Michael Riesman | |
---|---|
Genres | Electronic |
Occupation(s) | composer, conductor, keyboardist, and record producer |
Website | Official site |
Michael Riesman is a composer, conductor, keyboardist, and record producer, best known as Music Director of the Philip Glass Ensemble and conductor of nearly all of Glass' film scores.
Michael Riesman studied composition with Peter Stearns and conducting with Carl Bamberger at the Mannes College of Music and got a B.S. there in 1967. The summer of 1967 he went to the Aspen Music Festival where he studied with Darius Milhaud, and won the student composition prize. He then went on to study composition with Leon Kirchner, Roger Sessions, and Earl Kim at Harvard, where he earned an M.A. and PhD (1972). He was a composer in residence at the Marlboro Music Festival in 1969 and a fellow at Tanglewood in 1970. He was awarded a Fulbright fellowship in 1970 and studied with Gottfried von Einem in Vienna. He moved to New York City in the summer of 1971 and then taught at SUNY-Purchase that winter, leaving in the summer of 1972 to dedicate himself full-time to a performing career. [1]
He had some early successes as a composer, most notably with "Phases", a work for electronically modulated piano, given a premiere in at the Metropolitan Museum in New York by Peter Serkin. The New York Times called the piece "the most interesting work on the program" which consisted of works by major 20th-century figures including Luciano Berio and Olivier Messiaen. [2] Riesman later performed the piece himself at the New York Philharmonic's downtown series at the Public Theater. Another important work was his "Chamber Concerto" which he conducted in a performance with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra at Carnegie Hall [3] and elsewhere.
In 1974 he was invited by Philip Glass to join his Ensemble as a keyboard player and has been a member ever since. In the years since, his role with Glass expanded and he took on the duties of music director and conductor, encompassing arranging, personnel management, and conducting theatrical and film works.
He has released just one album of his own music, "Formal Abandon", which was written as a dance work for the choreographer Lucinda Childs and premiered at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. [4] [5]
As conductor, he has a appeared with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic [6] and Los Angeles Philharmonic, [7] and has two Grammy nominations, for "The Photographer" and "Kundun". As piano soloist, he has appeared with the Chicago and Milwaukee Symphony Orchestras, among others.
He has released 3 albums of music for solo piano. All are arrangements of film scores by Glass: The Hours, Dracula, and a compilation called Philip Glass Soundtracks. He has many album credits as conductor, keyboardist, and producer. [8]
As a student at Harvard he took a course in computer science and has maintained an involvement in computers and music technology through his career. This has included working as a beta tester and consultant for companies such as digidesign (now Avid) and Peavey, and writing music software for his own use.
Year | Album | Role |
---|---|---|
1979 | Einstein On The Beach | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer |
1982 | Glassworks | |
1983 | Hearts and Bones - Paul Simon | Conductor |
Carmina Burana - Ray Manzarek | Synthesizers, Orchestrations, Conductor | |
Koyaanisqatsi (Original Soundtrack) | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer | |
1984 | The Photographer | |
1985 | Mishima (Original Soundtrack) | |
1986 | Satyagraha | Keyboards, Producer |
1986 | Songs from Liquid Days | Conductor |
1987 | Formal Abandon (LP) | Composer, Keyboards, Producer |
Akhnaten | Keyboards, Producer | |
1988 | Powaqqatsi (Original Soundtrack) | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer |
1990 | Passages - Ravi Shankar and Philip Glass | |
1993 | Black Tie White Noise - David Bowie | Conductor, Arranger |
Anima Mundi | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer | |
Einstein on the Beach | ||
Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet - Gavin Bryars | ||
1995 | La Belle Et La Bête | |
1997 | Kundun (Original Soundtrack) | |
1998 | Koyaanisqatsi (New Recording) | |
2002 | A Descent into the Maelström | |
Early Voice | ||
Naqoyqatsi (Original Soundtrack) | ||
The Hours (Original Soundtrack) | Piano, Producer | |
2003 | Music from the Thin Blue Line | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer |
2004 | Music from The Hours (solo piano) | Piano, Arranger |
The Fog of War (Original Soundtrack) | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer | |
2005 | Orion | |
The Music of Undertow | ||
2006 | The Illusionist (Original Soundtrack) | |
2007 | Dracula | Piano, Arranger |
Book of Longing | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer | |
Cassandra's Dream | ||
Monsters of Grace | ||
Notes on a Scandal | ||
2008 | Philip Glass Soundtracks (solo piano) | Piano, Arranger |
Animals in Love | Conductor, Keyboards, Producer | |
Music in Twelve Parts (Live Album) | ||
Neverwas (Original Soundtrack) | ||
2010 | The Philip Glass Ensemble: A Retrospective (Live Album) | Music Director, Keyboards |
2011 | Glassworks Live at Le Poisson Rouge | Piano/Keyboards, Producer |
2013 | Voices for Didgeridoo & Organ; Organ Suite | Organ, Arranger, Producer |
Symphony No. 3 - Suite from The Hours | Piano, Arranger, Producer | |
2014 | Koyaanisqatsi - Live, Philip Glass Ensemble & The New York Philharmonic | Conductor, Mixing |
Philip Glass is an American composer and pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century. Glass's work has been associated with minimalism, being built up from repetitive phrases and shifting layers. Glass describes himself as a composer of "music with repetitive structures", which he has helped to evolve stylistically.
Leonard Bernstein was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first American conductor to receive international acclaim. Bernstein was "one of the most prodigiously talented and successful musicians in American history" according to music critic Donal Henahan. Bernstein received numerous honors and accolades including seven Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and 16 Grammy Awards as well as an Academy Award nomination. He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 1981.
The Columbia Symphony Orchestra was an orchestra formed by Columbia Records strictly for the purpose of making recordings. In the 1950s, it provided a vehicle for some of Columbia's better known conductors and recording artists to record using only company resources. The musicians in the orchestra were contracted as needed for individual sessions and consisted of free-lance artists and often members of either the New York Philharmonic or the Los Angeles Philharmonic, depending on whether the recording was being made in Columbia's East Coast or West Coast studios.
Claudio Abbado was an Italian conductor who was one of the leading conductors of his generation. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and director of Lucerne Festival Orchestra, founder and director of Mahler Chamber Orchestra, founding Artistic Director of Orchestra Mozart and music director of European Union Youth Orchestra.
Eugen Jochum (German:[ˈɔʏ̯ɡeːnˈjɔxʊm] 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987 was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
Stuart Oliver Knussen was a British composer and conductor.
Seiji Ozawa is a Japanese conductor known for his advocacy of modern composers and for his work with the San Francisco Symphony, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director for 29 years. He is the recipient of numerous international awards.
Michael Tilson Thomas is an American conductor, pianist and composer. He is Artistic Director Laureate of the New World Symphony, an American orchestral academy based in Miami Beach, Florida, Music Director Laureate of the San Francisco Symphony, and Conductor Laureate of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Esa-Pekka Salonen is a Finnish conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Stanislaw Pawel Stefan Jan Sebastian Skrowaczewski was a Polish-American classical conductor and composer.
Rudolf Serkin was a Bohemian-born Austrian-American pianist. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest Beethoven interpreters of the 20th century.
Peter Adolf Serkin was an American classical pianist. He won the Grammy Award for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist in 1966, and he performed globally, known for not only "technically pristine" playing but also a "commitment to contemporary music". He taught at the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, Yale University, and Bard College.
Mannes School of Music is a music conservatory in The New School, a private research university in New York City. In the fall of 2015, Mannes moved from its previous location on Manhattan's Upper West Side to join the rest of the New School campus in Arnhold Hall at 55 W. 13th Street.
Dennis Russell Davies is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director and chief conductor of the Brno Philharmonic.
The Piano Concerto No. 2 in G major, Sz. 95, BB 101 of Béla Bartók is a musical composition for piano and orchestra. The work, which was composed between 1930 and 1931, is notorious for being one of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire.
Theodore Robert Bloomfield was an American conductor.
The Piano Concerto No. 1, Sz. 83, BB 91 of Béla Bartók was composed in 1926. Average playing time is between 23 and 24 minutes.
https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dc.asp?dc=D_1EMRZW
The following is a list of musical works which received their premieres at Carnegie Hall: