Malcolm Bilson

Malcolm Bilson in a masterclass at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 2009.

Malcolm Bilson (born October 24, 1935) is an American pianist and musicologist specializing in 18th- and 19th-century music. He is one of the foremost players and teachers of the fortepiano. Bilson is the Frederick J. Whiton Professor of Music in Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

Career

Bilson was born in Los Angeles, California. His family was and is successful in the entertainment world: his father, George Bilson, was an English-born producer/writer/director, and his older brother Bruce Bilson had a long and productive career as a film and television director; other relations (descendents of Bruce) are Danny Bilson and Rachel Bilson.[1]

Malcolm Bilson graduated from Bard College in 1957.[2] He continued his studies with Grete Hinterhofer at the Akademie für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Berlin, later with Reine Gianoli at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. He studied for a doctoral degree at the University of Illinois with Stanley Fletcher and Webster Aitken, obtaining his DMA in 1968.[2] At that time he was appointed to a professorial position at Cornell. He became a full professor in 1976 and was appointed to the Frederick J. Whiton chair in 1990.[2]

Recordings, pedagogy, and scholarship

Bilson is known for his series of recordings (on the Archiv label) of the piano concertos of Mozart, in collaboration with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists. He has also recorded the complete Mozart and Schubert piano sonatas for Hungaroton. In collaboration with six of his former students Bilson has produced a complete recording, on Claves Records, of the piano sonatas of Beethoven. These recordings use a set of nine restored or replica pianos, each of a type contemporaneous with the sonata being performed. He also created a DVD, "Knowing the Score," which questions many of the basic concepts of musical performance taught in conservatories and music schools around the world, specifically, the lack of adherence to notated articulations and assumptions about the length of rhythmic values. He followed up this DVD with two more: "Performing the Score," with violinist Elizabeth Field, and "Knowing the Score, Vol. 2." Bilson has published several articles on the subject of interpreting late 18th- and early 19th-century compositions by Schubert, Mozart and Beethoven in Early Music and Studia Musicologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae.

Fortepiano builder Carey Beebe assesses Bilson's influence as follows:[3]

Malcolm Bilson, who began after 'the Father of the Fortepiano', Phil[ip] Belt, dropped around one of his first reproduction instruments to try, still provides great impetus to modern makers. His Fortepiano Summer Schools in the 1980s were an inspiration, and many of the musicians who attended those schools, along with his Doctoral graduates, have spread the word around the globe. Bilson's DG Archiv recordings of the complete Mozart Concerti were a milestone.

In 2011, Malcolm Bilson brought the first Fortepiano competition to the United States in 2011. Coordinated under the Westfield Center, with a grant form the Mellon Foundation, the competition and academy were held at Cornell University in August 2011. 31 young musicians from all over the world competed for prize money totalling $13,500.

Bilson's instruments

Honors

In 1994 Bilson was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.[5]

The asteroid 7387 Malbil is named in his honor.[6]

Bibliography

Publications by Malcolm Bilson:

Notes

  1. ↑ For details and references, see Bruce Bilson.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Winter, n.d.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Winter (n.d.)
  5. ↑ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter B". American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved July 20, 2011.
  6. ↑ http://www.minorplanetcenter.net/db_search/show_object?utf8=%E2%9C%93&object_id=malbil

References

External links