'Pluto Dances' is a piece I composed in collaboration with the Effervescent Collective dance company. It is scored for 3 percussionists, violin, cello, bass, and electronics. It was written as a graphic score, with each part consists of a series of repeating cells written in traditional notation as well as a graphic part that is interpreted according to instructions. All of the parts allow for, and depend on, improvisational choices by the performers that give the music a sense of fluidity that could not be achieved with a strictly composed score. All of the drums have sensors attached to them that trigger electronic sound tuned to the resonances of the strings, providing tonal as well as rhythmic interplay between the two sections. The performers take cues from the dancers and vice versa, bringing the two together in a more collaborative way than much traditional music for dance. 'Pluto Dances' was performed at the Lumberhaus studio October 1st-3rd, 2010.

Since 2007, I have actively engaged in a practice of free improvisation, performing spontaneuos music with countless musicians, movement, and visual artists. In 2010, I became a member of the High Zero Collective,  the organizing body of the High Zero Festival of Exprimental Imropvised Music. This practice has pushed my playing, particularly on the alto saxophone, to new heights, and challenged me to develop a personal vocabulary on my instrument. 

Included here is a recording of a group improvisation from the 2011 High Zero Festival  in which I am joined by Oluyemi Thomas (reeds), Nathan Ellman-Bell (percussion), John Berndt (saxophones, electronics), Shana Palmer (electronics), David Watson (bagpipes, guitar) and Rose Burt (reeds).

I have also included a video of a performance from the 2015 High Zero Festival which includes Michael Zerang (percussion), Caroline Marcantoni (movement), Jamal Moore (reeds), and Heejin Jang (electronics).

North American Walkabout is the realization of a graphic score that I composed this year as a special project for the Saturday Matinee concert of High Zero 2011. The title is a refers to the movement involved in the piece, where performers are instructed to walk around the room, but is also a reference to the Aboriginal walkabout. The piece is meant to invoke a search for ever elusive meaning and wondering if it is a futile effort. The performers were Katharine Young (bassoon), Rose Burt (baritone saxophone), Thomas Lehn (synthesizer), Britton Powell (bass), Sam Burt (bass clarinet), Katt Hernandez (violin), Amy Cimini (viola), Tom Boram (synthesizer), Owen Gardner (conductor) and Andrew Bernstein (alto saxophone)

Since 2010, one of my primary and most active collaborations has been with the Max Eilbacher, Owen Gardner, and Sam Haberman in the quartet Horse Lords. We have composed, recorded, and released three seven albums, been commissioned by galleries, publications, and conservatories, toured internationally, and performed hundreds of concerts. 

Horse Lords' music is collectively composed and I play an active role in the generation and development of musical ideas. In live performance, I play primarily alto saophone and auxiliary percussion, alternting counterpoint with Owen Gardner's electic guitar and Sam Haberman's drumset. 

A Boundless Mass of Transparent Jelly is a multichannel audio/visual collaboration with video artist Greg St. Pierre. It was performed at The Coward Shoe's Untied series and the Videopolis video art festival at The Metro Gallery.

In the spring of 2013 I was commissioned by the Baltimore Annex Theatre to compose a score and design the sound for their production of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. I took as my jumping off point the microtonal tuning of the highlands bagpipes, native to Scotland, the setting of the play. From there I diverged from Scottish influences and composed a score that underscores the sinister tone of the play and Macbeth's descent into madness while evoking the emotional destruction left in his wake.

After the run of the show I adapted the score for release as an album, which is being released by Ehse Records winter 2014. This is what is included here.

The Great Outdoors is a suite of generative audio visual work that explores visual perception, artificial intelligence, and the boundary between composer and algorithm. The Great Outdoors runs in the web browser, and can be viewed www.andrewbernste.in/thegreatoutdoors .

An Exploded View of Time is an album of seven compositions for solo alto saxophone exploring the perception of time and the power of sound and music to reveal truths about the nature of reality. The album is the culmination of a multi-year exploration of extended techniques for the saxophone. I was specifically focused on the technique of circular breathing, the posibilities of polyphonic textures on a monophonic instrument, and the melodic potential of the harmonic series.

Cult Appeal is an album of pieces for solo alto saxophone and synthesizer, composed between 2013 and 2015.

Since 2008 I have composed several pieces for dance, theatre and film. This work has included collaboration with choreographers Mathew Heggem, Linda Garofalo, Claire Cote, and Lily Susskind, The Annex Theatre company, and filmmaker Mary Helena Clark. These were fruitful collaborations which pushed my work in new directions, and provided outlets for new creative ideas.