Lauren Bernofsky | |
|---|---|
 Bernofsky (circa 2021) | |
| Born | September 25, 1967 |
| Alma mater | |
| Website | laurenbernofsky |
Lauren Bernofsky is an American composer of solo, chamber and choral music as well as larger-scale works for orchestra, film, musical, opera, and ballet. Trained as a violinist, she is particularly known for her writing for brass and winds. Her Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra is frequently performed as audition and recital repertoire and has been featured in the journal of the International Trumpet Guild; [1] it was also the subject of a doctoral dissertation. [2] Her piece "Sonatine" for flute and piano won the National Flute Association's Newly Published Music Competition. [3] She has taught at the Peabody Institute and the composer in residence at the Hartt School. [4] She has received praise from world leaders like the Dalai Lama and the United Nations. [5]
Contents
- Selected works
- Orchestral
- Opera
- Musical Theatre
- Ballet
- Choral
- Vocal
- Strings
- Woodwinds
- Brass
- Piano
- Mixed Ensembles
- Band
- Film Music
- Educational Music
- References
- External links
Bernofsky studied at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), The Hartt School, where she was a student of Eric Rosenblith, New England Conservatory of Music, and at Boston University, where she studied under Lukas Foss, who described her as a "master composer." [6] While at NOCCA, she met and took lessons from Ellis Marsalis. [7]
Bernofsky's music is generally tonal/modal, showing influences of Shostakovich, Ravel, Prokofiev, klezmer, and other Eastern European folk music, and often features soaring melodic lines set over syncopation-fueled rhythms and contemporary/experimental approaches to chord structure. Her Trio for Brass has been described as having "poignant harmonies and infectious rhythms." [8] Some of her pieces are environmentally-themed, such as the string quartet Anacostia Journal, written during a residency with the Earth Conservation Corps as part of a project to protect and restore the Anacostia River. [9] She played her her choral work Prayer of Shantideva for the 14th Dalai Lama of Tibet, who was "enchanted" by the work. [10] Her Haubrich Suite for brass sextet, commissioned by the International Women's Brass Conference, responds to works of visual art condemned as "degenerate" under National Socialism in Germany. [11] Her music has been played at venues from Carnegie Hall to Grieg Hall, and has received the Astral Career Grant from the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, American Embassy in Norway Travel Grant, and Jory Copying Assistance Grant from The American Music Center.
Bernofsky's ecological-futuristic chamber opera for children, Mooch the Magnificent, with a libretto by Scott Russell Sanders based on his novel The Engineer of Beasts, won the Opera Puppets Award at Boston Metro Opera. The opera had its orchestral premiere (in Spanish translation) as part of the Festival Internacional de Artes Vivas in Loja, Ecuador, in 2022. [12]
In 2023, the first act of her new opera The Mensch, about unsung Holocaust hero Anton Schmid, [13] was premiered at Indiana University's Jacob School of Music. [14] It has additionally been workshopped at the Lyric Theatre at Illinois. [15] She is a member of Opera America and the Dramatists Guild.
During June 2024, her song Resilience was performed for the United Nations in Vienna, Austria by Vienna State Opera tenor Angelo Pollak. [16]
