Young Jewish American Composers
|
Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series
The Sidney Krum Young Artists Concert Series is made possible by a generous gift from the Estate of Sidney Krum. Co-sponsored by the American Society for Jewish Music and American Jewish Historical Society Admission: $15 |
A concert featuring new classical works by young and emerging Jewish American composers: Lainie Fefferman, David Hertzberg, Julie Hill, Adam Roberts, Alyssa Weinberg, and Alex Weiser. Performances by Violin and Viola duo andPlay (Maya Bennardo and Hannah Levinson), Brigid Coleridge, Julie Hill, Lee Dionne, Pat Swoboda, and Meaghan Burke feature various combinations of piano, string quintet, and singer. The concert also features conversations with the composers exploring the question of how Jewish history and identity informs the creation of new works of art.
Program
Fünf Kleine Klavierstücke – Lainie Fefferman (1982- )
Méditation boréale – David Hertzberg (1990- )
Dreaming of Love – Alex Weiser (1989- )
Meditation – Alyssa Weinberg (1988- )
Shift Differential – Adam Roberts (1980- )
Over the Waters – Julie Hill (1988- )
(All event photos by Steven Pisano.)
About the Artists
Lainie Fefferman (b. 1982) studied Music and Near Eastern Languages at Yale University, and earned a doctoral degree in composition at Princeton University. An advocate for the contemporary classical music community, Lainie founded the new music co-working space Expano, and organizes the annual New Music Bake Sale.
Lainie’s collaborators include: pianist Michael Mizrahi, guitarist James Moore, bassist Eleonore Oppenheim, electric guitar quartet Dither, So Percussion, the New York Virtuoso Singers, NOW ensemble, Newspeak, pianist Kathleen Supové, TILT Brass, and ETHEL. Lainie has participated in workshops including: the Sentieri Selvaggi composer workshop in Milan (with Julia Wolfe), the Meredith Monk & Vocal Ensemble Workshop in New York City, the Bang on a Can Summer Residency in North Adams, Massachusetts, and the Arabic Music Retreat with Simon Shaheen at Mount Holyoke College.
Lainie’s works have also been heard in Ireland, Holland, England, and Florida. Lainie’s music has been featured in many concerts and festivals including the Sonic Festival and the Floating Points Festival. She has been an invited speaker/composer at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, the Ruckus Conference in NYC, and at Wilfrid Laurier University.
An innovative young composer, David Hertzberg has been honored with the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, two ASCAP Morton Gould Awards, the Fromm Commission from Harvard University, and the Aaron Copland Award from Copland House. Noteworthy in his rapidly growing career is his position as Composer-in-Residence with Opera Philadelphia and Music Theatre Group. Last season, his chamber opera The Rose Elf was featured on Opera Philadelphia’s Double Exposure program and his concert work Sunday Morning was premiered by New York City Opera. Other recent commissions were premiered by pianist Steven Lin and violinist In Mo Yang at Carnegie Hall, soprano Julia Bullock, and the PRISM Quartet.
Mr. Hertzberg’s Spectre of the Spheres was performed by the New England Philharmonic in 2016 and was read by the Pittsburgh Symphony and the American Composers Orchestra, and his for none shall gaze upon the Father and live will be performed by the Kansas City Symphony this season. femminina, oscura for the New Juilliard Ensemble and Nympharum for high soprano and the Juilliard Orchestra were both premiered at Alice Tully Hall; the latter garnered the William Schuman Prize from BMI and the Arthur Friedman Prize from The Juilliard School.
He has held residencies at Tanglewood, Yaddo, IC Hong Kong, the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, and Young Concert Artists, where he served as Composer-in-Residence.
He earned his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from The Juilliard School, and an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute.
Julie Hill is a singer/composer who studied with Dr. Nils Vigeland, Reiko Fueting, and Susan Botti at the Manhattan School of Music. Her music infuses art song with pop sensibilities and hints of minimalism and romanticism. In addition to her work writing concert music, Julie has worked as a professional jazz singer in India and produced a record of pop songs with guitarist/ producer Dan Saa of the band Los Amigos Invisibles.
Adam Roberts (b. 1980) has composed works for individuals and ensembles such as the Arditti Quartet, le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, the Boston Conservatory Wind Ensemble, Guerilla Opera, Fellows of the Tanglewood Music Center, Transient Canvas, and Garth Knox. Roberts’ output includes a chamber opera, Giver of Light, which sets the life story of the Sufi mystic-poet Rumi in the modern American Midwest. Roberts is currently composing a new oboe quartet, commissioned by the Rochester Society for Chamber Music for its 2016-17 season.
Roberts is a 2016 Guggenheim Fellow. He holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (B.M.) and Harvard University (Ph.D.). Other honors for Roberts’ music include the Benjamin H. Danks Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, selection by the international jury for inclusion in the 2009 ISCM World Music Days in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Leonard Bernstein Fellowship from the Tanglewood Music Center, and the Blodgett Prize (Harvard). Roberts’ debut CD, Leaf Metal, was released on Tzadik Records in 2014.
Roberts has taught composition and theory at Harvard University, Northeastern University, Istanbul Technical University’s Center for the Advanced Studies in Music, and is currently Assistant Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Georgia’s Hugh Hodgson School of Music.
Alyssa Weinberg’s music “...succeeds at the challenge of being at once contemporary and classic” (Ouest France) and has been described as “fearless... unapologetic... beautiful... transforming” (Kaleidoscope). Her work is deeply influenced by collaborations with other artists from literature, dance, and visual arts.
Weinberg’s 2015/16 season includes performances and collaborations with Arx Duo, the Curtis 20/21 Ensemble, Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra, the Louisville Orchestra, PUBLIQuartet, The Rhythm Method, and Sandbox Percussion. Her works have been performed by the Aizuri Quartet, Contemporaneous, the Curtis Symphony Orchestra, the Dover Quartet, Ensemble39, and Panic Duo, as well as musicians Ricardo Morales, Philip Setzer, and Shai Wosner, and she has received commissions from the Barnes Foundation, the Curtis Institute of Music, FringeArts and the Pennsylvania Ballet, Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, LiveConnections, Music from Angel Fire, Nadia Sirota, and One Book One Philadelphia.
In 2013 Weinberg founded “duende,” a series for experimental music and dance in Philadelphia along with cellist Gabriel Cabezas and dancer Chloe Felesina. The group presents events in a variety of settings and alternative venues, emphasizing equality between movement and music, with a deep exploration into the intersection of those two disciplines.
Weinberg has received an Artist Diploma from the Curtis Institute of music, her M.M. at the Manhattan School of Music, and her B.M. at Vanderbilt University. Her teachers have included Richard Danielpour, Stan Link, David Ludwig and Michael Slayton. Weinberg will begin her studies as a doctoral fellow at Princeton University in the fall of 2016.
Broad gestures, rich textures, and narrative sweep are hallmarks of the “compelling” (New York Times), “shapely, melody-rich” (Wall Street Journal) music of composer Alex Weiser. Born and raised in New York City, Weiser creates acutely cosmopolitan music combining a deeply felt historical perspective with a vibrant forward-looking creativity. Weiser has been praised for having a “sophisticated ear and knack for evoking luscious textures and imaginative yet approachable harmonies” (I Care If You Listen). An energetic advocate for contemporary classical music and for the work of his peers, Weiser co-founded and directs Kettle Corn New Music, an “engaging” (New York Times) series acclaimed for capturing “all of the prestige” that contemporary classical music has to offer, with “none of the pomp,” (Feast of Music) and was for nearly five years a director of the MATA Festival, the “the city’s leading showcase for vital new music by emerging composers” (The New Yorker). Weiser is now the Public Programs Manager at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research where he curates and produces programs that combine a fascination with and curiosity for historical context, with an eye toward influential Jewish contributions to the culture of today and tomorrow.