Practice (Boston, MA); New Music on the Point (VT);
Oregon Bach Composers Festival (Eugene, OR). These are leading
festivals around the country to showcase modern music by young
composers.
Graduate Student Association Travel Award, 2017: This award was
to attend a performance of music written for the Eureka
Musical Minds California graduate student festival in Fullerton,
CA.
Grant, 2014, University of California Institute for Research in
the Arts: The grant was for a collaborative sound installation at
UC Davis called the Lake Tahoe Sonification Project. We used the
grant money to purchase equipment needed for the installation.
Provost Fellowship, 2013-14, UC Davis – First Year Fellowship
Compositions by graduate students Philip Acimovic and Christopher
Castro are to have their world premieres in an upcoming Left
Coast Chamber Ensemble concert. Acimovic’s Reverent
Murmurs for Two Pianos and Castro’s
IV-I for Two Pianos are included in the
program Visions de l’Amen.
The concert will be performed in two Bay area venues,
first on Feb. 1 and 3 at the Berkeley Piano Club, then
on Feb. 5 at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Philip Acimovic, a Ph.D. candidate in music composition, has
received a Russell J. and Dorothy S. Bilinski Educational
Foundation Dissertation Writing Fellowship for the academic year
2017-2018.
Acimovic’s dissertation analyzes three musical works from
different eras that challenge established musical conventions of
clarity, intent and perception: “Musical Offering” by Johann
Sebastian Bach (1747), “Holiday Symphony” by Charles Ives (1913)
and “Melodien” by György Ligeti (1971).
The Empyrean Ensemble — the professional group at UC Davis
dedicated to performing new music — will give a concert
titled “Young and Restless” at 7 pm, Sunday, April 26, in the
Vanderhoef Studio Theatre at UC Davis.
