Louis Karchin (born September 8, 1951) is an American composer, conductor and educator who has composed over 90 works including unaccompanied and chamber music, symphonic works and opera.
His 70-minute chamber opera, Romulus, a setting of the Alexandre Dumas, père play, was premiered at the Peter B. Lewis Theatre of the Guggenheim Museum in May, 2007"[1] and subsequently issued on a Naxos CD. Other major works include American Visions, a vocal-instrumental song-cycle on poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko (New World Records), and a masque, Orpheus, based on a poem by Stanley Kunitz (Albany Records). Of the latter, critic Jules Langert wrote of its San Francisco premiere that “[t]he music seemed in constant flux, creating strong, richly textured sonorities… and brilliant splashes of color; this Orpheus floated on an incandescent fabric of sound.”[2]
Conductor
Active as a conductor and presenter of new music, Karchin co-founded the Harvard Group for New Music, the Chamber Players of the League-ISCM, and the Orchestra of the League of Composers. With these groups, he conducted New York or world premieres of works by Elliott Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Joan Tower, Julia Wolfe, Milton Babbitt, Bernard Rands, David Rakowski, Arthur Kreiger, and Jason Treuting, among others.
Four Songs on Poems of Seamus Heaney (2012) for soprano and chamber ensemble
Evocations (2010) clarinet and percussion
Chamber Symphony (2009)
Three Epigrams for piano (2008) compilation of Celebration, Expressions, and Upheavals
The Gods of Winter (2006) Poetry by Dana Gioia for baritone and chamber ensemble
Chesapeake Festival Overture (2006) for orchestra. Commissioned by the Fromm Foundation at Harvard for the Chesapeake Symphony and the Alba Music Festival (Italy).
Rhapsody (2005) for violin and piano
Matrix and Dream (2004) Poetry of Paul Auster, for soprano and piano, commissioned by Works & Process at the Guggenheim
Orpheus (2003) A masque for baritone, chamber ensemble and dancers. Poetry by Stanley Kunitz
To the Sun (2003) Orphic Hymn circa 300 A. D., for soprano and piano
To the Stars (2003) Orphic Hymn circa 300 A. D. for a cappella chorus
Carmen de Boheme (2002) for soprano and piano
Ghost Waltz (2002) for piano
Quartet for Percussion (2000) Commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation of the Library of Congress for the Talujon Percussion Quartet
American Visions: Two Songs on Poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko (1998) Heckscher Foundation Award, 1999
String Quartet No. 2 (1995)
Rustic Dances (1995) violin, clarinet and marimba
Sonata da Camera (1995) for violin and piano
Ricercare (1992) violin, unaccompanied
Galactic Folds (1992) for chamber ensemble
String Quartet (1991)
Romulus, an opera in one act, based on a play by Alexander Dumas (1990, rev. 2005) Prizewinner, National Opera Association, 1990 Chamber Opera Competition
Sonata for Violoncello and Piano (1990)
Songs of Distance and Light (1988) for soprano and chamber ensemble. Poetry by Elizabeth Bishop and Jennifer Rose
Five Songs on Poems of Sue Standing (1985)
Songs of John Keats (1984) for soprano and chamber ensemble
Viola Variations for viola and piano (1981)
Capriccio (1977) for violin and seven instruments. First prize winner, New Music Consort Competition, 1981
Romulus an opera in one act. (Naxos 8.669030) Katrina Thurman, Steven Ebel, Thomas Meglioranza, Wilbur Pauley, Washington Square Ensemble, Karchin conducting.
Matrix: Music of Louis Karchin. Albany Records (Troy 895); Roethke Songs, Fanfare/Pavane, Fanfare for Marty, Voyages, Quartet for Percussion, Plaint, Matrix and Dream - poem of Paul Auster
Orpheus and Other Vocal Works. Albany Records (Troy 770)
American Visions New World Records (NW-80583) Rustic Dances, American Visions: Two Songs on Poems of Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Cascades, Sonata da camera, A Way Separate…, String Quartet #2
Music of Louis Karchin New World/CRI (NWCR739) Galactic Folds, Songs of Distance and Light, Ricercare, Sonata for Violoncello and Piano
Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.
Sheila Jane Silver is an American composer.
Nicolas Oreste Flagello was an American composer and conductor of classical music. He was one of the last American composers to develop a distinctive mode of expression based wholly on the principles and techniques of European late romanticism.
Steven Edward Stucky was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer.
Grigory Samuilovich Frid also known as Grigori Fried was a Russian composer of music written in many different genres, including chamber opera.
Marcel Mihalovici was a French composer born in Romania. He was discovered by George Enescu in Bucharest. He moved to Paris in 1919 to study under Vincent d'Indy. His works include his Sonata number 1 for violin and piano (1920), Mélusine opera, his 1st string quartet (1923), 2nd string quartet (1931), Sonata number 2 for violin and piano (1941), Sonata for violin and cello (1944), Phèdre Opera (1949), Étude in two parts for piano and instrumental ensemble (1951) and Esercizio per archi (1960). Many of his piano works were first performed by his wife, the concert pianist Monique Haas.
Michael Nathaniel Hersch is an American composer and pianist. He currently serves as faculty at the Johns Hopkins Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland, where he completed his own studies in music composition. The New York Times has commented that he writes "extraordinarily communicative music" and that "Mr. Hersch's music speaks for itself eloquently".
Alexander Kuzmich Vustin, also Voustin or Wustin was a Russian composer. His works, including the opera The Devil in Love, were played and recorded internationally.
Eric David Chasalow is an American composer of acoustic and electronic music. He is Graduate Dean at Brandeis University, and Director of BEAMS, the Brandeis Electro-Acoustic Music Studio.
Margaret Brouwer is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group.
Robert Xavier Rodríguez is an American classical composer, best known for his eight operas and his works for children.
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Eric Moe is an American composer and pianist. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters the Koussevitzky Music Foundation and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
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David Froom was an American composer and college professor. Froom taught at the University of Utah, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Maryland, College Park, and he was on the faculty at St. Mary's College of Maryland from 1989 until his death in 2022. He has received awards and honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters,, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress, the Barlow Foundation, and was a five-time recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the State of Maryland.
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