Bio

July 17, 2021 Staff 0 Comments

Kevin Ure composes music that is at once challenging to the listener and accessible. As a critical composer, his search to write original music has led him to the historical roots of musical analysis. With a unique interpretation of the overtone series, Ure has created a refreshing brand of tonality that embraces chromaticism and addresses many of the issues inherent in traditional tonality.

At its core, his music reflects Romantic period ideals. His music aims to push the boundaries of music composition, and he believes that one of the roles of a composer is to commit to a lifelong search for new sounds, theories, and methods of producing original music.

Like many composers, his first introduction to music came in the form of piano lessons. Over the years, he traded one instrument for another in an effort to get a feel for all of the instruments of the orchestra. While maintaining a strong affinity for the euphonium and brass instruments, his goal was always to express musical ideas.

Ure has maintained an interest in creating music that borders on the macabre and no matter the style of the work, a unique voice seeps through. Dissonant, dark, melancholy music with a tonal pull that is based largely on how consonant and remote overtones in music create friction provides a meditative reprieve from the challenges of daily life. The melodies in his compositions are often merged within rich densities, thick harmonic backdrops, and dynamic rhythmic pulses.

Ure's music encompasses listeners in a wash of sound that is intended to envelop and propel the audience to experience new musical worlds. While most of his music uses novel and dissonant harmonies, there is usually a programmatic sense of hope and catharsis that meets the listener at the close. The viewpoint reflected is one of continual change, modification, and metamorphosis from a variety of perspectives.

Ure has traveled extensively and draws upon those experiences while writing new music. While born in California, he has since traveled across the United States, Europe, and Asia. During a two-year stint living in rural Japan, his exposure to different cultures and modes of thought expanded. While each new piece of music has a certain symbology and is programmatic in nature; ultimately, he hopes his music instigates differing meanings depending on the listener's experience, background, and personal inclinations.

Similar to a Rorschach test, his music serves as a catalyst to understanding personal and often volatile emotional currents of energy. Ure believes that great music provides a logical framework that the listener can use as a container to pour their own experiences and meaning into the piece. This musical lens may provide the listener with an emotional release, a structure for relaxation and meditation, or a reprieve from the mundane and ordinary.

Each new piece is a work in progress that always aims for an impossible perfection while never fully answering the questions the music attempts to pose. In this way, there are core concepts and ideas that frequent listeners will begin to pick up on. Ure believes that music is organic, and in that sense it continues to change, develop, and grow as the composer improves their understanding and knowledge of the craft of music composition.

His music can be previewed on iTunes, Amazon, CDBaby, and SoundCloud. Additionally, you can follow him on Facebook and Twitter. Kevin Ure has also written extensively on music and aims to help composers learn to create their own original compositions.