Steven Gerber

Steven R. Gerber (born 1948, Washington, DC) is an American composer of classical music.

Contents

Biography and career

Steven Gerber wrote such works as the contrapuntal Fantasy for Solo Violin,[1] which has been recorded [2] on both the CRI and Naxos labels, and Piano Trio, commissioned by the Hans Kindler Foundation.[3]

His early works are in a free atonal style. During his years as a graduate student, he wrote serial and non-twelve-tone works, such as the a cappella choral works "Dylan Thomas Settings" and "Illuminations" (Rimbaud), and throughout the remainder of the seventies most of his works were twelve-tone. Beginning in the early eighties, he abandoned twelve-tone composition, with rare exceptions, and his music became much more tonal, for example in his Piano Sonata. Since then his music has remained largely tonal, sometimes extremely chromatic, sometimes diatonic.

His music has been reviewed in the New York Times [4] and the Washington Post [October 18, 1999, Page C 5]. His music has been played in the former Soviet Union perhaps more widely than that of any other American composer.[5]

In 2005, the conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy commissioned Gerber to compose an orchestra work. The resulting six-movement suite, Music in Dark Times, was premiered by Ashkenazy with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra on March 25–28, 2009.[6]

List of compositions

Orchestral

Chamber

Vocal

Choral

Piano

Other Solo

Articles

Recordings

Spirituals for String Orchestra; Clarinet Concerto; Serenade Concertante
St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony/Vladimir Lande, conductor
Jon Manasse, clarinet; Jose Miguel Cueto, violin; Natalia Malkova, violin
Arabesque CD Z6803

Symphony No. 1; Dirge and Awakening; Viola Concerto; Triple Overture
Russian Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Sanderling, conductor
Lars Anders Tomter, viola
The Bekova Sisters:
Elvira Bekova, violin
Alfia Bekova, cello
Eleonora Bekova, piano
Chandos CD 9831

Violin Concerto; Cello Concerto; Serenade for String Orchestra
National Chamber Orchestra/Piotr Gajewski, conductor
Kurt Nikkanen, violin; Carter Brey, cello
KOCH International Classics KIC-CD-7501

Fantasy; Three Songs Without Words
Curtis Macomber, violin
Composers Recordings, Inc. CD 706

Une Saison en Enfer
The New Calliope Singers/Peter Schubert, conductor
William Parker, baritone; Steven R. Gerber, piano
Composers Recordings, Inc. CD 638

Elegy on the Name "Dmitri Shostakovich"; Françoise Renard, viola
Suoni e Colori SC 53006

Gershwiniana for three violins; 3 Folksong Transformations; 3 Pieces for two violins; Notturno for piano trio; Elegy on the Name Dmitri Shostakovich for viola; 3 Songs Without Words; Fantasy for violin; Duo for violin and cello; Piano Trio
Kurt Nikkanen, violin and viola; Cho-Liang Lin, violin; Cyrus Beroukhim, violin; Brinton Averil Smith, cello; Sara Davis Buechner, piano
Naxos 8.559618

References

External links