Gordon Monahan's varied works for piano, loudspeakers, and multi-media installation have brought acclaim from audiences internationally. His work has been described as frightening, sensational, demonic, wildly romantic, visually stunning, and groundbreaking. The renowned composer John Cage, has said, "At the piano, Gordon Monahan produces sounds we haven't heard before."

Monahan has received a number of awards and commissions, including First Prize at the 1984 CBC National Radio Competition for Young Composers, as well as commissions from the Vancouver New Music Society, CBC Radio and Dade County Art in Public Places, Florida. His controversial commission for the Dade County MetroRail transit system was banned during the 1988 New Music America Festival in Miami. That same year, Monahan was one of two Canadian composers chosen as CBC Radio's entry to the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris.

Since 1978, Monahan has performed and exhibited at numerous performance spaces, galleries, and festivals, including six appearances at New Music America from 1983-90, four appearances at the Newfoundland Sound Symposium from 1983-90, the Holland Festival in 1985, the New York days in Rotterdam in 1988, and at the 1989 Ars Electronica in Linz, Austria. During the 1989-90 season, he toured the United States under the auspices of The Kitchen. His new installation work exploring the acoustical aspects of whirlpools opened at the New York Hall of Science in the Spring of 1990. In Autumn 1990, he will be Artist-in-Residence in the Media Arts Department at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Monahan has independently released two LPs and several videotapes of his work. He also appears on the recently released Electra/Nonesuch CD compilation Imaginary Landscapes: New Electronic Music. His first solo CD will be released on Swerve Editions in early 1991.

Artist Code: 267