Leslie Bassett

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Leslie Raymond Bassett (born January 23, 1923 in Hanford , California - † February 4, 2016 in Oakwood , Georgia ) was an American composer . He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1966 .

Life

Bassett was born in Hanford in 1923 to Archibald and Vera Bassett. He grew up in Fresno and Madera . As a schoolboy he took piano and trumpet lessons. He studied at California State University, Fresno on a scholarship . During World War II he served as a trombonist in the 13th Armored Division Band , also on the European continent. After 1945 he continued his studies in composition with Arthur Bedahl and Miriam Withrow up to the Bachelor of Music. He then studied with Ross Lee Finney and Homer Keller at the University of Michigan in Ann Abor. In 1949 he obtained a Masters and in 1956 a Doctor of Music.

From 1950 to 1951 he studied as a Fulbright scholarship holder with Arthur Honegger at the École Normale de Musique de Paris and privately with Nadia Boulanger . This was later followed by studies with Mario Davidovsky in electronic music and with Robert Gerhard in Michigan. From 1950 to 1951 he worked as a music teacher in Fresno. In 1952 he became a lecturer at the University of Michigan. In 1970 he took over the management of the composition department of the university (Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor of Music) and founded the Electronic Music Studio there. From 1961 to 1963 he stayed at the American Academy in Rome . In 1966 he received the Pulitzer Prize for Variations for Orchestra , which were premiered in 1963 by the RAI National Symphony Orchestra under Ferruccio Scaglia . The US premiere was by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Eugene Ormandy . In 1966 he made a contribution to the Tribune internationale des compositeurs of UNESCO in Paris. The Zurich Radio Orchestra under Jonathan Sternberg recorded the work.

From 1973 to 1974 he lived in Montalvo, California, and Bellagio, Italy . His composition Sextet for Piano and Strings received an award from the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation in 1974 and performed at the Library of Congress by the Juilliard String Quartet . The Echoes from an Invisible World project , funded by the National Endowment for the Arts , was performed by the six most important orchestras in the USA and recorded by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Sergiu Comissiona . In 1980 he represented the USA at the World New Music Days of the International Society for New Music in Tel Aviv.

In 1988 he was composer in residence at the University of Southern California and University of Redlands . In 1990 he was visiting composer at Harvard University , Northeastern University , the University of Massachusetts , Tufts University , the University of California, Berkeley and Baldwin-Wallace College. His Concerto for Orchestra was premiered in 1992 by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Neeme Järvi . The city of Boston hosted Leslie Bassett Week in March 1990 .

The Edition Peters moved majority of his works.

Prizes and awards

  • 1950: Fulbright scholarship
  • 1961: Prix de Rome of the American Academy in Rome
  • 1963: Prix de Rome of the American Academy in Rome
  • 1966: Pulitzer Prize for Music
  • 1971: Koussevitsky Music Foundation Commission
  • 1973: Guggenheim scholarship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  • 1974: Naumburg Recording Award from the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation
  • 1978: Distinguished Alumnus Award from California State University, Fresno
  • 1980: Guggenheim grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
  • 1980: University of Michigan School of Music Alumni Society's Citation of Merit
  • 1981: Distinguished Artist Award from the Michigan Council for the Arts
  • 1981: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters
  • 1984: Henry Russell Lecturer at the University of Michigan
  • 1991: Koussevitsky Music Foundation Commission

student

His students include Andy Brick , Evan Chambers , Robin Cox , Arthur Gottschalk , Sean Hickey , Gabriela Lena Frank , John Anthony Lennon , Gerald Near , Joseph Pehrson and Richard Toensing .

literature

  • Edith Borroff, Michael Meckna: Leslie Bassett. In: Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online. 22nd August 2012.
  • Ellen S. Johnson: Leslie Bassett. A Bio-Bibliography . Greenwood Press, Westport 1994, ISBN 0-313-25851-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Margalit Fox: Leslie Bassett, 93, Prizewinning Composer , in: The New York Times , February 11, 2016, p. A29.
personal data
SURNAME Bassett, Leslie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bassett, Leslie Raymond (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 23, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Hanford , California
DATE OF DEATH 4th February 2016
Place of death Oakwood , Georgia