Jon Forshee, Ph.D.

View Jon Forshee's CV

Jon Forshee is Instructor of Music Technology in the Department of Visual and Performing Arts at UCCS, where he also teaches in the Humanities Program. As a composer of colorful, innovative music with many works focused on live performance with computers, Jon’s electroacoustic compositions have been performed throughout the United States, Europe, and in China, and are also frequently broadcast on radio and the web. Forshee’s current research areas focus on current sound synthesis and sound spatialization techniques, early Western contrapuntal practices, and electronic instrument and synthesizer design. Jon plays the tuba, the electric tuba and the theremin, and also serves as the faculty director of the UCCS Student Brass Ensemble. 

Recent compositions include MEMORY PALACE (2023), for piano and quadraphonic sound, HERALD OF THE COSMIC SEVEN (2023), for trumpet and computer-generated sound, APOKATASTASIS (2022), for mixed ensemble with computer-generated sound, and TRANSFIGURED VERSE (2021), for harp and computer-generated sound. In 2022 TRANSIGURED VERSE was released by Centaur Records performed by harpist Tasha Smith Godinez, for whom the work was composed, and APOKATASTASIS was issued on CD in 2021 by Open Space Recordings. In 2019, Open Space Recordings released a collection of Forshee’s music titled Verses from the Aethersphere, featuring works inspired by Western European traditions of speculative music.

As a scholar, Jon’s articles and texts on music, aesthetics, and technology appear in The Computer Music Journal, Open Space Magazine, and Perspectives of New Music, and most recently as a chapter in the book Dies Irae, dies illa: Music in the Apocalyptic Mode, issued by Brill, 2023. Recent conference papers include “Compositional Design and Pitch-Class Consciousness in Acoustic Works of Éliane Radigue”, presented at the Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting, 2023, and “The Odyssey and the Greek Epic Cycle: Metaphors of Kyklos as Circularity”, presented at the Harvard University’s Center for Hellenic Studies Kyklos 2023 Conference. Jon completed his Ph.D. in Composition at the University of California, San Diego, his M.A. at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, and his B.M. at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.

• Ph.D., Composition, University of California, San Diego
• M.A., Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY
• B.M., Bowling Green State University, Ohio

Lower Division

• MUS 2500 – Composition Seminar I
• MUS 2300 – ElectroAcoustic Ensemble
• MUS 2150 – Introduction to Computer Music
• MUS 2010 – Music Theory II: Contemporary Harmony
• MUS 1160 – Audio Engineering I
• MUS 1160-4660 – Composition Studio Instruction

Upper Division

• MUS 4660 – Audio Engineering II
• MUS 4010 – Music Theory IV: Atonal Music Theory
• VAPA 3950 – Sound Art: Creative Sonic Worlds
• MUS 3500 – Composition Seminar II
• MUS 3200 – Advanced Computer Music Composition
• MUS 3010 – Music Theory III: Post-Tonal Theory

• Herald of the Cosmic Seven, trumpet & computer-generated sound, 2023. Premiere: June 28, 2023, SICPP 2023, Osborne Theater, UCCS. Glen Whitehead, trumpet; Jon Forshee, computer.
• Memorialis, oboe, alto sax., trpt., contrabass, 2023. Premiere: April 22, 2023, Ludwig Recital Hall, Kent State University. Kent State New Music Ensemble, Adam Roberts, director.
• Mountain Moon Dance, alto saxophone solo, 2023. Premiere: April 22, 2023, Chapman Recital Hall, UCCS. Oscar Mata, alto saxophone.
• Metamorphoses: New American Works for Harp. Tasha Smith Godinez, harp. 2022. Centaur Records CRC 3914.
• Story of the Face, for guitar, tuba, piano, and computer-generated sound, 2022. Premiere: August 19, 2022, Maverick Hall, Woodstock, NY. Joshua Mailman, piano; Colin McAllister, guitar; Jon Forshee, tuba & laptop.
• VIVARIUM – Thirteen Images of Danielle Rae Miller, 2022. Premiere: April 29, 2022, The People’s Building, Denver, CO. Nebula Ensemble, Stephen Bailey, director.
• APOKATASTASIS, Jon Forshee; Downtime, Benjamin Boretz. 2021. Open Space CD 48.
• Pocket Concerto for Tuba and Brass Quintet. 2021. Premiere: May 14, 2021, Ent Center for the Arts, UCCS. Nexus Brass Quintet, Timothy Hoffman, tuba solo.
• Verses from the Aethersphere : Speculative Music of Jon Forshee. 2019. Open Space CD 36.
• Sacred Sky, for violin and computer, 2020. Premiere: December 5th, 2020, UCCS GOCA Downtown. Martha Muehleisen, violin. Part of the F.E.A.R.S Artist Series.
• ANTI-BORDERLANDS, for field orchestra and dancers, 2020. Premiere: September 17, 2020, University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Take It Outside People! Outdoor concert series, Heller House, UCCS.

• “Apocalyptic Time and the Time of APOKATASTASIS: Musical Flow as Eschatology in Current Compositional Practice”. Music in the Apocalyptic Mode, DiTommaso and McAllister, eds. pp. 373-383. Leiden: Brill. 2023.
• “First Contact: A Cosmology of Elaine Barkin at 90”. Elaine at 90, Open Space Magazine, 2022. “Roger Reynolds’ Sanctuary: Musical Unity, Compositional Cohesion, and Dimensions of Identity”. First:Listen, the Journal of Critical Listening through Music, Issue 1, 2021. Web: https://firstlisten.online/issue-1/forshee-roger-reynolds-sanctuary/
• “Words After (and From Before) CONVERGE – an afterword”. Inside In, Outside Out, texts by Benjamin Boretz. Tildy Bayar, ed. Open Space Publications, Red Hook, NY. 2020.
• Aspen Composers’ Conference 2023. Twenty Fifth Annual Aspen Composers’ Conference, Aspen, CO, August 7-8, 2023. Talk: Compositional Design and Pitch-Class Consciousness in Acoustic Works of Eliane Radigue II.
• Kyklos 2023 Conference. Center for Hellenic Studies, Harvard University, online, June 23. 2023. Talk: The Odyssey and the Greek Epic Cycle: The Metaphor of Kyklos as Expression of Circularity.
• Rocky Mountain Society for Music Theory Annual Meeting. Rocky Mountain Scholar’s Conference 2023, Logan, UT, March 31-April 1. 2023. Talk: Compositional Design and Pitch-Class Consciousness in Acoustic Works of Eliane Radigue.
• Aspen Composers’ Conference 2022. Twenty Fourth Annual Aspen Composers’ Conference, Aspen, CO, August 1, 2022. Talk: Apocalyptic time and the time of Apokatastasis.