Peter Elyakim Taussig (born 1944) is a Czechoslovak-Israeli-Canadian-American author, composer, pianist, and video and performance artist.
Peter Elyakim Taussig was born in Nazi-occupied Czechoslovakia, and grew up in Israel, where he studied with Czech pianist, Edith Kraus - a student of Artur Schnabel. After serving in the Israeli army during the Six-Day War, Taussig moved to Canada in 1968 and earned his master's degree at the University of Toronto, studying with Anton Kuerti.
In 1973, Taussig began a long relationship with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where among other things he became a friend and occasional collaborator with pianist Glenn Gould. Over the next decade, Taussig recorded over 200 chamber music broadcasts for the CBC - including the complete piano chamber music works of Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. He gave frequent concerts, both as a soloist - with such conductors as Sir Andrew Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, the late Erich Kunzel and Arthur Fiedler, and with his innovative music ensemble, Camerata-Canada.
In 1979, Taussig founded the Stratford Summer Music Festival in Ontario and became its first artistic director.
Starting in 1982, Taussig established a second career as a video and performance artist. He was member of the artist cooperatives Ed Video in Guelph and Charles Street Video in Toronto. His video opera “Catatonics” was featured at the video section of the Montreal World Film Festival and the Images Festival of Toronto in 1991. His performance piece “My Memorial Service” at the Toronto Music Gallery in 1990 caused a stir as a rumor spread that he died. His best known performance work was the satirical piano recital “Taussig and Enemies”, with which he toured small town Canada for several years in the 1980s (excerpts on Video on YouTube).
After moving to the United States, Taussig developed a technology tool at the Yamaha Corporation, Musical Sculpting. Using the company's Disklavier-PRO computer-driven concert grand, the application allowed handicapped pianists to record with minimal use of their fingers. To demonstrate the potential inherent in this novel recording technique Taussig released two albums created entirely without the use of fingers, Bach's The Art of Fugue , (2001) and The Well-Tempered Clavier , book 1 (2002).
In 2007 he collaborated with Dr. E. Paul Goldenberg of the Education Development Center (EDC) of Waltham, Massachusetts in the development of a math through music curriculum and they launched a pilot program at an elementary school in Ohio.
Since 2009 Taussig has devoted himself exclusively to writing and composition. His first book, “The Atheist’s Guide to Miracles” was published in summer 2012. Over the next seven years he has published four novels, two memoirs, two poetry and short story collections, and one translation from the German, his father's holocaust era memoir, "Man Without a Shadow, The Jew Who Would Not be Caught".
The list of his compositions includes an opera (Fibonacci), a requiem Let There Be War, an oratorio (Eve of Life), three symphonies, and concertos for Bagpipe and Orchestra, steel pan, and Peruvian panpipes. His ballet “Three Dubious Memories” was choreographed by Paul Taylor in 2011 and toured extensively by the Paul Taylor Dance Company. His current CD projects include “101 Sound-bite Symphonies - a celebration of short attention span”, and the electronic CD "Musica Sacra Nuova - Thirteen Urban Rituals" (2014).
In 1998 Taussig suffered an injury to his right hand which ended his concert career. He was married to Canadian concert pianist Kathryn Taussig, née Root (d. 2015). [1] He has one daughter, Elena Sachi Taussig, and lives in Colrain, Massachusetts with artist Linda Baker-Cimini.
Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).
In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.
James Zuill Bailey, better known as Zuill Bailey is an American Grammy Award-winning cello soloist, chamber musician, and artistic director. A graduate of the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University and the Juilliard School, he has appeared in recital and with major orchestras internationally. He is a professor of cello and Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at the University of Texas at El Paso. Bailey’s extensive recording catalogue are released on TELARC, Avie, Steinway and Sons, Octave, Delos, Albany, Sono Luminus, Naxos, Azica, Concord, EuroArts, ASV, Oxingale and Zenph Studios.
Alexander Frey, KM, KStJ, is an American symphony orchestra conductor, virtuoso organist, pianist, harpsichordist and composer. Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and enjoys success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Broadway and Hollywood. Leonard Bernstein referred to him as "a wonderful spirit".
The Schulich School of Music is one of the constituent faculties of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located at 555, Rue Sherbrooke Ouest. The faculty was named after the benefactor Seymour Schulich.
Enrico Elisi is an Italian pianist from Bologna, Italy. He has gained international recognition for his performances across four continents. He has been lauded for his "mastery of elegance, refinement, and fantasy" and "remarkable sensitivity, imagination, and polish". Elisi's career spans numerous prestigious venues and collaborations, establishing him as a distinguished pianist.
Serouj Kradjian is a Canadian Grammy-nominated and Juno-winning pianist and composer.
Philip David Morehead is an American pianist, conductor and vocal coach now retired as head of music staff of the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center. His previous positions at the Lyric Opera of Chicago have included Music Administrator and Chorus Master.
David Fung is a concert pianist. Fung was born in Sydney, Australia.
Simon Arthur Sargon was a composer, pianist, conductor, music educator, and major creative figure in contemporary American Jewish music. His compositions include liturgical and secular pieces; opera and musical theatre; works for youth ensemble; choral and art song; and chamber ensemble and symphonic works.
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Rockport Music is a presenting organization in Rockport, Massachusetts, bringing music and other artistic programming in variety of genres to audiences in the greater Boston area and the Massachusetts North Shore. Founded in 1981 as the Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Rockport Music has been under the artistic direction of violinist/violist Barry Shiffman since 2017. From 1995-2017, the Festival was under the artistic direction of pianist David Deveau. In Summer 2010 the organization completed construction on a year-round permanent home, the Shalin Liu Performance Center. Situated on the Atlantic coast, one hour north of Boston, Rockport has long been a destination for seaside tourism and historically a fishing village and artist colony.
Steven Gellman is a Canadian composer and pianist. He has been commissioned to write works for the Besançon International Music Festival, the CBC Symphony Orchestra, the Hamilton Philharmonic, McGill University, Musica Camerata, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra, Opera Lyra, the Pierrot Ensemble, the Stratford Festival, and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra among others. Since 1976 he has taught music composition and theory at the University of Ottawa.
Orit Wolf is an Israeli pianist, composer, poet and lecturer. Currently holds a lecturer position at Reichman University, Israel. From the 2022 to 2023 academic year, Wolf has been Artist in Residence at the Technion where she also teaches at the Humanities and Arts Department and at the MBA program.
Marina Piccinini is an Italian American virtuoso flautist. She is noted for her performances of compositions by Mozart and Bach, and has performed with many of the world's top orchestras and conductors.
Coenraad Bloemendal is a Dutch-born Canadian cellist, who has performed, taught and recorded primarily in the field of classical music during a career that has spanned more than four decades.
Conrad Yiwen Tao is an American composer and pianist and former violinist. Tao's piano and violin performances since childhood brought him early recognition at music festivals and competitions. At age 13, he was featured on the PBS TV series From the Top – Live from Carnegie Hall as violinist, pianist and composer. He won eight consecutive ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards. Among his compositions have been commissions by the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Pacific Symphony and Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
The Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto is one of several professional faculties at the University of Toronto. The Faculty of Music is located at the Edward Johnson Building, just south of the Royal Ontario Museum and north of Queen's Park, west of Museum Subway Station. MacMillan Theatre and Walter Hall are located in the Edward Johnson Building. The Faculty of Music South building contains rehearsal rooms and offices, and the Upper Jazz Studio performance space is located at 90 Wellesley Street West. In January 2021, the Faculty announced Dr. Ellie Hisama as the new Dean starting July 1, 2021.
Rueibin Chen is a Taiwanese concert pianist, who was selected by the government in a talent search and sent to Vienna, where he obtained a concert diploma at the Conservatory. Subsequently, he received a soloist's examination award from the Hannover Hochschule für Musik and then continued his study under the Russian pianist Lazar Berman.
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