Video 1: ”Traffic Signals” for Accordion an Vibraphone by Gene Pritsker performed by Peter Jarvis & William Schimmel at William Paterson University ‘New Music Series’

Video 2: “Revisited Residue” (accordion and string quartet): Dedicated to Miloš Katanić

Gene Pritsker is a musician with diverse talents. His interests vary widely and he is constantly performing, composing, and expanding the boundaries of musical composition. Composer/guitarist/rapper/Di.J. Gene Pritsker has written over 800 compositions employing an eclectic spectrum of styles.It is difficult to place him in any specific category because he is so multifaceted.

Gene is the lead orchestrator of “The Matrix Resurrections” which will premiere on December 22, 2021 in theaters and on HBO MAX. Gene shares, “The team I work with on films & TV shows, for over 15 years now, did an amazing job! The music is composed by Johnny Klimek and Tom Tykwer. We have been working on this project for 2 years. I started in Aug. of 2019, while at the Outreach Music Festival in the Austrian Alps, and due to the pandemic it took a while to get it all done – but we did it. And had a great time doing too, – recording at Abbey Road Studios (once in real life the rest virtual), traveling around the world to work with the team including Canary Islands (multiple times), London and Berlin. It’s a very hip film – and the music Johnny and Tom wrote I think is excellent. We use the Don Davis original music as a starting point but then they take it to other more melodic places, which I enjoy a lot. At the start of the process I did a lot of my own interpretations of music of Stravinsky, Adams, and other composers from the past century, which then got chopped up and used in various places throughout the movie.”

Composer Gene Pritsker has written over seven hundred compositions, including chamber operas, orchestral and chamber works, electro-acoustic music and songs for hip-hop and rock ensembles. His compositions employ an eclectic spectrum of styles, that are influenced by his studies of various musical cultures. He is the founder and leader of Sound Liberation, an eclectic hip hop-chamber-jazz-rock-etc. ensemble. He also Co-Directs Composers Concordance. Gene’s music is performed all over the world at internationally recognized festivals and by highly respected ensembles and performers.

Gene co-founded the Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble with Kristjan Jarvi and has been a composer in residence and guitarist since its creation in 1993.  He worked closely with jazz fusion legend Joe Zawinul and has orchestrated major Hollywood movies, including ‘Cloud Atlas’, for which he wrote additional music and composed his ”Cloud Atlas Symphony’. He is also the lead orchestrator for such TV series as Babylon Berlin, Netflix’s Sense8 and Messiah.

Gene shares, “My music is extremely eclectic, from orchestral music to chamber music to hip-hop, rock, opera, electronic to incorporating my studies of various world cultures. Music has no bounds – I view the world of music as one big genre. My motto for my art is  “ending the segregation of sound vibration” He is also a guitarist/rapper/Di.J./ and producer and incorporates each of these musical attributes to create music that is  “not designed for easy listening or to melt into the background. It is insistent. It demands attention and curiosity.” – New York Newsday. 

You can learn more about Gene and his upcoming performances from his Facebook page. Recently, I was able to interview him:

Q. When were your first professional concerts?
I was playing at an early age with my fathers band on guitar, so I don’t remember my first professional concert but I was young, for sure early teenage years. 

Q. How has your musical career impacted on your personal life?
Well I live and breathe music, so for me music is part of my personal life. I wake up every morning and write music, produce and perform concerts and everything else revolves round these activities

Q. Who are your favorite musicians and musical groups?  Which musicians or musical groups of today or the past do you like and why?”
As a composer I have by top 3 which are Stravinsky, Mendelssohn and Zappa. But also you can add to that list Bach. Big influences on me is 70-80’s Metal, late 90;s early 2000’s hip-hop, Thelonious Monk and other American composers form the mid 20th century, and music from all cultures around our big great world. 

 Q. What are your favorite types of music?
I am very eclectic, as you can see from the list above, so i really listen to the world of music. For me there is no ‘types’ it’s all just a big planet with various people around it creating and organizing sound to achieve the sublime. I listen to everything, but being busy with my own music I am really mostly focused on the music I am producing, since I am writing exactly what I want to hear. 

Q . List some of your most interesting and important performances.
It’s of course hard to pinpoint just one or Two Concerts from a lifetime of concerts. But, the premiere of my Cloud Atlas Symphony in Leipzig Germany by the MDR symphony, 7 years ago was a highlight, also my 40th birthday concert with my band Sound Liberation at the Bremen MusikFestival (on my actual birthday) was a highlight and recently I produced a concert in NYC called ‘Gene@50’, a 2 hour event of my music performed by some of my closest musical collaborators and friends.

Q. Describe your most “unusual” or “humorous” performance situation?
One funny situation was the premiere of my bass concerto by the Adelaide Philharmonic, before the concert I was invited on stage to do an interview with the moderator. The concert was outdoors and the audience was about 30 thousand people. During the interview I said a funny joke or comment and all of a sudden 30 thousand people chuckling was an amazing surprise, I loved the high of it and continued the interview trying to make everyone laugh, cause this was a special feeling. 

Q. What other interests and hobbies besides music do you have?
Truthfully not many 🙂 music basically consumes me

Q. What do you regard as your greatest achievement? What musical achievements are you most proud of?
I have written over 800 compsitions and growing. I am always trying to learn and experiment and stretch my sensibilities and abilities. I guess I am most proud of this.  

Q. What musical advice do you have for aspiring accordionists/musicians/composers
Do things. don’t sit aorund waiting for good things to happen to you musically, make them happen for yourself. 

Q. Is there any teacher or artist to whom you would like to pay particular tribute, for their inspirational effect on your musical career.
My main composition teacher was Giampaolo Bracali at Manhattan School of Music, he was very supportive and was the best possible type of composition teacher one can have. I treasure the time I had with him. 

Q  How long have you been playing accordion?
I do not play accordion but I do work with lots of great accordion players for whom I write accordion music.

Q Please include your education credentials: College degree, honors, rewards, etc…… I saw your posts on Facebook.
You can learn more about me on my website –  www.Genepritsker.com

 Q. Was your family musical and did your parents play an important part in your early music education?
They were and are – my mother is a pianist and plays the Domra (a traditional Russian instrument) and my father is a clarinetist/saxophonist and now leads a big band in NYC 

Q. What role did your parents play in your early music education?
They gave me my start (at age 4 on the  violin) and later when i switched to guitar they were very supportive and guided my early musical education.

Gene’s releases in November / December:
1. What We Got Here Now (single) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkoC62WvB5U
2. ChristMess Blues (Single) – feat. Lara St. John – Violin  –  to be released first week of Dec.
3. The Music Between Us (Poetry by Robert C. Ford set to music) to be released Dec. 3rd
on composes concordance records  http://www.composersconcordance.com


Gene Pritsker’s accordion music includes:  

–  Memories Are Not Enough (solo accordion) 

– Revisited Residue (accordion and string quartet) 

– I’m Going Extinct Heart First (violin, Domra, bass balalaika, accordion)

– If Her Waters Flow Not In Perpetual Progression (guitar, cello, accordion) 

– Traffic Signals (accordion and vibraphone)

For further information: gene@genepritsker.com