Michael Abels

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Michael Abels (born October 8, 1962 in Phoenix , Arizona , United States ) is an American composer, arranger and music teacher.

Life

Michael Abels grew up with his grandparents on a farm outside of Aberdeen , South Dakota . He received piano lessons as a child at the age of four. He sang in a boys' choir from the age of seven to fourteen. The son of choirmaster Harvey Smith, today's conductor Mark Russell Smith, was a childhood friend. He started composing when he was eight. During his school days he wrote several smaller compositions for piano. At thirteen he played his own composition for the first time in public during a music camp in Arizona, a Mozart-style piano concerto. At the University of Southern California he studied with James Hopkins (* 1939) and Robert Linn (1925–1999). In 1984 he was named Outstanding Senior under student composers for his composition Queries . In the academic year 1985/86 he studied West African music with Alfred Ladzekpo at the California Institute for the Arts . He is currently the Director of Music at New Roads School in Santa Monica . He publishes his works with Subito Music Corporation and has been supervised by Kraft-Engel management since the success of the film score for Get Out .

Works (selection)

Works for orchestra

  • Global Warming was created under the impression of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War . The work is a commission from the Phoenix Youth Symphony , which premiered it in 1991. In 1992 it was performed by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra at the African-American Symphony Composers Forum. After Nelson Mandela was elected President of South Africa, it was performed by the National Symphony of South Africa. The work has been performed nearly 100 times to date, including by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra , the Cleveland Orchestra , the Houston Symphony Orchestra , the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra , the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, and the Nashville Symphony . The work was recorded in 2001 by the Chicago Sinfonietta under Paul Freeman on the CD African Heritage Symphonic Series, Vol. 3 on the Cedille Records label.
  • American Variations on Swing Low Sweet Chariot for trumpet and orchestra from 1993 was premiered by Doc Severinsen and the Phoenix Symphony .
  • Frederick's Fables for narrator and orchestra in four movements. I Frederick II The Greentail Mouse III Theodore and the Talking Mushroom IV Alexander and the Wind-Up Mouse . The work is based on texts by Leo Lionni . It is a commission for the conductor Philip Brunelle (* 1943) and the Plymouth Music Series. Parts I and II premiered in October 1994 with narrator James Earl Jones . Parts III and IV were also premiered on the Plymouth Music Series, this time with narrator Garrison Keillor . Abels himself took on the narrative role of the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Springfield , Massachusetts .
  • Abels wrote Dance for Martin's Dream in 1997 in memory of Martin Luther King . It is a commission from the Nashville Symphony Orchestra and the Houston Symphony Orchestra. After its premiere by the Nashville Symphony Orchestra in 1998, it was also performed by other orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra .
  • More Seasons from 1999 is a work in which Abels explored baroque music and in which he used themes from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons . The work was performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra .
  • Tribute is a commission from the National Symphony Orchestra , which it premiered on November 8, 2001 under Marin Alsop . It was created under the impression of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 and was the first work composed after these events that was subsequently performed by the NSO.
  • Affectionate Objects, 2004
  • Outburst, 2005
  • Urban Legends is a commission from the Sphinx Organization . The work was written for the Harlem Quartet and the Sphinx Orchestra in 2008/09
  • Aquadia , commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago in 2009. It was recorded by the orchestra to provide music for the 2011 exhibition Fantasea des Aquariums.
  • Delights & Dances for string quartet and string orchestra is a commission from the Sphinx Organization. In spring 2012 it was performed by the Chicago Sinfonietta under the baton of Taiwanese conductor Mei-Ann Chen (* 1973) and the Harlem Quartet and recorded for Cedille Records . It appeared under CDR 90000 141 .
  • Victory Road is a commission from the Chicago Sinfonietta and Paul Freemans, who also premiered it in 2016.
  • Liquify was premiered on February 4, 2017 by the Quad City Symphony Orchestra in Davenport , Iowa .

Opera

  • Homies & Popz is a commission from the Los Angeles Opera . It is a 40-minute opera . The first performance took place in May 2000 and has been in several high schools of the Los Angeles County listed. It is based on the true story of the Compton Homies & the Pops. The opera tells the story of Ted Hayes and his successful endeavors to start and organize a cricket team in Los Angeles . The choral piece Limitless is sometimes performed independently of the opera.

Film and drama music

  • Broken Hearts: a BH Mystery by Lisa Loomer (* 1950) . Music for a production of the play by the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. Abels won the 1999 Backstage Garland Award for Musical Score . The production was named one of the ten best theater productions of 1999 by the Los Angeles Times.
  • For Here Or To Go by Alison Carey, music for a Cornerstone Theater Company production in 2000, performed at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles.
  • Detroit , 2017 The tracks Algiers Motel and Lighting The Fuse are by Michael Abels.
  • Get Out , 2017. Jordan Peele engaged Abels under the impression of the composition Urban Legends. He wanted to bring a fresh voice to film music because he was looking for someone who could use the film harmonic language with an African-American perspective . The score was nominated in the Original Score - Sci-Fi / Fantasy / Horror Film category ofthe Hollywood Music in Media Awards 2017.
  • See You Yesterday , 2019
  • We (Us) , 2019
  • Bad Educatio n, 2019
  • All Day and a Night , 2020

Works for choir

  • Four Carols for mixed choir a capella, 1987-1989 I Softly Came the Lord of All II Christmas Bells III Celebrate the Simple Things IV Holiday Everywhere.
  • Fairest Lord Jesus for soprano or tenor solo, choir and orchestra, 2002
  • Ode to harmony for five-part mixed choir a capella, 2004
  • A World of Carols for female choir, brass quintet, handbells (optional) and harp, 1994. Recorded by the Phoenix Boys Choir on Joy to the world, 2008
  • Angels we have heard on high for three-part mixed choir and orchestra, composed in 1994. The work was performed on December 18, 2014 by the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the IN UNISON® Chorus under the direction of Kevin McBeth
  • Be The Change , 2014 Michael Abels published a recording on his youtube channel with Sharde Bivans as lead singer and a choir consisting of Jyvonne Haskin, Kelsey Scott, Margaret Best, Felice Hernandez, Ronald O'Hannon and Matt Bloyd. Abels himself played the piano part. The recording was made in July 2014 in the Moss Theater of the New Roads School.
  • Rise up for four-part mixed choir a capella, 2016

Works for piano

  • Iconoclasm pays homage to Leonard Bernstein . The pianist Lara Downes recorded the work on Bernstein's centenary for her debut album For Lenny on the Sony Classical Music label.

Other works

  • Bitterroot. Abels wrote the work for the USC Percussion Ensemble. The work won an award at the Watts Towers annual Day of the Drum Festival in September 1998 .
  • Falling Sky , commissioned by Butler University for their dance department , dance piece for concert band . Patrick de Bana developed a choreography, 2019

Arrangements

Michael Abels arranged gospel music for choir and orchestra for Reverend James Cleveland (1931–1999). Some of these arrangements each year in the Gospel Christmas of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra listed.

Awards and grants

Michael Abels has received numerous grants and sponsorship awards such as the National Endowment for the Arts . He is also a recipient of a music alive residency program for the radio station Meet the composer , now New Music USA, and the League of American Orchestras . In 2001/02 he was resident artist of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. He participated in a three-year Meet The Composer New Residencies program in Watts .

At the World Soundtrack Award 2019 Michael Abels was honored with the Discovery of the year award for the music for the film Us (German: We) .

literature

  • Michael Abels. In: William C. Banfield: Musical Landscapes in Color: Conversations with Black American Composers . Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, Oxford, 2003 ISBN 0-8108-3706-4 , pp. 276ff

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Matthew Toffolo: Interview with Composer / Musician Michael Abels (GET OUT). In: https://matthewtoffolo.com . Matthew Toffolo, March 7, 2017, accessed January 20, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b c d e Bill Banfield: Musical Landscapes in Color: Conversations with Black American Composers . Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 978-0-585-46416-9 ( google.de [accessed January 20, 2018]).
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Michael Abels. In: http://www.subitomusic.com . Subito Music Corporation, accessed January 19, 2018 .
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Michael Abels. In: http://www.kennedy-center.org/ . The Kennedy Center, accessed January 20, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Michael Abels. In: http://kraft-engel.com . Power Angel Management. Audio, accessed January 20, 2018 .
  6. ^ A b The Krakower Group: Michael Abels. In: http://www.imdb.com . IMDb, accessed on January 20, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Clients. In: http://kraft-engel.com . Kraft-Engel Management, accessed on January 20, 2018 (English).
  8. ^ A b The Meaning Behind 'Get Out's' Haunting Score . In: The Hollywood Reporter . ( hollywoodreporter.com [accessed January 21, 2018]).
  9. ↑ a b c d Michael Abels, Composer | Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved January 20, 2018 .
  10. ↑ Abels: LIQUIFY * WORLD PREMIERE. In: http://www.subitomusic.com . Subito Music Corporation, accessed January 21, 2018 .
  11. ↑ a b c Michael Abels. In: http://library.newmusicusa.org . New Music USA, accessed January 20, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Michael Abels - Detroit. In: Michael Abels. https://michaelabels.com , accessed June 6, 2020 (American English).
  13. ^ Hollywood Music in Media Awards: Full Winners List. In: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com . The Hollywood Reporter, accessed January 21, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Abel: ANGELS WE HAVE HEARD ON HIGH - Subito Music Corporation. In: http://www.subitomusic.com . Subito Music Corporation, accessed January 20, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Michael Abels: Sharde Bivans - Be The Change. In: https://www.youtube.com . July 29, 2014, accessed January 20, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Lara Downes to Release Her Sony Music Debut Album 'For Lenny'. In: https://www.broadwayworld.com . Wisdom Digital Media, November 15, 2017, accessed February 21, 2018 .
  17. ^ Michael Abels Returns to his Symphonic Roots for "Bad Education". In: The Spool. April 25, 2020, accessed June 6, 2020 (American English).
  18. ↑ World Soundtrack Awards: Discovery of the Year Awards. In: https://www.worldsoundtrackawards.com . Retrieved June 6, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Abels, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American composer, arranger and music educator
DATE OF BIRTH October 8, 1962
PLACE OF BIRTH Phoenix , Arizona , United States