Joseph Hallman

Last updated

Joseph Hallman (born Nov. 20, 1979) is an American composer. A functional orphan, Hallman was born and raised in the Kensington neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He attended Girard College from first to twelfth grades. [1] Based in Philadelphia, Hallman's works have been performed internationally. His music has been described as eclectic, merging classical, Renaissance, and contemporary popular styles. Hallman also teaches composition at Drexel University.

Contents

Early life

Hallman began composing at the age of 12. He graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he studied with Margaret Brouwer. He continued his studies with masterclasses by George Crumb. Christopher Rouse, John Corigliano, Steven Mackey, John Harbison and others.

Career

Hallman is composer-in-residence at the Rosenbach Museum & Library of Philadelphia and the Pikes Falls Chamber Music Festival. He has collaborated with leading performers and ensembles. Cellist Alisa Weilerstein performed his concerto for cello and chamber ensemble with the St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in Russia. A series of concerti grossi, inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, was performed by members of the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony, and Cleveland Orchestra. The Cavani Quartet has premiered his compositions. His ballet Alice was performed in April 2010 by the Colette Harding Dance Company in San Diego. [2] He has worked closely with poet Jessica Hornik, and his settings of three of her poems is included in the album "Sprung Rhythm" by the Washington DC ensemble Inscape, which was nominated for the 2014 Grammy award. [3]

Hallman has worked with many other writers including the Vermont Poet Laureate, Sydney Lea. Lea called his collaboration with Hallman, which was sponsored by the Vermont College of Fine Arts, “a high point of my term as poet laureate. It’s been so refreshing and so different, a great shot in the arm.” [4] He also collaborated on a new choral work with the writer and director Antwone Fisher. [5]

Awards and accolades

Hallman's compositions have won numerous awards, including the Marcel Dik prize, the Donald Erb prize, and the Darius Milhaud award [6] He has won numerous accolades, including selection as one of the 100 leading composers under 40 by NPR in 2011, [7] [8] and was nominated for a 2014 Grammy Award. [9]

Critics have praised Hallman's work. "[Hallman's music] is for acoustic instruments -- no computers, no electronic processing -- and it is music that is long on harmonic and melodic interest and blessedly short on intellectual or mathematical gimmicks, without sounding overly neo-Romantic or derivative", wrote music critic Charles Downey of the Washington Post [10] "Two pieces by Joseph Hallman singled him out as the one to watch, especially 'Imagined Landscapes,' six atmospheric miniatures inspired by the nightmares of H. P. Lovecraft. Even the use of whispers, shouts and other noises did not seem like a cheap effect but part of a musical whole, a complement to the composer’s skillful handling of each instrument," wrote Downey in a separate review. [11] of his "Three Hornik Poems" the critic Steve Smith stated in the New York Times [that it is] "a buoyant song cycle by Mr. Hallman that simply must be heard". [12] Ronni Reich of the Washington post wrote that Hallman's compositions are "reminiscent of Dominick Argento, contemporary soundscapes and Renaissance music." [13]

Related Research Articles

Eugene Istomin American pianist

Eugene George Istomin was an American pianist. He was a winner of the Leventritt Award and recorded extensively as a soloist and in a piano trio in which he collaborated with Isaac Stern and Leonard Rose.

Stanisław Skrowaczewski Polish composer and conductor (1923–2017)

Stanislaw Pawel Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer.

Aaron Jay Kernis is a Pulitzer Prize- and Grammy Award-winning American composer serving as a member of the Yale School of Music faculty. Kernis spent 15 years as the music advisor to the Minnesota Orchestra and as Director of the Minnesota Orchestra's Composers' Institute, and is currently the Workshop Director of the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab. He has received numerous awards and honors throughout his thirty-five year career. He lives in New York City with his wife, pianist Evelyne Luest, and their two children.

Tania León Cuban-American composer and conductor

Tania León is a Cuban-born American composer of both large scale and chamber works. She is also renowned as a conductor, educator, and advisor to arts organizations.


TheChamber Orchestra of Philadelphia is an American chamber orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its principal concert venue is the Perelman Theater of the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, of which the orchestra is a founding resident company. The orchestra's current music director is Dirk Brossé, since 2010. The orchestra's current executive director is Anne Hagan, since December 2018.

David Lang (composer) American composer

David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. Co-founder of the musical collective Bang on a Can, he was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion, which went on to win a 2010 Grammy Award for Best Small Ensemble Performance by Paul Hillier and Theatre of Voices. Lang was nominated for an Academy Award for "Simple Song #3" from the film Youth.

George Tsontakis is an American composer and conductor.

Eric Ewazen American composer and teacher

Eric Ewazen is an American composer and teacher.

Bill Cunliffe Musical artist

William Henry Cunliffe Jr., known professionally as Bill Cunliffe, is an American jazz pianist and composer.

Christopher Chapman Rouse III was an American composer. Though he wrote for various ensembles, Rouse is primarily known for his orchestral compositions, including a Requiem, a dozen concertos, and six symphonies. His work received numerous accolades, including the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the Grammy Award for Best Classical Contemporary Composition, and the Pulitzer Prize for Music. He also served as the composer-in-residence for the New York Philharmonic from 2012 to 2015.

Stephen Jaffe American composer

Stephen Jaffe is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and serves on the music faculty of Duke University, where he holds the post of Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music Composition; his colleagues there include composers Scott Lindroth, John Supko, and Anthony Kelley. Jaffe graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977; he received a master's degree the following year from the same institution. During his time in Pennsylvania, he studied with George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Richard Wernick.

Alisa Weilerstein Musical artist

Alisa Weilerstein is an American classical cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow.

Margaret Brouwer is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group.

Roberto Sierra is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.

Serouj Kradjian

Serouj Kradjian is a Grammy-nominated and Juno-winning Armenian-Canadian pianist and composer.

D. J. Sparr is an American composer and electric guitar soloist. He is influenced by impressionism and postminimalism, and is one of the preeminent composer-performers of his generation. Sparr's notable compositions include his one-act opera, Approaching Ali based on the work "The Tao of Muhammad Ali" by Davis Miller (2013), Concerto for Jazz Guitar and Orchestra: Katrina (2016), Violet Bond: Concerto for electric guitar and orchestra (2013), Dreams of the Old Believers for Orchestra (2014), Optima Vota for Orchestra (2012), Precious Metal: Concerto for flute and winds (2010), The Glam Seduction (2004), Woodlawn Drive (1999), Sound Harmonies with Air (2009), DACCA : DECCA : GaFfA (2008).

John W. Downey was a contemporary classical composer, conductor, pianist and educator. His works have been performed extensively in Western and Eastern Europe, South America, Australia, Africa, the Middle East, Israel, Asia, Mexico and Canada, as well as throughout the United States.

Robert Beaser American composer

Robert Beaser is an American composer.

Eric Guinivan is a composer, percussionist, founding member of the Los Angeles Percussion Quartet, and was principal timpanist of the YMF Debut Orchestra. He has received commissions from Chamber Music America, the Fromm Foundation, New York Youth Symphony, the International Horn Society, Lake Union Civic Orchestra, the Firebird Ensemble, Staunton Music Festival, the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and the Society of Composers, Inc., among others. His output includes works for orchestra, wind ensemble, percussion, brass band, chamber orchestra, film, and a wide variety of chamber ensembles and solo instruments. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Composition at James Madison University, and was previously a graduate teaching fellow at the University of Southern California.

Jonathan Leshnoff is an American classical music composer and pedagogue.

References

  1. Hallman, Joseph (22 January 2014). "The Shame of Poverty and Investing in the Future". New Music USA: NewMusicBox. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  2. "Home". artofelan.org.
  3. Grammy.com
  4. "'Mudtime' to Music: A Rising-Star Composer Collaborates with Vermont's Poet Laureate".
  5. "Notes Magazine Archive" (PDF).
  6. "Joseph Hallman" at Composition:Today.
  7. Ambrose, Alex (17 April 2011). "The Mix: 100 Composers Under 40". NPR .
  8. Ambrose, Alex (17 April 2011). "100 Composers under 40". wqxr.org. Retrieved 7 February 2018.
  9. "Philly Composer Joseph Hallman Nominated for Grammy | Ticket". 22 January 2014.
  10. Charles Downey, "Briefly Noted: INscape's CD Debut", aug 30 2013, IONArts, http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2013/08/briefly-noted-inscapes-cd-debut.html.
  11. Charles T. Downey, "At Strathmore Mansion, Inscape continues quest to show new music at its best", The Washington Post, September 16 .
  12. "Classical Playlist: Andrew Parrott, Jeroen van Veen, Ildar Abdrazakov and More". 5 February 2014.
  13. Ronni Reich, "Performing Arts", The Washington Post, November 18, 2008, .