Marti Epstein

Marti Epstein (born November 25, 1959) is an American composer. She is Professor of Composition at Berklee College of Music and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee.

Education

Epstein was born in Denver, Colorado in 1959, and grew up in Omaha, Nebraska and attended Omaha Burke High School, graduating with the class of 1978.

She began composition studies in 1977 while still in high school with Professor Robert Beadell at the University of Nebraska. She earned degrees from the University of Colorado (Bachelor of Music in Composition, summa cum laude, 1982) and Boston University (Master of Music in Composition, 1984; Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition, 1989). Her principal composition instructors were Charles Eakin, Joyce Mekeel, and Bernard Rands.

Career

Dr. Epstein has received numerous awards and commissions. In April 2020, she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition. She was a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and twice a fellow in composition at the Tanglewood Music Center, where she worked with Oliver Knussen and Hans Werner Henze. Composition prizes include a Massachusetts Cultural Council Grant, Fromm Foundation Commission, Lee Ettleson Composition Prize Bay Area Women's Philharmonic Composition Prize, and Friends and Enemies of New Music Composition She has received commissions from ALEA III, Sequitur New Music Ensemble, the Fromm Foundation, guitarist David Tanenbaum, the American Dance Festival the CORE Ensemble, the A*DEvantgarde Festival of Munich, tubist Samuel Pilafian, flutist Marianne Gedigian, the New England Brass Quintet, the Iowa Brass Quintet, Boston Conservatory, Boston University Marsh Chapel Choir, pianist Kathleen Supove, the Massachusetts Music Teachers Association, the Foxborough Musical Association, pianist Paul Carlson, the CrossSound New Music Festival of Juneau Alaska the Seattle Trumpet Consort and the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.

Her music has been performed in Europe and America by ensembles such as the San Francisco Symphony, the Radio Symphony Orchestra of Frankfurt, the Atlantic Brass Quintet, and Ensemble Modern. In 1992 she was invited by the City of Munich to compose her puppet opera, ''Hero und Leander'', for the 1992 Munich Biennale for New Music Theater.

Dr Epstein's work for piano, ''Waterbowls'', has been described as "a luminous study in quiet sonorities and the ache of memory". Writing for ''The Boston Globe'', David Weininger writes Epsteins's music "has the feel of suspension in space, fragile and almost static..." The International Trumpet Guild Journal comments on her exploration of color in the Two Canons for Seven Natural Trumpets.International Trumpet Guild Journal, vol 33, no.4: June 2009.

Discography

*''Two Canons'', Seattle Trumpet Consort: 2008
*''Doloroso'', Apostolos Parskevas: 2006.
*''She Fell Into a Well of Sorrows'', Kathleen Supove: 2003
*''The Five Chairs'', Atlantic Brass Quintet: 2003. Summit Records DCD 396
*''The Parting Glass'', Ulf Golnast: 1997.
*''The Five Chairs'', Iowa Brass Quintet: 1997.
*''Waterbowls'', Kathleen Supové: 1993.
*''Hypnagogia'', Ludovico Ensemble: 2015

Selected works

Orchestral

*Twylle 999 chamber orchestra; 6'
*Pring 998 orchestra; 11'
*Concerto Grosso for Cello, Double Bass and String Orchestra 997 9'
*Celestial Navigation 988 orchestra; 14'

Choral

*Weather Patterns 009 SSATB chorus and cello
*The Streets of Laredo 000 3 tenor soloists, SSAAB choir, 7'
*The Radiant Sisters 995 women's choir and chamber orchestra; 14'
*Flower World; 3 poems from the Yaqui Deer Dance 992 chorus and chamber ensemble; 13'

Large ensemble

*Bloom 009 English horn and wind ensemble; 17'.
*Color Wheel 005 concert band; 3'
*Chant 001 large ensemble, 13'
*Victoria's Secret 997 2 cellos, 2 double basses, 2 pianos; 9'
*Kinderfarben 988 chamber ensemble; 12'

Brass

*The View from my Window 009 6'
*Three Canons for Seven Trumpets 007 6'
*L'homme armé 005 brass quintet; 15'
*The Five Chairs 990 brass quintet; 7'
*Albion Moonlight 987 brass quintet; 10'

Woodwind

*Quartet 007 English horn and string trio; 7'
*Six Little Pieces for Woodwind Quintent 004 6'
*Ophelia 003 solo flute, 3'
*Thalia 998 oboe d'amore and digital delay; 11'
*Bluff 997 saxophone quartet; 7'
*Fold 996 oboe, clarinet; bassoon; 8'
*And 995 flute and piano; 17'

String

*Chords of Inquiry 006 cello quartet, 17'
*Temblor 000 solo violin, 13'
*Vermilion 000 violin and piano, 3'
*Barcarolle 999 string trio, 13'
*The Porcelain Tower of Nanking 998 violin and guitar; 4'
*Puella Turbata 997 string quartet; 13'
*Lazy Susan 997 cello and piano; 11'
*Swirl 994 viola, cello, and piano; 13'
*Endgame II 987 double bass; 8'
*Blue Lines 987 string quartet; 9'
*Endgame 985 solo violin, 7'
*Microscopes IV 984 violin, cello, and piano; 8'
*Phosphenes 017 string quartet; 4'
*Hidden Flowers 012 string quartet; 21'

Mixed ensemble

*Liquid, Fragile 010 clarinet, violin, viola, and cello; 12'
*Hypnagogia 009 oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, harp, piano, and cimbalom; 57'
*Unraveling 009 flute, violin, viola, cello, harp
*Quartet 007 English horn, violin, viola, cello, 7'
*Strange Little Moon 007 2 pianos, 2 harps, 25'
*Angel of Memory 003 cello, piano, and percussion, 13'
*Cadence 003 violin, piano, and marimba, 5';
*In Soft Repose Let his Sweet Eyelids Close 002 flute, violin, and cello, 6'
*Lux 002 flute, violin, viola, and euphonium, 8'
*See, Even Night 001 clarinet, viola, and piano, 21'
*Concerto for Cello and Chamber Ensemble 994 solo cello, 4 cellos, 2 violins, 2 pianos- 8 hands; 3 marimbists; 3 percussionists; 8'
*Private Fantasy Booth 993 flute, clarinet, piano, marimba, violin, and cello; 12'
*Parasol 992 piccolo, English horn, cello; 8'
*The Reason for Skylarks 990 flute, clarinet, piano, xylophone; 6'
*Grand Island 986 piano, harp, 2 percussion; 17'
*April 1987 017 baritone saxophone and double bass; 7'
Abraham Lincoln's Mystic Chords of Memory
016 bass clarinet, bassoon, piano; 4'
Oil & Sugar
016 flute, clarinet, violin, piano; 8'30"

Piano

*The Piano at the Palace Beautiful 019 13'
*Haven 006 17'
*American Etudes 991-2005 solo piano
*Hothouse 000 piano 4 hands; 7'
*She Fell into a Well of Sorrows 999 piano and digital effects processor; 9'
*Chimera 999 2 pianos; 13'
*Aqua Marine 995 piano; 3'
*Marie's Waltz 994 piano; 5'
*Voices in Empty Rooms 993 piano; 7'
*Queen of the Night 992 piano; 17'
*Waterbowls 989 piano; 9'

Vocal

*Different Kinds of Light
*I Baci 001 soprano, mezzo-soprano, and harpsichord, 9'
*Superstition 999 soprano, 2 clarinets, viola, and cello, 5
*Lenz 999 baritone voice and piano, 7'
*Trapeze 999 mezzo-soprano, clarinet, viola, and piano, 17'
*Klänge (text by Wassily Kandinsky) 993 soprano; 13'
*Bassoon (text by Wassily Kandinsky) 991 soprano, double bass, piano; 8'
*Birth (text by Faye Kicknosway) 990 mezzo-soprano, bassoon, marimba, violin; 10'
*Eleven Basho Haiku (text by Basho) 989 soprano and piano; 13'
*December 14 983 mezzo-soprano, alto flute, cello, and piano; 8'.

Guitar

*Doloroso 004 guitar; 7'
*Petals 998 guitar; 12'
*The Parting Glass 989 guitar; 12'
*For Guitars and Cello 988 4 guitars and cello; 9'

Harp

*Wonder of the Invisible World 016 harp; 13'
*John Dunstable's Harp 991 harp; 9'

Percussion

*Ring 001 solo percussionist, 6'
*Gong 000 percussion quartet, 6'

Dramatic works

*Rumpelstilzchen : a chamber opera in one act 008 56'
*Permantent Absence 995 dance; violin, cello, piano, and percussion; 31' (in collaboration with choreographer Kumiko Kimoto)
*Hero und Leander 991 puppet theater; violin, viola; and cello; 30' (in collaboration with Marcus Schneider for the 1992 Munich Biennale

Notes

External links

*
Bio of the composer at Berklee School of MusicBio of composer
at Sigma Alpha Iota music fraternity
Review of 'Bloom' for English horn on ''Chamber Music Today''
*Buell, R., "Getting To Know Composer Through Choice Program", ''The Boston Globe'', November 8, 1995.
*Dyer, R., "Kathleen Supove, Piano Figure 88: Music By Woolf, Foss, Lang, Epstein and Rzewski Cri Cd", ''The Boston Globe'', March 24, 1994.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Epstein, Marti Epstein
1959 births
Living people
21st-century American composers
Berklee College of Music alumni
Boston University College of Fine Arts alumni
Jewish American classical composers
University of Colorado Boulder alumni
American women classical composers
21st-century American women composers
21st-century American Jews