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Bernard Rands' 75th Birthday in the 2008/09 Season

Sep. 13, 2007

The 2008/09 season sees the 75th birthday of composer Bernard Rands. The originality and distinctive character of Rands' music has been described as "plangent lyricism" with "dramatic intensity" and a "musicality and clarity of idea allied to a sophisticated and elegant technical mastery" - qualities developed in part from his studies with Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio. Rands' long list of commissioners include the New York Philharmonic, the Suntory concert hall of Tokyo, Carnegie Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Cincinnati Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra. Many chamber works have resulted from commissions from major ensembles and festivals around the world. His chamber opera, Belladonna, was commissioned by the Aspen Festival in 1999 for its 50th anniversary.

Mr. Rands' Canti del Sole, premiered by Zubin Mehta and the New York Philharmonic, won the 1984 Pulitzer Prize in Music. His large orchestral suite Le Tambourin won the 1986 Kennedy Center Freidheim Award and the Chanticleer recording of his Canti d'Amor won a Grammy Award in 2000. Other celebrated works include his Cello Concerto written for and premiered by Mstislav Rostropovich with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 1997; apókryphos, for orchestra, chorus and Soprano, premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2003; and ...Where the Murmurs Die... for orchestra, composed in 1995.

Most recently, Bernard Rands' new set of piano preludes, written for pianist Robert Levin, saw its world premiere at the Ruhr International Piano Festival in Germany this past May. The work was co-commissioned by the Ruhr festival and Maria and Robert A. Skirnick. The Philadelphia Network for New Music ensemble and the Koussevitzky Music Foundations co-commissioned his "now again" - fragments from Sappho and the Network for New Music premiered the work in the fall of 2006. Mr. Rands is currently in the process of completing his full scale opera Vincent, about the life and work of Vincent Van Gogh.

For more information on the life and work of Bernard Rands, please visit www.schott-music.com or www.bernardrands.com.

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