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Purpose of this site:
This is one of the oldest web sites about classical music composers. It has been on the Internet since 1995, and wants to be the best starting point for all sorts of information about classical composers and their compositions. With your help, as a classical music lover, this site can become an even better source.
Latest composer news
- Glise to be guitar professor
(22 December 2009)The University of Missouri-Columbia has invited Anthony Glise http://www.AnthonyGlise.com) to build their first classical guitar program beginning Fall 2010.
Glise’s Professorship includes development of undergraduate and graduate guitar programs. This situation will also allow music education, history, theory and composition majors to choose classical guitar as their primary instrument.
This new program is highly progressive including classes in guitar pedagogy, guitar history & performance practice, career development and extensive ensemble opportunities. Some scholarships will be available.
FOREIGN STUDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY.
Lessons with Glise may be given in English, French or German.Founded in 1839, MU boasts over 30,000 students from all over the world, 270 degree programs, and is one of the largest and most respected universities in the US.
UPCOMING GUITAR AUDITIONS:
- Monday, February 15, 2010
- Saturday, March 6, 2010
To sign up for an audition, visit
http://music.missouri.edu/undergraduate/musicdays.html.International students and students auditioning for the Master of Music degree should contact William J. Lackey at [USA+] 573-882-4471 or LackeyW
missouri.edu to schedule an audition. - Erasmus Prize 2010 for Abreu
(19 December 2009)The Praemium Erasmianum Foundation, located in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, has awarded the Erasmus Prize 2010 to Jose Antonio Abreu. The prize money is a sum of €150,000.–. A ceremony in which the award will be presented will take place on 7 October 2010 in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam.
The theme of the Erasmus Prize 2010 is “The Future of European Classical Music.” The Prize is awarded annually to a person who, within the cultural traditions of Europe, has made an especially important contribution to culture, society or social science in Europe.
The Erasmus Prize is awarded to mr. Abreu for his efforts to involve a large group of young people in music making, thus offering them inspiration as well as a new social context.
José Antonio Abreu is the founder director of El Sistema (Venezuela), which isthe National Network of Youth and Children's Orchestras of Venezuela. This organisation has become an important factor in the training of professional musicians and has also helped in reaching new audiences for classical music worldwide.
[Source: www.erasmusprijs.org]
- Musheng Chen wins composition prize
(7 December 2009)The thirteenth year of the Dimitris Mitropoulos International Competition, organized by the Orchestra of Colours in collaboration with the Athens Concert Hall, was completed with the prizewinners’ concert, held on November 6, 2009 as a public concert in the Athens Concert Hall.
Five works for symphony orchestra, which were composed especially for this Competition, were premiered by the Orchestra of Colours under the direction of Miltos Logiadis. These works had been preselected by a jury from among 75 entries. The international jury, consisting of Theodore Antoniou, Alkis Baltas, George Couroupos, Christian Jost, George Koumendakis and José Manuel López López, and presided over by Zygmunt Krauze. "Dream Variations II" a work for orchestra by chinese composer Musheng CHEN, has earned the first prize of the prestigious Mitropoulos International Composition prize.
[Source: Musheng Chen]
- British Composers' Award for Thomas Simaku
(7 December 2009)The British Composers' Award for this year in the category of Instrumental Solo or Duo is awarded Thomas Simaku. He won the prize for his piece “Soliloquy V Flauto Acerbo”, which is for for alto and tenor recorders.
The judges "unanimously agreed that the winning work redefines the instrument in a visionary and entirely original way. They praised it for its virtuosity, depth of expression, and powerful imagination."
Simaku writes about his composition:
'As the first part of the title suggests, the piece belongs to a series of works for solo instruments. After the première of Soliloquy I at the 2000 ISCM Festival, the idea of composing a cycle of solo pieces — the aim was to create different characters within the same protagonist who 'narrates' in different languages, as it were — materialized itself. So far, this is the fifth work in the series (the first three are for string instruments, and the fourth is for Bass Clarinet).
With each piece, the soloistic idea operates on a different instrumental canvas and is elaborated according to the expressive qualities and the technical potentiality of each instrument. In this work, the linear contours based on 'white modality' but constantly 'surrounded' by chromatic and microtonal inflections, as well as the contrapuntal dynamism and the variety of textural formats stemming from it, are at the heart of the musical discourse. The idiosyncratic quality of this work is to be found perhaps in the second part of the title, Flauto Acerbo!'
[Source: uymp.co.uk]
- Robbins Landon, famous Haydn biographer, dies
(2 December 2009)The famous American musicologist and Haydn biographer, H.C. Robbins Landon, died last Friday in France. He was 83 years old.
Robbins Landon, born in 1926 in Boston, USA, rediscovered en reconstructed many Haydn operas. He founded the Haydn Society in Boston.
He moved to Europe do to research, notalbly on Joseph Haydn, but also on Mozart. He wrote the standard work “Haydn, Chronicle and Works”. Next to his scientific research, he also wrote accessible and popular books about Haydn and Mozart.
[Source: www.nrc.nl]
- 2010 Grawemeyer Award for York Höller
(1 December 2009)German composer York Höller has been awarded the 2010 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. He recieves the prize for his composition “Sphären” (Spheres), which he wrote from 2001 till 2006.
“Sphären” is a six-movement work for orchestra, which had its first performance in 2008 in Cologne, Germany. “The piece is magnificently scored, using a large orchestra to generate colors ranging from the most delicate to the most overwhelming,” said Marc Satterwhite, a University of Louisville music professor who directs the award.
[Source: grawemeyer.org]