Composers
Masques
The Huntingdon
Trio
Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) was born in
Policka, Czechoslovakia. Finding satisfaction with neither the education
nor the musical life of Prague, he went to Paris in 1923, where he studied
for some years with Albert Roussel. He clearly came to feel at home
in France and no doubt would have spent the rest of his life there had
not World War II intervened. Of necessity, he fled in great haste from
the German conquerors, spending several months in the South of France
before embarking on a harrowing journey to the United States via Barcelona
and Lisbon.
Life in America was hard for him, as it was for many of the other outstanding
artists who arrived in similar circumstances. Lack of knowledge of English,
lack of funds, and lack of opportunities to use their talents were problems
common to all of these people at first. However, Martinu did acclimate
himself. He composed a great deal and taught at the Mannes School of
Music most of the period from 1948-1956. His last years were spent in
Switzerland. While it is hardly possible to assert that his works have
been neglected, it is equally true that they have only begun to receive
the attention they deserve. While Martinu's six symphonies are his best-known
works, he wrote prolifically in almost all media: concerti, solo works,
operas, ballets, songs, and an abundance of chamber music.
Walter Burle Marx (1902-1990) was one of
the most accomplished musicians that Brazil has produced and one of
its most admired composers. Born in Sao Paulo in 1902, Marx began his
career as a pianist, studying with Enrique Oswald and in Berlin with
James Kwast. He concertized in Brazil and throughout Europe during the
1920s and studied with Reznicek and Weingartner, turning to conducting
in the early 1930s.
In 1931, Marx founded the Philharmonic Orchestra of Rio de Janeiro,
which gave many notable premieres. He was the first to organize youth
concerts in Brazil, and was Music Director of the Brazilian Pavilion
at the 1939 World's Fair in New York. He became Artistic Director of
the Opera Rio de Janeiro in 1947. Marx was also guest conductor of the
Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, and
Detroit and National Symphony Orchestras. He taught piano and composition
from 1952-1977 at Philadelphia's Settlement Music School and continued
to compose. His richly varied output includes symphonic works, cantatas,
choral pieces, songs, and chamber music.
David Loeb (b.1939) was born in in New York
and has continued to live there. He studied composition with Peter Stearns
(who had been a student of Martinu) at the Mannes College of Music.
He teaches there and at the Curtis Institute of Music. Several of his
works have been issued on the Grenadilla and Gasparo labels. Since 1964
Loeb has composed extensively for Japanese instruments and for early
Western instruments (especially the viola da gamba), and influences
from these instruments sometimes carry over to his works for more conventional
media.
Ned Rorem (b.1923): Born in Richmond, Indiana
and reared in Chicago, Ned Rorem attended Northwestern University where,
many years later, he received his first honorary doctorate. He also
studied at The Curtis Institute and at Juilliard (M.A. degree 1948).
Soon after, Rorem moved to Morocco and then to France where he lived
until 1958. A Pulitzer Prize winner, Rorem has also been the recipient
of a Fulbright Fellowship, two Guggenheim Fellowships, three Ford Foundation
grants, several grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, and
a grant from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters
(to which he was elected a member in 1979). His instrumental pieces
have been conducted by such international artists as Bernstein, Mitropoulos,
Ormandy, Paray, Mehta, Reiner, Steinberg, and Stokowski.