Boston Musica Viva
Encyclopedia
Boston Musica Viva is a Boston, Massachusetts-based music ensemble founded by its Music Director, Richard Pittman, in 1969 and dedicated to contemporary music.
-winners Ellen Taaffe Zwilich John Harbison
, Joseph Schwantner
and Steven Stucky
.
’s opera The Mocking-Bird, John Harbison’s A Full Moon in March, Theo Loevendie
’s Gassir, the Hero, Martin Brody’s Heart of a Dog, and John Eaton
’s Traveling with Gulliver.
, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
, the 92nd Street Y
, Tanglewood
, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Michigan
. The ensemble has made eight tours of Europe, making appearances that included the Settembre Musica Festival in Turin, Italy.
Boston Musica Viva has recorded for the [Albany Records | Albany], Neuma, Delos, CRI, [Nonesuch Records | Nonesuch], Newport Classic and Northeastern Records labels.
Boston Musica Viva received an Aaron Copland
Fund grant in 1993 and in 2003, the ensemble received the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming.
Composers and compositions
Boston Musica Viva has performed the works of 233 composers over its 38-year history; more than 565 compositions in all. A total of 143 works have been written for the ensemble to date, and they have performed 158 world premieres, and 71 Boston premieres. Among the composers whose work the ensemble has performed are Pulitzer PrizePulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
-winners Ellen Taaffe Zwilich John Harbison
John Harbison
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
, Joseph Schwantner
Joseph Schwantner
Joseph C. Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer and educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize....
and Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky
Steven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
.
World premieres
Boston Musica Viva has presented the world premieres of Thea MusgraveThea Musgrave
Thea Musgrave CBE is a Scottish composer of opera and classical music.-Biography:Born in Barnton, Edinburgh, Thea Musgrave studied at the University of Edinburgh and in Paris as a pupil of Nadia Boulanger...
’s opera The Mocking-Bird, John Harbison’s A Full Moon in March, Theo Loevendie
Theo Loevendie
Theo Loevendie is a Dutch composer and clarinet player.Loevendie studied composition and clarinet at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam. Initially he concentrated on jazz music. As off 1968 he also wrote concert music, among which operas, concertos and chamber music...
’s Gassir, the Hero, Martin Brody’s Heart of a Dog, and John Eaton
John Eaton (composer)
John Charles Eaton is an American composer , MacArthur Fellow, is professor emeritus of composition at the University of Chicago John Charles Eaton (born 30 March 1935 in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania) is an American composer (Anon. [n.d.]; Morgan 2001), MacArthur Fellow, is professor emeritus of...
’s Traveling with Gulliver.
Touring
In addition to its Boston concert season, Boston Musica Viva’s touring engagements have taken them to Lincoln Center, the Library of CongressLibrary of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, the Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, the 92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y
92nd Street Y is a multifaceted cultural institution and community center located on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, at the corner of E. 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue. Its full name is 92nd Street Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association...
, Tanglewood
Tanglewood
Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...
, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
. The ensemble has made eight tours of Europe, making appearances that included the Settembre Musica Festival in Turin, Italy.
Boston Musica Viva has recorded for the [Albany Records | Albany], Neuma, Delos, CRI, [Nonesuch Records | Nonesuch], Newport Classic and Northeastern Records labels.
Boston Musica Viva received an Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
Fund grant in 1993 and in 2003, the ensemble received the ASCAP/Chamber Music America Award for Adventurous Programming.
Partial list of composers with works premiered or performed by Boston Musica Viva
- Elliott CarterElliott CarterElliott Cook Carter, Jr. is a two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. He studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in the 1930s, and then returned to the United States. After a neoclassical phase, he went on to write atonal, rhythmically complex music...
- Peter ChildPeter ChildPeter Burlingham Child is an American composer, teacher, and musical analyst. He is Professor of Music at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a composer in residence with the New England Philharmonic....
- Osvaldo GolijovOsvaldo GolijovOsvaldo Noé Golijov is a Grammy award–winning composer of classical music.-Biography:Osvaldo Golijov was born in and grew up in La Plata, Argentina, in a Jewish family that had emigrated to Argentina in the 1920s from Romania and Russia.Golijov has developed a rich musical language, the result of...
- John HarbisonJohn HarbisonJohn Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
- Bernard HofferBernard HofferBernard Hoffer is an American composer who was born in Switzerland and conductor who has created original music for a number of different films, television series, and commercials. He has also conducted several musical shows, such as the ballets A Boston Cinderella! and Ma Goose...
- Shirish KordeShirish KordeShirish Korde , is a composer who was born in Uganda to Indian parents. He is the Chair of the Music Department at the College of the Holy Cross and has previously been on the faculty of the Berklee College of Music, the New England Conservatory, and Brown University...
- William KraftWilliam KraftWilliam Kraft is a composer, conductor, teacher, and percussionist.-Undergrad and Graduate School Years :...
- Gyorgy KurtagGyörgy KurtágGyörgy Kurtág is a Hungarian composer of contemporary music.- Biography :György Kurtág was born in Lugoj in the Banat region, Romania.In 1946, he began his studies at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, where he met his wife, Márta, and also György Ligeti, who became a close friend...
- Joyce Mekeel
- Frederic RzewskiFrederic RzewskiFrederic Anthony Rzewski is an American composer and virtuoso pianist.- Biography :Rzewski began playing piano at age 5. He attended Phillips Academy, Harvard and Princeton, where his teachers included Randall Thompson, Roger Sessions, Walter Piston and Milton Babbitt...
- Gunther SchullerGunther SchullerGunther Schuller is an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, and jazz musician.- Biography and works :...
- Joseph SchwantnerJoseph SchwantnerJoseph C. Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer and educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize....
- Ralph ShapeyRalph ShapeyRalph Shapey was an American composer and conductor. He is well-known for his work as a composition professor at the University of Chicago, where he founded and directed the Contemporary Chamber Players...
- Rand SteigerRand SteigerRand Steiger is an American composer, conductor, and pedagogue.Steiger became a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts in 1982, remaining there until 1987...
- Steven StuckySteven StuckySteven Stucky is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he studied music in the public schools and, privately, viola with Herbert Preston, conducting with Leo Scheer, and...
- Joerg Widmann
- Chen YiChen Yi (composer)Chen Yi is a Chinese composer of contemporary classical music. She was the first Chinese woman to receive a Master of Arts in music composition from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing. She is also a violinist....
- Evan ZiporynEvan ZiporynEvan Ziporyn is an American composer of post-minimalist music and music for Balinese gamelans. He plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, saxophone, and metallophone, borrowing from classical music, avant-garde, and jazz...
- Ellen Taaffe Zwilich
Flute
- John Heiss (1969-74)
- Fenwick SmithFenwick SmithFenwick Smith is an American flautist. He studied under Joseph Mariano at the Eastman School of Music, graduating from there in 1972. Shortly thereafter he became a member of the New England Woodwind Quintet and began a thirteen year membership with Boston Musica Viva...
- Renee Krimsier
- Alicia DiDonato (2003-2008)
- Ann K. Bobo (2008-present)
Performers who have appeared with Boston Musica Viva
- Composer, conductor and pianist Rob Kapilow
- Vocalist Dominique EadeDominique EadeDominique Eade is an American jazz singer and composer. She lives near Boston and is on the faculty of the New England Conservatory.-Discography:Source: Amazon* My Resistance is Low, 1994* The Ruby and the Pearl, 1994...
- Mezzo-soprano Janice Felty
- Pianist Randall Hodgkinson
- Mezzo-soprano Pamela Dellal
- Soprano Elizabeth Keusch