Geoffrey Gordon (composer)

Geoffrey Gordon (born 28 August 1968) is an American composer of classical music.

Biography

Gordon's list of works includes orchestral and chamber music—vocal and instrumental—as well as scores for theater, dance and film. His music has been called "darkly seductive" (The New York Times),^[1] "brilliant" (Boston Globe), "gripping...energetic expressiveness"^[2] (Bachtrack), "fascinating" (Milwaukee Journal),^[3] "wonderfully idiomatic" (Salt Lake Tribune), "haunting" (Strings Magazine) and "remarkable" (Fanfare). Chicago Tribune music critic John von Rhein called Gordon's lux solis aeterna,^[4] premiered by the acclaimed Fulcrum Point New Music Project, "a cosmic beauty ... of acutely crafted music." And music critic Lawrence Johnson, of Classical Review, called Gordon's work Tiger Psalms,^[5] a very impressive and significant world premiere ... the composer makes the music sing magnificently."

A winner of the Aaron Copland Award,^[6] Gordon has twice served as composer-in-residence at the Aaron Copland House (2008–09). His work has been funded by the Barlow Endowment, the National Endowment for the Arts, Arts Council England, the Danish Arts Foundation, the United Performing Arts Fund, the Concert Artists Guild, the American Composers Forum, Meet the Composer, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Music Center, the Abelson Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Trust, the Cheswatyr Foundation, the Bush Foundation and New Music USA.^[7] He has been in residence at the La Napoule Arts Foundation in Cannes, and at the historic Cliff Dweller Club in Chicago. He has been nominated for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center's Elise Stoeger Prize, and is the recipient of the 2017 Mario Merz Prize^[8][9] in Music Composition. He has received financial and academic support from Boston University and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. His works have been recorded on the Centaur, Ravello^[10] and Signum labels, among others. Many of his published works are available from Theodore Front Musical Literature.^[11] The Loeb Music Library^[12] at Harvard University, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich and the music library of the National University of Singapore^[13] hold collections of his works.

Gordon's work has been commissioned by and for many of the finest ensembles in the world, including the Philharmonia Orchestra (London), the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Malmö Symphony Orchestra, the Minnesota Orchestra, Britten Sinfonia, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Dallas Symphony, the English Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic,^[14] Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, the JACK Quartet, Ensemble Meitar, Mogens Dahl Choir, the Parker Quartet, Third Angle Ensemble, Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Ensemble Aleph, Aguavá New Music Studio, Ensemble Zeitfluss, Great Noise Ensemble and the International Contemporary Ensemble. He has served as composer-in-residence at the International Centre for Composers in Visby, Sweden. He received the 2015 commission award from the American Music Project,^[15] through which his QUINTET for Clarinet and Strings (for the JACK Quartet and Anthony McGill, principal clarinet of New York Philharmonic) premiered to critical acclaim^[1] in New York City and Chicago. The English Symphony Orchestra ^[16] commissioned Saint Blue, a double concerto for trumpet, piano and strings (funded by the English Arts Council), which premiered at Elgar Concert Hall in Birmingham, England, in May 2015. A studio recording, featuring soloists Simon Desbruslais (trumpet) and Clare Hammond (piano), was released on the Signum Records label in August 2017. In December 2015, cellist Toke Møldrup premiered Gordon's cello sonata, FATHOMS, after Shakespeare's The Tempest, at Carnegie Hall^[17] in New York City. (The Copenhagen Philharmonic commissioned Gordon's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra,^[18] after Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus, for Moldrup in 2014.) FATHOMS received its European premiere^[19] at St. John's Smith Square in London, in May, 2017. (New York Times music critic Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim described FATHOMS^[20] as "engaging and colorful... extroverted storytelling.") His vocal/chamber work Winterleben, for French horn, mezzo-soprano and piano, commissioned for Los Angeles Philharmonic principal horn, Andrew Bain, was premiered at the Colburn School in August 2015 in Los Angeles, as part of the 47th International Horn Symposium.^[21] In October 2017, the Munich Philharmonic^[22] gave the world premiere performances of Chase, a concerto for trumpet and orchestra commissioned by the orchestra for their principal trumpet, Guido Segers, inspired by the works of Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti.

He has been featured on the cover of M Magazine, and profiled on National Public Radio. His work has been broadcast on WFMT in Chicago and WNYC in New York. Gordon has served as an ASCAP representative in Washington, D.C., lobbying Congress on behalf of copyright protection and composers' rights. He has served as composer-in-residence for the Boston-based Xanthos Ensemble and as a staff composer for the American Composers Orchestra in New York City. Gordon has also served as the music director and an on-air host for classical radio WFMR-FM. He currently divides time between the United States and the United Kingdom.

List of works

References

External links

• Official website
• Geoffrey Gordon's page on SoundCloud
• Geoffrey Gordon's page on Theodore Front Musical Literature