November 3, 2008
Cliburn at the Modern opens the season with SEBASTIAN
CURRIER, Grand Prize winner of the Cliburn's second American
Composers Invitational.
Highly acclaimed composer still draws inspiration from
his teenage rock band years.
FORT WORTH, TEXAS, November 3, 2008-- Cliburn at the Modern will
open its 2008-2009 season with the music of American composer
Sebastian Currier on Thursday, November 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the
auditorium of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (3200 Darnell
Street). Please note: this concert was originally scheduled for
Wednesday, November 19.
Sebastian Currier's classical compositions draw on a wide range
of personal experiences, from composing ten-minute micro-symphonies
to playing in a rock band with his brother Nathan. In the liner
notes for his album Vocalissmus, he writes:
...for a period there, I wanted to be a rock musician...I
see the interest now as a positive thing. We used to write our own
stuff, being creative in that way rather than just playing an
instrument, where everything's so spelled out, so particular...A
lot of instrumentalists aren't free to improvise because they're
taught to play only what's written, and that forms a certain mind
frame. I'm happy I had the experience of playing rock music,
because it opened me up.
Mr. Currier's works have been embraced enthusiastically by
leading orchestras, chamber groups, and soloists, including
violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, who commissioned and premiered his
violin and piano piece Aftersong, and for whom he is
currently composing a new concerto.
Mr. Currier is familiar to local audiences as the Grand Prize
winner of the Cliburn Competition's second American Composers
Invitational in 2005. He also won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award,
which includes a $200,000 purse, for his composition
Static (2007). Other prizes include the Rome Prize and
several commendations from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters.
"Sebastian Currier represents the finest in American
composition," remarked Richard Rodzinski, president of the Van
Cliburn Foundation. "We look forward to welcoming him back for
another outstanding performance of his passionate and atmospheric
music, delivered by some of the area's most outstanding
performers."
The November 20 concert will feature duet instrumental works,
including the bluesy Variations on Time and Time Again and
the nocturnal nuance Night Time. Please see the complete
program below.
Performing artists will include Fort Worth Symphony players
Michael Shih, concertmaster, violin; Jan Crisanti, principal
flutist; and Shields-Collins Bray, principal pianist; in addition
to distinguished harpist Naoko Stromberg.
TICKETS AND INFORMATION: Single tickets are $20
for members of the Van Cliburn Foundation or the Modern, $25 for
non-members, and $10 for students. Tickets are available from
Central Ticket Office online or by calling 817.335.9000.
Concert information is available at www.cliburn.org.
The Van Cliburn Foundation recognizes with gratitude the
Crystelle Waggoner Charitable Trust, Bank of America, Trustee and
Mr. and Mrs. James R. Blake for making possible the Cliburn at the
Modern concert series.
ExxonMobil is the Principal Corporate Sponsor of the Van Cliburn
Foundation. American Airlines, Bank of America, City of Fort Worth,
Eastman Kodak Company, JPMorgan Chase, Star-Telegram, Steinway
& Sons, and XTO Energy Inc. are Official Corporate Sponsors,
and Clear Channel Communications and RadioShack Corporation are the
Cliburn's Corporate Sponsors. Official Sponsors are the Arts
Council of Fort Worth & Tarrant County, Beaumont Foundation of
America, the Burnett Foundation, and the Sid W. Richardson
Foundation. Star-Telegram is the principal media partner and WRR
101.1 FM is the official radio station of Cliburn Concerts.
SEBASTIAN CURRIER
Winner of the Van Cliburn Foundation's second American Composers
Invitational at the 2005 Cliburn Competition, Sebastian Currier
also won the prestigious Grawemeyer Award in 2007. He has been
praised by the New York Times for producing "music with a
distinctive voice," and as "lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in
tradition, but absolutely new" by the Washington Post. His
music has been performed by acclaimed artists and orchestras at
major venues worldwide--a full evening of his chamber music,
including two premieres, was presented by the Berlin Philharmonic
in the fall of 2007. This fall, he returns to Berlin for the
premiere of Broken Minuets, performed by harpist
Marie-Pierre Langlamet and the Oriol Ensemble at the
Philharmonie.
Violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter has enthusiastically embraced Mr.
Currier's music: he wrote Aftersong for her, and she has performed
it extensively in the United States and Europe, at Carnegie Hall,
Symphony Hall in Boston, the Barbican in London, and the Grosses
Festspielhaus in Salzburg. A critic from the London Times
remarked, "If all his pieces are as emotionally charged and
ingenious in their use of rethought tonality as this, give me
more." He is currently writing her a concerto.
His Microsymph, referred to by the composer as a
"large-scale symphony that has been squeezed into only ten
minutes," was commissioned by the American Composer Orchestra and
premiered at Carnegie Hall. It was then performed by such
orchestras as the San Francisco Symphony, the Gewandhaus Orchestra,
Eos Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra, and has been
recorded by the Frankfurt Radio Orchestra with Hugh Wolff
conducting.
Mr. Currier also writes works involving electronic media and
video. Nightmaze, his multimedia piece based on a text by
Thomas Bolt, has been performed by Network for New Music and the
Mosaic Ensemble. Of his new CD of string quartets, recorded by the
Cassatt Quartet, the New York Times wrote that it
"distances the present from the past, causing the listener to think
about music itself." A CD of mixed chamber music, recorded by Music
from Copland House, will be released shortly.
Mr. Currier has received many prestigious awards, including the
Berlin Prize, the Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship
from the National Endowment for the Arts, an Academy Award from the
American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has held residencies at
the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies. He received a DMA from Juilliard
and currently teaches at Columbia University. His works are
published by Carl Fischer.
PROGRAM
Variations on Time and Time Again
Jan Crisanti, flute
Shields-Collins Bray, piano
Night Time
Michael Shih, violin
Naoko Stromberg, harp
Aftersong
Michael Shih, violin
Shields-Collins Bray, piano
Contact: Sevan Melikyan Dir. of P.R.
email: sevan@cliburn.org
phone: 817.738.6536
web:
