Free Seminar  I  O’Donnell Recital Hall  I  Owen Center for the Arts SMU  I  6101 Bishop Blvd, Dallas, TX 75205

Moderated by Buddy Bray with Alexander Kobrin, Lowell Liebermann, and Rachel Naomi Kudo. 

A conversation about the practical considerations of building your repertoire: crafting programs, approaching new music, selecting repertoire, efficient practicing, and everything that goes into long-term artistic planning.

ABOUT BUDDY BRAY

Shields-Collins “Buddy” Bray has been artistic consultant for the Cliburn since 2003. Maintaining his longstanding commitment to new music, he serves as host and pianist for Cliburn at the Modern, bringing such living American composers as William Bolcom, John Corigliano, Ricky Ian Gordon, Adam Guettel, Jake Heggie, Kevin Puts, Ned Rorem, and Ben Moore to Fort Worth. With music educator John Feierabend, Mr. Bray created the Cliburn in the Classroom curriculum for second, third, and fourth-graders, and he continues to be deeply involved as writer, narrator, host, and sometimes-pianist at these uniquely interactive programs.

Mr. Bray has been principal keyboardist of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra since 1986, and has hosted the orchestra’s pre-concert discussion series Symphonic Insights since 1993. He has performed many times as soloist with orchestra, most recently in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, a work with which he has had a long association. He has also appeared as soloist with the Dallas and Jacksonville Symphony Orchestras, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Kennedy Center Opera Orchestra, and in Miguel Harth-Bedoya’s “The Passion of the Tango” with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

Mr. Bray was born in Mississippi and grew up in northeastern Louisiana. He studied there with Donald Cornell, and later with Steven De Groote at Arizona State University and TCU.

ABOUT ALEXANDER KOBRIN, 2005 CLIBURN GOLD MEDALIST

Since winning the gold medal at the 2005 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, Russian pianist Alexander Kobrin has performed with many of the world’s leading orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Russian National, English Chamber, Dallas Symphony, and BBC Symphony Orchestras. Recitals have taken him to major halls throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia. Also a committed teacher, Mr. Kobrin has been on the faculty of the Eastman School of Music since 2017, having previously served on the faculties of the Schwob School of Music at Columbus State University (chair) and NYU’s Steinhardt School. In addition to the Cliburn gold medal, he has won top prizes at the Busoni, Hamamatsu, and Scottish International Piano Competitions. His teachers have included renowned pedagogues Tatiana Zelikman and Lev Naumov.

ABOUT Lowell Liebermann

Lowell Liebermann is one of America’s most frequently performed and recorded living composers. He has written over 130 works in all genres, several of which have gone on to become standard repertoire for their instruments, such as his Sonata for Flute and Piano and Gargoyles for piano, each of which have been recorded over 20 times on CD.

Mr. Liebermann has been commissioned by a wide array of ensembles and instrumentalists, includingthe Philadelphia Orchestra, Emerson Quartet, and flutist Sir James Galway. Mr. Liebermann has written two full-length operas: The Picture of Dorian Gray, the first American opera commissioned and premiered by l’Opéra de Monte-Carlo, and Miss Lonelyhearts, after the novel by Nathanael West, commissioned by The Juilliard School to celebrate its 100th anniversary.

Mr. Liebermann served as composer-in-residence for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra for four years, a role he also held with the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, the Saratoga Performing Arts Center, and many other organizations. He joined the composition faculty of the Mannes School of Music of the New School in 2012. He was appointed head of Mannes’ Composition Department the following year.

Among his many awards are a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, awards from ASCAP and BMI, and a GRAMMY® nomination. In 2014, he became the inaugural recipient of the Virgil Thomson Award for vocal composition.

ABOUT RACHEL NAOMI KUDO

RACHEL NAOMI KUDO WEBCAST HOST SEMINAR ON REPERTOIRE PLANNING: JUNE 4–10 A.M. First prize winner of the Leipzig International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition, pianist Rachel Naomi Kudo has performed in the music capitals and major venues of the world. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School, where she was a two-time winner of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition. She is a Gilmore Young Artist Award Recipient, and has been invited to Carnegie Hall’s Professional Training Workshops, working with pianists Emanuel Ax and Sir András Schiff. Born in Washington, D.C. to Japanese-Korean parents, Ms. Kudo began studying piano at the age of 4 with Emilio del Rosario at the Music Institute of Chicago. She currently works with Leon Fleisher, and has studied with Richard Goode, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Joseph Kalichstein, Gilbert Kalish, and Kum-Sing Lee.