Jason Thorpe Buchanan

Jason Thorpe Buchanan

Artistic Director, Co-Founder

Composer and Sound Engineer

Jason Thorpe Buchanan is an American composer, Artistic Director of the [Switch~ Ensemble], and Department Chair/Lecturer in Composition, Theory, and Electroacoustic Music at the College of Music, Mahidol University in Thailand. Commissions and performances include collaboration with Alarm Will Sound, Talea Ensemble, Ensemble Interface (DE), Nikel Ensemble (Israel), Linea (FR), Insomnio (NL), EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble(UK), Slagwerk Den Haag (NL), Eklekto Percussion (CH), the Mivos Quartet (USA), Iktus Percussion, the Blue Water Chamber Orchestra, wild Up, the NY Virtuoso Singers, the Eastman Musica Nova Ensemble, TACETi (Thailand), and the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. Scenes from his multimedia opera Hunger have received performances at Darmstadt, The Industry’s FIRST TAKE in L.A., and MATA in NYC with the [Switch~ Ensemble].

Honors include a Fulbright Fellowship in Hamburg, nomination for the Gaudeamus Prize, fellowships, residencies, and commissions from Royaumont (2016 & 17), MATA, the International Horn Society, AiR USF Verftet (Norway), an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant, the Embassy of Foreign Artists Residency, Geneva (Switzerland), Earle Brown Music Foundation, ASCAP Morton Gould Award (2014 & 2015), Howard Hanson Orchestral Prize, and winner of Iron Composer. He holds a Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music, served for three years as Executive Director of the VIPA Festival (Spain), two years as a Curator for the San Francisco Center for New Music, is director of the recently formed Academy for Young Composers at TICF (Thailand), and was course instructor in electronic music and composition, as well as assistant conductor for the Musica Nova Ensemble with Brad Lubman at Eastman. He is widely sought internationally as a guest composer and lecturer at institutions including UT Austin, Chamber Music Campania (Italy), the VIPA Festival (Spain), the University of Virginia, SJSU, Tzlil Meudcan (Israel), UNLV, Queens New Music Festival, MATA, Hamilton College, Portland State University, Transit Festival in Belgium, University of Richmond, UNCG, Michigan State Univerity, University of Northern Colorado, China-ASEAN Music Week, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory in Singapore, the Bergen Center for Elektronisk Kunst (BEK) in Norway, the University of Chicago, and Stanford University.