Lee Hyla was born in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and grew up in Greencastle, Ind. He has written for numerous performers, including Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Kronos Quartet (with Allen Ginsberg), Speculum Musicae, Lydian String Quartet, Tim Smith, Tim Berne, Rhonda Rider, Stephen Drury, Mia Chung, and Judith Gordon. He has received commissions from the Koussevitzky, Fromm, Barlow, and Naumburg foundations, the Mary Flagler Carey Charitable Trust, Concert Artist’s Guild, and two Meet the Composer/Reader’s Digest Consortium Commissions. He has also been the recipient of the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim fellowship, two National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, the Goddard Lieberson Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the Rome Prize.
B.M. with honors, NEC; M.A. SUNY/Stony Brook. Studies with Malcolm Peyton and David Lewin. Recordings on Nonesuch, New World, Tzadik, CRI, Opus One, Avant. Compositions published exclusively by Carl Fischer.
Critical Acclaim for Kaija Saariaho's Neiges:
...Kaija Saariaho's Neiges -- a virtuosity of color and a sense of surprise...
-- Monde de la Musique
Saariaho's Neiges, inspired by looking out of her window at a Finnish snowstorm, exploits many "outré," icy textures toward a cooly serene close.
-- Financial Times
[Saariaho's] strong impressionistic and romantic temperament radiates Spins and Spells [for solo cello]...yet does not obscure its beautiful difficulties. [Saariaho] reveals herself equally in the creation of Neiges, where eight cellos sketch a picture of the nature of her native land in five episodes.
-- La Lettre du Musicien
Composer's Note:
When I considered the ensemble of eight cellos, I first thought of matt and dark textures. I also wanted to go back to some ideas on symmetry. While I was pondering all that, I saw snow flakes falling from the dark sky of the Finnish autumn. Focusing on the snow, the idea of writing variations on it and its various form became clearer in my mind.
Nuages de neige is a uniform and linear texture in which I realize my first impressions of that ensemble. The two Etoiles de neige are based on the idea of symmetry and repetition: the first one develops up to a certain point where it doubles back as in a mirror image, the second one consists of eight sections in which the harmonic structure is repeated, as well as a linear gesture that becomes ever more present. Aguilles de glace focuses on different pizzicati and superimposed ostinati. With Fleurs de neige I sought to recall the texture of those harmonic trills at the end of the first section, although more airy and diversified here.
-- Kaija Saariaho
The Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (born 1952) has been living and working in Paris since 1982. She studied composition under Paavo Heininen at the Sibelius Academy and later at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg with Brian Ferneyhough and Klaus Huber, receiving her diploma there in 1983. In 1982 she attended courses in computer music at IRCAM in Paris, since when the computer has been an important element of her composing technique.
Kaija Saariaho receives an artist’s salary for her compositional work from the Finnish Government. In 1986 she was awarded the Kranichsteiner Preis at the new music summer courses in Darmstadt, and in 1988 the Prix Italia, for her work Stilleben. In 1989 Stilleben and Io were awarded the Ars Electronica Prize.
Her principal works include Verblendungen (orchestra and tape, 1982-84), Lichtbogen for chamber ensemble and electronics (1985-86), Nymphéa (for string quartet and electronics, 1987, a commission from the Lincoln Center for the Kronos Quartet), and two linked orchestral pieces Du Cristal and ....à la fumée premiered in 1990 and 1991 both in Helsinki and Los Angeles. Saariaho has also taken part in a number of multimedia productions such as the full-length ballet Maa (1991) and a pan-European collaborative project to produce a CD-ROM about her work.
Her most recent works include a violin concerto, Graal Théâtre, for Gidon Kremer premiered at the 1995 BBC Proms and two pieces for Dawn Upshaw: an orchestral song cycle, Chateau de l'âme, premiered at the 1996 Salzburg Festival, and a solo song cycle Lonh for soprano and electronics, premiered at the 1996 Wien Modern Festival.
Future plans include an opera L'amour de loin ("Love from afar") to be premiered at the Salzburg Festival on 15 August 2000.
Saariaho's music is available on the Finlandia, Ondine, Wergo, Neuma and BIS record labels.
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Sofia Gubaidulina was born in Chistopol in the Tatar Republic of the Soviet Union in 1931. After instruction in piano and composition at the Kazan Conservatory, she studied composition with Nikolai Peiko at the Moscow Conservatory, pursuing graduate studies there under Vissarion Shebalin. Until 1992, she lived in Moscow. Since then, she has made her primary residence in Germany, outside Hamburg.
Gubaidulina's compositional interests have been stimulated by the tactile exploration and improvisation with rare Russian, Caucasian, and Asian folk and ritual instruments collected by the "Astreia" ensemble, of which she was a co-founder, by the rapid absorption and personalization of contemporary Western musical techniques (a characteristic, too, of other Soviet composers of the post-Stalin generation including Edison Denisov and Alfred Schnittke), and by a deep-rooted belief in the mystical properties of music.
Her uncompromising dedication to a singular vision did not endear her to the Soviet musical establishment, but her music was championed in Russia by a number of devoted performers including Vladimir Tonkha, Friedrich Lips, Mark Pekarsky, and Valery Popov. The determined advocacy of Gidon Kremer, dedicatee of Gubaidulina's masterly violin concerto, Offertorium, helped bring the composer to international attention in the early 1980s. Gubaidulina is the author of symphonic and choral works, two cello concerti, a viola concerto, four string quartets, a string trio, works for percussion ensemble, and many works for nonstandard instruments and distinctive combinations of instruments. Her scores frequently explore unconventional techniques of sound production.
Since 1985, when she was first allowed to travel to the West, Gubaidulina's stature in the world of contemporary music has skyrocketed. She has been the recipient of prestigious commissions from the Berlin, Helsinki, and Holland Festivals, the Library of Congress, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and many other organizations and ensembles. Among her forthcoming works is a Passion according to St. John commissioned by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart.
Gubaidulina made her first visit to North America in 1987 as a guest of Louisville's "Sound Celebration." She has returned many times since as a featured composer of festivals ¬ Boston's "Making Music Together" (1988), Vancouver's "New Music" (1991), Tanglewood (1997) ¬ and for other performance milestones. From the retrospective concert by Continuum (New York, 1989) to the world premieres of commissioned works ¬ Pro et Contra by the Louisville Orchestra (1989), String Quartet No. 4 by the Kronos Quartet (New York, 1994), Dancer on a Tightrope by Robert Mann and Ursula Oppens (Washington, DC, 1994), and the Viola Concerto by Yuri Bashmet with the Chicago Symphony conducted by Kent Nagano (1997) ¬ the accolades of American critics have been ecstatic. She returns once more in April 1999 for the world premiere of her most recent work, Two Paths ("Dedication to Mary and Martha") for two solo violas and orchestra, by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur. Simultaneously, Japan's NHK Symphony Orchestra, with soloist Kazue Sawai under the baton of Charles Dutoit, will tour the U.S. with the American premiere of another recent work, In the Shadow of the Tree, for koto, bass koto, zheng and orchestra.
Gubaidulina is a member of the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and the Freie Akademie der Künste in Hamburg. She has been the recipient of the Prix de Monaco (1987), the Premio Franco Abbiato (1991), the Heidelberger Künstlerinnenpreis (1991), the Russian State Prize (1992), and the SpohrPreis (1995). Her most recent awards include the prestigious Praemium Imperiale in Japan (1998) and the Sonning Prize in Denmark (1999).
Her music is now represented on compact disc generously; Gubaidulina has been honored twice with the coveted Koussevitzky International Recording Award. Major releases have appeared on the DG, Chandos, Philips, Sony Classical, BIS, and Berlin Classics labels.
Gubaidulina's music is published in North America by G. Schirmer, Inc.
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Peter Sculthorpe was born in Launceston,
Tasmania, in 1929. He was educated at Launceston Church Grammar School, at the
University of Melbourne and at Wadham College, Oxford. While visiting the United
States as a Harkness Fellow in 1966-67, he was composer-in-residence at Yale
University, and during 1972-73 he was visiting Professor at the University of
Sussex. Appointed Reader in Music at the University of Sydney in the late
sixties, he is Professor in Musical Composition (Personal Chair) at that
University. In 1977 Sculthorpe was appointed OBE; in that year he was
awarded a Silver Jubilee Medal, and in 1990 he was awarded an Order of
Australia. The University of Tasmania conferred upon him the degree Honorary
Doctor of Letters in 1980; this same degree was conferred upon him by the
University of Sussex in 1989 and later in that year the University of Melbourne
conferred upon him the degree Honorary Doctor of Music. In 1991, he was elected
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities; and in 1996 Griffith
University conferred upon him the degree Doctor of the University. The
recipient of many awards and prizes for his music, in 1980 his music for the
film Manganinnie won an Australian Film Institute Award for best
original film score, and in 1985 his Piano Concerto won the APRA (Australasian
Performing Rights Association) Award for most performed Australian serious work.
In 1991 a recording of his orchestral music won the Australian Record Industry
Award for best classical music release, and in 1993 he became the first composer
to be honoured by APRA with the Ted Albert Award for outstanding Services to
Australian Music. A concert of his music in Kakadu National Park won the 1994
Brolga Award for Tourism, and in the same year he was given the Sir Bernard
Heinze Award for outstanding services to Australian music. A recording of his
music also won the Australian Record Industry Award for best classical release
in 1996. Peter Sculthorpe has written works in most musical forms, and
his output relates easily to the unique social climate and physical
characteristics of Australia. Furthermore, his country's geographical position
has caused him to be influenced by much of the music of Asia, especially that of
Japan and Indonesia. Certainly he is Australia's best-known composer, and his
works are regularly performed and recorded throughout the world. His work is
discussed in Michael Hannan, Peter Sculthorpe: His Music and Ideas 1929-1979,
St Lucia, 1982, and Deborah Hayes, Peter Sculthorpe, A BioBibliography,
Connecticut, 1993.
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