Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands (born March 2, 1934 in Sheffield ) is an American composer and professor of English origin.

Life

Bernard Rands graduated from the University of Wales at Bangor , where Reginald Smith Brindle was his teacher, in 1958. He completed further studies in Italy with Roman Vlad , Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio , and in Germany with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna . From 1960 he taught himself at the University of Wales. The work Actions of Six , which premiered in Darmstadt in 1963 under Maderna, first brought him greater attention in the music world. In 1966 he studied thanks to a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University and the University of Illinois , where he came into contact with John Cage, among others . In 1969 he was a Granada Fellow at the University of York , where he then taught until 1975.

In the same year Rands moved to the United States and received US citizenship in 1983. Rands won the Pulitzer Prize of Music in 1984 with the song cycle Canti del sole , which was premiered by tenor Paul Sperry and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Zubin Mehta . Shortly thereafter, he received professorships at Boston University and the Juilliard School . In 1986 the two orchestral suites Le Tambourin earned him the Kennedy Center Friedhelm Award. Since 1988 he has held the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professorship at Harvard University . From 1989 to 1995 he was composer in residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra . In 2000 the recording of the composition Canti d'Amor with the Ensemble Chanticleer won a Grammy Award . In 2004, Bernard Rands became a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

Rands received numerous composition commissions and is also active as a conductor. He is married to the composer Augusta Read Thomas .

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Rands has published more than 100 compositions, including instrumental music as well as a number of vocal works. In 2011 the opera Vincent was premiered, which, like the two suites Le Tambourin from the 1980s, refers to the life and work of Vincent van Gogh . The earlier works in particular are often influenced by his teachers, who are influenced by serialism and belonging to the Italian avant-garde, and sometimes use graphic notation and aleatoric elements.

literature

• The New Grove, 2nd Edition (Contributed by Roger Marsh)

Web links

• Homepage Bernard Rands (Engl.)
• Information from Schott-Verlag
• Program Notes, Phillip Huscher (Engl.)