David Leisner

David Leisner (born December 22, 1953) is a classical guitarist, composer, and teacher at the Manhattan School of Music and an expert on focal dystonia. He had the impairment for twelve years and recovered through methods that he developed.

Music career

Musician's dystonia

Leisner won the top prizes in the 1975 Toronto and 1981 Geneva International Guitar Competitions. In the 1980s, he was disabled by focal dystonia, a disorder that affected his right hand when playing guitar. He sought the advice of medical professionals from medical doctors of western medicine to acupuncturists without finding a cure. Although during this period he became an important and respected personality in the composition world, he was unable to keep away from the stage. He began performing music using only a few of the fingers on his right hand, and he performed difficult works that dazzled audiences unaware that he was injured. Eventually, through his study of large-muscle groups, he healed himself and teaches his discoveries to students in master classes and private lessons.

Performing

He has toured Australia, Japan, the Philippines, Germany, Hungary, Switzerland, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, the UK, Italy, Czech Republic, Greece, Puerto Rico, and Mexico. He has also performed with the Atlanta Symphony, and on concert series in such notable venues as Boston's Jordan Hall and Gardner Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, Spivey Hall in Atlanta, Royce Hall in Los Angeles, the Folly Theater in Kansas City, the St. Francis Auditorium in Santa Fe, and the Augustine Guitar Series in New York City. A three-concert solo series in New York's Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall included the first all-Bach recital in New York's history. In recent years Leisner has been the Artistic Director of Guitar Plus, an annual series in New York devoted to chamber music with the guitar.

Recording and composing

Leisner's albums have included music by Bach, Villa-Lobos, Mertz and Schubert, contemporary composers, his own compositions, and an album of favorites, including the Britten Nocturnal and the Bach Chaconne. He has recorded guitar concertos by Alan Hovhaness and Andrew Thomas, as well as chamber music by Haydn, Ned Rorem, Daniel Pinkham, and Hovhaness. His recordings have drawn praise from musicians and critics worldwide[1]

He has recorded for Cedille, Sony Classical, Dorian, Centaur, Town Hall, Signum, Acoustic Music, ABC Records, Athena, Fleur de Son and Barking Dog labels. His orchestral, chamber, vocal and guitar works are published mostly by Theodore Presser Company, with other publications by Doberman-Yppan, Columbia Music, and G. Schirmer.

As a composer, Leisner's works have been performed worldwide by such eminent artists as Sanford Sylvan, Wolfgang Holzmair, Paul Sperry, Robert Osborne, Kurt Ollmann, Patrick Mason, Juliana Gondek, Susan Narucki, D'Anna Fortunato, Warren Jones, Eugenia Zukerman, David Starobin, Benjamin Verdery, the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, the Cavatina Duo, the Arc Duo, the Saturday Brass Quintet, the Eastman and Oberlin Percussion Ensembles, and orchestras in the U.S.

Celebrated for expanding the guitar repertoire, Leisner has premiered and commissioned many new works and has been an advocate for neglected works of the past. He has premiered works by David Del Tredici, Peter Sculthorpe, Virgil Thomson, Ned Rorem, Philip Glass, Richard Rodney Bennett, Osvaldo Golijov, Randall Woolf, Carlos Carrillo, and Gordon Beeferman.

He contributed to reviving the music Johann Kaspar Mertz (1806–1856), and he has recorded versions of the music of Heitor Villa-Lobos as displayed in its original manuscripts. He praises the work of Wenzeslaus Matiegka (1773–1830), a 19th-century composer who Leisner describes as the "Beethoven of the guitar."

Leisner is co-chairman of the guitar department at the Manhattan School of Music. He taught at the New England Conservatory for twenty-two years. A graduate of Wesleyan University, he studied guitar with John Duarte, David Starobin, and Angelo Gilardino and composition with Richard Winslow, Virgil Thomson, Charles Turner, and David Del Tredici.

Awards and honors

He has received grants from the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the American Music Center, the Alice M. Ditson Fund, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and Meet the Composer.

Discography

Solo guitar:

Chamber music and concertos:

Recordings of Leisner compositions:

Compositions

Solo guitar

Voice and guitar

Orchestra

Chamber music with guitar

Chamber music

Solo instrument

Voice and piano

References

  1. ↑ David Leisner, Review of David Leisner's FAVORITES. American Record Guide. By Ken Keaton. Jan./Feb 2012. Retrieved 26 Jan. 2012

Sources

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