Long Bio
JUSTIN TIERNEY’S music was declared “superb, robust, and grand" by the Boston Globe who avowed that “Tierney’s dark-hued music had polished, ominous richness… and sound-worlds that were cogent and immediate.” Regarding his aesthetic, Tierney has stated that “natural phenomenon can be admired from either a scientific or aesthetic view, yet the coupling of the two modalities creates an experience greater than their sum.” His music has been performed and recorded by ensembles such as WetInk, The Firebird Ensemble, Experiments in Opera - Hotel Elefant, the Kyodai Brass Quintet, The Ciompi String Quartet, Yale Trombone Quartet, The Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale, Tufts Symphony Orchestra, and soloists such as Joanna Kurkowicz, and Fumito Nunoya, among others.
His current projects include composing a new work for New Morse Code (cello and percussion), a piano duet “Albion,” for Daniel Schlosberg and Paul Kerekes, and an one-act Opera, “Escritura del Dios” based on the short story by Jorge Luis Borges.
Before dedicating himself to music, Tierney raced BMX (bicycles) competitively, becoming CT State Champion. In high school, on a whim, he wandered into an orchestral concert (in Yale’s Woolsey Hall) for the first time (Bruckner’s 4th Symphony) and felt “a dam break inside of me.” Later, a performance of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps pushed him over the edge to give up his career in BMX, and abandon his philosophy major at Albertus Magnus to devote himself to music, asserting “my life started over at that point.”
Mr. Tierney has studied composition with Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, and Ezra Laderman at Yale University (Artist Diploma, 2012), John McDonald at Tufts University (MA, 2008-‘10), Jeffrey Johnson and Douglas Townsend at the University of Bridgeport (BM, 2004-‘07), and privately with Ryan Vigil (2004-‘07). He also studied Violin, and programed robots to play violin with Kurt Coble, and studied Cello with In-Hwa Lee. Tierney is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at Duke University under the guidance of Stephen Jaffe.
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His current projects include composing a new work for New Morse Code (cello and percussion), a piano duet “Albion,” for Daniel Schlosberg and Paul Kerekes, and an one-act Opera, “Escritura del Dios” based on the short story by Jorge Luis Borges.
Before dedicating himself to music, Tierney raced BMX (bicycles) competitively, becoming CT State Champion. In high school, on a whim, he wandered into an orchestral concert (in Yale’s Woolsey Hall) for the first time (Bruckner’s 4th Symphony) and felt “a dam break inside of me.” Later, a performance of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps pushed him over the edge to give up his career in BMX, and abandon his philosophy major at Albertus Magnus to devote himself to music, asserting “my life started over at that point.”
Mr. Tierney has studied composition with Martin Bresnick, Aaron Jay Kernis, Christopher Theofanidis, and Ezra Laderman at Yale University (Artist Diploma, 2012), John McDonald at Tufts University (MA, 2008-‘10), Jeffrey Johnson and Douglas Townsend at the University of Bridgeport (BM, 2004-‘07), and privately with Ryan Vigil (2004-‘07). He also studied Violin, and programed robots to play violin with Kurt Coble, and studied Cello with In-Hwa Lee. Tierney is currently pursuing a PhD in Composition at Duke University under the guidance of Stephen Jaffe.
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