Elliott Sharp

Elliott Sharp is an American composer, multi-instrumentalist and visual artist who has been a leading presence in New York's experimental-music scene since the late 1970s. His work spans free improvisation, contemporary composition, blues, noise and electronic music, with guitar, saxophones and bass clarinet among his instruments.

Sharp's compositional methods have drawn on fractal geometry, chaos theory and algorithms, connecting mathematical structures with instrumental experimentation. His projects include Orchestra Carbon, Tectonics and Terraplane; his compositions have been performed by ensembles such as JACK Quartet and Ensemble Modern. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2014 and the Berlin Prize in 2015.