Peter Lieberson (born 25 October, 1946 in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
) is an American composer. His mother Brigitta was a
ballerinaA ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
and
choreographerChoreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
, also professionally known as
Vera ZorinaVera Zorina was a ballerina, musical theatre actress and choreographer in both Europe and the United States....
. His father,
Goddard LiebersonGoddard Lieberson was the president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971, and from 1973 to 1975. He was also a composer, and studied with George Frederick McKay, at the University of Washington, Seattle....
, was president of
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers,...
.
Lieberson studied
compositionMusical composition is:* an original piece of music* the structure of a musical piece* the process of creating a new piece of music- Musical compositions :...
with
Milton BabbittMilton Byron Babbitt is an American composer. He is particularly noted for his pioneering serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
,
Charles WuorinenCharles Wuorinen is an American composer. Wuorinen is a prolific composer in all genres and a high profile proponent of contemporary music...
,
Donald MartinoDonald Martino was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer.Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino studied composition with Ernst Bacon, Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, and Luigi Dallapiccola...
, and
Martin Boykan Martin Boykan studied composition with Walter Piston,Aaron Copland and Paul Hindemith, and piano with Eduard Steuermann. He received a BA from Harvard University, 1951, and an MM from Yale University, 1953...
. After completing his musical studies at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
, he left New York in 1976 for
BoulderBoulder is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County, Colorado, in the United States. Boulder is the 11th most populous city in the state of Colorado. The United States Census Bureau estimates that in 2008 the population of the city of Boulder was...
,
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
to continue his studies with
Chogyam TrungpaChögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tülku, a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.Recognized...
, a
TibetanThe Tibetan people are indigenous to Tibet and surrounding areas stretching from Central Asia in the North and West to Myanmar and China Proper in the East and India, Nepal and Bhutan to the south.-Demographics:...
VajrayanaVajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. The period of Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism...
Buddhist master. It was there he met and married Ellen Kearney, a fellow student of Chogyam Trungpa.
Peter Lieberson (born 25 October, 1946 in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
) is an American composer. His mother Brigitta was a
ballerinaA ballerina is a title used to describe a principal female professional ballet dancer in a large company; the male equivalent to this title is danseur or ballerino...
and
choreographerChoreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...
, also professionally known as
Vera ZorinaVera Zorina was a ballerina, musical theatre actress and choreographer in both Europe and the United States....
. His father,
Goddard LiebersonGoddard Lieberson was the president of Columbia Records from 1956 to 1971, and from 1973 to 1975. He was also a composer, and studied with George Frederick McKay, at the University of Washington, Seattle....
, was president of
Columbia RecordsColumbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of notable singers,...
.
Lieberson studied
compositionMusical composition is:* an original piece of music* the structure of a musical piece* the process of creating a new piece of music- Musical compositions :...
with
Milton BabbittMilton Byron Babbitt is an American composer. He is particularly noted for his pioneering serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
,
Charles WuorinenCharles Wuorinen is an American composer. Wuorinen is a prolific composer in all genres and a high profile proponent of contemporary music...
,
Donald MartinoDonald Martino was a Pulitzer Prize winning American composer.Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Martino studied composition with Ernst Bacon, Roger Sessions, Milton Babbitt, and Luigi Dallapiccola...
, and
Martin Boykan Martin Boykan studied composition with Walter Piston,Aaron Copland and Paul Hindemith, and piano with Eduard Steuermann. He received a BA from Harvard University, 1951, and an MM from Yale University, 1953...
. After completing his musical studies at
Columbia UniversityColumbia University in the City of New York is a private university in the United States and a member of the Ivy League. Columbia's main campus lies in the Morningside Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, in New York City...
, he left New York in 1976 for
BoulderBoulder is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of Boulder County, Colorado, in the United States. Boulder is the 11th most populous city in the state of Colorado. The United States Census Bureau estimates that in 2008 the population of the city of Boulder was...
,
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. It may also be considered to be part of the Western and Southwestern regions of the United States. Colorado entered statehood in 1876 and was nicknamed the “Centennial State”...
to continue his studies with
Chogyam TrungpaChögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was a Buddhist meditation master and holder of both the Kagyu and Nyingma lineages, the eleventh Trungpa tülku, a tertön, supreme abbot of the Surmang monasteries, scholar, teacher, poet, artist, and originator of a radical re-presentation of Shambhala vision.Recognized...
, a
TibetanThe Tibetan people are indigenous to Tibet and surrounding areas stretching from Central Asia in the North and West to Myanmar and China Proper in the East and India, Nepal and Bhutan to the south.-Demographics:...
VajrayanaVajrayāna Buddhism is also known as Tantric Buddhism, Tantrayāna, Mantrayāna, Secret Mantra, Esoteric Buddhism and the Diamond Vehicle. The period of Vajrayana Buddhism has been classified as the fifth or final period of Indian Buddhism...
Buddhist master. It was there he met and married Ellen Kearney, a fellow student of Chogyam Trungpa. At the request of their teacher, the Liebersons moved from Boulder to Boston, Massachusetts to co-direct
Shambhala TrainingShambhala Training is a secular approach to meditation developed by the late Tibetan Buddhist teacher Chogyam Trungpa and his students. It is based on what Trungpa calls Shambhala Vision, which sees enlightened society as not purely mythical, but as realizable by people of all faiths through...
, a meditation and cultural program. Lieberson attended
Brandeis UniversityBrandeis University is a private research university with a liberal arts focus, located in Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate...
, from which he received a
Ph.D.Ph.D. or PHD may stand for:* Doctor of Philosophy, an academic degree* Ph.D. , a 1980s British group* Piled Higher and Deeper, a web comic strip* PhD: Phantasy Degree, a Korean comic series* Parisada Hindu Dharma, an Indonesian organization...
From 1984 to 1988 he taught at
Harvard UniversityHarvard University is a private university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1636 by the colonial Massachusetts legislature, Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and currently comprises ten separate academic units...
. He then became international director of Shambhala Training in
Halifax, Nova ScotiaThe City of Halifax was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County, and was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...
.
Since 1994, Lieberson has devoted his time entirely to composition. He wrote his song cycles
Rilke Songs and
Neruda Songs for his second wife,
mezzo-sopranoA mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Lorraine Hunt LiebersonLorraine Hunt Lieberson was a renowned American soprano then mezzo-soprano.-Her life:Her parents were both involved with opera in the San Francisco Bay Area; her mother, Marcia, was a contralto and music teacher and her father, Randolph, taught music in high school and college...
. The
Neruda Songs were co-commissioned by the
Los Angeles PhilharmonicThe Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
and the
Boston SymphonyThe Boston Symphony Orchestra is an American 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 the majority of its concerts at Boston's Symphony Hall and in the summer performs at the...
; the world premiere was given on May 20, 2005, by the
Los Angeles PhilharmonicThe Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
with
Esa-Pekka SalonenEsa-Pekka Salonen is a prominent Finnish orchestral conductor and composer. He is currently Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the Philharmonia Orchestra in London and Conductor Laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic....
conducting and Hunt Lieberson as soloist. The Boston Symphony performed the work in November 2005 with
James LevineJames Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and of the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
conducting, followed by performances with the
Cleveland OrchestraThe Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
,
Robert SpanoRobert Spano is an American conductor and pianist. Since 2001 he has been Music Director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra , and he served as Music Director of the Brooklyn Philharmonic from 1996 to 2004....
conducting.
NonesuchNonesuch Records is an American record label, owned by Warner Music Group and distributed by Warner Bros. Records.-Company history:Nonesuch was founded in 1964 by Jac Holzman to license European recordings of classical music. Originally it concentrated heavily on chamber and baroque music, often...
subsequently released a commercial recording in 2006 of the Boston/Levine performance. In December 2007, Lieberson won the 2008
Grawemeyer AwardThe Grawemeyer Awards, presented each year by the University of Louisville in the state of Kentucky, United States, are among the world's most prestigious prizes presented to individuals in the fields of education, ideas improving world order, music composition, religion, and psychology...
for Music Composition for
Neruda Songs.
Lieberson has three daughters from his first marriage. He and Lorraine Hunt met in 1997 during the
Santa Fe OperaThe Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of . John Crosby, a New York-based conductor, founded SFO in 1956, originally as the Opera Association of New Mexico...
production of his work
Ashoka's Dream and married in 1999 after he and his first wife were divorced. They remained married until her death in July 2006.
Shortly after Lorraine died, Peter Lieberson himself was diagnosed with cancer. He battled a serious lymphoma, which appears to be in full remission.
lymphomaLymphoma is a cancer that begins in the lymphocytes of the immune system and presents as a solid tumor of lymphoid cells. They often originate like balls in lymph nodes, presenting as an enlargement of the node...
. He has remarried and currently lives in
Santa Fe, New MexicoSanta Fe is the capital of the state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 62,203 at the April 1, 2000 census; the estimate for July 1, 2006, is 72,056...
.
Orchestral works
- Drala (1986)
- The Gesar Legend (1988)
- World’s Turning (1991)
- The Five Great Elements (1995)
- Processional (1995)
- Ah (2002)
Solo instrument and orchestra
- Concerto
The term Concerto is usually a three-part musical work in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra...
for Four Groups of Instruments (1972)
- Concerto for Violoncello
The cello is a bowed string instrument. The word derives from the Italian violoncello. A person who plays a cello is called a cellist. The cello is used as a solo instrument, in chamber music, and as a member of the string section of an orchestra...
with Accompanying TrioTrio is generally used in any of the following ways:*Three musicians playing the same or different musical instrument.*The performance of a song by three people.*The contrasting section of a piece in ternary form...
s (1974)
- Concerto for Piano
The piano is a musical instrument which is played by means of a keyboard. Widely used in Western music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music, and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
(1980)
- Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.The casual observer may mistake the viola for the violin because of their similarity in size, closeness in pitch range , and nearly identical playing position...
Concerto (1992)
- Rhapsody
A rhapsody in music is a one-movement work that is episodic yet integrated, free-flowing in structure, featuring a range of highly contrasted moods, colour and tonality. An air of spontaneous inspiration and a sense of improvisation make it freer in form than a set of variations...
for Viola and Orchestra (1994)
- Horn
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
Concerto (1998)
- Red Garuda for piano (1999)
- The Six Realms for cello (2000)
- Piano Concerto No. 3 (2003)
- Neruda
Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean writer and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. Neruda assumed his pen name as a teenager, partly because it was in vogue, partly to hide his poetry from his father, a rigid man who wanted his son to have a "practical"...
Songs for mezzo-sopranoA mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
(2005)
Chamber works
- Accordance for 8 Instruments (1975)
- Tashi Quartet (1978)
- Three Songs with soprano
A soprano is a singing voice with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music...
(1981)
- Lalita, Chamber Variations (1984)
- Feast Day (1985)
- Ziji (1987)
- Raising the Gaze (1988)
- Elegy (1990)
- Wind Messengers (1990)
- King Gesar with narrator (1991)
- A Little Fanfare (1991)
- A Little Fanfare (II) (1993)
- Variations (1993)
- Rumble (1994)
- String Quartet (1994)
- Three Variations for Violoncello and Piano (1996)
- Free and Easy Wanderer (1998)
- Piano Quintet (2001)
External links