Photo by Gerry Szymanski

Red Wierenga is a pianist, keyboardist, respectronicist, improviser, and composer currently based in New York City. His longest creative association is with the Respect Sextet, called “a group which has released one of the most compelling recordings of the year,” by the Wall Street Journal, and “one of the best and most ambitious new ensembles in jazz” by Signal To Noise.

He performs and records in a wide array of musical settings, from free improvisation, jazz and new music to rock, pop, and world musics. He has performed and/or recorded with artists including Nell Bryden, the David Crowell Ensemble, Signal, Brad Lubman, Salo, the Fireworks Ensemble, The Claudia Quintet, and others.

As a creative musician and researcher, Wierenga is primarily concerned with electronic and electro-acoustic sound. He works to interface acoustic instruments with electronics and builds physical devices for the control of computerized sound, producing new instruments and meta-instruments. He is particularly interested in new interfaces, parameter mapping, physical modeling, and microsound. Both his self-termed “respectronics” and his compositions he designs to be particularly conducive to improvisation. His software creations have been used in performances by musicians including Keith Rowe and Jim Black.

Wierenga received his Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music, where his teachers included Harold Danko and Ralph Alessi. During his time at Eastman, Wierenga appeared as soloist with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, the Eastman School Studio Orchestra and Ossia. He also performed in duo and small group settings with Dave Holland, Wycliffe Gordon, Ben Monder and others. While at Eastman, Wierenga researched several lesser-known historical jazz pianists, including Richard Twardzik and Herbie Nichols, transcribing, arranging and performing their music. After graduating from Eastman in 2002, Wierenga served as on-air host on Jazz90.1, Rochester’s jazz radio station, while maintaining an active performance schedule, playing as a soloist and with the Respect Sextet, the Dave Rivello Ensemble, the Red Wierenga Unit, and others.

In 2004 Wierenga moved to the Netherlands, where he studied electronic and computer music at the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. There he studied with Joel Ryan and designed and built the first Respectron, a novel physical interface for gestural control of electronic music.

Since moving to New York City in 2005, Wierenga has established a vigorous performance agenda while composing for the Respect Sextet and the Wierenga Manœuvre and continuing development on the Respectron and other electronic and electro-acoustic instruments. In Fall 2011 he is beginning his doctoral studies in composition at CUNY Graduate Center, where he is an Enhanced Chancellor’s Fellow.