Jason Eckardt has been recently promoted to Distinguished Professor, the highest faculty honor at CUNY, where I teach at the Graduate Center and Brooklyn College. A press release is here.

Eckardt is a professor in the Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College who played guitar in jazz and metal bands until, upon hearing the music of Webern, immediately devoted himself to composition. Since then, his music has been influenced by his interests in perceptual complexity, psychological and physical dimensions of performance, and self-organizing processes in the natural world.

He has been recognized through commissions and awards from Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Guggenheim, Rockefeller, Koussevitzky and Fromm Foundations, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Museum, Chamber Music America, the ISCM, Deutschen Musikrat, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie.

Eckardt’s music has been performed at major festivals and recorded on the Albany, Capstone, CRI/New World, Helicon, New Focus, Metier, Mode, Tzadik, and Urlicht labels. An active promoter of new music, Eckardt was co-founder and the executive director of Ensemble 21, the contemporary music group. Eckardt’s expertise focuses on composition, post-tonal theory, and analysis, extended instrumental and vocal techniques, music cognition, and perception.

“I am honored to have earned the support, trust, and recognition of CUNY and Brooklyn College for my teaching and composing,” Eckardt said. “Since joining the faculty, it has been a great reward to work with such talented and passionate students and witness their unique creative voices emerge. I look forward to further contributing to the Conservatory of Music and continuing my work with students and colleagues.”