Geoffrey Gordon, composer-in-residence
Geoffrey Gordon's list of works includes orchestral and chamber music—vocal and instrumental—as well as scores for theater, film and dance. His music has been called “brilliant” (Boston Globe), “stunning” (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), “wonderfully idiomatic” (Salt Lake Tribune), “haunting” (Strings Magazine) and “remarkable” (Fanfare). Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein called Mr. Gordon’s lux solis aeterna, premiered in January, 2009, by the new music ensemble Fulcrum Point, “a cosmic beauty … of acutely crafted music.”
A winner of the Aaron Copland Award, Mr. Gordon was a composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House in
2009. His work has been funded by the Barlow Endowment, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Performing Arts Fund, the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Music Center, the Abelson Foundation, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Bush Foundation. He has been in residence at the La Napoule Arts Foundation in Cannes, and at the historic Cliff Dweller Club in Chicago. He has been nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Elise Stoeger Prize, which honors achievement in chamber music composition; in 2003, he received the WI State Fellowship in Music Composition. He has received academic fellowship support from the University of Wisconsin, Boston University, New York University and the Guildhall in London.
During the past year, Mr. Gordon's works were performed more than fifty times on three continents. In 2009, he had two new works premiere as part of acommission project through Meet the Composer, including a new orchestral work, Shock Diamonds, for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and a new chamber work, Ink on Paper, for the Parker String Quartet, co-commissioned by the Concert Artists Guild, which premiered in New York, at Symphony Space, in May. Next season, he will have new works conducted by rising stars Ilan Volkov (Mediation and Allegro, for viola and chamber ensemble, to premiere in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in December, 2010) and James Gaffigan (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, commissioned for the Milwaukee Symphony and soloist Megumi Kanda, scheduled for performances in January, 2011.) Other performances are planned in London, Glasgow, Athens, Florence, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 2012, a double concerto for cello and harp, commissioned for Duo Arpello and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, will premiere in Jordan Hall, Boston, Gil Rose conducting. Also in 2012, legendary flute soloist Carol Wincenc will premiere a concerto commissioned for her, the Buffalo Philharmonic and conductor JoAnn Falletta.
He is the inaugural winner of the Katherine A. Abelson Fund of the Lester S. Abelson Foundation Prize, funding a new work for mezzo soprano and mixed chamber ensemble. Fallen Eve, a setting of five texts by the poet Ted Hughes, was the centerpiece of a major French-American music festival in Paris in May, 2007, with reciprocal performances in Washington, DC, in April, 2008. He is a 2004 winner of a Barlow Endowment commission, through which he composed a new work for Duo46. Fancywork premiered as part of the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival, outside Florence, Italy, on 17 July 2006. A series of US performances, including the US premiere at Sundin Hall in Minneapolis in September, 2006, followed. Also in March, 2004, Mr. Gordon’s works were featured as part of a solo concert on the esteemed North River Music Series at the Greenwich House in New York City. He is a recipient of an American Composers Forum (JCCP) commission, funding a new work for Brazilian recorder virtuoso Clea Galhano and harpsichordist Vivian Montgomery. Echoes of Ferrara premiered in Boston and Minneapolis in March, 2006. Cool RED Cool, a jazz-tinged chamber work for seven players, won the 2000 Andy Warhol Social Observer Prize, receiving world premiere performances at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. (Peter Dobrin, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, called the work, “a stunner.”)
He has been featured on the cover of M Magazine, and profiled on National Public Radio. His work has been broadcast on WFMT in Chicago and WNYC in New York. Mr. Gordon has also served as an ASCAP representative in Washington, lobbying Congress on behalf of copyright protection and composers’ rights. His work has been published by Wolfhead Music, Peacock Press and the Oregon Literary Review. His work has been recorded on the Centaur label.
A winner of the Aaron Copland Award, Mr. Gordon was a composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House in
2009. His work has been funded by the Barlow Endowment, the National Endowment for the Arts, the United Performing Arts Fund, the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Music Center, the Abelson Foundation, the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust and the Bush Foundation. He has been in residence at the La Napoule Arts Foundation in Cannes, and at the historic Cliff Dweller Club in Chicago. He has been nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Elise Stoeger Prize, which honors achievement in chamber music composition; in 2003, he received the WI State Fellowship in Music Composition. He has received academic fellowship support from the University of Wisconsin, Boston University, New York University and the Guildhall in London.
During the past year, Mr. Gordon's works were performed more than fifty times on three continents. In 2009, he had two new works premiere as part of acommission project through Meet the Composer, including a new orchestral work, Shock Diamonds, for the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and a new chamber work, Ink on Paper, for the Parker String Quartet, co-commissioned by the Concert Artists Guild, which premiered in New York, at Symphony Space, in May. Next season, he will have new works conducted by rising stars Ilan Volkov (Mediation and Allegro, for viola and chamber ensemble, to premiere in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in December, 2010) and James Gaffigan (Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra, commissioned for the Milwaukee Symphony and soloist Megumi Kanda, scheduled for performances in January, 2011.) Other performances are planned in London, Glasgow, Athens, Florence, New York, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In 2012, a double concerto for cello and harp, commissioned for Duo Arpello and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, will premiere in Jordan Hall, Boston, Gil Rose conducting. Also in 2012, legendary flute soloist Carol Wincenc will premiere a concerto commissioned for her, the Buffalo Philharmonic and conductor JoAnn Falletta.
He is the inaugural winner of the Katherine A. Abelson Fund of the Lester S. Abelson Foundation Prize, funding a new work for mezzo soprano and mixed chamber ensemble. Fallen Eve, a setting of five texts by the poet Ted Hughes, was the centerpiece of a major French-American music festival in Paris in May, 2007, with reciprocal performances in Washington, DC, in April, 2008. He is a 2004 winner of a Barlow Endowment commission, through which he composed a new work for Duo46. Fancywork premiered as part of the Cortona Contemporary Music Festival, outside Florence, Italy, on 17 July 2006. A series of US performances, including the US premiere at Sundin Hall in Minneapolis in September, 2006, followed. Also in March, 2004, Mr. Gordon’s works were featured as part of a solo concert on the esteemed North River Music Series at the Greenwich House in New York City. He is a recipient of an American Composers Forum (JCCP) commission, funding a new work for Brazilian recorder virtuoso Clea Galhano and harpsichordist Vivian Montgomery. Echoes of Ferrara premiered in Boston and Minneapolis in March, 2006. Cool RED Cool, a jazz-tinged chamber work for seven players, won the 2000 Andy Warhol Social Observer Prize, receiving world premiere performances at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. (Peter Dobrin, of the Philadelphia Inquirer, called the work, “a stunner.”)
He has been featured on the cover of M Magazine, and profiled on National Public Radio. His work has been broadcast on WFMT in Chicago and WNYC in New York. Mr. Gordon has also served as an ASCAP representative in Washington, lobbying Congress on behalf of copyright protection and composers’ rights. His work has been published by Wolfhead Music, Peacock Press and the Oregon Literary Review. His work has been recorded on the Centaur label.