BIOS CLASSICAL

CLASSICAL

LEON KIRCHNER COMPOSER

LEON KIRCHNER Leon Kirchner was born on January 24, 1919 of Russian parents in Brooklyn, grew up in Los Angeles, and studied with Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions, and Ernest Bloch. Stylistically, Kirchner remained remarkably individual; earlier influences of Hindemith, Bartók, and Stravinsky soon yielded to a wholehearted identification with the aesthetics, if not necessarily the specific procedures, of Schoenberg, Berg, and Webern.

Extraordinarily gifted as both a pianist and a conductor, Kirchner was first and foremost a composer. A member of the American Academies of Arts and Letters and of Arts and Sciences, he was honored twice by the New York Music Critics’ Circle (String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2), and received the Naumburg Award (Piano Concerto No. 1), the Pulitzer Prize (String Quartet No. 3), the Friedheim Award (Music for Cello and Orchestra), and commissions from, among others, the Ford, Fromm, and Koussevitzky Foundations, the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Spoleto and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. He also conducted at a number of leading music festivals around the world, most recently at Ravinia. He taught for many years at Harvard University. Music Sales/G Schirmer

SOLOISTS

JOEL FAN-Pianist Joel Fan has appeared with symphony orchestras the world over with such conductors as Alan Gilbert, Zubin Mehta, David Alan Miller, Gustav Meier, Lucas Richman, Hobart Earle, David Zinman and David Robertson. He has appeared with Yo-Yo Ma in concert with the New York Philharmonic and as a member of The Silk Road Ensemble. Television appearances include Good Morning America and Late Night with David Letterman. As a recording artist, Mr. Fan scored two consecutive Billboard Top 10 Debuts with his solo CDs, World Keys and West of the Sun. A champion of contemporary music, Joel Fan recorded the world premieres of Leon Kirchner’s Sonata No. 3, The Forbidden, William Bolcom’s Nine New Bagatelles, and many other works. Joel Fan is a Steinway Artist.

SCOTT DUNN, Conductor- Distinguished American conductor Scott Dunn has led the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Pittsburgh Symphony, The Atlanta Symphony, The Colorado Symphony, and The St Petersburg (Russia) Philharmonic, among others. Dunn’s professional conducting career began in 1999, when Kirchner colleague Lukas Foss appointed Dunn associate music director for his Music Festival of the Hamptons. Dunn subsequently held posts at GIimmerglass Opera and at Pittsburgh Opera. Also a distinguished pianist and former student of Byron Janis, Dunn has made multiple commercial recordings as conductor and pianist. In 2007, he joined the conducting staff of the LA Philharmonic’s Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and in 2010 was named Associate Conductor

DIANA HOAGLAND-Soprano Diana Hoagland has appeared as soloist with the Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and the American Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras performing with Leopold Stokowski, Seigi Ozawa, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gunther Schuller, Leon Kirchner, Richard Westenburg and David Zinman. She has appeared with numerous chamber and choral societies, and was guest artist at the Meadowbrook, Ambler and Marlboro Music Festivals. Having worked with Kirchner during the composition of his opera, Lily, she recorded “Lily for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra” on Columbia Records and performed the work at Alice Tully Hall, Harvard's Sanders Theater, the Smithsonian Institute and the New England Conservatory.

BEVERLY HOCH, Soprano-Beverly Hoch has performed in Alice Tully, Carnegie and London's Royal Albert Halls, D.C.'s Kennedy Center and the Bard, Newport, Glyndebourne, American and Italian Spoleto Festivals. Over 150 orchestral collaborations include the Hong Kong, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, and London symphonies with Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Charles Dutoit, and John Elliot Gardner. A winner of Young Concert Artists, she presented recitals with pianists Margo Garrett and Charles Wadsworth, toured with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and portrayed twenty-five operatic roles in the US and abroad. She currently teaches singing at Texas Woman's University in Denton, TX. In 2004 she sang The Twilight Stood at the 50th Anniversary of the College Music Society conference with pianist Tammy Lum.

VERDANT WORLD RECORDS CHORUS- Contracted by Thomas McCarger, for REVELATIONS, the VWR Chorus features some of the finest freelance choral singers New York has to offer. CHOIR - SOLOISTS: "Dawn" - Martha Cluver, soprano,"Words from Wordsworth" -Martha Cluver, soprano; Thomas McCargar, baritone; SOPRANO: Eileen Diane Clark, Martha Cluver, Mellissa Hughes, Linda Lee Jones, Melissa Kelley, Elena V. Williamson, ALTO: Luthien Brackett, Eric S. Brenner, BJ Fredricks, Helen Karloski, Marguerite Krull, Mary R. Marathe, TENOR: James Bassi, Eric Dudley, Andrew Fuchs, Matthew Hensrud, Timothy Hodges, Daniel Neer