MUSIC FROM COPLAND HOUSE TO PERFORM AT INSTITUTE FOR ADVANCED STUDY

PRINCETON, N.J. - October 28, 2003:  Music From Copland House, an instrumental ensemble, will perform on November 19 and 21 at 8:00 p.m. and November 23 at 4:00 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall on the campus of the Institute for Advanced Study. Music From Copland House is resident at the New York home of the late American composer Aaron Copland, which is now a creative center for American music. 

The program, titled "An American Collection," reflects Copland’s advocacy of American composers and their works. It will feature SchiZm by Derek Bermel, Two Threnodies by Copland, Verge by Sebastian Currier, Light Refracted by Jennifer Higdon, Sonata a Quattro by George Perle, and Petroushkates by Joan Tower.

“The works on this program were composed within the last 35 years, and were chosen to highlight the broad range of styles in recent American chamber music,” says composer Jon Magnussen, Institute Artist-in-Residence. “This concert is a wonderful opportunity to hear new chamber music performed by first-rate artists who know the music intimately.”

Music from Copland House has performed at Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, Monday Evening Concerts in Los Angeles, Brandeis University, and a three-concert series at Merkin Hall. Its debut recordings, the first complete cycle of Copland’s chamber music, are soon to be released on the Arabesque label. 

Founding artists are pianist and Copland House Artistic and Executive Director Michael Boriskin, Westchester Philharmonic Music Director and flutist Paul Lustig Dunkel, clarinetist-composer Derek Bermel, violinist Nicholas Kitchen, and cellist Wilhelmina Smith. The ensemble, which is regularly joined by an array of guest artists, offers a variety of concert and children’s programs, master classes, lectures, residencies, workshops, and other educational and community outreach activities. Boriskin and Dunkel co-direct the group. For the Institute concert, guest violinist Curtis Macomber and guest violist Danielle Farina will join Music From Copland House.

Two special events are associated with the concerts. There will be a concert talk on November 19 at 4:30 p.m. in Wolfensohn Hall, during which the ensemble artists will join Magnussen to discuss works from the concert program. And on November 21, at 4:00 p.m. in the West Building Lecture Hall, there will be an interview with a distinguished composer represented in the concert: “The Right Notes: George Perle Speaks with Michael Boriskin and Jon Magnussen.”

Composer Perle has received a Pulitzer Prize and a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. Critics have commented on his “vividness of melodic gesture, lively rhythmic sense, and clarity and shapeliness of discourse.” Among his best known works are Serenade III for piano and chamber orchestra (1983), nominated for a Grammy; and Woodwind Quintet No. 4, which won the Pulitzer in 1986. Recent works include Brief Encounters for string quartet, Nine Bagatelles for piano, and Triptych for violin and piano.

Though primarily a composer, Perle has also published seven books, including the award-winning Operas of Alban Berg, and he contributes frequently to musical journals.

Perle received his early musical education in Chicago. After graduation from De Paul University where he studied composition, and subsequent private study, he served in the U.S. Army during World War II. He then did postgraduate work in musicology at New York University. Perle’s Ph.D. thesis became his first book, Serial Composition and Atonality, now in its sixth edition. 

Boriskin, in addition to his involvement with Music from Copland House, has performed in over 30 countries. He has performed in Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, and Vienna’s Arnold Schoenberg Center, among other venues. He has recorded on Harmonia Mundi, New World, Koch International, and other labels. His repertoire extends from Rameau, Scarlatti, and Bach through virtually every major American composer of the past 25 years. The New York Observer calls him “One of the world’s most valuable piano virtuosos.”

The concert, talk, and interview are sponsored by the Institute’s Artist-in-Residence Program, and are part of Magnussen’s current initiative, “Recent Pasts 20/21: An Exploration in New Music.”

All the above events are free and open to the public; for the concert, tickets must be reserved. For information, call 609-734-8228.