George Tsontakis

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George Tsontakis (born October 24, 1951 in Astoria , Queens , New York City ) is an American composer and conductor of Greek origin.

Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978 , later with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome . His music has been performed and broadcast by well-known orchestras, chamber music ensembles and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe and Japan.

He received the 1995 Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was the fourth winner of the Charles Ives Living Scholarship in 2007 . The recording of Tsontakis' Ghost Variations by pianist Stephen Hough was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition and was the only classical music recording in Time magazine's Top Ten Recordings in 1998 . Tsontakis also received the Berlin Prize of the American Academy in Berlin in 2002 and the Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition from the University of Louisville in 2005 for his Violin Concerto No. 2.

Tsontakis was composer in residence with the Albany Symphony (2007–2012), the Chamber Music Society of the Lincoln Center (2009/2010) and the Aspen Music Festival ; in Aspen he was also the conductor and founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble and teaches composition. He was a lecturer at Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music and Sarah Lawrence College . He is Distinguished Faculty, Composer in Residence at Bard College Conservatory of Music in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York . He was a Weil Fellow at Auburn University at Montgomery .

Tsontakis' music has been recorded on Koch International , New World Records and Opus One ; it was published by Merion Music and Poco Forte Music .

In 2008 his Violin Concerto No. 2 was nominated for the Grammy Award in the category Best Contemporary Classical Composition ; however, the award went to John Corigliano's Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Composer George Tsontakis Wins Prestigious Charles Ives Award. In: BMI ( Broadcast Music Incorporated ). December 12, 2006.
  2. ^ Yaddo composer George Tsontakis Wins Prestigious Charles Ives Award ( Memento January 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ). In: Yaddo's website .
  3. ^ The 51st Annual Grammy Nomination List ( December 4, 2008 memento on WebCite ).
  4. ↑ George Tsontakis. Distinguished Composer in Residence. In: Bard College website .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Tsontakis, George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer and conductor of Greek descent
DATE OF BIRTH October 24, 1951
PLACE OF BIRTH Astoria , Queens , New York City , United States