Elie Siegmeister - Piano Music Vol.2 (1999)

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Elie Siegmeister - Piano Music Vol.2 (1999)

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Elie Siegmeister - Piano Music Vol.2 (1999)
Classical | EAC: FLAC+Cue+Log | 1 Cd, Covers | 266 Mb
Label: Naxos - Date: 1999

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Elie Siegmeister - Piano Music Vol.2 (1999)

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Elie Siegmeister (b. January 15, 1909, New York City – March 10, 1991, Manhasset, New York) was an American composer, educator and author.

His varied musical output showed his concern with the development of an authentic American musical vocabulary. Jazz, blues and folk melodies and rhythms are frequent themes in his many song cycles, his nine operas, his eight symphonies, and his many choral, chamber, and solo works. His 37 orchestral works have been performed by leading orchestras throughout the world under such conductors as Arturo Toscanini, Leopold Stokowski, Dimitri Mitropoulos, Lorin Maazel, and Sergiu Comissiona. He also composed for Hollywood (notably, the film score of They Came to Cordura, starring Gary Cooper and Rita Hayworth, 1959) and Broadway ("Sing Out, Sweet Land," 1944, book by Walter Kerr).

His Western Suite was premiered by Toscanini and the NBC Symphony Orchestra during a broadcast concert on November 25, 1945, in NBC Studio 8-H. Maurice Abravanel and the Utah Symphony Orchestra later made a stereo recording of the music, which incorporates familiar cowboy tunes and garnered him many black friends. Biographer Mortimer Frank said it is a remarkable performance led by a conductor whose roots went not to the Old West but the Parma conservatory.

Siegmeister wrote a number of important books on music, among them "Treasury of American Song" (Knopf, 1940–43, text coauthored with Olin Downs, music arranged by Siegmeister), second edition revised and enlarged (Consolidated Music Publishers); "The Music Lover's Handbook" (William Morrow, 1943; Book-of-the-Month Club selection), revised and expanded as "The New Music Lover's Handbook" (1973); and the two-volume "Harmony and Melody" (Wadsworth, 1985), which was widely adopted by college and conservatory curricula. In 1960, Siegmeister also recorded and released an instructional album of music, Invitation to Music, on Folkways Records, on which he discusses the fundamentals of music.

From 1977 until his death, he served on the Board of Directors of ASCAP and chaired its Symphony and Concert Committee. Among his signal achievements, he was composer-in-residence at Hofstra University 1966-76, having organized and conducted the Hofstra Symphony Orchestra; established 1971 and chaired the Council of Creative Artists, Libraries, and Museums; and initiated 1978 the Kennedy Center's National Black Music competition. In 1939, he organized the American Ballad Singers, pioneers in the folk music renaissance whom he conducted for eight years in performances throughout the United States. He was the winner of numerous awards and commissions, among them those of the Guggenheim, Ford, and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundations, the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the USIA.

Siegmeister earned a B.A. cum laude at the age of 18 from Columbia University, where he had studied music theory with Seth Bingham. He studied conducting with Albert Stoessel at the Juilliard School and counterpoint with Wallingford Riegger. He was among the numerous American composers, including Aaron Copland and Virgil Thomson, who were students of the influential teacher Nadia Boulanger in Paris. The best known of his own students was Stephen Albert (1941–92), winner of a 1985 Pulitzer Prize for music. Other students included clarinetist Naomi Drucker and composers Michael Jeffrey Shapiro, Daniel Dorff, Leonard Lehrman, Herbert Deutsch, Joseph Pehrson, and Grammy-winner Jack Gallagher.

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Elie Siegmeister - Piano Music Vol.2 (1999)

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Dr. Kenneth Boulton

Grammy nominated pianist Kenneth Boulton has been described as “dynamically charged, fiercely committed, and brilliantly virtuosic” (Classics Today). Although his experience has touched all facets of the keyboard repertoire, Boulton has developed a specialty in American music. His debut recordings of Elie Siegmeister's major works for solo piano, released in 1999 on compact disc by Naxos, garnered international critical acclaim, and led to a subsequent Naxos recording of solo piano music by the 19th-century American composer William Mason. Boulton has collaborated with cellist Ovidiu Marinescu on the enthusiastically received recording, Fiesta Latina, as well as a disc of music for cello and piano by Nicolai Miaskovsky for Cambria Master Recordings. Boulton also appeared with clarinetist Karen Dannessa on the compact disc, American Lyrique. His recordings have been featured on Canadian Broadcasting rporation radio broadcasts and National Public Radio’s Performance Today. He is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Boulton’s latest recording, Louisiana - A Pianist’s Journey, was released in 2007 on Cambria Master Recordings and received a Grammy Nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist (without orchestra).

A seasoned performer, Kenneth Boulton has given solo and chamber music recitals in many major U.S. cities, including New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Dallas/Fort Worth, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New Orleans, and Seattle. His international appearances have included performances at Moscow Conservatory’s Rachmaninoff Hall and Oxford University, as well as concerts in Germany and Romania. He teamed with cellist Marinescu to conduct a week-long residency at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in California. Boulton routinely appears with his wife, JoAnne Barry, in recitals and lectures of duo and duet music; together they were invited to participate in the annual Piano Four-Hand Fest, conducted by the renowned piano team of Weekley and Arganbright.

Born in Seattle, Kenneth Boulton earned his bachelor’s degree in piano from Washington State University, where he was a student of David Yeomans. In addition, he has master’s and doctorate degrees in piano performance from the University of Maryland at College Park, where his teachers included Nelita True and Thomas Schumacher. He maintains an active teaching schedule and is currently Associate Professor of Piano and Interim Head of the Fine and Performing Arts Department at Southeastern Louisiana University. Previously, he was on the faculties of Shippensburg University and West Chester University, both in Pennsylvania, and was a member of the Master Faculty and head of the piano department at The Wilmington Music School in Delaware. During the summer of 2003, Boulton was invited to teach and perform at the International Summer Music Institute at Transylvania University in Brasov, Romania. In July 2006, he served as special guest faculty at the National Yamaha Convention in Washington, D.C. His students have been featured performers at the New Orleans International Piano Institute, and have garnered first prizes in such events as the DeBose National Piano Competition, Mississippi Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition, Delaware Symphony Concerto Competition, and MTNA Young Artist Competition. In addition, Boulton is in demand for his lectures and clinics on contemporary piano music for students.

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Elie Siegmeister - Piano Music Vol.2 (1999)

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