George Hurd is a San Francisco-based composer whose work focuses on chamber music, electronic music, and the fascinating world where they intersect. He heads The Hurd Ensemble, an electro-acoustic chamber group made up of some of the Bay Area’s best musicians, dedicated to performing his compositions for chamber ensemble and electronics. His work often fixates on the role of memory in music, using electronic sounds that are made entirely by him, recorded from his life and on his travels, each encapsulating a memory from the place and time they were recorded.
He writes extensively for dance, including a score for LEVYdance/Loni Landon Dance Projects called Meet Me Normal, and a solo electronics piece for Kinetech Arts called the murmur of yearning. In addition to his work with his ensemble, he has composed over a dozen electro-acoustic pieces, many acoustic chamber music pieces, and a sprawling catalog of works for solo electronics.
His debut album with The Hurd Ensemble, Navigation Without Numbers, was released on Innova Recordings and includes a composition for violin and electronics written for the brilliant violinist/composer Carla Kihlstedt. He has written numerous film scores including the feature-length doc Freeing Bernie Baran, and is currently co-composing film scores with composer Mark Orton. He recently began an all-electronic duo with fellow composer Joel St. Julien called Nightmare Light that just released its debut EP.
