Ransom Wilson

Last updated
Ransom Wilson
Ransom wilson cond- 1 news.jpg
Background information
Born (1951-10-25) October 25, 1951 (age 71)
GenresClassical
OccupationsMusician, conductor, teacher
InstrumentsFlute

Ransom Wilson (born 25 October 1951 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama) is an American flutist, conductor, and educator.

Contents

He currently is an Artist of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, [1] Artistic Director and Conductor of the Le Train Bleu ensemble, [2] Music Director of the Redlands Symphony, [3] and he performs concerts and recitals in notable venues worldwide.

Wilson was Professor of Flute at Yale School of Music [4] and is a frequent master class guest artist.

His many honors include the New York Times Foundation Alabama Prize (1988); [5] the Republic of Austria’s Award of Merit in Gold in recognition of his efforts on behalf of Mozart’s music in America (1992); induction into the Alabama Music Hall of Fame (1993); an honorary doctorate from the University of Alabama (2006); the Inspiring Yale Award for excellence in teaching from the School’s Graduate and Professional Student Senate (2015); and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Flute Association (2020). [6]

Education and early career

Wilson in 1977 Ransom wilson 3583a master 1977 by Jack Mitchell.jpg
Wilson in 1977

Ransom Wilson attended the North Carolina School of the Arts, receiving this high school diploma in 1969, before entering the Bachelor of Music program at The Juilliard School. After graduation from Juilliard in 1973, he spent a year in Paris as a private student of Jean-Pierre Rampal.

In addition to Jean-Pierre Rampal, Wilson's other flute teachers have included Alain Marion, Severino Gazzelloni, Julius Baker, Christian Lardé, Philip Dunigan, and Arthur Lora.

In 1976 he gave his official debut concert in New York City, with Rampal as his guest artist. The New York Times review hailed him as “an exceptional virtuoso, as he has proved before, and his bravura talents served him well… he showed an interesting command of the long melodic line and use of rubato… beautifully phrased… this was great fun.” [7]

An exclusive recording contract with Angel/EMI followed soon thereafter, along with extensive performances all over the world.

His private conducting studies began with Roger Nierenberg in 1979 and later included James Dixon, Otto-Werner Mueller, and Leonard Bernstein.

Solo flutist

Since his official New York debut in 1976, Ransom Wilson has performed in the world’s premier concert venues and with such first-rate ensembles as Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Mostly Mozart Festival (Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts), London Symphony Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, and I Solisti Veneti, among others. [8]

Wilson has released 27 albums as a flute soloist, with three Grammy nominations along the way. His latest recording, In the Age of Debussy, was released on the Nimbus label in 2021. [9]

Wilson has collaborated with keyboardists Peter Frankl, Robin Sutherland, John Gibbons, Jean-Philippe Collard, François Dumont, and Christopher O’Riley (with whom he was awarded a 1989 National Public Radio award for best performance by a small ensemble on a national broadcast).

A champion of contemporary music, Wilson has had works composed specially for him by Steve Reich, Peter Schickele, Joseph Schwantner, John Harbison, Jean Françaix, Jean-Michel Damase, George Tsontakis, Tania Léon, and Deborah Drattel. According to Schwantner, his piece A Play of Shadows represents “an attempt to mirror [Ransom Wilson’s] dramatic and compelling musical personality”. [10] Wilson's recordings of works by Steve Reich (Vermont Counterpoint) and Philip Glass (Façades) have sold thousands of units.

Praise from the New York Times for his flute playing includes: “an exceptionally fine player”; [11] “Wilson gave a mesmerizing performance”; [12] “his technique was solid, his coloration amply varied, and his programming inventive"; [13] “Wilson played the solos expertly”; [14] and “Wilson brought a warm tone and considerable poise to the work”. [15]

On August 22, 2022, the National Flute Association presented Wilson with his 2020 Lifetime Achievement Award (postponed because of the pandemic). [6]

Ransom Wilson plays exclusively a flute hand made for him by the Wm. S. Haynes Company. [16]

Chamber musician

Ransom Wilson has been a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1991, performing and recording with his colleagues hundreds of times. [1]

The list of notable artists with whom he has concertized includes mezzo Frederica von Stade, soprano Jessye Norman, baritone Thomas Hampson, mezzo Susan Graham, tenor Robert White, mezzo Dolora Zajick, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg, violinist Hilary Hahn, flutist Jean-Pierre Rampal, flutist Sir James Galway, guitarist Manuel Barrueco, harpist Nancy Allen, folk musicians Edgar Meyer and Mark O’Connor, and many others. [8]

Critics have hailed his performances with other artists and “his fine and gentle playing… with quiet strength, affecting and appealing”; [14] “the evening’s great success”; [15] “a stylish performance”; [17] and “lively flute playing”. [18]

Conductor

Maestro Wilson was appointed Music Director and Conductor of the Redlands Symphony (CA) in 2016 as well as the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company (NYC) in 2000. He has founded two ensembles: Le Train Bleu in 2010 and Solisti New York in 1981, with which he appeared as conductor in hundreds of concerts and recordings. He also founded the Mozart Festival at Sea.

Wilson has also held positions at the Tuscaloosa Symphony, Flint Symphony Orchestra, Idyllwild Arts Academy, and the OK Mozart International Festival, where he was Artistic Director from 1983–2006. [8]

Wilson's opera credits include the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Opera, Opera Omaha, Portland (OR) Opera, International Opera Center in Amsterdam, and Glimmerglass Opera. In 2004 he conducted the U.S. Premiere of the comic opera “Le médecin malgré lui” by Charles Gounod (with recitatives by Erik Satie) at Yale University.

Additional conducting engagements include the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Denver Symphony, Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Omaha Symphony, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Round Top Festival, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Tulsa Philharmonic, Festival La Quincena (Spain), Hallé Orchestra (UK), Kraków Philharmonic (Poland), and the London Symphony Orchestra (UK).

With the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and guest soloist James Galway, Wilson led a successful tour of Southern California and has accompanied numerous internationally renowned artists from the podium, including Itzhak Perlman, André Watts, Barry Douglas Frederica von Stade, Joshua Bell, Todd Levy, and Hilary Hahn.

Among the many works that he has conducted by living contemporary composers, is Aaron Jay Kernis’ Musica Celestis, premiered by Wilson and Sinfonia San Francisco in 1992, [19] and John Luther Adams’ songbirdsongs, programmed by Le Train Bleu in 2011, which the New York Times called “a gorgeous performance… it was a strange, thrilling immersive experience”. [20]

Other critical acclaim for his conducting includes: “a tender performance” of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto; [21] conducting that was “adept and sensitive and accomplished without recourse to exhibitionistic physical gestures… Wilson shaped each movement lovingly without slopping over into excess”; [22] and “incisive and joyous”. [23]

Discography

Ransom Wilson has released over 35 commercial recordings as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor, earning three Grammy Awards nominations.

Selective works recorded by Ransom Wilson

Complete discography

(*) Grammy nominated recording

Educator

The School of Music at the University of Alabama announced the appointment of Ransom Wilson as the Camilla Huxford Endowed Chair in Orchestral Studies to begin in August 2023. [24]

Wilson taught at the Yale School of Music, [4] where he was a member of the woodwind and chamber music faculties for 31 years from 1992 to 2023. He conducted productions of the school’s opera department, taught at the Yale Summer School of Music/Norfolk Chamber Music and was featured many times in solo and chamber music performances on Yale’s Faculty Artist Series and Yale in New York concert series.

In 2019, Wilson was appointed Director of Orchestral Programs at the Idyllwild Arts Academy in California which ended in 2020. [25]

In addition to his long professorship at Yale, he has taught master classes at the Paris Conservatory, Oberlin Conservatory, Jerusalem Music Academy, The Juilliard School, Moscow Conservatory, Cambridge University, Beijing Conservatory, and at several music schools in Taiwan.

His former students hold positions in such orchestra as the New York Philharmonic, Fort Worth Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, and Seoul Philharmonic; in addition, some teach at University of Wisconsin Madison, University of Miami, Sarah Lawrence College, George Washington University, University of Minnesota, South Korea National University of Arts, HanYang University, and the Beijing Conservatory.

He is the former Director of Orchestras at his alma mater, the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. [26] [27]

Wilson has been quoted as saying: “[My] teaching philosophy is to improve and refine students’ innate abilities — to make them the very best version of themselves as musicians. With an emphasis on classic French la belle flûte traditions, students have the opportunity to clean up and improve their sound, technique and interpretation”. [4]

Personal life

Wilson is gay; he is married to Walter Foery. [28] [29] [30]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Pierre Rampal</span> French flautist (1922–2000)

Jean-Pierre Louis Rampal was a French flautist. Rampal popularised the flute in the post–World War II years, recovering flute compositions from the Baroque era, and spurring contemporary composers, such as Francis Poulenc, to create new works that have become modern standards in the flautist's repertoire.

Julius Baker was one of the foremost American orchestral flute players. During the course of five decades he concertized with several of America's premier orchestral ensembles including the Chicago Symphony and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emmanuel Pahud</span> Franco-Swiss flautist (born 1970)

Emmanuel Pahud is a Franco-Swiss flautist.

Elaine Shaffer was an American flutist and principal of the Houston Symphony Orchestra between 1948 and 1953.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergiu Celibidache</span> Romanian conductor (1912–1996)

Sergiu Celibidache was a Romanian conductor, composer, musical theorist, and teacher. Educated in his native Romania, and later in Paris and Berlin, Celibidache's career in music spanned over five decades, including tenures as principal conductor of the Munich Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Sicilian Symphony Orchestra and several other European orchestras. Later in life, he taught at Mainz University in Germany and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">István Kertész (conductor)</span> Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor

István Kertész was a Hungarian orchestral and operatic conductor who throughout his brief career led many of the world's great orchestras, including the Cleveland, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Detroit, San Francisco and Minnesota Orchestras in the United States, as well as the London Symphony, Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic, and L'Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. His orchestral repertoire numbered over 450 works from all periods, and was matched by a repertoire of some sixty operas ranging from Mozart, Verdi, Puccini and Wagner to the more contemporary Prokofiev, Bartók, Britten, Kodály, Poulenc and Janáček. Kertész was part of a musical tradition that produced fellow Hungarian conductors Fritz Reiner, Antal Doráti, János Ferencsik, Eugene Ormandy, George Szell, János Fürst, Peter Erős, Ferenc Fricsay, and Georg Solti.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Pinnock</span> English harpsichordist and conductor

Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.

The Gramophone Classical Music Awards, launched in 1977, are one of the most significant honours bestowed on recordings in the classical record industry. They are often viewed as equivalent to or surpassing the American Grammy award, and referred to as the Oscars for classical music. They are widely regarded as the most influential and prestigious classical music awards in the world. According to Matthew Owen, national sales manager for Harmonia Mundi USA, "ultimately it is the classical award, especially worldwide."

Susan Milan is an English professor of flute of the Royal College of Music, classical performer, recording artiste, composer, author and entrepreneur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Shifrin</span> American classical clarinetist (born 1950)

David Shifrin is an American classical clarinetist and artistic director.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Firkušný</span> Moravian-American pianist (1912–1994)

Rudolf Firkušný was a Moravian-born, Moravian-American classical pianist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Camargo Guarnieri</span> Brazilian composer

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri was a Brazilian composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Eddins</span> American pianist and conductor

William Eddins is an American pianist and conductor. He served as music director of the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra from 2005 until 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vox Records</span> Budget classical record label

Vox Records is a budget classical record label. The name is Latin for "voice."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yannick Nézet-Séguin</span> Canadian conductor and pianist

Yannick Nézet-Séguin, CC is a Canadian (Québécois) conductor and pianist. He is currently music director of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montréal), the Metropolitan Opera, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was also principal conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra from 2008 to 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Rosenberger</span> American musician and academic

Carol Rosenberger is a classical pianist. In 1976, Rosenberger was chosen to represent America's women concert artists by the President's National Commission on the Observance of International Women's Year. She has given performance workshops for young musicians on campuses nationwide. Rosenberger recorded over 30 albums on the Delos Productions, Inc. recording label. Rosenberger's memoir, To Play Again: A Memoir of Musical Survival was published in 2018 by She Writes Press.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patti Laursen</span>

Patti Laursen was an American, internationally renowned classical music record producer. Laursen produced a discography of distinguished recordings primarily for the Capitol, Angel and EMI labels. Commencing her recording career in the 1960s, Patti Laursen was one of the first female record producers and an industry leader in the “digital revolution” in the late 1970s. Laursen was nominated for the Classical Producer of the Year Grammy in 1990.

Wissam Boustany is a Lebanese/British concert flutist. Boustany has toured and collaborated with a number of symphony and chamber orchestras. Conductors Boustany has worked with include Claudio Abbado, Ivan Fischer, Bramwell Tovey, John Elliot Gardiner, Roger Norrington, George Solti, Peter Szilvay, Lubnan Baalbaki, James Judd, Jordi Mora, Volodymyr Sirenko, Levon Parikian, Nicholas Cleobury, Martyn Brabbins, Michel Brandt, Varujan Kodjan, Clark Rundell, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Evelyne Aiello, Ludwig Carrasco, Nader Abbassi, Andrew Morley and Toby Purser. He is a recipient of The Crystal Award, awarded to him in 1998 at the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brett Deubner</span> Musical artist

Brett Deubner is an American violist. He has performed as concerto soloist with over 70 orchestras on four continents.

References

  1. 1 2 "Ransom Wilson | the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center". Chambermusicsociety.org.
  2. ↑ "Le Train Bleu | a unique musical collective formed by conductor and flutist Ransom Wilson". Letrainbleu.org. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  3. ↑ "Featured Artist Ransom Wilson, Conductor". Redlandssymphony.com.
  4. 1 2 3 "Ransom Wilson". Music.yale.edu.
  5. ↑ "Ransom Wilson, Flutist, Receives Alabama Prize". The New York Times . 23 May 1988.
  6. 1 2 "Join Us at the Annual NFA Convention".
  7. ↑ "Music in Review". The New York Times. 21 March 1976.
  8. 1 2 3 "Ransom Wilson | Conductor | Flutist | Educator". Ransomwilson.com. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  9. ↑ "Ransom Wilson, François Dumont - in the Age of Debussy". Discogs . 2021.
  10. ↑ "Flutes New World Records 80403: Works by Robert Beaser, Paul Schoenfield, Joseph Schwantner" (PDF). Nwr-site.liner.notes.s3.amazonaws.com. Retrieved 16 July 2022.
  11. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (11 December 1988). "Review/Music; Baroque to New, on Flute". The New York Times.
  12. ↑ Oestreich, James R. (10 February 1992). "Review/Music; Creating Links Between Pieces". The New York Times.
  13. ↑ Kozinn, Allan (2 November 1995). "In Performance: CLASSICAL MUSIC". The New York Times.
  14. 1 2 Griffiths, Paul (18 November 2000). "An Evening of Copland in an Intimate Context". The New York Times.
  15. 1 2 Holland, Bernard (20 October 1992). "Classical Music in Review". The New York Times.
  16. ↑ "Ransom Wilson". Wmshaynes.com.
  17. ↑ Tommasini, Anthony (15 April 1996). "To Scots, Folklore and Tango". The New York Times.
  18. ↑ Oestreich, James R. (3 April 1993). "Review/Music; the Schubertian Affinity for the Key of C Major". The New York Times.
  19. ↑ "Musica Celestis". Aaronjaykernis.com.
  20. ↑ Woolfe, Zachary (27 November 2011). "A Composer Lets the Birds Call the Tune". The New York Times.
  21. ↑ Anderson, Jack (22 March 1988). "Review/Dance; Lubovitch and Brahms: Exuberant Partnership". The New York Times.
  22. ↑ Hughes, Allen (26 May 1983). "Concert: Solisti New York". The New York Times.
  23. ↑ Sulcas, Roslyn (25 March 2011). "Succumbing to Temptation (And the Devil) in a Quest for Money". The New York Times.
  24. ↑ https://www.facebook.com/100029671488868/posts/pfbid02aYGSaPFve4qtxh7GeDMy4PGtd9zD1s5M8D1MF3VNxVhHPoXPjdM7xMrqJfpwxiKtl/?app=fbl
  25. ↑ "World-Renowned Conductor Joins Idyllwild Arts". Idyllwildarts.org. 11 December 2019.
  26. ↑ "Sour Note Sent to UNCSA". 2.journalnow.com.
  27. ↑ "Classical Voice of North Carolina". Cvnc.org.
  28. ↑ Brooks Peters (April 2006). "Winds of Change". Opera News .
  29. ↑ "Charles A. Wilson: Obituary". Tuscaloosa News . June 1, 2022.
  30. ↑ Kristina Hernandez (June 5, 2016). "Meet Ransom Wilson, Redlands Symphony's new conductor". Redlands Daily Facts .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.