Lera Auerbach (russian: Лера Авербах, born Valeria Lvovna Averbakh, russian: Валерия Львовна Авербах; October 21, 1973) is a
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...
-born
American
American(s) may refer to:
* American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America"
** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America
** American ancestry, pe ...
classical composer and concert
pianist
A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, ja ...
.
["A Dream Fulfilled: Women who emigrated from the former Soviet Union are now making a significant mark in the U.S."]
, by Susan Josephs. Spring 2014 issue of ''Jewish Woman Magazine''
Early life and education
Auerbach was born to a
Jewish family in
Chelyabinsk
Chelyabinsk ( rus, Челя́бинск, p=tɕɪˈlʲæbʲɪnsk, a=Ru-Chelyabinsk.ogg; ba, Силәбе, ''Siläbe'') is the administrative center and largest city of Chelyabinsk Oblast, Russia. It is the seventh-largest city in Russia, with a ...
, a city in the
Ural Mountains. Her mother was a piano teacher, many of whose ancestors had also been musicians.
[ Lera began composing her own music at an early age; she later told an interviewer, "I was born to do this, to work in art... I had this feeling when I was four and I had it when I came to New York...".] She received permission to visit the United States on a concert tour in 1991; although she spoke no English, she decided to defect
A defect is a physical, functional, or aesthetic attribute of a product or service that exhibits that the product or service failed to meet one of the desired specifications. Defect, defects or defected may also refer to:
Examples
* Angular defec ...
so she could stay in the country to pursue her musical career. She graduated from New York's Juilliard School in piano (under Joseph Kalichstein) and composition (under Milton Babbitt and Robert Beaser). Her graduate studies were supported by The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, founded by Paul Soros and Daisy Soros in 1997, is a United States postgraduate fellowship for immigrants and children of immigrants. In 2021, the Fellowship received 2,445 applications and awa ...
. She also studied comparative literature at Columbia University and earned a piano diploma at the Hochschule für Musik Hannover.
Performances
Auerbach made her Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built b ...
debut in May 2002, performing her own Suite for Violin, Piano and Orchestra with violinist Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica.
Life and career
Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holo ...
conducting the Kremerata Baltica
Kremerata Baltica is a chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). It was founded by Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer in 1997. Gidon Kremer is an artistic director of Kremerata Baltica.
Descripti ...
. She has appeared as solo pianist at such venues as the Great Concert Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Tokyo's Opera City, Lincoln Center, Herkulessaal, Oslo konserthus, Chicago's Theodore Thomas Orchestra Hall
Symphony Center is a music complex located at 220 South Michigan Avenue in the Loop area of Chicago, Illinois. Home to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; Chicago Symphony Chorus; Civic Orchestra of Chicago; and the Institute for Learning, Access, ...
and the Kennedy Center.
Compositions
Auerbach's compositions have been commissioned and performed by a wide array of artists, orchestras, choirs and ballet companies including Gidon Kremer
Gidon Kremer ( lv, Gidons Krēmers; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica.
Life and career
Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holo ...
, the Kremerata Baltica
Kremerata Baltica is a chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania). It was founded by Latvian violinist Gidon Kremer in 1997. Gidon Kremer is an artistic director of Kremerata Baltica.
Descripti ...
, David Finckel
David Finckel (born December 6, 1951) is an American cellist and influential figure in the classical music world. The cellist for the Emerson String Quartet from 1979 to 2013, Finckel is currently the co-artistic director of the Chamber Music ...
, Wu Han, Vadim Gluzman
Vadim Gluzman (Вадим Михайлович Глузман, born 1973) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli classical violinist.
Born in the former Soviet Union, Vadim Gluzman spent most of his childhood in Riga, Latvia. His father is a conductor and c ...
, the Tokyo, Kuss, Parker and Petersen String Quartets, the SWR and NDR symphony orchestras, Berg Orchestra, Netherlands Chamber Choir
The Netherlands Chamber Choir (Dutch ''Nederlands Kamerkoor'') is a full-time and independent professional Dutch choir. It was founded in 1937 by a :nl:Felix de Nobel as the ''Chorus Pro Musica'' to perform Bach cantatas for the Dutch radio. , RIAS Kammerchor
The RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir) is a German choir based in Berlin, Germany. It receives support from the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin ("Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choirs"), a limited-liability company owned by the public br ...
, and the Royal Danish Ballet. Auerbach's music has also been commissioned by and performed at Caramoor International Music Festival
The Caramoor Summer Music Festival is a music festival founded in 1945 that is held on the estate of the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, which includes a Mediterranean-style stucco villa and is located about north of New York City in Ka ...
, Lucerne Festival
Lucerne Festival is one of the leading international festivals in the world of classical music and presents a series of classical music festivals based in Lucerne, Switzerland. Founded in 1938 by Ernest Ansermet and Walter Schulthess, it curre ...
, Lockenhaus
Lockenhaus ( hu, Léka; hr, Livka) is a town in the district of Oberpullendorf in the Austrian state of Burgenland. The town is well known for the annual Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival founded by violinist Gidon Kremer.
History
The town ...
Festival, Bremen Musikfest and Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held each summer throughout the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany.
History
The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist Justus Frantz.
In 2006, the ...
.
A commission by The Royal Danish Ballet, to celebrate Hans Christian Andersen's bicentenary in 2005, was Lera Auerbach's second collaboration with choreographer
Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who c ...
John Neumeier. The ballet
Ballet () is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread and highly technical form of ...
is a modern rendition of the classic fairy tale '' The Little Mermaid'' and was premiered in April 2005 at the then newly opened Copenhagen Opera House.[Jerry Bowles]
The Total Package, Sequenza 21
August 10, 2005
Her Double Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra, Op. 40, was written in 1997, but not premiered until December 15, 2006, in Stuttgart by the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
The Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (German: ''Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR'') was a German radio orchestra based in Stuttgart in Germany.
History
The ensemble was founded in 1945 by American occupation authorities as the orchest ...
conducted by Andrey Boreyko
Andrey Boreyko (russian: Андре́й Ви́кторович Боре́йко, Andrey Viktorovich Boreyko, pl, Andrzej Borejko; born 22 July 1957) is a Polish-Russian conductor.
He has Polish ancestry on his father's side and Russian ancestry ...
; the soloists were violinist Vadim Gluzman
Vadim Gluzman (Вадим Михайлович Глузман, born 1973) is a Ukrainian-born Israeli classical violinist.
Born in the former Soviet Union, Vadim Gluzman spent most of his childhood in Riga, Latvia. His father is a conductor and c ...
and pianist Angela Yoffe. The American premiere was on February 13, 2010, by the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Andrew Constantine
Andrew Constantine (born William Andrew Constantine, 30 December 1961, County Durham, England) is a British conductor. He is currently the Music Director of both the Fort Wayne Philharmonic (appointed 2009) and the Reading Symphony Orchestra (ap ...
; the soloists were violinist Jennifer Koh
Jennifer Koh (born 1976) is an American violinist, born to Korean parents in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Life and career
Koh earned a B.A. in English Literature from Oberlin College, as well as a Performance Diploma from the attached Oberlin Conservat ...
and pianist Benjamin Hochman
Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thir ...
.
In 2007, her ''Symphony No. 1 "Chimera"'' received its world premiere by the Düsseldorf Symphony. Other 2007 premieres included ''Symphony No. 2 "Requiem for a Poet"'' by Hannover's NDR Radio Philharmonic, as well as '' A Russian Requiem'' (on Russian Orthodox sacred texts and poetry by Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
, Gavrila Derzhavin
Gavriil (Gavrila) Romanovich Derzhavin ( rus, Гаврии́л (Гаври́ла) Рома́нович Держа́вин, p=ɡɐˈvrilə rɐˈmanəvʲɪtɕ dʲɪrˈʐavʲɪn, a=Gavrila Romanovich Dyerzhavin.ru.vorb.oga; 14 July 1743 – 20 ...
, Mikhail Lermontov
Mikhail Yuryevich Lermontov (; russian: Михаи́л Ю́рьевич Ле́рмонтов, p=mʲɪxɐˈil ˈjurʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈlʲɛrməntəf; – ) was a Russian Romantic writer, poet and painter, sometimes called "the poet of the Caucas ...
, Boris Pasternak
Boris Leonidovich Pasternak (; rus, Бори́с Леони́дович Пастерна́к, p=bɐˈrʲis lʲɪɐˈnʲidəvʲɪtɕ pəstɛrˈnak; 30 May 1960) was a Russian poet, novelist, composer and literary translator. Composed in 1917, Pa ...
, Osip Mandelstam
Osip Emilyevich Mandelstam ( rus, Осип Эмильевич Мандельштам, p=ˈosʲɪp ɨˈmʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ mənʲdʲɪlʲˈʂtam; – 27 December 1938) was a Russian and Soviet poet. He was one of the foremost members of the Ac ...
, Alexander Blok
Alexander Alexandrovich Blok ( rus, Алекса́ндр Алекса́ндрович Бло́к, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɐlʲɪˈksandrəvʲɪtɕ ˈblok, a=Ru-Alyeksandr Alyeksandrovich Blok.oga; 7 August 1921) was a Russian lyrical poet, writer, publ ...
, Zinaida Gippius
Zinaida Nikolayevna Gippius (Hippius) (; – 9 September 1945) was a Russian poet, playwright, novelist, editor and religious thinker, one of the major figures in Russian symbolism. The story of her marriage to Dmitry Merezhkovsky, which lasted ...
, Anna Akhmatova
Anna Andreyevna Gorenko rus, А́нна Андре́евна Горе́нко, p=ˈanːə ɐnˈdrʲe(j)ɪvnə ɡɐˈrʲɛnkə, a=Anna Andreyevna Gorenko.ru.oga, links=yes; uk, А́нна Андрі́ївна Горе́нко, Ánna Andríyivn ...
, Joseph Brodsky
Iosif Aleksandrovich Brodsky (; russian: link=no, Иосиф Александрович Бродский ; 24 May 1940 – 28 January 1996) was a Russian and American poet and essayist.
Born in Leningrad (now Saint Petersburg), USSR in 1940, ...
, Viktor Sosnora and Irina Ratushinskaya
Irina Borisovna Ratushinskaya (russian: Ири́на Бори́совна Ратуши́нская, 4 March 1954, Odessa – 5 July 2017, Moscow) was a Russian Soviet dissident, poet and writer.
Biography
Irina Ratushinskaya was born in Odessa ...
) by the Bremen Philharmonic with the Latvian National Choir and the Estonian Opera Boys Choir.
Vienna's historic Theater an der Wien
The is a historic theatre in Vienna located on the Left Wienzeile in the Mariahilf district. Completed in 1801, the theatre has hosted the premieres of many celebrated works of theatre, opera, and symphonic music. Since 2006, it has served pri ...
debuted Auerbach's full-length opera based on her original play ''Gogol'' in November 2011.
Auerbach's a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without Musical instrument, instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differ ...
opera ''The Blind'' (based on a play by Maurice Maeterlinck
Maurice Polydore Marie Bernard Maeterlinck (29 August 1862 – 6 May 1949), also known as Count (or Comte) Maeterlinck from 1932, was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was Flemish but wrote in French. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in ...
) was performed in a controversial new production by John La Bouchardière
John La Bouchardière is a British opera, film and television director.
Biography
La Bouchardière was a chorister at Magdalen College, Oxford, studied at the University of Birmingham and was a staff director at English National Opera. He also spe ...
at Lincoln Center for Performing Arts, New York, in July 2013, throughout which the entire audience was blindfolded. Auerbach stated, "The message is that we are the blind. With all our means of communications, we see each other less and connect less. We have less understanding and compassion for other people. We have this screen between us.” In a ''Gramophone'' article on Auerbach, ''24 Preludes for piano'' (1999) is listed as her breakthrough piece, ''Sogno di Stabat Mater'' (2007) is described as one of her "most direct and striking compositions", and her score for John Neumeier's adaptation of ''The Little Mermaid'' is praised as "vivid". Her 2018 piece ''Labyrinth'' was praised by Joshua Kosman as "a formidable and richly textured addition to the piano literature". Her 2019 piece ''Arctica'' also garnered acclaim.
Awards and recognition
In 2005 Auerbach received the Hindemith Prize
The international Paul Hindemith Prize promotes outstanding contemporary composers within the framework of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (SHMF). The award commemorates the musical pedagogy of Paul Hindemith, who wrote the composition '' ...
from the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival
The Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival is a classical music festival held each summer throughout the state of Schleswig-Holstein in Northern Germany.
History
The festival was founded in 1986 by German concert pianist Justus Frantz.
In 2006, the ...
. In the same year she received the Förderpreis Deutschlandfunk and the Bremer Musikfest Prize; she was composer-in-residence in Bremen.
She is the youngest composer to be represented by music publisher Internationale Musikverlage Hans Sikorski of Hamburg, Germany.
In 2007, she was selected as a member of the forum of Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental and lobbying organisation based in Cologny, canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German engineer and economist Klaus Schwab. The foundation, ...
in Davos, Switzerland.
Works
Main orchestral works
* 2007: ''Russian Requiem''
* 2008: ''Fragile Solitudes'', Shadowbox for String Quartet and orchestra
* 2010: ''Eterniday'', for bass drum, celesta and Strings
* 2012: ''Post Silentium'', for orchestra
Concerto
* 1997–98: Piano Concerto No. 1, Op. 39
*# Part 1) ''River of Loss, Dialogue with Time, Wind of Oblivion''
*# Part 2) ''Dialogue with Time'' (can be performed separately as an orchestral piece with the piano being part of the orchestra)
* 1997: Double Concerto for violin, piano and orchestra, Op. 40
* 2000 (2003): Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 56
* 2001: Suite Concertante for violin, piano and Strings, Op. 60
* 2002: ''Serenade for a Melancholic Sea'', for violin, cello, piano and String orchestra, Op. 68
* 2004: Violin Concerto No. 2 in one movement, Op. 77
* 2005: ''Dreams and Whispers of Poseidon'', symphonic poem
* 2017: Violin Concerto No. 4 (''NYx'') ( David Geffen Hall), Leonidas Kavakos
Leonidas Kavakos ( el, Λεωνίδας Καβάκος; born 30 October 1967) is a Greek violinist and conductor. As a violinist, he has won prizes at several international violin competitions, including the Sibelius, Paganini, Naumburg, and In ...
(violin), New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert
Symphony
* 2006: Symphony No. 1 ''Chimera'', for large orchestra (last two movements can be performed separately as symphonic poem ''Icarus'')
* 2006: Symphony No. 2 ''Requiem for a Poet'', for mezzo-soprano, cello, choir and orchestra
* 2013: ''Memoria de la Luz'', String Symphony No. 1 (Arrangement of the String Quartet No. 2 ''Primera Luz'')
* 2016: Symphony No. 3 ''The Infant Minstrel and His Peculiar Menagerie'', for violin, choir and orchestra
Main choral works
*''72 Angels'', for choir and saxophone quartet
*''Goetia 72, in umbra lucis'', for choir and string quartet
Recordings
*''Sonata for Violoncello and Piano, op. 69 (2002)'' (ArtistLed 11001-2)
*''24 Preludes for Violin and Piano, Op. 46'' (BIS 2003)
*''Tolstoy's Waltz'' (BIS 2004)
*''Auerbach plays Mozart'' (ARABESQUE 2005)
*''Ballet for a Lonely Violinist, Op. 70'' (BIS 2005, Feminae 2016)
*''Preludes and Dreams'' containing 24 Preludes for piano, Op.41; Ten Dreams, Op.45 and Chorale, Fugue and Postlude, Op.31(BIS 2006)
*''Cetera Desunt, String Quartet No. 3'' (CAPRICCIO 2006)
*''Flight and Fire'' (PROFIL – Hänssler Classics 2007)
*''Sogno di Stabat Mater (2005, rev. 2009)'' ( Nonesuch Records 287228-2)
*''Celloquy'' containing 24 Preludes for Violincello and Piano, Op. 47 and Sonata for Violincello and Piano, Op. 69 (Cedille Records
Cedille Records () is the independent record label of the Chicago Classical Recording Foundation.
History
In 1989, James Ginsburg, the son of U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, founded Cedille Records as a for-profit c ...
2013)
*''T'filah'' (Feminae 2016)Accompanying Herself, Works for Solo Violin by Women Composers
2016 Feminae Records
*''72 Angels'' for choir and saxophone quartet (Alpha593 2019)
References
Further reading
"The Very Last of Soviet Émigré Composers: Lera Auerbach" 17-page article at Academia.edu; by Christoph Flamm, Professor of Applied Musicology at the University of Klagenfurt, Austria (free registration required)
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Auerbach, Lera
1973 births
Living people
20th-century American composers
20th-century American women musicians
20th-century classical composers
20th-century women composers
21st-century American composers
21st-century American pianists
21st-century American women pianists
21st-century classical composers
21st-century classical pianists
21st-century women composers
American classical composers
American classical pianists
American women classical composers
American people of Russian-Jewish descent
American women classical pianists
American women writers
Composers for carillon
Jewish American classical composers
Juilliard School alumni
Musicians from Chelyabinsk
Russian classical pianists
Russian emigrants to the United States
Russian women classical composers
Russian classical composers
Russian Jews
Russian women pianists
Russian women writers
World Economic Forum Young Global Leaders
21st-century American Jews
Cedille Records artists