March
8, 2002
Making
Music with Samuel Adler
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Composer
Samuel Adler
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As part of the weeklong Five College Composer-in-Residence program,
which begins March 11, MHC students will gather in Pratt Hall's
Warbeke Room March 14 at 11 am for a class with Samuel Adler,
one of this country's best-known and most prolific contemporary
composers. During his residency, Adler will give lectures and
demonstrations and take part in classes and seminars on all five
campuses. His residency will conclude with a March 14 concert
featuring an all-Adler program performed by faculty members and
students of the Five Colleges. The concert will be at 8 pm in
Pratt Hall.
During the MHC class, Adler will focus on several of his works,
as well as on the state of music in the latter part of the twentieth
century and into the future. He may address his background in
Jewish liturgical music and its presence in his works. A number
of MHC musicians will participate in the concert. Performing Adler's
Violin Sonata No. 2 (1968) will be Associate Professors of Music
Linda Laderach and Larry Schipull. Pianist and MHC Associate Professors
of music Gary Steigerwalt will play "Thy Song Expands My
Spirit," written by Adler as a tribute to Aaron Copland on
the latter's eightieth birthday. Steigerwalt will also accompany
mezzo-soprano Marjorie L. Melnick '72 and oboist Frederic
Cohen, professor of music at UMass Amherst, in "Three Songs
about the Times of Man" (1954), "Lovesong" (1989),
and "Three Psalms" (1987). The MHC Glee Club, directed
by Hammond-Douglass Professor of Music Catharine Melhorn, will
present "The Ballad of the Dog," an excerpt from Adler's
"A Whole Bunch of Fun." A reception will follow the
performance.
"As a student of Copland and Walter Piston, an educator
of more than thirty years at Eastman and Juilliard, an author
of widely used texts on orchestration and musicianship, and a
composer of more than four hundred published works, Adler is the
quintessential ‘American' composer of the latter half
of the twentieth century," said MHC Assistant Professor of
Music David Sanford.
Born in Germany in 1928, Adler came to the United States in 1939.
He earned a bachelor's degree at Boston University and a master's
degree at Harvard University and has received honorary degrees
from Harvard and several other institutions. While serving in
the United States Army, Adler founded the Seventh Army Symphony
Orchestra, whose achievements garnered him the Army Medal of Honor.
He is the recipient of many other honors, including induction
into the American Academy of Arts and Letters.
Currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music, Adler
served for many years as professor of composition at the Eastman
School of Music and chairman of the composition department. Prior
to that, he held positions at North Texas State University; Temple
Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas; and Dallas Lyric Theater. He has also
served as guest composer or conductor at more than three hundred
universities and colleges worldwide.
Adler's published works include five operas, six symphonies,
eight string quartets; eight concerti; many shorter works for
orchestra, wind ensembles, bands, chamber groups; and a considerable
body of choral music and songs. His compositions have been performed
by major organizations around the world and have been released
by numerous major labels.
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