Kirk Nurock

Kirk Nurock (born February 28, 1948 in Camden , New Jersey) is an American composer and jazz pianist.

Live and act

Nurock grew up in Trenton, New Jersey . At the age of 16 he received the first Duke Ellington Scholarship awarded by the Eastman School of Music , for which he was selected by Ellington himself. He studied composition at the Juilliard School of Music composition with Vincent Persichetti and Roger Sessions and also jazz composition and arrangement with Johnny Richards , Rayburn Wright and Manny Albam .

As a young pianist, Nurock performed with Phil Woods , Sonny Stitt and Chet Baker . He recorded his first album under his own name in 1976 with saxophonist Arnie Lawrence .

Nurock's interest in untrained voices led to the establishment of his Natural Sound workshop , but also to collaboration with Jay Clayton . In the 1980s Nurock also integrated original animal sounds into his compositions. These "cross-species compositions" include Howl (1980), The Bronx Zoo Events (1981), Sonata for Piano and Dog (1983) and Expedition (1984). In his turn instrument and Animals participated u. a. Jane Ira Bloom , Ned Rothenberg and Robert Dick .

In the 1970s and 1980s Nurock composed ballet music in collaboration with the choreographers Roland Petit , Anna Halprin , Daniel Nagrin , Louis Falco , Kathryn Posin and Judith Marcuse . He also wrote pop arrangements for Bette Midler , James Taylor , Judy Collins and the music for a Woody Allen film . He also orchestrated and directed Broadway productions of Hair , Two Gentlemen of Verona , Salvation , Shelter , Madwoman of Central Park West and Three Musketeers .

Jay Clayton's novel scat singing prompted him to collaborate with Theo Bleckmann and John DeRobertis . In 1990 he founded the duo Theo & Kirk with Bleckmann . Both toured the US and Europe and recorded two CDs: Theo & Kirk and Looking Glass River .

In 1993 Nurock became professor for jazz composition at the University of the Arts in Berlin; He was also temporarily active as a professor of popular music at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin . During his stay in Europe he performed as a pianist with various jazz groups and worked with the singer Judy Niemack , the guitarist Jeanfrançois Prins and the vibraphonist David Friedman .

Since 1998 Nurock has lived and worked in New York again, where he teaches at The New School . In 2001 he recorded 23 Constellations of Joan Miró on CD as conductor Bobby Prevites . In 2002 the Brooklyn Youth Chorus and the Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra conducted his composition Will There Really Be a Morning? Under John Mauceri . on.

Discography

Kirk Nurock , 1976
Natural Sound , WERGO 1981
Theo Bleckman & Kirk Nurock Theo & Kirk , 1992
Theo Bleckman & Kirk Nurock Looking Glass River , 1995
Remembering Tree Friends , 1996–1997 (with Harvie Swartz , Bobby Previte)
Still at Sea , 1997-1999
Bobby Previte: 23 Constellations of Joan Miró , 2001

Web links

Individual evidence

^ Nurock affair: The bill is paid by the students of the Berliner Zeitung on August 3, 1995

personal data
SURNAME	Nurock, Kirk
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American composer, jazz pianist and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH	February 28, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH	Camden , New Jersey

[1] Nurock affair: The bill is paid by the students of the Berliner Zeitung on August 3, 1995