Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music
The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music is part of the Baldwin Wallace University, in Berea, Ohio. The main building is Kulas Hall; the Conservatory is home to the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach Festival in the United States. The nationally renowned Music Theatre program, directed by Victoria Bussert, draws hundreds of auditioners each year; the instrumental programs have produced successful musicians. Today's Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music was established during the Baldwin Institute's existence. At the time, the undergraduate-only conservatory was founded in 1898 by Dr. Albert Riemenschneider. Before this time, music classes were offered at the Baldwin Institute for one dollar extra per term. In 1912, land donated by the citizens of Berea was used to expand the institution and improve the facilities for music; the Kulas Musical Arts Building was constructed. In 1913 the Conservatory expanded into an adjacent residence hall and an enclosed bridge was constructed connecting the two buildings.
This building was renovated in 1939. In 2009, the Berea First Congregational Church became part of the college. In 2011 an expansion was done to connect the Kulas Musical Arts Building with the Berea First Congregational Church; the Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music is home to the BW Bach Festival, the oldest collegiate Bach festival in the nation, as well as the second-oldest Bach festival in the nation. The festival was founded in 1932 by his wife, Selma; the Baldwin-Wallace Festival Choir and Orchestra presented the first Bach Festival in June 1933 and has continued on an annual basis since. In 2007, the nation's oldest Bach Festival, The Bethlehem, Baldwin Wallace performed together for BW's 75th anniversary of the festival; these two groups have worked together to celebrate the milestones of their festivals. The Bethlehem choir was founded in 1898 by J. Fred Wolle. Riemenschneider, founder of the BW festival, was inspired by a 1931 trip to the Bethlehem Bach Festival. In 2012, internationally heiled Bach scholar Ton Koopman worked with the Conservatory's Motet choir.
The main conservatory buildings include Kulas Musical Arts Building, Merner-Pfeiffer Hall and Boesel Musical Arts Center. The Boesel Musical Arts Center opened in 2011. In the Conservatory's beginnings, Kulas Musical Arts Building was the sole home of the music students, with Merner-Pfeiffer Hall being a close dormitory in proximity. Merner-Pfeiffer was renovated and became a part of the Conservatory buildings. Kohler Hall, a nearby building, houses many conservatory students. Having outgrown its existing facilities in the early 2000s, the Conservatory embarked on a second expansion and renovation project, in August 2008 acquired the adjacent First Congregational United Church of Christ building; this building was renovated to house conservatory programs and attached to Merner-Pfeiffer Hall via a new connecting structure. The connecting structure and what used to be the United Church of Christ were named Boesel Musical Arts Center; the Ferne Patterson Jones Music Library is located in the basement of Merner-Pfeiffer Hall.
The library contains nearly 40,000 items, including 13,000 volumes of printed music. The Riemenschneider Bach Institute, located in the Boesel Musical Arts Center, holds a priceless collection of rare materials related to J. S. Bach and his circle; the Riemenschneider Bach Library, a unique collection of Bach-oriented books, archival materials, scores, includes rare items such as the Emmy Martin Collection of first-edition scores. The library holds a collection of Cleveland Orchestra programs; the total Bach Institute "volume count" exceeds the 20,000 mark. The Institute publishes BACH: Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute, a scholarly journal, serves as the research arm of the Baldwin Wallace Bach Festival. Music Performance Music Education Music Therapy Music History and Literature Music Theory Music Composition Music Theatre Music in the Liberal Arts Arts Management Jazz Emphasis Music Therapy Equivalency The Baldwin Wallace Conservatory of Music is the home of the first Collegiate Bach Festival in the nation.
As well, the festival carries the title of the second oldest Bach festival in America. The festival was founded in 1932 by his wife, Selma; the festival rotates Bach's four major works ~ the B-minor Mass, the St. John Passion, the St. Matthew Passion and the Christmas Oratorio ~ every four years in sequence. Since the inception of the Festival, Baldwin Wallace's vocal and instrumental students perform the major choral and orchestral works with a cast of internationally renowned vocal soloists and local professionals. Today, the program has become a three-day, multi-event. In recent years, BW conservatory of music has become nationally recognized for its top tier musical theatre program. Under the direction of Victoria Bussert, the program has been recognized by many in the theatrical community as one of the best college education programs for musical theatre in the country, amongst the ranks of other elite programs such as the University of Michigan and Carnegie Mellon University; the annual senior s
Mahan Esfahani
Mahan Esfahani is an Iranian-American harpsichordist. Esfahani received his first guidance on the piano from his Iranian father before exploring an interest in the harpsichord as a teenager, he studied musicology and history at Stanford University, where he was mentored by George Houle, studied harpsichord in Boston with Peter Watchorn, before completing his formation under Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Růžičková. A leading harpsichordist, Esfahani's programming and work in commissioning new compositions has drawn the attention of critics and audiences across Europe and North America, he was the first harpsichordist to be a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist, to be honoured by an award from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. He has been a nominee for Gramophone Classical Music Awards Artist of the Year, his work for the harpsichord has resulted in recitals in major concert halls and events including the Wigmore Hall, London. He has had concerto appearances with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Auckland Philharmonia, Symfonicky Orchestr Česky Rozhlas, Orquesta de Navarra, Malta Philharmonic Orchestra, Aarhus Symphony Orchestra, Hamburg Symphony, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia.
He is an artistic partner for 2016–2019 with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Upcoming performances include his Carnegie Hall debut in spring of 2018, recitals at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Thuringer Bachwochen with violinist Liza Ferschtman, concertos with the Kammerakademie Potsdam, the continuation of a multi-year project of the complete keyboard works of J. S. Bach for Wigmore Hall, with whom he has enjoyed an association since he made his debut there in 2009. Following three years as artist-in-residence at New College, Oxford, he continues his academic associations as an honorary member at Keble College, where he serves as patron of the Keble Early Music Festival. Esfahani became professor of harpsichord at The Guildhall School of Music & Drama in the spring of 2015, he can be heard as a commentator on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 and as a host for such programs as Record Review, Building a Library, Sunday Feature. For the latter programme he is at work on his third radio documentary following two programmes on such subjects as the history of African-American composers in the classical sphere.
Esfahani made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2009 as a concerto soloist with The English Concert. In 2009, he made his debut at The Proms in 3 concerts that featured New Generation Artists. In July 2011, Esfahani gave the first solo harpsichord recital in the history of The Proms, at Cadogan Hall, he returned to The Proms in July 2012, leading the Academy of Ancient Music in his own arrangement of JS Bach's The Art of Fugue. Outside of the UK, his New York debut was at the Frick Collection in March 2012. Esfahani recorded Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach's Wurttemberg Sonatas for Hyperion Records, the recording won a 2014 Gramophone Award in the Baroque Instrumental category; the same recording won him. 2014 saw Hyperion release his two-disc set of the complete harpsichord works of Jean-Philippe Rameau. In 2014, Esfahani signed a recording contract with Deutsche Grammophon, his first DG recording,'Time Present and Time Past', was released in 2015. Born in Tehran in 1984 and raised in the United States, he lived in Milan and London for several years before taking up residence in Prague.
"Mahan Esfahani: Byrd, Ligeti", Wigmore Hall Live "C. P. E. Bach: Wurttemberg Sonatas", Hyperion "Rameau: Pièces de clavecin", Hyperion "Time Present and Time Past", Deutsche Grammophon "Bach: Goldberg Variations", Deutsche Grammophon "The Passinge Mesures: Music of the English Virginalists", Hyperion "Bull: Complete Keyboard Music, Vol. 1", Musica Omnia - Peter Watchorn and Mahan Esfahani "Sacred And Secular Music From Renaissance Germany", Naxos - with Ciaramella Ensemble "Arcangelo Corelli. La Follia, Six Sonatas opus 5", OUR Recordings - with Michala Petri "Ukdk:Contemporary Recorder", OUR Recordings - with Michala Petri Classical music Music of Iran List of Iranian musicians Official Mahan Esfahani website Management biography - Rayfield Allied Colbert Artists Management Inc. Interview with Monorail Magazine Creativity Foundation page on Esfahani BBC Radio 3 biography of Mahan Esfahani Martin Cullingford,'A Proms first: a solo harpsichord recital'. Gramophone, 19 July 2011 Borletti-Buitoni Trust page on Esfahani 2014 Gramophone Award, Baroque Instrumental
Piano
The piano is an acoustic, stringed musical instrument invented in Italy by Bartolomeo Cristofori around the year 1700, in which the strings are struck by hammers. It is played using a keyboard, a row of keys that the performer presses down or strikes with the fingers and thumbs of both hands to cause the hammers to strike the strings; the word piano is a shortened form of pianoforte, the Italian term for the early 1700s versions of the instrument, which in turn derives from gravicembalo col piano e forte and fortepiano. The Italian musical terms piano and forte indicate "soft" and "loud" in this context referring to the variations in volume produced in response to a pianist's touch or pressure on the keys: the greater the velocity of a key press, the greater the force of the hammer hitting the strings, the louder the sound of the note produced and the stronger the attack; the name was created as a contrast to harpsichord, a musical instrument that doesn't allow variation in volume. The first fortepianos in the 1700s had smaller dynamic range.
An acoustic piano has a protective wooden case surrounding the soundboard and metal strings, which are strung under great tension on a heavy metal frame. Pressing one or more keys on the piano's keyboard causes a padded hammer to strike the strings; the hammer rebounds from the strings, the strings continue to vibrate at their resonant frequency. These vibrations are transmitted through a bridge to a soundboard that amplifies by more efficiently coupling the acoustic energy to the air; when the key is released, a damper stops the strings' vibration, ending the sound. Notes can be sustained when the keys are released by the fingers and thumbs, by the use of pedals at the base of the instrument; the sustain pedal enables pianists to play musical passages that would otherwise be impossible, such as sounding a 10-note chord in the lower register and while this chord is being continued with the sustain pedal, shifting both hands to the treble range to play a melody and arpeggios over the top of this sustained chord.
Unlike the pipe organ and harpsichord, two major keyboard instruments used before the piano, the piano allows gradations of volume and tone according to how forcefully a performer presses or strikes the keys. Most modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, 52 white keys for the notes of the C major scale and 36 shorter black keys, which are raised above the white keys, set further back on the keyboard; this means that the piano can play 88 different pitches, going from the deepest bass range to the highest treble. The black keys are for the "accidentals". More some pianos have additional keys. Most notes have three strings, except for the bass; the strings are sounded when keys are pressed or struck, silenced by dampers when the hands are lifted from the keyboard. Although an acoustic piano has strings, it is classified as a percussion instrument rather than as a stringed instrument, because the strings are struck rather than plucked. There are two main types of piano: the upright piano.
The grand piano is used for Classical solos, chamber music, art song, it is used in jazz and pop concerts. The upright piano, more compact, is the most popular type, as it is a better size for use in private homes for domestic music-making and practice. During the 1800s, influenced by the musical trends of the Romantic music era, innovations such as the cast iron frame and aliquot stringing gave grand pianos a more powerful sound, with a longer sustain and richer tone. In the nineteenth century, a family's piano played the same role that a radio or phonograph played in the twentieth century. During the nineteenth century, music publishers produced many musical works in arrangements for piano, so that music lovers could play and hear the popular pieces of the day in their home; the piano is employed in classical, jazz and popular music for solo and ensemble performances and for composing and rehearsals. Although the piano is heavy and thus not portable and is expensive, its musical versatility, the large number of musicians and amateurs trained in playing it, its wide availability in performance venues and rehearsal spaces have made it one of the Western world's most familiar musical instruments.
With technological advances, amplified electric pianos, electronic pianos, digital pianos have been developed. The electric piano became a popular instrument in the 1960s and 1970s genres of jazz fusion, funk music and rock music; the piano was founded on earlier technological innovations in keyboard instruments. Pipe organs have been used since Antiquity, as such, the development of pipe organs enabled instrument builders to learn about creating keyboard mechanisms for sounding pitches; the first string instruments with struck strings were the hammered dul
Music for 18 Musicians
Music for 18 Musicians is a work of musical minimalism composed by Steve Reich during 1974–1976. Its world premiere was on April 1976, at The Town Hall in New York City. Following this, a recording of the piece was released by ECM New Series in 1978 In his introduction to the score, Reich mentions that although the piece is named Music for 18 Musicians, it is not advisable to perform the piece with that few players due to the extensive doubling it requires. With only 18 musicians, the parts are divided as follows: violin cello female voice female voice female voice piano piano piano and maracas marimba and maracas marimba and xylophone marimba and xylophone marimba and xylophone metallophone and piano piano and marimba marimba and piano clarinet and bass clarinet clarinet and bass clarinet female voice and pianoThe piece is based on a cycle of eleven chords. A small piece of music is based on each chord, the piece returns to the original cycle at the end; the sections are named "Pulses", Section I-XI.
This was Reich's first attempt at writing for larger ensembles, the extension of performers resulted in a growth of psycho-acoustic effects, which fascinated Reich, he noted that he would like to "explore this idea further". A prominent factor in this work is the augmentation of the harmonies and melodies and the way that they develop this piece. Another important factor in the piece is the use of human breath, used in the clarinets and voices, which help structure and bring a pulse to the piece; the player plays the pulsing note for as long as he can hold it, while each chord is melodically deconstructed by the ensemble, along with augmentation of the notes held. The metallophone, is used to cue the ensemble to change sections; some sections of the piece have a chiastic ABCDCBA structure, Reich noted that this one work contained more harmonic movement in the first five minutes than any other work he had written. Reviewing the 1978 LP in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies, Robert Christgau wrote of Music for 18 Musicians: "In which pulsing modules of high-register acoustic sound—the ensemble comprises violin, clarinet, marimbas, xylophone and women's voices—evolve harmonically toward themselves.
Mathematical, yet very, organic—the duration of particular note-pulses is determined by the natural breath rhythms of the musicians—this sounds great in the evening near the sea. I find it uplifting at best, calming at normal, Muzaky at worst, but as a rock and roller I get off on repetitions that drive other people crazy."In 2003, David Bowie included it in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie", calling it "Balinese gamelan music cross-dressing as minimalism." There have been many performances of the piece, six commercial recordings: The original ECM version played by Steve Reich and Musicians The Nonesuch version, played by Reich and musicians along with new musicians, a new recording of, included on Steve Reich: Works 1965-1995 The Ensemble Modern version The Amadinda Percussion Group version, a live concert recording The Grand Valley State University New Music Ensemble version This 2007 Innova release, the first recorded in surround sound, has received critical praise nationwide, including from Steve Reich.
The Harmonia Mundi version, played by Ensemble Signal. SteveReich.com MP3 of the opening through section II available under Multimedia: MP3 Boosey&Hawkes entry. Lowlands 2013 Performance by Steve Reich & Ensemble Music for 18 Musicians - A website tribute
Leszek Możdżer
Leszek Możdżer is a Polish jazz pianist, music producer and film music composer. Official website
Pianist
A pianist is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, jazz and all sorts of popular music, including rock and roll. Most pianists can, to an extent play other keyboard-related instruments such as the synthesizer, harpsichord and the organ. Modern classical pianists dedicate their careers to performing, teaching and learning new works to expand their repertoire, they do not write or transcribe music as pianists did in the 19th century. Some classical pianists might specialize in accompaniment and chamber music, while others will perform as full-time soloists. Mozart could be considered the first "concert pianist" as he performed on the piano. Composers Beethoven and Clementi from the classical era were famed for their playing, as were, from the romantic era, Brahms, Chopin and Rachmaninoff. From that era, leading performers less known as composers were Hans von Bülow.
However, as we do not have modern audio recordings of most of these pianists, we rely on written commentary to give us an account of their technique and style. Jazz pianists always perform with other musicians, their playing is more free than that of classical pianists and they create an air of spontaneity in their performances. They do not write down their compositions. Well known jazz pianists include Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Oscar Peterson and Bud Powell. Popular pianists might work as live performers, session musicians, arrangers most feel at home with synthesizers and other electronic keyboard instruments. Notable popular pianists include Victor Borge. A single listing of pianists in all genres would be impractical, given the multitude of musicians noted for their performances on the instrument. Below are links to lists of well-known or influential pianists divided by genres: List of classical pianists List of classical pianists List of classical piano duos List of jazz pianists List of pop and rock pianists List of blues musicians List of boogie woogie musicians List of gospel musicians List of new-age music artists Many important composers were virtuoso pianists.
The following is an incomplete list of such musicians. Franz Schubert Ludwig van Beethoven Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Johann Nepomuk Hummel Carl Maria von Weber Muzio Clementi Edvard Grieg Franz Liszt Charles-Valentin Alkan Anton Arensky Sergei Rachmaninoff Anton Rubinstein Frédéric Chopin Felix Mendelssohn Johannes Brahms Camille Saint-Saëns Isaac Albéniz Nikolai Medtner Béla Bartók George Gershwin Sergei Prokofiev Dmitri Shostakovich Some people, having received a solid piano training in their youth, decide not to continue their musical careers but choose nonmusical ones; as a result, there are prominent communities of amateur pianists all over the world that play at quite a high level and give concerts not to earn money but just for the love of music. The International Piano Competition for Outstanding Amateurs, held annually in Paris, attracts about one thousand listeners each year and is broadcast on French radio, it is notable that Jon Nakamatsu, the Gold Medal winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition for professional pianists in Fort Worth, Texas was at the moment of his victory technically an amateur: he never attended a music conservatory or majored in music, worked as a high school German teacher at the time.
The German pianist Davide Martello is known for traveling around conflict zones to play his moving piano. Martello has been recognised by the European parliament for his “outstanding contribution to European cooperation and the promotion of common values”. List of films about pianists
Drumming (Reich)
Drumming is a piece by minimalist composer Steve Reich, dating from 1970–1971. Reich began composition of the work after a short visit to Ghana and observing music and musical ensembles there under the Anlo Ewe master drummer Gideon Alorwoyie, his visit was cut short after contracting malaria. K. Robert Schwarz describes the work as "minimalism's first masterpiece." The piece employs Reich's trademark technique of phasing. Phasing is achieved when two players, or one player and a recording, are playing a single repeated pattern in unison on the same kind of instrument. One player changes tempo while the other remains constant, the two players are one or several beats out of sync with each other, they may either phase further, depending on the piece. K. Robert Schwarz characterized Drumming as a "transitional" piece between Reich's early, more austere compositions and his works that use less strict forms and structure. Schwarz has noted that Reich made use of three new techniques, for him, in this work: "the process of substituting beats for rests within a repeating rhythmic cycle", or "rhythmic construction" and "rhythmic reduction" combination of instruments of different timbres at the same time incorporation of human voices in imitation of the sounds of the percussion instruments in the ensemble, including whistling effects In total, the work requires 9 percussionists.
With the additional players, the piece can be performed by 13 players. The work falls into four parts, with the following instrumentation used in each: Part One: 4 pairs of tuned bongo drums, played with double-ended wooden sticks Part Two: 3 marimbas, 2 or 3 female voices Part Three: 3 glockenspiels and piccolo Part Four: complete ensembleThe length of the piece can vary as the number of repeats taken on any given measure is up to the performers. Recordings of the piece span between 84 minutes; the entire piece is structured around one measure of 12/8 long. This rhythm is built up note by note, in the "substitution of beats for rests" technique found in other of Reich's works such as Music for Pieces of Wood, Music for 18 Musicians, others. After the rhythm is built up, two of the players phase to where they are playing the same pattern one quarter-note apart from each other, the other bongo players play resulting patterns that can be heard as a result of the combination of the phased patterns.
The rest of the piece continues to use the techniques of beat/rest substitution and resultant patterns through its four movements. The transitions consist as follows: Movement 2 begins by three marimba players playing the same repeated pattern as the bongo players, fading in while the bongo players fade out. Movement 3 begins similarly. Movement 4 begins after movement 3 reduces its texture to one glockenspiel player, playing a single repeated note from the original pattern. Marimba and bongo players join, build the pattern up again, note by note, until all nine percussionists are playing; the piece ends abruptly, on cue. Choreographers such as Laura Dean, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Ginette Laurin have collaborated on dance performances with Reich on Drumming. 1971 – Gary Burke, Steve Chambers, Ben Harms, Russ Hartenberger, Frank Maefsky, Art Murphy, James Ogden, James Preiss. Recorded on December 16, 1971, live at New York. Duration 1:21:35 1974 – Bob Becker, Cornelius Cardew, Steve Chambers, Tim Ferchen, Ben Harms, Russ Hartenberger, James Preiss, Glen Velez.
1987 – Steve Reich and Musicians. Duration 56:42. 2002 – Ictus Ensemble. Duration 54:49. 2005 – So Percussion. Duration 1:14:02. 2018 – Colin Currie Group, Synergy Vocals.. Duration 55:07. "Analysis of Steve Reich's Drumming and his use of African polyrhythms", blog entry New Music Box, 9 December 1971 article
