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BARGEMUSIC Here and Now Series In Celebration of Ned Rorem’s 90th Birthday October 18, 2013 • Friday, 7 pm $35 ($30 Senior, $15 Student) CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS: BUY TICKETS NOW |
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Bargemusic
718.624.4924 1 Water St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 |
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NED ROREM The End of Summer: Mazurka |
News from Boosey & Hawkes
"Ned Rorem Turns 90"
On October 18, Brooklyn’s Bargemusic presents a full evening of Rorem works, featuring clarinetist Thomas Piercy, violinist Harumi Rhodes, and pianist Judith Olson. The concert will include performances of Four Colors for clarinet and piano, Picnic on the Marne for clarinet and piano, Remembering Tomorrow for piano solo, and End of Summer for clarinet, violin, and piano. In addition to these works, a portion of the program entitled "90 Notes for Ned" will feature the world premieres of several short works by William Coble, Daron Hagen, Jennifer Higdon, Eli Marshall, Russell Platt, Paul Anthony Romero, and Troy Peters, written for the occasion of Rorem’s 90th birthday. Clarinetist Thomas Piercy will present another all-Rorem concert at New York’s SPECTRUM on October 26.
Full article: http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Ned-Rorem-Turns-90/100284
Full article: http://www.boosey.com/cr/news/Ned-Rorem-Turns-90/100284
Ned Rorem is one of America's most honored composers. In addition to a Pulitzer Prize, awarded in 1976 for his suite Air Music, Rorem has been the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship (1951), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1957), and an award from the National Institute of Arts and Letters (1968). He is a three-time winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award; in 1998 he was chosen Composer of the Year by Musical America. The Atlanta Symphony recording of the String Symphony, Sunday Morning, and Eagles received a Grammy Award for Outstanding Orchestral Recording in 1989. From 2000 to 2003 he served as President of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. In 2003 he received ASCAP's Lifetime Achievement Award, and in January 2004 the French government named him Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters.
Words and music are inextricably linked for Ned Rorem. Time Magazine has called him "the world's best composer of art songs," yet his musical and literary ventures extend far beyond this specialized field. Rorem has composed three symphonies, four piano concertos and an array of other orchestral works, music for numerous combinations of chamber forces, ten operas, choral works of every description, ballets and other music for the theater, and literally hundreds of songs and cycles. He is the author of sixteen books, including five volumes of diaries and collections of lectures and criticism.
Among his many commissions for new works are those from the Ford Foundation (for Poems of Love and the Rain, 1962), the Lincoln Center Foundation (for Sun, 1965); the Koussevitzky Foundation (for Letters from Paris, 1966); the Atlanta Symphony (String Symphony, 1985); the Chicago Symphony (Goodbye My Fancy, 1990); Carnegie Hall (Spring Music, 1991), and the New York Philharmonic (Concerto for English Horn and Orchestra, 1993). Among the distinguished conductors who have performed his music are Bernstein, Masur, Mehta, Mitropoulos, Ormandy, Previn, Reiner, Slatkin, Steinberg, and Stokowski.
Rorem is justly renowned for his art songs; his catalog includes more than 500 works in the medium. Evidence of Things Not Seen, his evening-length song cycle for four singers and piano, represents his magnum opus in the genre. New York magazine called Evidence of Things Not Seen "one of the musically richest, most exquisitely fashioned, most voice-friendly collections of songs I have ever heard by any American composer;" Chamber Music magazine deemed it "a masterpiece."
Rorem's most recent opera, Our Town, which he completed with librettist Sandy McClatchy, is a setting of the acclaimed Thorton Wilder play of the same name. It premiered at the Indiana University Jacob's School of Music in February 2007 and has enjoyed subsequent performances throughout the world.
October 23, 2003 marked the composer's 80th birthday, highlighting a season of international festivities. Chief among them was the Curtis Institute of Music's "Roremania," a two-week celebration encompassing works in every genre, and a concert celebration at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall featuring the world premier of "Four Colors" composed for clarinetist Thomas Piercy and pianist Judith Olson. The birthday season brought a trio of new concertos from Rorem: Cello Concerto, commissioned by the Residentie Orchestra and the Kansas City Orchestra for David Geringas; Flute Concerto, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra for its principal flutist Jeffrey Khaner; and Mallet Concerto, commissioned for Evelyn Glennie by the Madison Symphony Orchestra and the Eos Orchestra.
His most recent publication, Facing the Night: A Diary (1999-2005) and Musical Writings, chronicles Rorem's dark journey after the death of 32 year companion, Jim Holmes. In his diary, Lies, (published by Counterpoint Press in 2000) Roremsaid: "My music is a diary no less compromising than my prose. A diary nevertheless differs from a musical composition in that it depicts the moment, the writer's present mood which, were it inscribed an hour later, could emerge quite otherwise. I don't believe that composers notate their moods, they don't tell the music where to go - it leads them....Why do I write music? Because I want to hear it - it's simple as that. Others may have more talent, more sense of duty. But I compose just from necessity, and no one else is making what I need."
Rorem was born in Richmond, Indiana on October 23, 1923. As a child he moved to Chicago with his family; by the age of ten his piano teacher had introduced him to Debussy and Ravel, an experience which "changed my life forever," according to the composer. At seventeen he entered the Music School of Northwestern University, two years later receiving a scholarship to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia. He studied composition under Bernard Wagenaar at Juilliard, taking his B.A. in 1946 and his M.A. degree (along with the $1,000 George Gershwin Memorial Prize in composition) in 1948. In New York he worked as Virgil Thomson's copyist in return for $20 a week and orchestration lessons. He studied on fellowship at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood in the summers of 1946 and 1947; in 1948 his song The Lordly Hudson was voted the best published song of that year by the Music Library Association.
In 1949 Rorem moved to France, and lived there until 1958. His years as a young composer among the leading figures of the artistic and social milieu of post-war Europe are absorbingly portrayed in The Paris Diary and The New York Diary, 1951-1961 (reissued by Da Capo, 1998). He currently lives in New York City and Nantucket. More information at: http://nedrorem.com
Thomas Piercy is a critically acclaimed musician with orchestral, concerto, solo recital and chamber music appearances throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Described by The New York Times as “Brilliant...playing with refinement and flair…evoking a panache in the contemporary works…,” Mr. Piercy presents audiences to varied and exciting concerts of standard classical music, jazz-inspired programs, contemporary works, pieces written specifically for him and his own original arrangements, compositions and collaborations. Piercy performs and records on rare rosewood English-bore clarinets made for him by Luis Rossi of Santiago, Chile.
A versatile artist defying categorization – performing on the Emmy Award-winning Juno Baby CDs and DVDs; playing Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Earl Wild; performing concert improvisations with pianist Donal Fox; performing Mozart with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; playing Broadway songs with Raoul Julia; conducting Cabaret or Rodgers & Hammerstein; working with the composer Leonard Bernstein; appearing in a KRS-ONE music video; recording with members of Maroon 5; cited by the New York Times for his performances of Brahms and Beethoven as well as contemporary pieces written for him - as an instrumentalist, singer, director and music director/conductor and actor, he has performed for Broadway and Off-Broadway, television, radio, video and commercial recordings.
Mr. Piercy has performed at many of the worlds acclaimed concerts halls including Carnegie Hall (NY, NY), Lincoln Center (NY, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC.), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (Chicago, Illinois), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Wigmore Hall (London, England), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome, Italy) and Parthenon (Tokyo, Japan). His many festival appearances have included a featured performance in memory of Leon Russianoff at the 1991 International ClarinetFest, a concert of contemporary American music at the 2005 ClarinetFest in Tokyo, Japan, and an all-Piazzolla concert at the 2007 International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver, Canada.
A recipient of numerous scholarships, prizes and awards, he studied clarinet, voice and conducting at the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Virginia Commonwealth University and Shenandoah Conservatory. Piercy's earliest studies were in both voice and clarinet. He began his college education studying clarinet under Dr. Stephen Johnston at Shenandoah Conservatory and Gailyn Parks at Virginia Commonwealth University. He later moved to New York City to study with Gervase De Peyer under scholarship at Mannes College of Music; he continued to study extensively with De Peyer after leaving Mannes. Piercy later studied with and soon became an assistant to the renowned clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff; additional clarinet and reed-making studies were undertaken with clarinetist Kalmen Opperman. He has had arrangements and transcriptions published by Boosey & Hawkes, and as an assistant to Kalmen Opperman, he has contributed to clarinet study books and clarinet compositions published by Carl Fischer, Inc., and Baron Publishing. In demand as a clarinet, sax and voice teacher, many of Piercy's students have gone on to schools and careers in music.
Piercy is currently the Artistic Director and clarinetist of the Gotham Ensemble. A mixed vocal and instrumental ensemble based in New York City, the Gotham Ensemble premieres, performs and records a wide variety of repertoire, from the Classical to the avant-garde. A New York Times review of Gotham's Merkin Hall, New York City, performance of a program of Olav Thommessen's music specifically encouraged the public to go out and purchase the recordings. After a performance of Ned Rorem's "Ariel" at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Rorem wrote of Gotham as one of America's important chamber music groups performing new music today.
A frequent performer of new music, Mr. Piercy has premiered numerous compositions, including over 50 new pieces n the last three years. Mr. Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Grammy Award-winning composer, wrote his only clarinet and piano piece, "Four Colors," for Mr. Piercy. The work had its premier at an 80th birthday concert celebration for Mr. Rorem at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 2003.
His discography includes "Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem", a CD of chamber music featuring the clarinet (Albany Records), "CAFE", a CD of music for clarinet and guitar (Tonada Records), the world-premier recording of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's "Ballad in Memory of Shirley Horn" (Tonada Records), and the Emmy Award-winning CD and DVD "Juno Baby." More info at: www.thomaspiercy.com
A versatile artist defying categorization – performing on the Emmy Award-winning Juno Baby CDs and DVDs; playing Rhapsody in Blue with pianist Earl Wild; performing concert improvisations with pianist Donal Fox; performing Mozart with mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade; playing Broadway songs with Raoul Julia; conducting Cabaret or Rodgers & Hammerstein; working with the composer Leonard Bernstein; appearing in a KRS-ONE music video; recording with members of Maroon 5; cited by the New York Times for his performances of Brahms and Beethoven as well as contemporary pieces written for him - as an instrumentalist, singer, director and music director/conductor and actor, he has performed for Broadway and Off-Broadway, television, radio, video and commercial recordings.
Mr. Piercy has performed at many of the worlds acclaimed concerts halls including Carnegie Hall (NY, NY), Lincoln Center (NY, NY), the Kennedy Center (Washington, DC.), the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concert Series (Chicago, Illinois), Centre Pompidou (Paris, France), Wigmore Hall (London, England), Accademia di Santa Cecilia (Rome, Italy) and Parthenon (Tokyo, Japan). His many festival appearances have included a featured performance in memory of Leon Russianoff at the 1991 International ClarinetFest, a concert of contemporary American music at the 2005 ClarinetFest in Tokyo, Japan, and an all-Piazzolla concert at the 2007 International Clarinet Festival in Vancouver, Canada.
A recipient of numerous scholarships, prizes and awards, he studied clarinet, voice and conducting at the Juilliard School, Mannes College of Music, Virginia Commonwealth University and Shenandoah Conservatory. Piercy's earliest studies were in both voice and clarinet. He began his college education studying clarinet under Dr. Stephen Johnston at Shenandoah Conservatory and Gailyn Parks at Virginia Commonwealth University. He later moved to New York City to study with Gervase De Peyer under scholarship at Mannes College of Music; he continued to study extensively with De Peyer after leaving Mannes. Piercy later studied with and soon became an assistant to the renowned clarinet pedagogue Leon Russianoff; additional clarinet and reed-making studies were undertaken with clarinetist Kalmen Opperman. He has had arrangements and transcriptions published by Boosey & Hawkes, and as an assistant to Kalmen Opperman, he has contributed to clarinet study books and clarinet compositions published by Carl Fischer, Inc., and Baron Publishing. In demand as a clarinet, sax and voice teacher, many of Piercy's students have gone on to schools and careers in music.
Piercy is currently the Artistic Director and clarinetist of the Gotham Ensemble. A mixed vocal and instrumental ensemble based in New York City, the Gotham Ensemble premieres, performs and records a wide variety of repertoire, from the Classical to the avant-garde. A New York Times review of Gotham's Merkin Hall, New York City, performance of a program of Olav Thommessen's music specifically encouraged the public to go out and purchase the recordings. After a performance of Ned Rorem's "Ariel" at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, Mr. Rorem wrote of Gotham as one of America's important chamber music groups performing new music today.
A frequent performer of new music, Mr. Piercy has premiered numerous compositions, including over 50 new pieces n the last three years. Mr. Rorem, a Pulitzer Prize winner and Grammy Award-winning composer, wrote his only clarinet and piano piece, "Four Colors," for Mr. Piercy. The work had its premier at an 80th birthday concert celebration for Mr. Rorem at Carnegie Hall in the fall of 2003.
His discography includes "Gotham Ensemble Plays Ned Rorem", a CD of chamber music featuring the clarinet (Albany Records), "CAFE", a CD of music for clarinet and guitar (Tonada Records), the world-premier recording of Sir Richard Rodney Bennett's "Ballad in Memory of Shirley Horn" (Tonada Records), and the Emmy Award-winning CD and DVD "Juno Baby." More info at: www.thomaspiercy.com
Acclaimed by the New York Times as a “deeply expressive violinist,” Harumi Rhodes has gained broad recognition as a multifaceted musician with a distinctive and sincere musical voice. Her generosity of spirit on stage is contagious, making her one of the most sought after violinists and chamber musicians of her generation.
As a founding member of the Naumburg Award–winning ensemble, Trio Cavatina, Ms. Rhodes has performed at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, Wolf Trap (Wash D.C), and San Francisco Performances, as well as its debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2009. Continuing to build it’s reputation as one of today’s leading piano trios, Trio Cavatina has been touring internationally over the last few seasons with recent notable performances in Pablo Casals Symphony Hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Filharmonija Hall in Vilnius, Lithuania.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Rhodes has been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed on several Musicians From Marlboro tours as well as at the festivals of Seattle Chamber Music, Bard, Caramoor, Bridgehampton, Music in the Vineyards, Mainly Mozart, and the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan. After completing her residency with Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two, Ms. Rhodes was appointed as an Artist Member of the Boston Chamber Music Society in 2009 where she performs regularly at Sanders Theater at Harvard University and Kresge Hall at MIT. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Ms. Rhodes is a frequent guest artist with Music from Copland House, and has recorded Milton Babbitt’s Sixth String Quartet on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Deeply committed to the process of commissioning and premiering new music, Ms. Rhodes has collaborated with many composers including Richard Danielpour, Leon Kirchner, Benjamin Lees, Paul Moravec, William Bolcom, Gabriela Lena Frank, David Ludwig, and Lisa Bielawa.
Recent solo engagements have included performances of Bernstein’s Serenade, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and No. 5, Beethoven Romances, and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra and the New York Chamber Soloists Orchestra. Ms. Rhodes is also a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), a conductor-less chamber orchestra made up of world-class chamber musicians and soloists.
A graduate of The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, her principal teachers have been Shirley Givens, Earl Carlyss, Ronald Copes and Donald Weilerstein. Ms. Rhodes is currently Assistant Violin Faculty at The Juilliard School, and has most recently been appointed Assistant Professor of Violin and String Area/Chamber Music Coordinator the Setnor School of Music, Syracuse University.
As a founding member of the Naumburg Award–winning ensemble, Trio Cavatina, Ms. Rhodes has performed at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society, Wolf Trap (Wash D.C), and San Francisco Performances, as well as its debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in 2009. Continuing to build it’s reputation as one of today’s leading piano trios, Trio Cavatina has been touring internationally over the last few seasons with recent notable performances in Pablo Casals Symphony Hall in San Juan, Puerto Rico and Filharmonija Hall in Vilnius, Lithuania.
As a chamber musician, Ms. Rhodes has been a participant at the Marlboro Music Festival and has performed on several Musicians From Marlboro tours as well as at the festivals of Seattle Chamber Music, Bard, Caramoor, Bridgehampton, Music in the Vineyards, Mainly Mozart, and the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan. After completing her residency with Lincoln Center’s Chamber Music Society Two, Ms. Rhodes was appointed as an Artist Member of the Boston Chamber Music Society in 2009 where she performs regularly at Sanders Theater at Harvard University and Kresge Hall at MIT. An avid supporter of contemporary music, Ms. Rhodes is a frequent guest artist with Music from Copland House, and has recorded Milton Babbitt’s Sixth String Quartet on John Zorn’s Tzadik label. Deeply committed to the process of commissioning and premiering new music, Ms. Rhodes has collaborated with many composers including Richard Danielpour, Leon Kirchner, Benjamin Lees, Paul Moravec, William Bolcom, Gabriela Lena Frank, David Ludwig, and Lisa Bielawa.
Recent solo engagements have included performances of Bernstein’s Serenade, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 3 and No. 5, Beethoven Romances, and Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” with the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra and the New York Chamber Soloists Orchestra. Ms. Rhodes is also a member of the East Coast Chamber Orchestra (ECCO), a conductor-less chamber orchestra made up of world-class chamber musicians and soloists.
A graduate of The Juilliard School and the New England Conservatory, her principal teachers have been Shirley Givens, Earl Carlyss, Ronald Copes and Donald Weilerstein. Ms. Rhodes is currently Assistant Violin Faculty at The Juilliard School, and has most recently been appointed Assistant Professor of Violin and String Area/Chamber Music Coordinator the Setnor School of Music, Syracuse University.
Pianist Judith Olson, a graduate of The Juilliard School, made her New York debut with Alexander Schneider conducting , and has since toured North, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Korea as soloist and in collaboration with leading instrumentalists, including Kyung Wha Chung, Eugene Fodor, Miriam Fried, Joseph Fuchs, Jean-Jacques Kantorow,, Rolf Schulte and Tossy Spivakovsky.
Pianist Judith Olson began her musical career as a violinist. During her high school years in California, she won numerous prizes and competitions and served as concertmaster of the All Southern California High School Symphony. She was awarded a full scholarship in violin by the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She began her college studies at the University of Redlands in California, where she was a violin major and a member of the University of Redlands String Quartet. At the age of seventeen, she began piano studies at Redlands and discovered that she had a remarkable facility for the keyboard. After seven months of study, she appeared in concert as first prize winner of the Redlands Bowl Young Artists Competition and was engaged as soloist with the Riverside Symphony.
After two years at Redlands, Ms. Olson auditioned for The Juilliard School as a pianist (but brought the violin along, just in case). She was accepted and subsequently received Bachelor's and Master's degrees as a scholarship pupil of Beveridge Webster. After graduation, she worked extensively with Nadia Reisenberg.
Ms. Olson has appeared at major halls including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and has participated in the festivals of Ankara, Bard, Bar Harbor, Capri, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Killington and Newport. This versatile artist has performed Beethoven at Bard, Rachmaninoff at Newport, and as an advocate for new music, she was a Special Award winner in the 1981 International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and The Rockefeller Foundation and was featured in a nationally televised documentary for Bravo, "Playing to Win." She has premiered works written for her, including Otto Luening's last work for piano, "Fantasia Etudes" (1994) and has appeared as soloist for new music series. At the Bloomingdale School of Music, where she is on the piano faculty, she has presented a series of Composer Portrait recitals. Featured composers include Lee Hoiby, Benjamin Lees, William Mayer, Ned Rorem and Olav Anton Thommessen. Ms. Olson has recorded for Albany, Capstone, Newport Classics, MMO Laureate Series and RCA, and is currently recording the solo piano music of jazz composer Ed Bland.
Pianist Judith Olson began her musical career as a violinist. During her high school years in California, she won numerous prizes and competitions and served as concertmaster of the All Southern California High School Symphony. She was awarded a full scholarship in violin by the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara. She began her college studies at the University of Redlands in California, where she was a violin major and a member of the University of Redlands String Quartet. At the age of seventeen, she began piano studies at Redlands and discovered that she had a remarkable facility for the keyboard. After seven months of study, she appeared in concert as first prize winner of the Redlands Bowl Young Artists Competition and was engaged as soloist with the Riverside Symphony.
After two years at Redlands, Ms. Olson auditioned for The Juilliard School as a pianist (but brought the violin along, just in case). She was accepted and subsequently received Bachelor's and Master's degrees as a scholarship pupil of Beveridge Webster. After graduation, she worked extensively with Nadia Reisenberg.
Ms. Olson has appeared at major halls including Avery Fisher Hall, Alice Tully Hall, and The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and has participated in the festivals of Ankara, Bard, Bar Harbor, Capri, Caramoor, Chautauqua, Killington and Newport. This versatile artist has performed Beethoven at Bard, Rachmaninoff at Newport, and as an advocate for new music, she was a Special Award winner in the 1981 International American Music Competition sponsored by Carnegie Hall and The Rockefeller Foundation and was featured in a nationally televised documentary for Bravo, "Playing to Win." She has premiered works written for her, including Otto Luening's last work for piano, "Fantasia Etudes" (1994) and has appeared as soloist for new music series. At the Bloomingdale School of Music, where she is on the piano faculty, she has presented a series of Composer Portrait recitals. Featured composers include Lee Hoiby, Benjamin Lees, William Mayer, Ned Rorem and Olav Anton Thommessen. Ms. Olson has recorded for Albany, Capstone, Newport Classics, MMO Laureate Series and RCA, and is currently recording the solo piano music of jazz composer Ed Bland.