Lucien LaMotte

Lucien La Motte, composer/guitarist/educator

Lucien La Motte is active as a composer, guitarist and educator, having received several awards in composition and commissions for new works. In 2000, Lucien received the Thomas O. Stevens Award in composition for his string orchestra work Surface Tension and in 2001 was awarded the Eva Thompson Prize for excellence in composition. In 2002 Variations On A Dream, an electronic work for CD, was featured in the Bay Area Concert Exchange Program at the University of Berkeley, Stanford, and Mills College in Oakland. He has had pieces played by the New Works and Earplay Ensembles, and in 2007 composed Temporal Flux for Orchestra. Lucien recently composed Three Pieces for Cello and Piano 2007, Character Sketches for Wind Quintet 2006 and Static Fields for Flute and String Trio 2006, working closely with members of the Alexander String Quartet at SFSU in the creation of the works.

Lucien graduated Magna cum Laude with a B.M. in composition from San Jose State University having studied with Allen Strange and Pablo Furman. Lucien completed work on his M.A. degree in composition at San Francisco State University under the guidance of Ron Caltabiano. As an educator, Lucien teaches guitar privately in the San Francisco Bay area, Counterpoint at SFSU and has lectured at De Anza College. He also works as a musical assistant and copyist for violinist Midori.

Objective: To further my knowledge in composition and contribute to the canon of modern music, while continuing to develop skills as a performer and educator, and teach at the University level.

Awards:
2005 Edward Nagel Scholarship in composition
2004 24 Frames published in Touch of Tomorrow by the International Library of Poetry
2003 Comissioned to compose A Perfect World for vocal competition at Ball State University in Indiana.
2002 Commissioned to write song cycle based on poems by Dorothy Parker
2002 Variations On A Dream selected for Bay Area Concert Exchange Program
2001 Commissioned to write Rondo for Two Marimbas
2001 Eva Thompson Award in composition
2000 Thomas O. Stevens Award in composition for Surface Tension

Employment:
2007- Teaching Associate in Counterpoint at San Francisco State University
2006-Composition Instructor at the San Francisco School of the Arts High School
2006-Guitar Instructor at The Music School, teaching private guitar instruction
2005-2007 Graduate Assistant at San Francisco State University, teaching Counterpoint and
Orchestration classes
2004-Music Assistant and copyist for violinist Midori
2003-2004 Church musician at First Methodist Church of San Jose. Playing guitar for Sunday mass and youth services
1994- Guitar instructor, self-employed. In 1994, started private guitar education business. Focus on classical and jazz guitar performance. Jazz skills developed through learning transcriptions completed by the instructor of performances by jazz guitar masters
1993-1995 Percussion instructor, Saratoga High School Marching and Concert Bands

Lucien La Motte has performed at the Concord Pavilion, Oakland Convention Center and with former Dizzy Gillespie guitarist Pascal Bokar as a member of the Pascal Bokar Band at John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom Room and appears annually at the San Jose Jazz Festival. He has shared the stage with acts such as the Temptations, O’Jays, The Whispers, Ziggy Marley, and Chaka Khan. Lucien works regularly with former Doobie Brother Danny Hull and Carlos Santana's bassist Myron Dove in addition to performing annually at the San Jose Jazz Festival. In the summer of 2005, he toured Hawaii as part of the “Power to the Peaceful” tour opening for reggae legend Don Carlos at the Pipeline Café and Waikiki on the Beach.

As a guitarist, Lucien is versed in studio as well as live performance. In 2005 alone he recorded albums for fusion artists 650 Connection, Pentimento Jazz Ensemble, and the World Music ensemble Brother Sun and Ben Vega. In 2007 Lucien recorded When You Go, an album of original songs and also recorded an album for solo classical guitar that includes works by Francisco Tarrega and J.S. Bach.