Elie Siegmeister

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elie Siegmeister (born January 15, 1909 in New York City , † March 10, 1991 in Manhasset , New York ) was an American composer and conductor .

Life

Siegmeister was born in New York in 1909 as the son of the doctor William and his wife Bessie Siegmeister. Elie came from a Russian-Jewish immigrant family and was acquainted with peace activist and anarchist Emma Goldman . From 1921 he attended Boys High School in Brooklyn and received his first musical training from Leopold Wolfsohn , who also taught Aaron Copland . His friends included the pianist and composer Israel Citkowitz , the psychiatrist Joseph Wortis, and Tamara Berkowitz , granddaughter of Scholem Alejchem .

From 1924 he studied harmony with Seth Bingham , piano with Emil Friedberger (student of Theodor Leschetizky ) and counterpoint with Wallingford Riegger at Columbia University in New York. Friedberger recommended it to Arnold Schönberg through Eduard Steuermann . However, Siegmeister stayed in Paris en route to Europe and studied with Nadia Boulanger from 1927 to 1931 . In 1932 he traveled to Paul Hindemith in Berlin , whom he turned down as a teacher.

From 1932 to 1935 he studied conducting with Albert Stoessel at the Juilliard School in New York. In 1933 he founded the Young Composers Group . Its members included Irwin Heilner , Israel Citkowitz, Lehman Engel , Jerome Moross , Bernard Herrmann , Arthur Berger and Vivian Fine . In 1933 he traveled to Moscow and visited the composer Grigori Schneerson . From 1933 to 1934 he belonged to the Composers Collective (organized in the Workers Music League ) around Henry Cowell , Jacob Schaefer and Leon Charles . In 1934 he became a teacher of music history at Brooklyn College . From 1937 to 1938 he was a lecturer at the New School for Social Research , where he also had contact with Hanns Eisler . In 1938 he became a member of the American Composers Alliance and the American Music Center , of which he was Vice President from 1964 to 1967. In 1952 he became a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers .

In 1939 he founded the American Ballad Singers , with whom he toured the United States for several years. From 1945 to 1946 he worked on projects with the American-Soviet Music Society . Other active members were Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein , Marc Blitzstein , Sergei Kussewizki and Morton Gould . In 1949 he became a lecturer at Hofstra University (from 1966 to 1976 as composer in residence) and a year later he founded the Hofstra Symphony Orchestra , which he conducted. He then was composer in residence at the Brevard Music Center in North Carolina . In 1970 he traveled to Munich , where a composer portrait was created for Bayerischer Rundfunk . In 1977 he founded the Kennedy Center's National Black Music Colloquium and Competition . In 1983 he stayed in Bellagio (Villa Serbelloni) and Berlin .

In 1999, its 90th anniversary, the Elie Siegmeister Society was founded.

Prices

Works

Siegmeister composed nine operas and a musical , six symphonies and three symphonic pieces, a clarinet and a flute concerto as well as other orchestral works, film music ( they came to Cordura from Robert Rossen ), songs and song cycles, chamber music and choral works. His works have been performed by leading orchestras under Leopold Stokowski , Dimitri Mitropoulos , Lorin Maazel and Sergiu Comissiona . His Western Suite was premiered by the NBC Symphony Orchestra under Arturo Toscanini in 1945 and recorded by the Utah Symphony Orchestra under Maurice Abravanel .

Filmography

  • 1937: The People of the Cumberland
  • 1959: They came to Cordura (They Came to Cordura)
  • 1960: The Twentieth Century

Publications

  • 1943: Music Lovers Handbook
  • 1961: Invitation to Music
  • 1965/66: Harmony and Melody

student

His students include Stephen Albert , Sy Brandon , Tom Cipullo , Herbert Deutsch , Daniel Dorff , Barry Drogin , Naomi Drucker , Jack Gallagher , Gerald Humel , Lauren Keizer , Stephen Lawrence , Leonard Lehrman , Roger Kidneyberg , Joseph Pehrson , Dana Paul Perna , Michael Jeffrey Shapiro and Richard White .

literature

  • Siegmeister, Elie . In: John L. Holmes: Conductors on Record. Greenwood Press, Westport 1982, ISBN 0-575-02781-9 , p. 609.
  • James P. Cassaro: Elie Siegmeister. In: Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 22nd August 2012.
  • Leonard Lehrman, Kenneth Boulton: Elie Siegmeister. American Composer. A Bio-Bibliography . Scarecrow Press, Lanham 2010, ISBN 978-0-8108-6961-5 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Siegmeister, Elie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer and conductor
DATE OF BIRTH January 15, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City
DATE OF DEATH March 10, 1991
Place of death Manhasset , New York