Jefferson Friedman (born 1974 Swampscott, Massachusetts) is an American composer.
Contents |
He received his M.M. degree in music composition from The Juilliard School, where he studied with John Corigliano, and his B.A. from Columbia University, where his teachers included David Rakowski and Jonathan Kramer. He has also studied with George Tsontakis and Christopher Rouse.
His music has been called "impossible to resist" by The New York Times,[1] and Sequenza 21 reports, "[Mr. Friedman] goes a lot further toward sustaining interest and tension than composers twice his age (and with Pulitzer Prizes)."[2] His work has been performed throughout the United States and abroad, most notably at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall and Avery Fisher Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, and the American Academy in Rome.
Mr. Friedman has been commissioned three times by Leonard Slatkin and the National Symphony Orchestra; his works March, The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations Millennium General Assembly, and Sacred Heart: Explosion were all written for the NSO. March is a brief closing piece, commissioned by the orchestra as part of the Hechinger Encores series. The Throne and Sacred Heart are the second and third sections of a planned orchestral trilogy entitled In the Realms of the Unreal, each movement of which is based on the life and work of a different American "outsider" or "visionary" artist.
The Throne is a musical depiction of Washington outsider artist James Hampton's (19091964) incredible sculptural work of the same name. After its premiere, The Washington Post described the piece as having "ambitious scale and complexity"[3] The piece has subsequently been performed by the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center's Avery Fischer Hall, and by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.
In October 2007, the NSO commissioned and premiered a revised version of Mr. Friedman's Sacred Heart: Explosion. Sacred Heart: Explosion is based on the work of visionary artist Henry Darger, of Chicago (18921972), and the original version of the piece was composed while Mr. Friedman was still a student at Juilliard. After the premiere of the revised version, The Washington Times reported that it was "thoroughly modern, highly intelligent music."[4]
In addition to his works for orchestra, Mr. Friedman has written two string quartets for the Chiara String Quartet. His String Quartet No. 2 has been published by G. Schirmer, Inc. as part of the New American Voices series, and has been recorded by The Corigliano Quartet for their Naxos debut CD. Of Mr. Friedman's String Quartet No. 3, Sequenza 21 reported, ". . . about two-thirds of the way through, something special happens: the instruments climb into their highest registers, start playing quick glissandos and unisons of varying vibrato widths, and, for a few breathless moments, break into birdsong. When the music returns to Earth again, the resolution is beautiful, and one realizes one has just heard something a little amazing." [5]
Both string quartets are performed frequently. String Quartet No. 2 was featured with new choreography by Brian Reeder at Columbia University's Miller Theatre, and selections from both String Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 were performed at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, as part of a festival honoring John Corigliano for his 70th birthday.
Recent highlights for Mr. Friedman include the Chicago premiere of Sacred Heart: Explosion by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June 2008. In addition, a live recording of the National Symphony Orchestra's premiere of this piece is included as part of an exhibit called "Dargerism: Contemporary Artists and Henry Darger" at The American Folk Art Museum in New York, which runs from April 15 through September 21, 2008. The 16-minute piece will be broadcast three times per hour throughout the exhibit, and Mr. Friedman's scores and score sketches are also on display. Also in June, Mr. Friedman's String Quartets Nos. 2 and 3 were performed by the American Contemporary Music Ensemble (ACME) as part of the Wordless Music Series at The Whitney Museum of American Art.
In February 2009, Miller Theater presented an evening-length concert featuring only Mr. Friedman's music as part of its Composer Portraits series. Two pieces were composed for the concert, the first is a 25-minute piece for solo piano, written for Simone Dinnerstein and commissioned by Miller Theater for this performance. The second is a set of songs for rock singer and chamber ensemble, which premiered by former Shudder To Think band member Craig Wedren, with ACME.
In addition to his work as a composer, Mr. Friedman has performed with a number of rock bands, including Shudder To Think, and recently collaborated with the electronic music duo Matmos, contributing string arrangements for their album The Rose Has Teeth in the Mouth of a Beast. He lives and composes in Long Island City, NY. With the exception of String Quartet No. 2, his catalog is self-published by Montana 59 Music.
As of this edit, this article uses content from "Jefferson Friedman", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL. All relevant terms must be followed.