Matthew Aucoin

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Matthew Aucoin (* 1990 in Boston ) is an American composer, pianist, conductor and author.

Life

Matthew Aucoin was born in Boston to Don and Carol Aucoin. The father worked as a journalist for the Boston Globe . Aucoin was considered a musical prodigy. He has been composing music since childhood. From the age of 6 he received - with interruptions - piano lessons, showed an early interest in classical music, but preferred rock music as he grew up and played the keyboard in a rock group before turning back to classical music.

He studied literature at Harvard ; his mentors at Harvard were the poet Jorie Graham (* 1950) and the literary scholar and critic Helen Vendler (* 1933). He graduated with top marks in 2012, and his thesis, a collection of poems entitled “Aftermusic”, was awarded the Thomas T. Hoopes Prize for outstanding scholarly work or research at Harvard . He studied composition with Robert Beaser (* 1954) at the Juilliard School and conducted during this time for the Dunster House Opera Society (today Harvard College Opera ), Johann Strauss's Die Fledermaus and Mozart's Marriage of Figaro . After receiving his diploma, he worked as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, where he assisted Thomas Adès , James Levine and Valery Gergiev .

In 2013 he was selected by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Apprenticeship . The scholarship extended over two years and included collaboration with Riccardo Muti and Pierre Boulez . He made his debut as conductor of the CSO in 2014 when he had to replace the sick Pierre Boulez. In Chicago he composed the children's opera Second Nature based on his own libretto , which premiered on August 19, 2015 in Chicago.

In 2015 he was composer in residence at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem . In the same year his opera Crossing with Rod Gilfry and Alexander Lewis in the leading roles was premiered at the Citi Shubert Theater in Boston. Crossing , which received both positive and negative reactions from the professional critics, was created as a commissioned work in connection with the 175th anniversary of the American Civil War. Aucoin's libretto is based on the diary of Walt Whitman , the opera's protagonist. In 2016 the Los Angeles Opera invited him for three years as composer in residence . As a commissioned work for the Los Angeles Opera, he wrote music for the silent film Nosferatu by FW Murnau , which premiered under his direction at a film screening at The Theater at Ace Hotel in Los Angeles with the orchestra of the Los Angeles Opera.

In 2018 Aucoin received a MacArthur Fellowship .

Aucoin regularly gives concerts with chamber music ensembles, often with violinist Keir GoGwilt, a fellow student from Harvard with whom he premiered a number of his pieces, some of which were created in close collaboration with GoGwilt.

Aucoiun's poems and essays have been printed in the Yale Review , The Colorado Review, and The Boston Globe .

Works (selection)

Operas, musical theater
  • From Sandover (2010)
  • Hart Crane (2012)
  • Crossing (2015)
  • Second Nature (2015)
Orchestral works
  • This Same Light (2013)
  • The Seal Broken (2012)
  • Cadenzas to Beethoven's Violin Concerto (2012)
  • Nosferatu , film music (2015)
Chamber music, songs
  • Dual , duo for cello and bass (2015)
  • This Earth , for countertenor and piano (2015)
  • Three Études for solo piano (2014)
  • The Orphic Moment , dramatic cantata for countertenor, solo violin and chamber orchestra (2014)
  • Celan Fragments , violin and piano (2014)
  • Piano Trio (2014)
  • Three Whitman Songs , for baritone, 4 cellos and piano (2013)
  • Kinship , for soprano and piano
  • Poem for Violin , for Violin Solo (2012)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ The New York Times Magazine May 17, 2015, accessed November 2, 2016
  2. ↑ Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association, News June 10, 2013, accessed November 3, 2016
  3. ^ Second Nature World Premiere at Lincoln Park Zoo , accessed November 3, 2016
  4. ^ PEM - Matthew Aucoin , accessed November 4, 2011.
  5. ^ Premier review June 1, 2015, accessed November 5, 2016
  6. ↑ Los Angeles Times , January 14, 2016, accessed November 4, 2016
  7. ↑ Musical wunderkind Aucoin is a star in ascendancy Boston Globe, May 9, 2015, accessed November 4, 2011
  8. ↑ Winners Of The 2018 MacArthur 'Genius' Grants: Matthew Aucoin, 28, composer and conductor , NPR, October 4, 2018, accessed October 4, 2018
  9. ↑ Matthew Aucoin, biography accessed November 4, 2016
  10. ^ From Sandover, 2012
  11. ^ Hart Crane, 2012
  12. ^ The New York Times May 31, 2015, accessed November 3, 2016
  13. ^ Second Nature World Premiere at Lincoln Park Zoo , accessed November 3, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Aucoin, Matthew
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer, pianist, conductor and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1990
PLACE OF BIRTH Boston