Phil Acimovic is a composer, gamelan musician and director, and sound installation artist in Easthampton, Massachusetts.

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I compose quiet, slow music. I try to access abstract emotions, the quiet corners of the mind that are obstructed in our hyperactive world. My recent work is a set of solo pieces inspired by painters with whom I feel artistic kinship, Piet Mondrian, Mark Rothko, and Agnes Martin. These pieces were written to balance or complement the disquietude of the Covid pandemic.

 

I've been fortunate to work with musicians Eric Zivian, Sarah Cahill, Chris Froh, Chris Castro, John McDonald, and groups such as the Empyrean Ensemble. I was commissioned by the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble in 2018 for a piano duo, Reverent Murmurs. 

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I studied composition at the Hartt School, Tufts University, and UC Davis. My main teachers are Kurt Rohde, Sam Nichols, John McDonald, Ken Steen, and David Macbride. I studied Javanese Gamelan in Central Java with Bp. Wakidi Dwidjomartono, Bp. Darsono Hadiraharjo, and several other prominent Javanese musicians. I'm a member of Gamelan Laras Tentrem in Boston and perform frequently with other gamelan ensembles in the northeast.

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I created and collaborated on several sound installations, including Speaking of Sound, a 

project documenting meaningful sound memories, and The Lake Tahoe Sonification Project, a collaborative effort translating weather data from Lake Tahoe into sound.