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Anahid Ajemian
Anahid Marguerite Ajemian (January 26, 1924 – June 13, 2016) was an American violinist of Armenian descent. Her career in contemporary music began from her desire to help young composers of her generation get their compositions performed. Additionally, she enjoyed performing the music of established contemporary performers. She included these composers with the traditional repertoire in her performances. Early life and education Ajemian was born in Manhattan on January 26, 1924, to Armenian immigrant parents. Her father was a physician and her mother a pianist. She began her music studies early at the Institute of Musical Art, which later merged with the Juilliard School. After graduating from the Lincoln School, Ajemian continued her education at the Juilliard School, studying violin with Édouard Dethier and chamber music with Hans Letz and Felix Salmon, and played in the Juilliard orchestra under Albert Stoessel and Edgar Shenkman. Musical career In 1946, while sti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mademoiselle (magazine)
''Mademoiselle'' was a women's magazine first published in 1935 by Street and Smith and later acquired by Condé Nast Publications. ''Mademoiselle'', primarily a fashion magazine, was also known for publishing short stories by noted authors including Truman Capote, Joyce Carol Oates, William Faulkner, Tennessee Williams, James Baldwin (writer), James Baldwin, Flannery O'Connor, Sylvia Plath, Paul Bowles, Jane Bowles, Jane Smiley, Mary Gordon (writer), Mary Gordon, Paul Theroux, Sue Miller, Barbara Kingsolver, Perri Klass, Mona Simpson, Alice Munro, Harold Brodkey, Pam Houston, Jean Stafford, and Susan Minot. Julia Cameron was a frequent columnist. The art director was Barbara Kruger. In 1952, Sylvia Plath's short story "Sunday at the Mintons" won first prize and $500, as well as publication in the magazine. Her experiences during the summer of 1953 as a guest editor at ''Mademoiselle'' provided the basis for her novel, ''The Bell Jar''. The August 1961 "college issue" of ''Madem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laurel Leaf Award
The Laurel Leaf Award recognizes the achievement of an individual or group in encouraging and fostering American music. The award has been presented annually by the American Composers Alliance, from 1951 through at least 2012. Past recipients of the award include the Juilliard String Quartet, the American Music Center, Leonard Slatkin, Minnesota Composers Forum (now known as American Composers Forum), Harold Rosenbaum, and Speculum Musicae Speculum Musicae is an American chamber ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. It was founded in New York City in 1971 and is particularly noted for its performances of the music of Elliott Carter and Charles Wuo .... References Classical music awards Awards established in 1951 1951 establishments in the United States American music awards {{classical-music-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ben Weber (composer)
William Jennings Bryan "Ben" Weber (July 23, 1916 in St. Louis – June 16, 1979 in New York City) was an American composer. Weber He was "one of the first Americans to embrace the 12-tone techniques of Schoenberg, starting in 1938"; he was largely self-taught. He worked initially as a copyist and only came to recognition in the 1950s. Weber used the twelve-tone technique but, rather than avoid tonality, he worked with it and achieved a virtuoso Romantic style: "Weber could not stifle his bent for expansive lyricism and bold gestures," wrote music critic Anthony Tommasini, adding: "One gets the sense that his adaptation of the 12-tone technique was his way of ensuring that his music would keep its cutting edge and not slip into Romanticism. There is a rather Brahmsian spirit trying to emerge here." He composed chamber music for various combinations of instruments, orchestral music including concertos for violin and piano, piano music, and songs. Weber also wrote an unpublished m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlos Surinach
Carlos Lund (or Carles Suriñach) i Wrokona (; March 6, 1915 – November 12, 1997) was a Spanish-born and conductor. Early life Carlos Suriñach was born in , Spain on March 6 of 1915. His Austrian-Polish mother was a house pianist, introducing him to music at a young age. He began playing the piano between ages 5–6 and started studying music around age 10. His father was involved in business as a stockbroker. He did not approve of Suriñach pursuing music and ...[...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Constantine Riegger ( ; April 29, 1885 – April 2, 1961) was an American modernist composer and pianist, best known for his orchestral and modern dance music. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but spent most of his career in New York City, helping elevate the status of other American composers such as Charles Ives and Henry Cowell. Riegger is noted for being one of the first American composers to use a form of serialism and the twelve-tone technique. Life Riegger was born in 1885 to Constantine Riegger and Ida Riegger (née Wallingford). After his father's lumber mill burned down in 1888, his family moved to Indianapolis, and later to Louisville, finally settling in New York in 1900. A gifted cellist, he was a member of the first graduating class of the Institute of Musical Art, later known as the Juilliard School, in 1907, after studying under Percy Goetschius. He continued his studies at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin for three years. After returning in 1910, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer, music critic, music theorist, painter, and creator of unique musical instruments. Harrison initially wrote in a dissonant, ultramodernist style similar to his former teacher and contemporary, Henry Cowell, but later moved toward incorporating elements of non-Western cultures into his work. Notable examples include a number of pieces written for Javanese style gamelan instruments, inspired after studying with noted gamelan musician Kanjeng Notoprojo in Indonesia. Harrison would create his own musical ensembles and instruments with his partner, William Colvig, who are now both considered founders of the American gamelan movement and world music; along with composers Harry Partch and Claude Vivier, and ethnomusicologist Colin McPhee. The majority of Harrison's works and custom instruments are written for just intonation rather than the more widespread equal temperament, making him one of the mos ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ernst Krenek
Ernst Heinrich Krenek (, 23 August 1900 – 22 December 1991) was an Austrian, later American, composer of Czech origin. He explored atonality and other modern styles and wrote a number of books, including ''Music Here and Now'' (1939), a study of Johannes Ockeghem (1953), and ''Horizons Circled: Reflections on my Music'' (1974). Krenek wrote two pieces using the pseudonym Thornton Winsloe. Life Born Ernst Heinrich Křenek in Vienna (then in Austria-Hungary), he was the son of a Czech soldier in the Austro-Hungarian army. He studied there and in Berlin with Franz Schreker before working in a number of German opera houses as conductor. During World War I, Krenek was drafted into the Austrian army, but he was stationed in Vienna, allowing him to go on with his musical studies. In 1922 he met Alma Mahler, widow of Gustav Mahler, and her daughter, Anna, to whom he dedicated his Symphony No. 2, and whom he married in January 1924. That marriage ended in divorce before its first anniv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alan Hovhaness
Alan Hovhaness (; March 8, 1911 – June 21, 2000) was an American- Armenian composer. He was one of the most prolific 20th-century composers, with his official catalog comprising 67 numbered symphonies (surviving manuscripts indicate over 70) and 434 opus numbers. The true tally is well over 500 surviving works, since many opus numbers comprise two or more distinct works. '' The Boston Globe'' music critic Richard Buell wrote: "Although he has been stereotyped as a self-consciously Armenian composer (rather as Ernest Bloch is seen as a Jewish composer), his output assimilates the music of many cultures. What may be most American about all of it is the way it turns its materials into a kind of exoticism. The atmosphere is hushed, reverential, mystical, nostalgic." Early life He was born as Alan Vaness Chakmakjian ( hy, Ալան Յարութիւն Չաքմաքճեան)Julia Michaelyan"An Interview with Alan Hovhaness" ''Ararat'' 45, v. 12, no. 1 (Winter 1971), pp. 19–31. Repr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Henry Cowell
Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher and teacher. Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 2022.Campbell, Brett (2014)"Liberating Henry Cowell's Music at San Quentin" ''San Francisco Classical Voice''. Retrieved 19 June 2022. Earning a reputation as an extremely controversial performer and eccentric composer, Cowell became a leading figure of American avant-garde music for the first half of the 20th century — his writings and music serving as a great influence to similar artists at the time, including Lou Harrison, George Antheil, and John Cage, among others.Swed, Mark (2010)"Critic's notebook: Revelatory Henry Cowell revival at Lincoln Center" ''The Los Angeles Times''. Retrieved 19 June 2022. He is considered one of America's most important and influential composers. Cowell was mostly self-taught and developed a unique music ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives. Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition '' 4′33″'', which is performed in the absence of deliberate sound; musicians who present the work do nothing aside from being present for the duration specified by the title. The content of the composition is not "four minutes and 33 seconds of silence," as is often assumed, but rather the sounds of the environment heard by the audience during performance. The work's challen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total area. Its southern and western border with the United States, stretching , is the world's longest binational land border. Canada's capital is Ottawa, and its three largest metropolitan areas are Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver. Indigenous peoples have continuously inhabited what is now Canada for thousands of years. Beginning in the 16th century, British and French expeditions explored and later settled along the Atlantic coast. As a consequence of various armed conflicts, France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763. In 1867, with the union of three British North American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
