Quiet Tide (2009)
Quintet of the Americas wanted to commission a composer under the age of 30 to write one of the works for their Mannahatta Project, works inspired by the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s sail up the river that bears his name. Mark Dancigers was chosen for this commission. He had lived by the shore and was inspired by his memories of the sea, the waves and nature. The Quintet premiered Quiet Tide April 26, 2009 at the Queens Botanical Garden.
Born in 1981, Mark Dancigers is an experienced composer whose music combines deep classical roots with electric guitar and pop production techniques. As a performer, he has expanded the scope of the electric guitar’s reach in classical music by premiering over thirty solo and chamber works.
Mark’s output includes music for the New York City Ballet, scores heard at the Sundance Film Festival, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao Spain, the Athens Concert Hall in Greece, Zurich, the Netherlands, Australia, New York City Center, Carnegie Hall, and many other venues. His music is recorded on seven contemporary classical albums released on the New Amsterdam label, distributed by Naxos. He has collaborated with Grammy Award winning engineers Jesse Lewis and Kyle Pyke.
Mark’s musical journey began as an electric guitarist playing and multi-tracking instrumental rock on a Tascam 4-track. Simultaneously he discovered a passion for classical music, and pursued musical training at Yale, the Yale School of Music, and Princeton University, where he received his PhD, writing a concerto for electric guitar and orchestra as his dissertation.
For more on Mark Dancigers visit