composer & percussionist
Born in Vienna, Austria and based between the US and South Africa, Lukas Ligeti is a composer, improvisor, and researcher whose innovative music combines influences from the western classical canon, African music, jazz, electronics, the American experimental tradition, and many others sources. Special interests include polymetric and polytempo structures, non-tempered tunings, and the development of new performance practices through unconventional uses of technology. Lukas Ligeti studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, received his PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, and has taught at the University of California, Irvine (as a core member of the PhD program in Integrated Composition, Improvisation. and Technology), the University of Pretoria (as an Extraordinary Professor) and at the University of Ghana (jointly with J.H. Kwabena Nketia).
A recipient of the CalArts Alpert Award in Music, his compositions have been commissioned by Ars Musica (Brussels), the Vienna Festwochen, American Composers Orchestra,MDR Symphony Orchestra Leipzig, Ensemble Modern, Eighth Blackbird, the Bang On A Can All Stars, the Kronos Quartet, Håkan Hardenberger, Colin Currie, and Ji Hye Jung, and his music has also been performed by the Brussels Philharmonic, Basel Sinfonietta, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, Vienna Radio Symphony, the London Sinfonietta, Avanti! (Helsinki), the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Amadinda Percussion Group, and countless others.
As a drummer, he has performed and/or recorded with artists such as John Zorn, Elliott Sharp, Henry Kaiser, John Tchicai, Marilyn Crispell, George Lewis, Gary Lucas, etc., and has given solo concerts on electronic percussion at festivals on five continents. He co-founded the groups Beta Foly (Côte d’Ivoire) and Burkina Electric (Burkina Faso) and has worked in many other countries across Africa, leading to an approach he refers to as experimental intercultural collaboration. He has been an Artist-in-Residence at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and at Sonoscopia in Porto, Portugal. CDs of his music have been released by Tzadik, Cantaloupe, Intuition, Innova, col legno, and other labels. For more information, please see https://www.lukasligeti.com.