Alexander Frey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexander Frey is a symphony orchestra conductor known for his electrifying, passionate performances. A highly charismatic artist on the podium, Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and has enjoyed great success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Broadway and Hollywood. Leonard Bernstein referred to him as "a wonderful spirit."
Alexander Frey is also an internationally acclaimed virtuoso organist and pianist who performs with some of the world's leading symphony orchestras, as well as in solo recitals.
A well-read, witty and urbane figure, Frey has been called a "a raconteur, a modern-day Oscar Levant" by American writer and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, and "a true renaissance man" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel.
As a musician acclaimed for exploring new and deeper ways of musical expression, Frey is known as a maverick and controversial artist.
In January 2008, during an interview broadcast on Radio Cairo while conducting in Egypt, Alexander Frey stated that "Music is an island of peace in a river of sadness."
A resident of Berlin, Germany, Mr. Frey has been frequently invited by the city's diplomatic community to perform for visiting heads of state including President Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama, among others.
Alexander Frey was married to the American pianist Carla Larocca. They divorced in 1989. His second marriage is to Viera Kubalakova (name changed to Viera Frey) of Prague, Czech Republic.
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[edit] Recent career
Alexander Frey is conductor of Prague's historic Karlin Theater (since 2004) where he conducts 50 performances per season, as well as chief conductor of that city's Bohemia Symphony Orchestra and Stern Chamber Orchestra.
Frey was Principal Conductor of the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996-2002, and during that time was the only American music director of an Italian symphony orchestra.
Alexander Frey has also been Music Director for major productions at the Edinburgh International Festival (where he was awarded the festival's Critics' Prize), the Vienna Festwochen (Theater an der Wien), Venice Festival (Teatro La Fenice), Holland Festival, Fifth European Festival in Recklinghausen, the Heidelberg Festival, and the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
His many recent guest conducting appearances include performances with the Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic, Seoul Royal Symphony Orchestra, Sibelius Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra of Berlin, Symphony Orchestra of Sicily and the Brandenburg Chamber Orchestra, among others. He also conducted Ensemble Europa (members of the Israel Philharmonic and Deutsche Oper orchestras) in sold-out concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Berlin commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps. In 2006, he conducted the official orchestral gala concert (with the Stern Chamber Orchestra) in Prague celebrating Mozart’s 250th birthday.
From 1992-1996, he was Music Director of Germany’s most renowned theater, the Berliner Ensemble, founded by Bertolt Brecht, where he collaborated with the celebrated stage director Peter Zadek. Frey was the first American to hold a position at the Berliner Ensemble, as well as being the theater’s first non-German Music Director; his historic predecessors include the composers Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. While there, Zadek and Frey’s artistic collaboration made theater history by producing several revolutionary and innovative productions which received great international acclaim. They adapted Vittorio DiSica’s classic film Miracle of Milan (Miracolo e Milano) for the stage using the actual entire film script. Frey devised the idea of restoring the entire original film score and performing it live throughout the play using the same cues as in the film, marking the first time this technique was ever used. He repeated this method for a subsequent production in Austria of a stage version of the film Arsenic and Old Lace. For Miracle of Milan, Mr. Frey and the production were nominated for a Berlin Theater Critics’ Prize. Mr. Frey also produced and directed the Berliner Ensemble’s A Paul Dessau Evening, a highly acclaimed multimedia retrospective of the musical and dramatic works of the theater’s music director of the 1950s.
[edit] Recording Awards
A highly honored recording artist, Alexander Frey has received the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis (Germany’s highest recording honor), Choice of the French Media Critics, Best Recording of the Year (Fi Magazine), Best Original Cast Recording of the Year-2005 (Borders Music), Favorite Record of the Year-2005 (ArkivMusic), the Bronze World Medal of the New York Festival, Record of the Month (MusicWeb, UK), Best Instrumental CD of the Month (Galaxie Magazine, Canada) and Best CD of the Month (Best New Classics). June 2005 marked the release of a new CD of Alexander Frey conducting the world premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein’s Peter Pan, which Mr. Frey restored from the composer’s manuscripts, including almost an hour of music previously unheard. This historic recording features Broadway star Linda Eder in the role of Wendy, and internationally acclaimed baritone Daniel Narducci singing the role of Captain Hook. The CD debuted as #11 on the Billboard Classical Music Chart, eventually rising to become the 8th highest selling classical music recording in the world as well as the 3rd highest selling musical theater recording. Frey's recordings can be found on the Koch International Classics, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels.
[edit] Selected Discography
- Leonard Bernstein: Peter Pan, World Premiere Recording, (Koch International Classics)
- Leonard Bernstein: The Complete Works for Solo Piano, (Koch International Classics)
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Between Two Worlds - Suite for piano and orchestra, (Decca)
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Complete Works for Piano, vol. 1, (Koch International Classics)
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Romance of Korngold, (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Frank Wildhorn: Jekyll and Hyde, (Czech Cast Recording)
[edit] DVD
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold-The Adventures of a Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, (Arthaus Musik)
[edit] Piano/organ performances
Alexander Frey has performed as pianist and organist with symphony orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Symphony, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Austrian Radio Symphony Orchestra (ORF), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra) and Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester, the orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Torino, and Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, John Mauceri and Michael Tilson Thomas, among others. He also performs with the renown Grammy Award-winning tenor, Jerry Hadley. He has performed concerts in Europe with American writer and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor.
[edit] Contemporary music
Alexander Frey’s strong commitment to contemporary music is also evident in the number of premieres he has conducted and played. He has conducted premieres of James Helme Sutcliffe’s Gymnopedie and Night Music (world premiere), Charles Kalman’s Hudson Concerto, Naji Hakim's Hymne de l'Univers (North American premiere) and Ada Gentile’s Adagio and Adagio Prima, Adagio Seconda. As pianist, he has given the world premieres of Leonard Bernstein’s Five Anniversaries and Thirteen Anniversaries, as well as the European and Asian premieres of that composer's Sonata for Piano. He also gave the world premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s Vier Walzer (Four Waltzes) and the concert version of the film score Between Two Worlds, and Kurt Weill’s Albumblatt, the composer’s only work for solo piano.
[edit] Radio biography
An hour-long radio program about Alexander Frey’s life and work, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel, was recently broadcast in the United States. He recently gave live performances for the BBC (with singer Marta Eggerth) and an all-Verdi program for RAI (Italy). He is one of the featured solo performers in Barrie Gavin’s new documentary Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Adventures of a Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert in which Mr. Frey performs several of Korngold’s solo piano works as well as the first public hearing of the composer’s second symphony.
[edit] Early study
Mr. Frey studied in Chicago with the legendary pianist, harpsichordist and teacher, Gavin Williamson (1898-1989). He received the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (both with honors) from the University of Michigan where he studied organ with Robert Glasgow and conducting with Gustav Meier.
