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A native of Brooklyn, New York, composer and violinist Justine Fang Chen began her musical studies at an early age at the preparatory division of The Juilliard School. When she entered the prep division, she also enrolled at the School of American Ballet, where she studied ballet for the next ten years. Early compositional accolades began in 1984 with an honorable mention at the BMI Awards to Student Composers, and two ASCAP Grants for Young Composers for her first two orchestral pieces in 1985 and 1986. After beginning her violin studies in Juilliard's College Division, she was accepted into the Composition department becoming the first violin and composition double-major in Juilliard history. Because of her unique inter-disciplinary background, Ms. Chen has a keen interest in artistic collaborations. To this end, she has written incidental music for theatrical productions of Arthur Miller's The Crucible, Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert E. Lee's The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail, Shakespeare's Macbeth, all with director James Glossman. In February 2002, she performed in a run of The Special Prisoner, an adaptation of the Jim Lehrer novel, also directed by James Glossman. For the production, not only was she composer and sole performer, but she was also the sound designer and sound technician. Collaborations with choreographers have led to numerous performances in venues around New York, including Alice Tully Hall, The Juilliard Theater, the Clark Studio Theater, and New York public schools. The New York Times praised her music as a "... propulsive, emotionally resonant score that choreographers tend to dream of." In summer of 2000, she held the Robert and Lilian Turchin Chair as Composer-in-Residence of the Appalachian Summer Festival in Boone, North Carolina. There she collaborated with emerging choreographer Adam Hougland, members of The Juilliard Dance Ensemble, and the Broyhill Chamber Ensemble in the creation of Stand Nine, an interdisciplinary chamber work for musicians and dancers. Collaborations with other types of artists have led to the scoring of Trilemma, a computer animation short, and an mini-opera/song cycle, Adam, Madam, Damn, with wordster Gabriel Leaf Bellman. Future projects include a computer-enhanced chamber opera for The Juilliard School scheduled for performance in December 2003. |
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Jan Radzynski left his native Poland in 1969. He studied composition in Israel with Schidlowski at the Tel Aviv University Academy of Music, and in the United Stated with Krzysztof Penderecki and Jacob Druckman at Yale University, where he received his doctorate in 1984. He is presently Professor of Composition at Ohio State University in Columbus. Radzynski's awards include Distinguished Scholar Award, Ohio State University (1996), Creative Work and Research Grant form the Rothschild Foundation (1995), Residency in Mishkenot Sha'ananim, Jerusalem (1995), Ohio State University Faculty Seed Grant (1994). Individual Artists Grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts (1992), ASCAP Standard Awards (1989-97), the Frederick W. Hilles Publication Grant (1990), Mellon Fellowship (1985), Yale University Griswold Research Grants (1984, 1987-93), and the Summer Residency at the Foundation Artist's House, Boswil, Switzerland (1983). In 1983 Radzynski's Kaddish was recorded by the Jerusalem Symphony received a special commendation at the International Rostrum of Composers in Paris. The compositions of Jan Radzynski have been performed by the Cleveland Orchestra, Columbus Symphony, Cracow Philharmonic, Jerusalem Symphony, Radio Orchestra (Cologne), Mexico National Orchestra, Saarbücken Radio Orchestra, Israel Chamber Orchestra, New Haven Symphony, and Israel Sinfonietta, among others. His compositions are recorded on CRI and Channel Classic labels. Radzynski's recent commissions include the String Trio commissioned by the City of Aachen premiered there in May 1995 by Trio Arco. His Shirat Ma'ayan for mezzo soprano, tenor, and orchestra, commissioned by the Rothschild Foundation and the Haifa Symphony was premiered in Israel in June 1997. His new composition for violin and piano, Personal Verses, was premiered in April 1999 in New York's 92nd Street Y. |
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Steven R. Gerber's music is known for its emotional directness, textural clarity, meticulous craftsmanship, and avoidance of both flashiness and academicism. Over the years, his harmonic language has changed - from the chromatic, dissonant intensity of his early Trio for violin, cello, and piano (commissioned by the Kindler Foundation when he was only 19), through the austerity of such serial works from the 70's as Dylan Thomas Settings and Illuminations, to the tonality of much of his recent music, beginning with the Piano Sonata (1981-82). Yet Gerber's voice has remained recognizably his own, and his music has received considerable recognition in recent years. Most recently, he received a grant from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, Inc., for the National Chamber Orchestra to record his Violin Concerto, Cello Concerto, and Serenade for String Orchestra on Koch International. The conductor will be Piotr Gajewski and the soloists will be cellist Carter Brey and violinist Kurt Nikkanen. After the American premiere of his Violin Concerto at the Concert Hall of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 1995 by Nikkanen and the National Chamber Orchestra under Gajewski, the Washington Post called it "a major addition to the contemporary violin repertoire: lyrical, passionate, beautifully tailored to the instrument's character and capabilities...Gerber has revived the spirit of romanticism in this work, with a strong sense of tonal melody and of the dramatic effects and surprises still possible in traditional forms...one of the year's most memorable events." And when Carter Brey premiered his Cello Concerto with the same orchestra and conductor in 1996, the Washington Post said, "Gerber's concerto seems to have what it takes to establish a foothold.... The music is composed with a fine sense of instrumental color.... Gerber has given his soloist some fine, expressive melodies." Four orchestral works of Gerber will be released on Chandos in June, 2000: Symphony #1, Dirge and Awakening, Viola Concerto, and Triple Overture, performed by the Russian Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas, Sanderling, conductor, with Lars Anders Tomter, viola, and the Bekova Sisters Trio. Other recent works of his include a Viola Concerto written for Yuri Bashmet and premiered by Bashmet at his summer festival in Tours in 1997; String Quartet #4 for the Fine Arts Quartet, premiered by them in Milwaukee in 1996; two works for Tatyana Grindenko, who has given numerous performances of Gerber's Violin Concerto in the U.S., Russia, and Estonia; and two works for the London-based Bekova Sisters Trio. In addition to his success in the United States, Mr. Gerber has becomes perhaps the most often-played living American composer in the former Soviet Union, which he has toured 10 times since 1990, and where he has received literally dozens of orchestral performances and numerous concerts of his solo and chamber music. Recent recordings of his music include Une Saison en Enfer, a cantata for chorus, baritone solo, and piano performed on CRI by The New Calliope Singers with Will Parker, baritone; two works for solo violin on Curtis Macomber's solo album on CRI, Fantasy and Three Songs Without Words; and Elegy on the Name "Dmitri Shostakovich" on the French label, Suoni e Colori. Gerber was born in 1948 in Washington, D.C., received degrees from Haverford College and from Princeton University, where he received a 4-year fellowship, and now lives in New York City. His composition teachers included Robert Parris, J. K. Randall, Earl Kim, and Milton Babbitt. He is a member of BMI and a board member of The American Composers Alliance. |
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The music of David Ludwig has been called "entrancing" (Philadelphia Inquirer) and has gained recognition for its "expressive directness" (The New York Times). His works have been performed in such major venues in the United States as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Merkin Hall and have been heard in Canada, England, France, Italy, Japan, and Spain. Ludwig has received commissions from several prestigious artists and ensembles. Divertimento String Trio, founded by violist Michael Tree, commissioned Dances of Light and premiered it on the Schneider Series of the New York String Seminar in 2001. The ensemble will perform the work in 2002 with the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society and the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York. Ludwig was a contributor to the "Songbook for a New Century" project created by the New York Festival of Song and Meet the Composer to be published by Boosey and Hawkes. The Seven Ages of Man was commissioned by the acclaimed group Concertante, who took the work on tour in 2000. Other commissions have been received from Jonathan Biss, Judith Clurman, The Curtis Institute, Jeffrey Khaner, the New York Youth Symphony, Astral Artistic Services, and the Vermont Symphony with Jaime Laredo. Recipient of the First Music Award, an Independence Foundation Fellowship, a Theodore Presser Foundation Career Grant, and the Fleischer Orchestra Award, he has been twice nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center Stoeger Award. David Ludwig was the Young Composer in residence at the Marlboro Music School in Vermont for three consecutive years. In addition to Marlboro, he was in residence at the Yaddo artist colony and participated at the Aspen Music Festival with John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse. He also worked with Oliver Knussen and Magnus Lindberg at the Britten-Pears school in England where he conducted his own music in performance at Aldeburgh. The summer of 2001 included residencies at the Atlantic Center for the Arts with the American String Quartet, the Académie Musicale de Villecroze in France, and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. Born in 1972 in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Ludwig
received a B.M. from the Oberlin Conservatory with Richard Hoffmann and
his M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music. He continued post-graduate at
The Curtis Institute of Music with Richard Danielpour, Jennifer Higdon and
Ned Rorem, and now attends the Juilliard School for studies with John
Corigliano. Ludwig joins the faculty of The Curtis Institute in
2002. |
