AV on Music Theory Print

Avery Robinson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avery Robinson (January 21, 1878 – May 11, 1965 ) was an American classical composer who worked with, among others, Roland Hayes and Paul Robeson. Biography Avery Robinson was born on January 21, 1878, in Louisville, Kentucky. His father was a local mill owner there. After graduating from MIT, Avery returned to Louisville to work for his father and for another mill owner, W. E. Chess. In 1907 he married Chess’s daughter Mary, who would later found the Mary Chess Company, a perfume manufacturer. In 1909 their daughter Carley was born. In 1920 Robinson left Louisville for London where he was employed as treasurer to the Royal Philharmonic Society. While there his daughter attended the newly founded Montessori School, and later studied musical composition with Nadia Boulanger. After returning to the United States Avery was employed by the Mary Chess Company. Avery Robinson died in Pittsfield, Mass. on May 11, 1965. Works Pieces composed by (or in part by) Robinson include: *“Waterboy” *“I’ve Been Driving on Bald Mountain” References External links * * Avery Robinson on Allmusic: classical , jazz * Avery Robinson papers at the University of Oregon

Avet Terterian

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Alfred Roubenovich “Avet” Terterian (also Terteryan) (, July 29, 1929 – December 11, 1994) was an Armenian composer, awarded the Konrad Adenauer Prize. Terterian was a friend and colleague of Giya Kancheli, Konstantin Orbelyan, and Tigran Mansurian. Dmitri Shostakovich praised Terterian as “very talented” and “with great future” in one of his letters, published by his friend Isaak Glikman, having heard a recording of Terterian’s works at Armenia’s “House of Composers” summer resort in Dilijan, Armenia. He studied at the Music Academy in Baku from 1948, and moved to the Romanos-Melikian Music Academy in 1951. He studied composition at the Komitas State Conservatory in Yerevan from 1952. He was Executive Secretary of the Armenian Composers’ Union from 1960 to 1963, and Chairman of the Music Department at the Armenian Cultural Ministry from 1970 and 1974. He joined Yerevan Conservatory as a professor in 1985. In 1989, he moved to the village of Ayrivank, located on the western shore of Lake Sevan, Gegharkunik region of Armenia. Terterian’s son, Dr. Ruben Terterian, was a professor of music in Samborondón, Ecuador, until his death in January 2020; and former prorector at the Komitas St

Avgust Ipavec

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avgust Ipavec (2 June 1940 – 3 October 2023) was a Slovenian Roman Catholic priest and composer. Biography Ipavec was born at the onset of World War II in Gorizia. In the 1960s, he studied theology at the in Ljubljana and was ordained a priest in 1966 in . He graduated from composition at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana in 1974. After graduation, he moved to Vienna to further his musical knowledge, and he then worked there as a hospital priest for almost 50 years. In his free time, he composed works mostly for large ensembles, such as oratorios, symphonies, and cantatas. His major compositions were the Christmas Pastorale; the oratory titled (“The Mass in the Field”) he wrote for the 900th anniversary of Cistercians in Stična; the only existent mass in four languages titled (“The Mass of the Nations”); and the symphony Colours of the Green Emerald, which premiered in September 2016, dedicated to the memory of the 100th anniversary of World War I. He occasionally visited his house in Bovec. In December 2006, the Chancellor of Austria awarded Ipavec the Decoration of Merit in Gold of the Republic of Austria for his music, which “connects peoples as music is the only language that c

Avi Benjamin

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avi Benjamin (; ; born 3 March 1959) is an Israeli composer and performer, musical director of the Israeli Gesher Theater since its foundation in 1991. Biography Avi Nedzvetsky (later Benjamin) was born in Tallinn, Estonia. His father was a professor of psychology at the University of Tartu and his mother was a physician. At the age of 4, Benjamin started to learn piano in Tartu, and when he was 15 his family moved to Tallinn, where he continued his studies at the Musical College with the pianist and teacher Renate Goznaya. Benjamin is married to the actress Evgenia Dodina who works at Habima Theater (she met Benjamin when both were working at Gesher). They have a daughter Anna (b. in 1995). Benjamin has also a son Gur (b. in 1985) from his first marriage. Music and theater career After graduation he was accepted to the Estonian Academy of Music and Theater. At the academy, Benjamin studied piano under Bruno Lukk (himself a student of Arthur Schnabel and Paul Hindemith) and Toivo Nahkur. Among his teachers were pianist Anna Klas and composer Jaan Rääts. In the mid-70s, in Tallinn, Benjamin became familiar with the contemporary Western music, mostly prohibited in the USSR at that ti

Avi Schönfeld

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avi Schönfeld is a Polish pianist and composer. He was born in Lodz, Poland on 15 December 1947. Life Schönfeld gave his first concert in his native Poland at the age of 19 before going to Israel to become a pupil of the Bartók disciple Ilona Vincze-Kraus. After winning several national and international prizes, including one with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and first prize in the Leo Kestenberg competition, Schönfeld made his debut in 1968 with the Israeli Radio and Television Orchestra playing Rachmaninov’s Paganini Variations. In November 1972, at the invitation of the French government, Schönfeld undertook study with Vlado Perlemuter, Yvonne Lefébure, Arthur Rubinstein, and Marcel Ciampi in piano, Henryk Szeryng in chamber music, and Nadia Boulanger and Alexandre Tansman in composition. After a period of teaching at the Royal Brussels Conservatory, Schönfeld was appointed to a post at the Maastricht Conservatory in the Netherlands. In addition to his creative work, Schönfeld is artistic director and founder of the European Pianistic Research Institute of Maastricht (EPRIM) and artistic adviser to the Anglo Dutch Piano Platform and the Académie Pianistica of the Maastricht

Avner Dorman

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avner Dorman (Hebrew: אבנר דורמן; born April 14, 1975, in Tel Aviv, Israel) is an Israeli-born composer, educator and conductor. Education Dorman holds a doctorate in music composition from the Juilliard School, where he studied as a C.V. Starr fellow with John Corigliano. He completed his master’s degree at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music of Tel Aviv University (where he majored in music, musicology, and physics) studying with Josef Bardanashvili. Career At age 25, Dorman became the youngest composer to win Israel’s Prime-Minister’s award. He has since been awarded the ACUM prize for his Ellef Symphony. and the performance of his song cycle “Boaz” received the Israeli Cultural Ministry Prize for best performance of Israeli music the same year. Dorman’s “Variations Without a Theme”, premiered by Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2003 and won the 2004 Best Composition of the Year award from ACUM. This piece led to a commission from Zubin Mehta, PercaDu, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra for “Spices, Perfumes, Toxins!”, a concerto for percussion duo and orchestra. Orchestras that have performed Dorman’s music include the Chicago Symphony Orchestra,

Avni Mula

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avni Mula (4 January 1928 in Gjakova – 29 October 2020 in Tirana) was an Albanian singer and composer. For his contribution to the arts, he received two of the highest awards from the Albanian government: the People’s Artist of Albania decoration and the Honor of the Nation () decoration. Personal life Mula’s family moved from Gjakova, Kosova to Shkodër, Albania, when he was young, and after World War II, he moved to Tirana, Albania. He studied at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and graduated in 1957 as a lyric singer. He is the father of the soprano Inva Mula. Career Singing Mula was part of the National Troupe of Songs and Dances () and the Troupe of the Army (). In addition, he won many prizes over his career as a composer and singer in the Festivali i Këngës (Albanian Festival of Song), which is held every year in Tirana. Composition Mula composed many songs over the span of his career. Some of the most famous are: * “Nënë Moj Do Pres Gërshetin” (Mother, I’ll cut Off My Braid), which won first prize in the 1976 Festival and was interpreted by Vaçe Zela. * “Këngët e atdheut tim” (Songs of My Country) * “Valsi i Lumturisë” (The Waltz of Happiness). * “Një Djep Në Barrikadë” (A Cradl

Avo Sõmer

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avo Sõmer (June 27, 1934 – May 30, 2024) was an Estonian-born American musicologist, music theorist and composer of Estonian birth. Sõmer was born in Estonia. He emigrated from Estonia with his parents in 1944, when he was ten years old, first to Germany and then to the United States. He had already begun playing the piano as a child in Pärnu. In Germany he took some piano lessons and instruction in theory, and began to compose, but systematic instruction in music came only later. He majored in music education, piano performance, and composition at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, followed by graduate studies at the University of Michigan where, in 1957, he earned an M. A. with a thesis on Monteverdi’s madrigals, and then, in 1963, a PhD with a dissertation “The Keyboard Music of Johann Jakob Froberger”. In 1962 he joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut, where he remained until his retirement in 2000. Since that time he has increased his activity as a writer, and has spoken at conferences in Estonia on the music of Eduard Tubin, twentieth-century music in general, and the theories of Heinrich Schenker. He is best known for his analytical publications on ear

Avril Anderson

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Avril Anderson (born 10 June 1953) is an English music educator and composer. She has composed for orchestra, choir, chamber ensemble, solo instruments, and organ. She worked at the Royal College of Music in London, and is an adjunct professor at the University of Notre Dame in London. Anderson is co-director of contemporary music ensemble Sounds Positive. Biography Avril Anderson was born in Southsea, Hampshire, England in 1953. In 1972 she entered the Royal College of Music where she studied with Humphrey Searle and John Lambert. Anderson won the Cobbett Prize for composition, and her music has been performed in Europe, Australia and the United States. Anderson has directed educational projects, and took a position at the Royal College of Music in 2001. She is co-artistic director with her husband David Sutton-Anderson of contemporary music ensemble Sounds Positive, which has performed more than a hundred premieres of works by British composers. Anderson was Composer-in-Residence for the Young Place London Contemporary Dance School from 1990 until 2000. She is an adjunct professor at University of Notre Dame, London programme, where she has taught since 1997. Works Anderson has c

Avril Coleridge-Taylor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor (8 March 190321 December 1998) was an English pianist, conductor, and composer. She was the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his wife Jessie (née Walmisley). Personal life Gwendolen Avril Coleridge-Taylor was born in South Norwood, London, the daughter of composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor and his wife Jessie Walmisley, who had met as students at the Royal College of Music. She had an older brother, Hiawatha. On 19 April 1924, Coleridge-Taylor married Harold Dashwood, in the Croydon parish church. She initially composed and conducted using her first name and maiden surname. After their divorce she dropped her first name, thereafter going as Avril Coleridge-Taylor professionally. In the 1930s she was living at The Studio, 4A Hill Road in St John’s Wood. Coleridge-Taylor was invited on a tour of South Africa in 1952, during the period of apartheid, arriving on the inaugural flight of de Havilland’s Comet passenger jet from Croydon to Johannesburg. Originally she was supportive of, or neutral to the South African apartheid system; she was taken as White and was mostly White-European in ancestry. When the South African government learned t