Anthony Newman (musician)

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Newman at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in September 2012 TonyNewman.JPG
Newman at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in September 2012

Anthony Newman (born May 12, 1941) is an American classical musician. While mostly known as an organist, Newman is also a harpsichordist (including the pedal harpsichord), pianist, composer, conductor, writer, and teacher. He is a specialist in music of the Baroque period, particularly the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, and has collaborated with such noted musicians as Kathleen Battle, Julius Baker, Itzhak Perlman, Eugenia Zukerman, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Leonard Bernstein, Michala Petri, and Wynton Marsalis, for whom he arranged and conducted In Gabriel’s Garden, the most popular classical record of 1996. [1]

Contents

Early life

Newman was born in Los Angeles, California. His father was a lawyer, and his mother was a professional dancer and an amateur pianist. Early in life he was "delighted, elated and fascinated" with the music of Bach. [2] From the age of ten to seventeen he studied the organ with Richard Keys Biggs. [3]

At age seventeen Newman went to Paris, France, to study at the École Normale de Musique , where he received a diplôme supérieur.

Newman returned to the United States and received a B.S. in 1963 from the Mannes School of Music having studied organ with Edgar Hilliar, piano with Edith Oppens and composition with William Sydemann. He worked as a teaching fellow at Boston University while studying composition with Leon Kirchner at Harvard University. He received his M.A. in composition from Harvard in 1966 and his doctorate in organ from Boston University in 1967 where he studied organ with George Faxon and composition with Gardner Read and Luciano Berio for whom he also served as teaching assistant. [3]

Professional life

Newman taking questions after a performance at UCLA, 1973. Anthony Newman taking questions from audience after performance, 1973.jpg
Newman taking questions after a performance at UCLA, 1973.

Newman's professional debut, in which he played Bach organ works on the pedal harpsichord, took place at the Carnegie Recital Hall in New York in 1967. Of this performance The New York Times wrote, "His driving rhythms and formidable technical mastery...and intellectually cool understanding of the structures moved his audience to cheers at the endings." [4] Newman also drew young audiences, as noted by Time magazine in a 1971 article in which they dubbed him the "high priest of the harpsichord." [5] Newman has gone on to make solo recordings for a variety of labels including Digitech, Excelsior, Helicon, Infinity Digital/Sony, Moss Music Group/Vox, Newport Classic, Second Hearing, Sheffield, Sine Qua Non, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, and 903 Records. [3] Newman has recorded most of Bach's keyboard works on organ, harpsichord and piano as well as recording works of Scarlatti, Handel, and Couperin. On the fortepiano he has recorded the works of Beethoven and Mozart. As a conductor Newman has led international orchestras such as the Madeira Festival Orchestra, the Brandenburg Collegium, and the English Chamber Orchestra. [3]

For thirty years, starting in 1968, while Newman continued to record, concertize, compose, conduct and write, he taught music at The Juilliard School, Indiana University, and State University of New York at Purchase. [6]

Although initially intensely interested in composition, he became discouraged by the non-tonal music that was the focus of conservatory composition departments in the 1950s and '60s. [2] [7] He returned to composition in the 1980s, and has written music for a range of instruments including organ, harpsichord, orchestra, guitar, violin, cello, flute chamber ensemble, piano, choral music and opera. [3] In 2011, Newman released a 20-CD set of his compositions on 903 Records.

Newman is music director of Bach Works and Bedford Chamber Concerts and is on the board of Musical Quarterly magazine. He is also music director at St. Matthews Church, Bedford New York.

Personal life

Newman married fellow conductor and organist Mary Jane Newman in 1968. They have three sons.

Discography

Note: * indicates Newman's composition

903 Records

Albany Records

CBS Masterworks/Columbia

Connoisseur/Arabesque

Delos Productions

Deutsche Grammophon

Digitech

Epiphany Records

Essay

Excelsior Records

Helicon

Kelos

Khaeon

Musical Heritage Society

Naxos

Newport Classic

OUR Recordings

Peter Pan

Sheffield

Sine Qua Non

Sonoma

Sony

Vox

Vox Cum Laude

Vox Box

MMG Vox Prima

Turnabout Vox

Warner Classics

Awards

References

  1. ↑ Polkow, Dennis, "Anthony Newman Gets Some Respect", Calendar Archives, April, 1988.
  2. 1 2 Armstrong, Jon, Interview with Musician Anthony Newman.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Donahue, Thomas, Anthony Newman: Music, Energy, Spirit, Healing, 2001, Scarecrow Press, Inc., Lanham
  4. ↑ Klein, Howard, A Harpsichordist Dazzles in Debut, The New York Times, February 16, 1967.
  5. ↑ "Hip Harpsichordist", Time, August 28, 1972, p. 37.
  6. ↑ Cummings, Robert, Anthony Newman Biography
  7. ↑ Newman, Anthony, Anthony Newman on Composing
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