Richard Dufallo

Richard Dufallo (born January 30, 1933 in Whiting , Indiana , † June 16, 2000 in Denton , Texas ) was an American clarinetist and conductor . He was a supporter of new music .

Life

Dufallo moved the family to Chicago, Illinois, when he was twelve. There he studied clarinet at the American Conservatory of Music from 1950 to 1953 and played in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago. From 1953 to 1955 he served in the United States Navy . He then studied composition and conducting (with Lukas Foss ) at the University of California, Los Angeles . Foss invited him to the Improvisation Chamber Ensemble.

In the 1960s he began his conducting career with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra in Buffalo, New York. Dufallo taught at the Center for Creative and Performing Arts at the State University of New York and studied with William Steinberg at the conducting seminar of the New York Philharmonic . From 1965 to 1967 he was Leonard Bernstein's assistant with the New York Philharmonic. In 1967 he accompanied the orchestra on a trip to Asia. He was then a guest conductor with the Philadelphia Orchestra , the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. In 1969 he trained with Pierre Boulez . He also became artistic director and thus successor to Darius Milhaud at the Conference on Contemporary Music in Aspen. During the 1970s and 1980s he taught New Music at the Juilliard School in New York City and at the Aspen Music Festival and School . He was responsible for numerous premieres ( Iannis Xenakis , Karlheinz Stockhausen , Sir Peter Maxwell Davies , Krzysztof Penderecki , Aribert Reimann and others) and premieres ( Jacob Druckman , Elliott Carter , Charles Ives , Carl Ruggles and others) of works by contemporary composers.

In 1970 he made his debut in Europe with the Orchester Téléphonique Français of Paris. He conducts a. a. the Berlin Philharmonic , the London Symphony Orchestra and the Spanish National Orchestra . In 1975 he conducted the Concertgebouw Orchestra for the first time . He toured with the Netherlands Wind Ensemble and the Dutch Radio Philharmonic. Radio recordings were made with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra . In 1980 he became music director of the Gelders Orchestra of Arnheim.

From 1972 to 1974 he conducted the Mini-Met of the Metropolitan Opera and regularly the Cincinnati Opera and the New York City Opera .

He was married to the pianist Pamela Mia Paul and the father of three children. A scholarship program was established on his behalf at the University of North Texas , where his wife was a professor. The Richard Dufallo Collection is preserved in the University of North Texas Music Library.

literature

• Larry S. Bonura: Dufallo, Richard, in: Laurie E. Jasinski (ed.): Handbook of Texas Music, 2nd edition, Texas State Historical Association, Denton 2012, online .
• Allan Kozinn : Richard Dufallo, 67, Conductor of New Music , in: The New York Times , June 21, 2000.

Web links

• Literature by and about Richard Dufallo in the catalog of the German National Library