Overview
John Eagle is a composer and musician active in a variety of performance, installation, and interdisciplinary contexts. His work often operates within ecological frameworks involving extended instrumental systems. These works explore microtonal harmonic intonation and tuning practices as environmental processes.
Eagle has performed and presented work throughout the US and internationally including EMPAC’s Reembodied Sound 2024, the Sound/Image Festival in London, Int-Act Festival in Bangkok, Heidi Duckler Dance’s Ebb & Flow festival, UC Irvine’s The Art of Performance, Hear Now Music Festival, Thailand New Music and Arts Symposium, Göteborg Art Sounds, Co-Incidence Festival, Live Arts Exchange, and the Dog Star Orchestra festival.
Sound House, a performance installation developed with Janie Geiser and Cassia Streb, features a sixteen-channel wireless sound instrument he designed (first versions with Eric Heep). He was a lead artist on two collaborative sound films (Sound House and transient flows) presented by Music for Your Inbox in 2022/23. He has worked with conceptual artist Charles Gaines on several projects as music director and/or arranger including Manifestos 4 and 6 with recordings and performances at Times Square, MoMA, and REDCAT. A recording of his 2023 concert-length solo work for pianist Jack Yarbrough, erosion and growth, is available on Sawyer Editions.
His music has been performed by Tacet(i) Ensemble, Red Desert Ensemble, Brightwork New Music, Wet Ink Ensemble, Yarn/Wire, Unheard-of//Ensemble, Isaura String Quartet, Southland Ensemble, Inverted Space, and others.
Eagle holds degrees from Bennington College (BA), California Institute of the Arts (MFA), and Cornell University (DMA). He was the Composition Fellow at Bennington College from 2009 – 2011 where he taught and directed music for theater and music productions. Also active as a French hornist, he performs his own music and other works of experimental music. He (re)joins the Cornell music department as Teaching Associate & CEMC Studio Manager in 2024.
