The first thing Gregory Spears wants you to know is that he’s not trying to complete the Mozart Requiem. Even though he has. The American composer sees his three new movements for the iconic work, which have their world premiere Friday, less as a solution to a Mozart puzzle then as a continuation of a dialogue with Mozart and with the continuum of Western sacred music. But … [Read more...]
Composer Levy to see ‘Mourning Becomes Electra’ return to stage
In the elevator, Marvin David Levy didn’t even look over at the man standing close by. What he could feel from him – and it wasn’t nice – was all he needed to know. The other man was Samuel Barber, whose Antony and Cleopatra had opened the new Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center in September 1966, and was one of the most colossal failures in the history of the house. … [Read more...]
Composer-lyricist gets showcase for a compassionate look at love
By Hap Erstein Chances are you do not know the name Daniel Maté, but if The Theatre at Arts Garage’s artistic director Lou Tyrrell’s hunch is right, you soon will. He is so excited by the talents of this 38-year-old composer-lyricist-playwright that he has scheduled two of Maté’s show for this season. The last time he did that was in the 2001-2002 season of Florida Stage, … [Read more...]
Composer brings passion for stories to new Maltz children’s musical
Ask John Mercurio about way he approaches his craft as a composer of musicals, and one word keeps coming back: Storytelling. Partly that’s because he writes book and lyrics as well as music, but the idea also is central to his creative process. “I think for me, the way in, whether it be book writing, music writing or lyric writing, is always telling a story. That’s my thing. … [Read more...]
Composer Waxman to get world premiere at Lynn
Time was when Donald Waxman was proud of his pen-and-ink hand, because the notes he wrote out for his manuscript scores were legible and performers found them easy to read. That all changed a few years ago at the hands of a student who dragged the composer into the digital notation era. “He said, ‘Mr. Waxman, I can’t do this anymore. I’m going to teach you how to use … [Read more...]
Theater roundup: A quality ‘Spider Woman’; ‘Frankenstein’ well-cast but weak
West Boca’s Slow Burn Theatre Co. has carved out a niche for itself that no other area stage troupe seems interested in filling. Its stated mission is to tackle “daring, contemporary and intelligent” musicals, which certainly describes its current production of Kiss of the Spider Woman. This odd-couple tale of Molina, a gay window dresser, and Valentin, a macho freedom … [Read more...]
Violinist-composer Roumain charts cross-genre path
It’s not easy to categorize a musician who can write sonatas for turntables and hip-hop etudes, a violin concerto and dance scores, but the world of contemporary classical music is quickly getting used to the cross-genre fluency of people such as Daniel Bernard Roumain. “I think there are a lot of composers my age and younger, who literally have played in rock bands, go to … [Read more...]
Composer Frazelle finds inspiration in South, nature
Even though his art has gone in a very different direction, Kenneth Frazelle will even now defend the severe modernist composers who used to dominate the world of classical music, including his own teacher at the Juilliard School, Roger Sessions. “He did not want you to write the way he did, he wanted you to write what you wanted,” said Frazelle, who added that Sessions often … [Read more...]
Composer Zwilich’s Septet to get local premiere Sunday
In the life of every creative artist, there must one day come The Leap. It's that moment of mental alchemy when all the bits and pieces the artist is trying to fit together suddenly come together, often while the creator is sleeping, paying bills or doing something else entirely other than concentrate on the work. Ellen Taaffe Zwilich demonstrates by singing, in a sweet, … [Read more...]
Composer Danielpour first built musical dreams in Palm Beach County
When Richard Danielpour was a student at Twin Lakes High School and thinking about being a musician, he used to go down each week to Spec’s Music at the Palm Beach Mall and go trolling for LPs. One day he bought a recording of the Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, in a performance by a French pianist named Philippe Entremont, accompanied by the Philadelphia … [Read more...]