Martin Boykan
Encyclopedia
Martin Boykan was born on April 12, 1931 in New York City
. He is an American composer
known for his chamber music
as well as music for larger ensembles. He married the silverpoint
artist Susan Schwalb
in 1983.
at Harvard
, where he received a BA in 1951. He then went to Zürich
to study with Paul Hindemith
, with whom he continued his studies at Yale University
, where he earned an MM in 1953, after which he went to Vienna
on a Fulbright scholarship. He also studied composition with Aaron Copland
at Tanglewood
(1949, 1950), and piano with Eduard Steuermann
. Upon his return to the United States in 1955 he founded the Brandeis Chamber Ensemble, whose other members included Robert Koff (Juilliard String Quartet
), Nancy Cirillo (Wellesley), Eugene Lehner (Kolisch Quartet
), and Madeline Foley (Marlboro Festival). This ensemble performed widely with a repertory divided equally between contemporary music and the tradition. At the same time Boykan appeared regularly as a pianist with soloists such as Joseph Silverstein
and Jan DeGaetani
. In 1964-65, he was the pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
under Erich Leinsdorf
.
He has had residencies at Yaddo
(1981 and 1992), the MacDowell Colony
in Peterborough, New Hampshire
(1982, 1989, 1992), and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Virginia
(1992, 2007, 2010).
Boykan taught at Brandeis University
starting in 1957 and held the title Irving G. Fine Professor of Music. Currently he is Professor Emeritus. Boykan has been Composer-in-Residence at the Composer's Conference in Wellesley (1987) and a Visiting Professor at Columbia University
(1988–89) and at New York University
(1993 and 2000). Boykan was Senior Fulbright Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University
, Israel (1994) and Composer-in-Residence at Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, Irasburg, Vermont
(1998). He has served on many panels, including the Rome Prize, the Fromm Commission, the New York Council for the Arts (CAPS) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Over the years he has taught many hundreds of students including Steven Mackey
, Peter Lieberson
, Ross Bauer, Paul Beaudoin, Craig Walsh
, and Marjorie Merryman
.
Boykan has written for a wide variety of instrumental combinations including four string quartets, a concerto for large ensemble, many trios, duos and solo works, song cycles for voice and piano as well as voice and other instruments, and choral music. His symphony for orchestra and baritone solo was premiered by the Utah Symphony in 1993 and in 2009 his Concerto for Violin was premiered by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. . His work is widely performed and has been presented by ensembles including the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the New York New Music Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, the League-ISCM, Earplay, Musica Viva and Collage New Music.
He received the Jeunesse musicales award for his String Quartet No. 1 in 1967, and the League-ISCM award for Elegy in 1982. Other awards include a Rockefeller grant (1974), NEA award (1983), Guggenheim Fellowship (1984), two Fulbrights (1953–55), as well as a recording award and the Walter Hinrichsen Publication Award from the American Academy (1988) and National Institute of Arts and Letters (1986). In 1994 he was awarded a Senior Fulbright to Israel. He has received numerous commissions from chamber ensembles as well as commissions from the Koussevitsky Foundation in the Library of Congress (1985), and the Fromm Foundation (1976).
In 2010 Albany Records released the CD Second Chances which includes String Quartet No. 3, Motet, Songlines and Second Chances featuring Pamela Dellal, mezzo soprano and Donald Berman, Pianist. Scores are published by Mobart Music Press and C.F. Peters, NYC.
In 2004 Scarecrow Press, MD published a collection of essays entitled Silence and Slow-Time: Studies in Musical Narrative. His second book, The Power of the Moment: Essays on the Western Musical Canon, will be published by Pengragon Press in 2011.
Three artist books produced in collaboration with his wife, the artist Susan Schwalb, were recently purchased by the Music Division of the Library of Congress: City of Gold (flute solo), Flume (clarinet), and Nocturne (viola da gamba).
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He is an American composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
known for his chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
as well as music for larger ensembles. He married the silverpoint
Silverpoint
Silverpoint is a traditional drawing technique first used by Medieval scribes on manuscripts.-History:A silverpoint drawing is made by dragging a silver rod or wire across a surface, often prepared with gesso or primer. Silverpoint is one of several types of metalpoint used by scribes, craftsmen...
artist Susan Schwalb
Susan Schwalb
Susan Schwalb is a contemporary silverpoint artist. She was born in New York City , graduated from the High School of Music & Art , and has a BFA from Carnegie Mellon University...
in 1983.
Biography
Boykan was born in New York City. He studied composition first with Walter PistonWalter Piston
Walter Hamor Piston Jr., , was an American composer of classical music, music theorist and professor of music at Harvard University whose students included Leroy Anderson, Leonard Bernstein, and Elliott Carter....
at Harvard
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, where he received a BA in 1951. He then went to Zürich
Zürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
to study with Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
, with whom he continued his studies at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, where he earned an MM in 1953, after which he went to Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
on a Fulbright scholarship. He also studied composition with 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"...
at 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...
(1949, 1950), and piano with Eduard Steuermann
Eduard Steuermann
Eduard Steuermann was an Austrian pianist and composer. The actress Salka Viertel was his sister...
. Upon his return to the United States in 1955 he founded the Brandeis Chamber Ensemble, whose other members included Robert Koff (Juilliard String Quartet
Juilliard String Quartet
The Juilliard String Quartet is a classical music string quartet founded in 1946 at the Juilliard School in New York. The original members were violinists Robert Mann and Robert Koff, violist Raphael Hillyer, and cellist Arthur Winograd; Current members are Joseph Lin and Ronald Copes violinists,...
), Nancy Cirillo (Wellesley), Eugene Lehner (Kolisch Quartet
Kolisch Quartet
The Kolisch Quartet was a string quartet musical ensemble founded in Vienna, originally as the New Vienna String Quartet for the performance of Schoenberg's works, and settling to the form in which it was later known. It had a worldwide reputation and made several recordings...
), and Madeline Foley (Marlboro Festival). This ensemble performed widely with a repertory divided equally between contemporary music and the tradition. At the same time Boykan appeared regularly as a pianist with soloists such as Joseph Silverstein
Joseph Silverstein
Joseph Silverstein is an American violinist and conductor.As a youth, Silverstein studied with his father, Bernard Silverstein, who was a public school music teacher...
and Jan DeGaetani
Jan DeGaetani
Jan DeGaetani was an American mezzo-soprano known for her performances of contemporary classical vocal compositions.DeGaetani was born in Massillon, Ohio...
. In 1964-65, he was the pianist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra
Boston Symphony Orchestra
The Boston Symphony Orchestra is an orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1881, the BSO plays most of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the Tanglewood Music Center...
under Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf
Erich Leinsdorf was a naturalized American Austrian conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a reputation for exacting standards as well as an acerbic personality...
.
He has had residencies at Yaddo
Yaddo
Yaddo is an artists' community located on a 400 acre estate in Saratoga Springs, New York. Its mission is "to nurture the creative process by providing an opportunity for artists to work without interruption in a supportive environment."...
(1981 and 1992), the MacDowell Colony
MacDowell Colony
The MacDowell Colony is an art colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, U.S.A., founded in 1907 by Marian MacDowell, pianist and wife of composer Edward MacDowell. She established the institution and its endowment chiefly with donated funds...
in Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough, New Hampshire
Peterborough is a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. The population was 6,284 at the 2010 census. Home to the MacDowell Art Colony, the town is a popular tourist destination....
(1982, 1989, 1992), and at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, Virginia
Amherst, Virginia
Amherst is a town in Amherst County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,251 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Amherst County.Amherst is part of the Lynchburg Metropolitan Statistical Area.-Geography:...
(1992, 2007, 2010).
Boykan taught at Brandeis University
Brandeis University
Brandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
starting in 1957 and held the title Irving G. Fine Professor of Music. Currently he is Professor Emeritus. Boykan has been Composer-in-Residence at the Composer's Conference in Wellesley (1987) and a Visiting Professor at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
(1988–89) and at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
(1993 and 2000). Boykan was Senior Fulbright Lecturer at Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University
Bar-Ilan University is a university in Ramat Gan of the Tel Aviv District, Israel.Established in 1955, Bar Ilan is now Israel's second-largest academic institution. It has nearly 26,800 students and 1,350 faculty members...
, Israel (1994) and Composer-in-Residence at Warebrook Contemporary Music Festival, Irasburg, Vermont
Irasburg, Vermont
Irasburg is a town in Orleans County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,077 at the 2000 census.-Town:* Moderator - David Turner* Selectman - Randy Wells, Roger Gagnon * Town Clerk - Barbara Lawson* Town Treasurer - Barbara Lawson...
(1998). He has served on many panels, including the Rome Prize, the Fromm Commission, the New York Council for the Arts (CAPS) and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. Over the years he has taught many hundreds of students including Steven Mackey
Steven Mackey
Steven Mackey is an American composer, guitarist, and music educator.-Life:As a musician growing up listening to and performing vernacular American musics as well as classical music, Mackey's compositions are informed by rock and jazz, though in an avant-garde vein...
, Peter Lieberson
Peter Lieberson
Peter Lieberson was an American composer. He was ballerina and choreographer Vera Zorina and Goddard Lieberson, president of Columbia Records....
, Ross Bauer, Paul Beaudoin, Craig Walsh
Craig Walsh
Craig Thomas Walsh is an American composer.Walsh studied at the Mannes College of Music in New York City and Brandeis University . His major teachers included Martin Boykan, Eric Chasalow, Robert Cuckson, David Loeb, and Yehudi Wyner...
, and Marjorie Merryman
Marjorie Merryman
Marjorie Merryman is an American composer, author, and music educator. Currently, she is Dean of Academic Affairs at the Manhattan School of Music, where she is also a member of the composition faculty...
.
Boykan has written for a wide variety of instrumental combinations including four string quartets, a concerto for large ensemble, many trios, duos and solo works, song cycles for voice and piano as well as voice and other instruments, and choral music. His symphony for orchestra and baritone solo was premiered by the Utah Symphony in 1993 and in 2009 his Concerto for Violin was premiered by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project. . His work is widely performed and has been presented by ensembles including the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, the New York New Music Ensemble, Speculum Musicae, the League-ISCM, Earplay, Musica Viva and Collage New Music.
He received the Jeunesse musicales award for his String Quartet No. 1 in 1967, and the League-ISCM award for Elegy in 1982. Other awards include a Rockefeller grant (1974), NEA award (1983), Guggenheim Fellowship (1984), two Fulbrights (1953–55), as well as a recording award and the Walter Hinrichsen Publication Award from the American Academy (1988) and National Institute of Arts and Letters (1986). In 1994 he was awarded a Senior Fulbright to Israel. He has received numerous commissions from chamber ensembles as well as commissions from the Koussevitsky Foundation in the Library of Congress (1985), and the Fromm Foundation (1976).
Selected works and publications
- String Trio (1948)
- String Quartet (1949)
- Flute Sonata (1950)
- Duo for Violin and Piano (1951)
- Flute Quintet (1953)
- Prelude for Organ (1964)
- Psalm 128 for a cappella chorus (1965), Mobart Music Press
- String Quartet No. 1 (1967), C.F. Peters, reprinted in Perspectives of New Music, recorded by CRI
- Concerto for 13 Players (1971), APNM
- String Quartet No. 2 (1974), Mobart Music Press, recorded by CRI
- Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano (1975), Mobart Music Press, commissioned by the Fromm Foundation
- Elegy for Soprano and Six Instruments on texts by Goethe, Leopari, Wngaretti, Emily Dickenson and Li Ho (1982), APNM, recorded by CRI
- String Quartet No. 3 (1984), C.F. Peters
- Shalom Rav' for Baritone, Chorus and Organ (1985)
- Piano Sonata No. 1 (1986), C.F. Peters
- Epithalamion for Baritone, Violin and Harp (1987), APNM, recorded by CRI
- Symphony for orchestra with Baritone Solo (1989), APNM, commissioned by the Koussevitzky Foundation
- Piano Sonata No. 2 (1990), C.F. Peters
- Nocturne for Cello, Piano and Percussion (1991), APNM
- Eclogue, for Flute, Horn, Viola, Cello and Piano (1991), APNM
- Echoes of Petrarch for Flute, Clarinet and Piano (1992), C.F. Peters, recorded by CRI
- Sonata for 'Cello and Piano (1992), C.F. Peters
- Voyages for Soprano and Piano on texts by Hart Crane (1992), APNM
- Sea Gardens Four Songs for Soprano and Piano on texts by Hart Crane, Whitman, and Shakespeare (1993), APNM
- Impromptu for Violin Solo (1993), C.F. Peters
- Three Psalms for Soprano and Piano (1993), APNM
- Pastorale for Piano (1993)
- Sonata for Violin and Piano (1994) C.F. Peters
- Ma'ariv Settings for Chorus and Organ (1995)
- String Quartet No. 4 (1995 96) C.F. Peters, recorded by CRI
- Three Shakespeare Songs for Chorus (1996)
- City of Gold (1996) C.F. Peters, recorded by CRI
- Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano #2 (1997) C.F. Peters recorded for CRI
- Psalm 121 for Soprano and String Quartet (1997)
- Usurpations, Five Bagatelles for Piano (1997)
- Sonata for Solo Violin (1998)
- Flume for Clarinet and Piano (1998)
- Romanza for Flute and Piano (1999)
- A Packet for Susan: Five Songs for Mezzo-Soprano and Piano on texts by Keats, Donne, Landor and Lear (2000)
- Motet for mezzo-soprano and consort of viols (2001)
- Songlines for flute, clarinet, violin and ‘cello (2001)
- Concerto for Violin and Piano (2004)
- Second Chances (2005), song cycle on texts by Mary Oliver for mezzo-soprano and piano, premiere performances in New York (Jan. 2006) and Boston (Feb. 2006).
- Piano Trio No. 3, “Rites of Passage” (2006)
- Piano Sonata No. 3 (2007)
- Toward the Horizon, Novella for Piano Solo (2008)
- Soliloquies of an Insomniac, Four songs for Soprano and Piano (2008)
- Sonata for violin and piano no.2 (2009)
Recordings
His String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 are both recorded on CRI. A disc of vocal music (Elegy and Epithalamion) was released by CRI in 1998, along with the String Quartet No. 4. A second CD including the Piano Trio No. 2, Echoes of Petrarch (trio for flute, clarinet and piano), City of Gold (flute) and the Second Quartet was released in January 2000. A new CD of chamber works issued by CRI (assigned to New World Records now and can be ordered on line) includes a violin sonata, Flume for clarinet and piano, a song cycle (A Packet for Susan), and the First String Quartet. Sonata for Solo Violin(commissioned by Dan Stepner) is included on a CD by the violinist Curt Macomber (also CRI/New World).In 2010 Albany Records released the CD Second Chances which includes String Quartet No. 3, Motet, Songlines and Second Chances featuring Pamela Dellal, mezzo soprano and Donald Berman, Pianist. Scores are published by Mobart Music Press and C.F. Peters, NYC.
In 2004 Scarecrow Press, MD published a collection of essays entitled Silence and Slow-Time: Studies in Musical Narrative. His second book, The Power of the Moment: Essays on the Western Musical Canon, will be published by Pengragon Press in 2011.
Three artist books produced in collaboration with his wife, the artist Susan Schwalb, were recently purchased by the Music Division of the Library of Congress: City of Gold (flute solo), Flume (clarinet), and Nocturne (viola da gamba).