Colin Stack

Biography

Colin Stack has been writing, producing, coaching, and directing his own music professionally since 1994. His music has drawn on many diverse genres including contemporary concert music, blues and rock, jazz, Broadway, and film noir. The span of his musical interests is showcased on all five of his eclectic albums released on the Stacktone label (see discography section of this website for more information on those albums).

Mr. Stack received the B.M. and M.M. degrees in composition from the New England Conservatory of Music. While pursuing his Masters degree, Mr. Stack’s Identity Crisis, scored for six instruments, won the New England Conservatory Honors Competition for Jon Heiss’ Contemporary Ensemble in 2004. He was also invited by the Harvard Group for New Music series to have a performance of his Perpetual Déjà vu, written for saxophone quartet, during their 2002/2003 season at the university’s John Knowles Pain Hall. Both of these scores are featured on Music for Short Attention Span Listeners, a compilation album of Stack’s concert/instrumental music.

Mr. Stack was one of the founding members of the Socially Awkward Composers (2003-06). This was a group comprised of five composers that emerged from the New England Conservatory’s graduate and doctoral programs. They came together out of a shared love of experimentation and a willingness to blend forms, organizing performances in and around Boston at various art galleries and performance venues. They appeared on NPR, CN8’s Nite Beat, and were featured in the Boston Globe and Phoenix.

Mr. Stack assembled The Leftovers - a chamber group of woodwinds, saxophones and brass - in the fall of 2003 to perform and record his next collection of pop-art songs titled BANG! BAM! BOOM! The group premiered before a live audience in February of 2004 and played subsequent successful performances in various Boston institutions until 2009 when the group disbanded. BANG! BAM! BOOM! was released in June of 2006 and is Mr. Stack’s second CD on his own label (Stacktone Music).

Colin Stack is currently the figurehead of the Boston-based band Novelty Act. The group debuted in 2006 and continues to perform mostly in the northeast. The band features a rotating cast of musicians from Boston and NY, mainstays include Rick Stone on Saxophone, Rick Landwehr on drums, Mark Cocheo on guitar, Mark Zeleski on bass, and Michael McLauglin on piano and accordion. Novelty Act is featured on two of Stack’s albums: Futile Serenade (2009) and From Parlors to Stations (2014).

Mr. Stack has four albums on his own label as a singer/songwriter, each devoted to exploring a variety of musical genres. He debuted in 2004 with Commercial Suicide, an eclectic album containing over 70 minutes of pop-art songs recorded with chamber orchestras, jazz combos, string quartets, and rock/funk bands. This was followed by BANG! BAM! BOOM! (2006), a 14-song cycle composed for his chamber-pop ensemble, The Leftovers. His third album, Futile Serenade (2009), features both The Leftovers and Novelty Act, bridging the gap between his live and studio sound. His forth CD, From Parlors to Stations (2014), is a collection of twelve songs working in bluegrass and country western, jazz and blues, lounge, and film noir. As with his previous albums, the subject matter of the song determines the genre. Mr. Stack’s concert music is complied on Music for Short Attention Span Listeners (2014), which features almost two hours of concert music composed for a variety of large and small ensembles.