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Robert Beaser's Guitar Concerto at June in Buffalo

May. 30, 2012

Robert Beaser's Guitar Concerto at June in Buffalo

This month, Robert Beaser is celebrated as Senior Faculty of the June in Buffalo festival with performances of his Variations, Shenandoah, and Guitar Concerto by renowned guest artists Eliot Fisk, New York New Music Ensemble, and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor JoAnn Falletta. Founded in 1975 by the American composer Morton Feldman, June in Buffalo is a unique contemporary music festival that offers an intensive week of seminars, lectures, workshops, open rehearsals and concerts.

On June 7, flutist Jayn Rosenfeld and pianist Stephen Gosling of the New York New Music Ensemble perform Beaser’s Variations. A substantial work comprised of 15 variations divided between three movements, the work was commissioned in 1982 by Susan Rotholz with grants from Meet the Composer and the Concert Artists Guild. On June 8, the brilliant guitarist Eliot Fisk performs Beaser’s stirring and lyrical solo work, Shenandoah. Commissioned in 1995 by the Rodrigo Riera International Guitar Composition Competition in Caracas, Venezuela, Beaser’s Shenandoah is based on the traditional American folk song of the same name, which first found printing in the 1882 issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine.

The festival will conclude on June 10 with a performance of Beaser’s celebrated Guitar Concerto featuring its dedicatee, Fisk, as soloist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by JoAnn Falletta. This recent addition to the guitar concerto repertoire was composed in 2008 on joint commission by the Albany Symphony Orchestra, David Alan Miller, the American Composers Orchestra, and the Brucknerhaus Orchestra in Linz.

The festival runs from June 4 through 10 and all three works are to be performed at the Lippes Concert Hall in Slee Hall at the University of Buffalo in New York. In addition to these performances, Robert Beaser will present a talk as part of the festival’s free daily lecture series on Friday, June 8 at 10AM in the University’s Baird Recital Hall.

In addition to all the upcoming June in Buffalo events, pianist Christopher McKiggan recently gave a thrilling performance of Beaser’s Piano Concerto at the opening concert of the Beijing Modern Music Festival. McKiggan joined China’s National Center for the Performing Arts Orchestra led by Lv Jia on May 19 for the festival's opening performance.

For more information on Robert Beaser, visit his profile at www.schott-music.com.

For more information on June in Buffalo, including a complete list of performances, visit www.music21c.org.

Guitar Concerto (2009)
for guitar and orchestra
2.1(ca).2.2-2.2.1.1-timp.1perc(tam-t, cym, vibraslap, wdbl, tempbl, ratchet, s.d)-str
23'
 

Piano Concerto (1988)
for piano and orchestra
3.3.3.2-4.3.3.1-timp.3perc-hp-str 

Variations (1982)
for flute and piano
22’
EA 506

Shenandoah
for guitar
EA 805

Purchase Variations and Shenandoah by visiting www.halleonard.com.

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