![Photograph of Fernando Benadon]( /uploads/profiles/large/FB.jpg)
Fernando Benadon Professor Performing Arts
- Degrees
- PhD, Music Composition, UC Berkeley
BM, Commercial Arranging, Berklee College of Music - Bio
- I am a composer/theorist originally from Buenos Aires. I have released two albums, published a book, composed a score for an indie feature film shown at Cannes, and been praised by The New York Times for my music’s “ear-grabbing invention.” Musical life at AU is a blast. It’s collaborative and forward-thinking. Students and professors jam together and support each other’s projects. Bluegrass, hip-hop, Romanticism, jazz-rock, film music, the avant-garde — all and more find a home here.
- See Also
- Personal Website
- For the Media
- To request an interview for a news story, call AU Communications at 202-885-5950 or submit a request.
Teaching
Spring 2024
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MUS-021 Private Instrument Study: Composition
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MUS-022 Private Instrument Study: Composition
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MUS-121 Private Instrument/Vocal Study: Composition
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MUS-122 Private Instrument/Vocal Study: Composition
Fall 2024
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MUS-021 Private Instrument Study: Composition
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MUS-022 Private Instrument Study: Composition
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MUS-121 Private Instrument/Vocal Study: Composition
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MUS-122 Private Instrument/Vocal Study: Composition
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PERF-224 Music Theory III
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PERF-442 Adv St in Music Anlys/Perform: Jazz Arranging
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Selected Publications
- Swinglines: Rhythm, Timing, and Polymeter in Musical Phrasing. Oxford University Press (2024)
- Meter Isn't Everything: The Case of a Timeline-Oriented Cuban Polyrhythm. New Ideas in Psychology (2020)
- Modern Drum Solos Over Ostinatos. In "Thought and Play in Musical Rhythm: Asian, African, and Euro-American Perspectives" (OUP, 2019).
- Quantitative Analysis of Temporal Structure in Cuban Guaguancó Drumming. Music & Science (2018); co-authored with Andy McGraw & Michael Robinson
- Near-Unisons in Afro-Cuban Ensemble Drumming. Empirical Musicology Review (2016).
- More Rhythmic Interactions in Two (or Three) Aksak Performances. Empirical Musicology Review (2015)
- A Corpus Analysis of Rubato in Bach's C Major Prelude. Music Performance Research (2015); co-authored with Damian Zanette
- Metrical Perception of Trisyllabic Speech Rhythms. Psychological Research 78:1 (2014)
- Time Warps in Early Jazz. Music Theory Spectrum 31:1 (2009)
- Gridless Beats. Perspectives of New Music 47:1 (2009)
- How Hooker Found His Boogie. Popular Music 28:1 (2009); co-authored with Ted Gioia
- A Circular Plot for Rhythm Visualization and Analysis. Music Theory Online 13:3 (2007)
- Slicing the Beat: Jazz Eighth-Notes as Expressive Microrhythm. Ethnomusicology 50:1 (2006)
Grants and Sponsored Research
- National Endowment for the Humanities, Digital Startup Grant (2010)
Recordings
- delight/delirium (New Focus Recordings, 2017)
- Intuitivo (Innova Recordings, 2009)
Honors, Awards, and Fellowships
- Steve Larson Award for Jazz Scholarship, Society for Music Theory (2020)
- John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship (2009)
- Mannes Institute for Advanced Studies in Music Theory (2008, 2009)
- Jaap Kunst Prize, Society for Ethnomusicology (2007)
- Individual Artist Award, Maryland State Arts Council (2007)
- League of Composers / ISCM composers competition (2005)
- Aaron Copland Award, Copland House (2004)
- Nicola DeLorenzo 1st Prize, UC-Berkeley (2004)
- George Ladd Prix de Paris, UC-Berkeley (2001 - 03)
- Fromm Commission, Tanglewood Music Center (2001)
Professional Presentations
- On the Fluidity of Afro-Cuban Meter, Society for Music Theory (2019)
- Polymetric Phrasing in Rumba's Quinto. Society for Music Theory (2016)
- Improvisations of a Quinto Player. Analytical Approaches to World Music (2016); with Andrew McGraw
- Deep Syncopation in Hindustani Tabla Drumming. Analytical Approaches to World Music (2014)
- Disentangling the Rubato-Groove Continuum. Society for Music Theory (2012)
- Dynamic Exploration of Recording Sessions Between Jazz Musicians Over Time. ASE/IEEE International Conference on Social Computing (2012); with Darya Filippova, Karl Kingsford, and Michael Fitzgerald
- Metrical Properties of Fusion Drum Solos. Society for Music Theory (2011)
- Crossmodal Analogues of Tempo Rubato. Society for Music Perception and Cognition (2011)
- Expressive Timing via Metric Hybrids. International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (2010)
- Speech Rhythms and Metric Frames. Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music (2009)
- Bend it Like Bubber: Miley's Time in Creole Love Call. Society for Music Theory (2007)
- Towards a Theory of Tempo Modulation. International Conference on Music Perception and Cognition (2004)
- Absolutes and Relatives in Jazz Microtiming (poster). Auditory Perception, Cognition, and Action Meeting (2004)
- Spectrographic and Calligraphic Cues in the Identification of Jazz Saxophonists. European Society for the Cognitive Sciences (2003)
Residencies
- The MacDowell Colony (2006)
- Copland House (2004)
- Voix Nouvelles, Fondation Royaumont (2002)
- Wellesley Composers Conference (2002)
- Tanglewood Music Center (2000)
- Aspen Advanced Master Class in Composition (1999)