Sebastian has studied with David Adamcyk and Reiko Fueting, and as of Spring 2027, will have completed his bachelor's degree at the Manhattan School of Music. Many ensembles have performed his music, including Windscape and the Contemporary Performance Program at MSM; in 2027, Sebastian’s guitar and orchestra work, Die Pausen (Abspielen), will premiere with Carlen Gong and the MSM Symphony Orchestra in Neidorff-Karpati Hall. Sebastian has worked with other notable artists and composers, such as Tongyu Lu in a collaborative installation (Big Fans) and Grace Goss in a collaborative piece for drum set and Max/MSP/Jitter (BeatBreak).
He was formerly in the post-punk & experimental noise rock band Swandive, with which he recorded two albums as a guitarist before their inevitable demise. He also founded the experimental industrial music collective KommuneVI.
With a background in both electric and classical guitar, Sebastian has never limited himself to what he knows; he is always seeking to understand more, which recently led him to learn Max/MSP/Jitter, an electronic music coding software. When asked whether he was excited for the concert happening that night, J. Mark Stambaugh (Composer, Educator, & Theorist) replied, “It is always a special concert when a Sebastian Block piece is to be played.”
sebastianbcomposer@gmail.com
SEBASTIAN
BLOCK
EDUCATION
Manhattan School of Music
RECENT WORKS
- Poem [SAXOPHONE]
- Big Fans [INSTALLATION]
- CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH TONGYU LU
- BeatBreak [DRUM SET, ELECTRONICS]
- I Wished For it to Last Forever [ELECTRONICS]
- Abrasax Part I: Qui tollis peccata mundi [PIANO, CELLO, ELECTRONICS]
- Rhapsody in The Color Out of Space [FLUTE, OBOE, CLARINET Bb, HORN F, BASSOON]
- COMMISSIONED BY WINDSCAPE ENSEMBLE
- PROGRAM NOTES
- Shanda [CELLO]
- Minismatic[2 VIOLINS, VIOLA, CELLO]
SELECTED AWARDS AND COMMISSION PRIZES
- 2026
- Contemporary Performance Program @ MSM Commission
- 2024
- Windscape Ensemble Commission