Michael Gordon is known for his monumental and immersive works. Decasia, for 55 retuned spatially positioned instruments (with Bill Morrison’s accompanying cult-classic film), has been featured on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Minimalist Jukebox Festival and at the Southbank Centre. Timber, a tour-de-force for percussion sextet played on amplified microtonal simantras, has been performed on every continent, including by Slagwerk Den Haag at the Musikgebouw and Mantra Percussion at BAM. Natural History, a collaboration with the Steiger Butte Drum of the Klamath tribe, was premiered by the Britt Festival Orchestra and Chorus on the rim of Crater Lake (Oregon), conducted by Teddy Abrams, and is the subject of the PBS documentary Symphony for Nature.

Gordon’s vocal works include Travel Guide to Nicaragua, an autobiographical choral work for The Crossing; the opera What to wear with the legendary director Richard Foreman; and the film-opera Acquanetta with director Daniel Fish. Recent recordings include Clouded Yellow, Gordon’s complete string quartets performed by the Kronos Quartet.

Gordon is a founding member, alongside David Lang (1991 Fellow, 2017 Resident, former AAR Trustee) and Julia Wolfe (2025 Resident), of Bang on a Can, the collaborative new-music organization the three founded in 1987 and continue to lead as artistic directors. This year, Gordon returns to the Academy as Paul Fromm Resident in Composition and a featured composer at the Romaeuropa Festival, where the Italian premiere of his Field of Vision, for 36 percussionists, will be performed by Blow Up Percussion at the American Academy in Rome on September 19, 2026.