COMMISSIONED WORKS
Summary
We have always believed that musicians (and especially young ones) need to know the language of the music of their own time. Music continues to evolve and progress by absorbing the history, culture and sensibilities of the world around the composers and performers. Music exists, in part, to express the experiences of the present moment.
For these reasons, the Klein Competition has always required applicants to perform 20th/21st Century works, to demonstrate facility in performing music of the present. In addition, we have commissioned excellent composers to create new works to challenge the imagination and technique of our performers at the Competition. The Commissioned Works ask each performer to create an individual concept of a previously unperformed composition, and make this new piece their own expressive vehicle. Hearing how each individual interprets this new music enables the listeners to learn a great deal about the contestant's abilities and expressive inclinations.
The 2012 Composer: Richard Festinger
Composer Richard Festinger has achieved international recognition for his extensive catalogue of chamber, vocal and orchestral compositions. Writing for the 2011 Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music, Frank J. Oteri describes Festinger’s music as “notable for its combination of propulsive energy with an impeccable sense of poise and balance.” Since 1990 he has been a professor of composition at San Francisco State University, where he is also Artistic Director of the Morrison Artists chamber music series. Before turning to composing he led his own groups as a jazz performer and also studied cello with Irving M. Klein. Festinger received M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in composition from the University of California, Berkeley, and in the mid 1980’s co-founded the San Francisco based modern music ensemble Earplay. His music is published by C.F. Peters Corporation and Wildcat Canyon Press, and his works have been recorded for the Centaur, Bridge, CRI and CRS labels. He has received major awards and commissions from the Jerome Foundation, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard University, the Koussevitzky Foundation in the Library of Congress, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Argosy Foundation, the Barlow Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, the Pew Charitable Trust, the Philadelphia Music Project, Meet the Composer, the American Music Center, and the American Composers Forum. He is a recipient of the Gerorge Ladd Grand Prix de Paris, and has received both the Walter Hinrichsen Award and an Academy Recording Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
For more information, please visit www.rafestinger.com.
Past Composers
Ronald Caltabiano
Theodore Dollarhide
Joel Hoffman – view PDFs
Dick Hyman – view PDFs
David Liptak
Jeffrey Miller – view PDFs
Elena Ruehr – view PDFs
Frank Stemper – view PDFs
Reynold Tharp