Born in Rome, 1841, to an Italian father and an English mother, Giovanni Sgambati, who lost his father early, received his early education at Trevi, in Umbria, where he wrote some church music and obtained experience as a singer and conductor. In 1860 he settled in Rome, and took up the work of winning acceptance for … Continue reading Giovanni Sgambati : Italian pianist and composer
Author: f. d. leone
Songwriter.
Yehuda Yannay : composer,conductor, filmmaker and performance artist
Yehuda Yannay (Hebrew: יהודה ינאי) (b. 26 May 1937, Timișoara, Romania) is an American-Israeli composer,conductor, filmmaker and performance artist. Yannay moved from Romania to Israel in 1951, where he studied with Alexander Uriya Boskovitch, who influenced him greatly. After completing his studies at the Rubin Academy of Music in Tel-Aviv, he pursued postgraduate studies in America, … Continue reading Yehuda Yannay : composer,conductor, filmmaker and performance artist
Hugo Distler : chose suicide rather than serve Hitler
Hugo Distler (June 24, 1908 - November 1, 1942), German composer. Born in Nuremberg, he is known mostly for his sacred choral music. He attended Leipzig Conservatory first as a conducting student with piano as his secondary subject, but changing later, on the advice of his teacher, to composition and organ. Once Hitler came to power, … Continue reading Hugo Distler : chose suicide rather than serve Hitler
Lisa Bielawa : Singing Rilke
Lisa Carol Bielawa (born in San Francisco, California, September 30, 1968) is a composer and vocalist. She is a 2009 Rome Prize winner in Musical Composition and spent a year composing as a Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. She takes inspiration for her work from literary sources and close artistic collaborations. Gramophonereports, “Bielawa is … Continue reading Lisa Bielawa : Singing Rilke
Anton Arensky : bridging Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff
Born in Novgorod in 1861, Anton Arensky belonged to the generation of Russian composers midway between Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov (that included Glazunov, Gretchaninov and Liadov) and who came to prominence in the closing decade of the nineteenth century. By the time he was nine his precocious gifts had expressed themselves in several songs and piano … Continue reading Anton Arensky : bridging Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff
Anestis Logothetis : experimenting with graphical notation
Anestis Logothetis (10/27/1921 - 1/6/1994) was an Austrian avant-garde composer, noted both for his musical works and his invention of his own graphic notation system. He was born in Burgas, Bulgaria, of Greek parents, and moved with his family to Thessaloniki in 1934. After graduating from the German School, he left Greece in 1942 in … Continue reading Anestis Logothetis : experimenting with graphical notation
Annea Lockwood : sound artist
Cage’s seminal book, ‘Silence’, was a strong influence in my twenties, confirming my own sense that all sound is inherently musical and interesting, valuable. My work as a composer took off completely from that premise. As he was, generously with many young composers, he was always friendly, encouraging, when we met. For example, I remember … Continue reading Annea Lockwood : sound artist
Bill Dixon : Tapestries for Small Orchestra
Bill Dixon (October 5, 1925 – June 16, 2010) was an American musician, composer, visual artist, and educator. Dixon was one of the seminal figures in the free jazz movement. He played the trumpet, flugelhorn, and piano, often using electronic delay and reverberation as part of his trumpet playing. In the early 1960s, when rock … Continue reading Bill Dixon : Tapestries for Small Orchestra
David Krakauer : Reframing Messiaen
Cellist Matt Haimovitz, clarinetist David Krakauer and beat writer Socalled came together to create a new project centered around Olivier Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Given that this piece was composed in a prisoner of war camp in the midst of tremendous world upheaval, and that the subject matter of the quartet describes … Continue reading David Krakauer : Reframing Messiaen
Miriam Gideon : Composer
Miriam Gideon (10/23/1906–6/181996) was born in Greeley, Colorado, where her father was a Reform rabbi. Her interest in composition —begun in childhood as an ancillary, experimental, and almost private activity—soon became the primary focus of her creative energies. At Boston University, where she earned her bachelor's degree with a major in French literature and a … Continue reading Miriam Gideon : Composer
Musica Kaleidoskopea 