James Dorsa
Lecturer

Brief Biography

James Dorsa is an American harpsichordist and composer. He teaches at California State University at Northridge and is regarded as a leading proponent of contemporary harpsichord composition and performance. He earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2007 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Dr. Dorsa joined the faculty at California State University Northridge in 2008 where harpsichord he teaches harpsichord performance, as well as courses in general music and music appreciation. He has become well known for his virtuoso interpretations of rarely performed modern harpsichord repertoire.
Dr. Dorsa compositions are almost exclusively for the harpsichord, and are frequently performed by harpsichordists around the world. Twice the winner of the Aleanor Prize for composition, his suite Jupiter’s Moons has entered the modern canon and now regularly appears as required repertoire at harpsichord competitions. Dorsa acknowledges Gyorgy Ligeti as an important influence, and describes his own compositional approach as “maximalist”—a naturally heterogeneous style drawing upon a wide array of outside influences that indulges freely in motivic and harmonic complexity. Dorsa’s work, often characterized by pounding ostinatos, explosive arpeggios, brilliant tremolo, and crushingly dissonant tone clusters, is evocative of the more aggressive trends in modern rock music.

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