Stanley Walden

Last updated

Stanley Walden (born December 2, 1932) is an American composer, musical performer, and professor of musical theater. [1] [2] He has written music for the theater (musicals, operas, ballets) in America and Europe, as well as for the concert stage (Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Louisville Orchestras; and chamber music for Carole Cowan, Jan DeGaetani, Reri Grist, Gilbert Kalish, Joel Krosnick, Robert Levin and many others). He has also been a clarinetist, actor and director. He is perhaps best known for writing music and lyrics of the revue Oh! Calcutta! [3] [4] [5] He has also written a number of song cycles. [6]

Contents

Clarinetist

Walden attended James Madison High School and studied modern dance with Merce Cunningham. He then attended New York University and Queens College, studying clarinet with David Weber and composition with Ben Weber. From 1953 to 1955 – and after serving in the U.S. Army as principal clarinetist of the 7th Army Symphony Orchestra in Stuttgart (1955–57) – he worked as musical assistant to choreographers such as Martha Graham, José Limón, Jerome Robbins and Daniel Nagrin until 1960.

From 1957 to 1970, Walden lived in New York, performing as a clarinetist. He has played with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and as bass clarinetist with the New York Woodwind Quintet, among others, and was a founding member of the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Gramercy Chamber Ensemble, the Penn Contemporary Players and performed with the Group for Contemporary Music.

Composer and educator

In 1967, he founded, along with Peter Schickele and Robert Dennis, the composition and performing trio The Open Window. In 1969, they composed the music and lyrics to the revue Oh! Calcutta! , which went on to become the longest running revue in Broadway history. The Open Window received a Grammy Award nomination for best score from an original cast album. [7]

In 1970, Walden joined The Open Theater and composed the music for The Serpent and The Mutation Show. He then went on to join The Winter Project with Joseph Chaikin.

In 1970, he met the Hungarian writer and theater director George Tabori. They collaborated on more than 50 theater productions, including Pinkville (New York 1970, Berlin 1971), Sigmunds Freude (Bremen 1975), The Sinking of the Titanic,My Mother's Courage, Improvisations on Shylock (Munich 1980-81), Jubiläum (in which Walden acted a major role) and Peepshow (Bochum 1983-84).

Walden then went to the Vienna Burgtheater with Tabori and Claus Peyman, where Mein Kampf, Ballade der Wienerschnitzel, Requiem for a Spy, and The Goldberg Variations (1991) were produced. In Tabori's own theater, Der Kreis (The Circle), they collaborated on Masada, Lear's Shadow and For the Second Time, in which Walden starred with Hanna Schygulla. At the Berliner Ensemble, they produced The Brecht Files (1999) and The Earthquake Concerto (2002).

In addition, Walden has also composed his own stage works, such as a jazz opera of Gertrude Stein's Doctor Faustus Lights the Lights (UA Cologne 1983, New York), the opera Liebster Vater (UA Bremen 1987, also produced in Berlin, Leipzig, Weimar and in New York in 2002) and Bach's Letzte Oper, a work commissioned by Der Danske Oper, with libretto by Jess Ornsbro (UA Erfurt 2002).

He has composed numerous chamber works, both instrumental and vocal, and the orchestral works Circus (1969) for the Louisville Orchestra under Jorge Mester, later performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Seiji Ozawa) and the Cleveland Orchestra (Louis Lane); Invisible Cities, commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra under Erich Leinsdorf (1986); and Weewis,  Margo Sappington’s ballet commission by the Joffrey Ballet (1973) and later performed by companies in Europe and Mexico.

Walden also composed the chamber symphony, After Auschwitz, which was performed at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester (New York). It was also performed by the Budapest Strings Chamber Orchestra in Cividale del Friuli, Italy and by the Brandenburg Philharmonic in Potsdam, Germany.  

His musicals include The Kid (American Place Theater, NY, 1972), Back Country (with Jacques Levy, 1979), Brecht's The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Arena Theater in Washington, DC, 1978), Bahn Frei! (1989), Miami Lights (with Jacques Levy, 1990), Café Mitte (with Volker Ludwig, 1997), Claire (with Manfred Karge (Bochum, 1985, also Ghent and NDR TV), Die Bettler Oper (Renaissance Theater, Berlin, 1985), The Goldberg Variations Musical (Tabori in Karlsruh, 2016) and Butterfly Madam (with B. Peachy, Palm Springs, 2011)

Walden's film scores include David Newman's La fille d’Amérique (1977), Vadim Glowna's Desperado City (1981), which won the Caméra d’Or in Cannes and in which Walden also acted, and George Tabori’s Frohes Fest for German public service television broadcaster ZDF.

During his extensive career, he has received acclaim as a conductor, author, actor (on stage and in film), director and educator. In 1991, he and his wife, Barbara Walden, founded the Musical/Show Department at the Berlin Universität der Künste (Berlin University of the Arts). In 1998, collaborating with Barbara Walden, he published the book Life Upon The Wicked Stage, which has become a standard work for training musical actors. In 2000, after resigning from his professorship at the Berlin University of the Arts, he continued to give workshops there in 2001. The Waldens also taught workshops at the Folkwang Schule in Essen, at the Theater Institute in Munich, in Moscow, at Sarah Lawrence College and at the California Institute of the Arts.

He served on the faculty of The Juilliard School at Lincoln Center ("Music for Dance") from 1960 to 1964 and the Lincoln Center Institute (now the Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education). He was a guest teacher at Yale University and the Eastman School of Music.

Personal life

The parents of two sons, Matthew and Joshua, the Waldens lived in New York and Berlin before moving to Palm Springs, California, in 2007. Barbara Walden died in 2012. Joshua died in 2016.

In 2014, Walden made the autobiographical film CHUTZPAH! with Tom Gass.

In 2018, he published an autobiography: Telling Time: Reflections on a Life in Music. The book is dedicated to his partner, Rhonda Rockwell, whom he met in 2014. They reside in Palm Springs.

Stanley Walden at 90: a celebration

In 2022, Walden's career was celebrated across two continents in honor of his 90th birthday. Tributes took place in the United States and Germany: Barge Music in New York City (September), [8] Baltimore Lieder Weekend (October) and Leipzig (November).

Recordings

Clarinetist:

Composer/performer:


Composer:

Related Research Articles

<i>Rienzi</i> 1842 opera by Richard Wagner

Rienzi, der letzte der Tribunen is an 1842 opera by Richard Wagner in five acts, with the libretto written by the composer after Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel of the same name (1835). The title is commonly shortened to Rienzi. Written between July 1838 and November 1840, it was first performed at the Königliches Hoftheater Dresden, on 20 October 1842, and was the composer's first success.

Lowell Liebermann is an American composer, pianist and conductor.

Jan (Janice) DeGaetani was an American mezzo-soprano known for her performances of contemporary classical vocal compositions.

Werner Egk, born Werner Joseph Mayer, was a German composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Siegfried Matthus</span> German composer (1934–2021)

Siegfried Matthus was a German composer, conductor, and festival founder and manager. Some of his operas, such as Judith, were premiered at the Komische Oper Berlin in East Berlin. In 1991, he founded the chamber opera festival Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg and directed it until 2018. In 2005, he composed a Te Deum for the reopening of the Dresden Frauenkirche. Matthus is considered one of Germany's most often performed contemporary composers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacobs School of Music</span> Public school in Bloomington, Indiana

The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom are undergraduates, with the second largest enrollment of all music schools accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music.

Gary William Friedman is an American musical theatre, symphonic, film and television composer. His career began in the 1960s in New York City as a saxophonist in an improvisational ensemble and as a composer for experimental theater. Friedman's 1970 musical, The Me Nobody Knows opened Off-Broadway and won the Obie Award for Best Music of a Musical before moving to Broadway and earning five Tony Award nominations. Friedman has also composed scores for numerous American films and television series such as PBS's children's television series, The Electric Company. His orchestral and operatic compositions have been commissioned by festivals and venues including the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Paul Fuchs</span> Austrian-American conductor and composer

Peter Paul Fuchs was an Austrian-born conductor and composer, best known for his conducting appointments with American orchestras and for his teaching. He was also a prolific composer although little of his music survives in performance. His writings include two influential music text books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milagro Vargas</span> American mezzo-soprano (born 1955)

Milagro Vargas is an American mezzo-soprano known for her distinctive voice and stage presence. She has appeared as an international soloist in operatic, orchestral, chamber music and recital settings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Schwendinger</span> Mexican composer

Laura Elise Schwendinger was the first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin's Berlin Prize.

Harold Byrns was a German-American conductor and orchestrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hans-Jürgen von Bose</span> German composer

Hans-Jürgen von Bose is a German composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden</span> Theater festival in Wiesbaden, Germany

The Internationale Maifestspiele Wiesbaden is a theater festival in Wiesbaden, Germany. Established in the late 19th century after the Bayreuth Festival, the festival is one of the most distinguished international theatre and music festivals in the world. It is presented annually in May at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, the State Theatre of Hesse in the capital Wiesbaden. The festival currently features performances of operas, ballets, plays and musicals. Visiting companies, mostly from European theaters, present their recent productions along with performances of the Theater Wiesbaden. Concerts from a wide array of music genres are featured as well as artistic circus acts and modern dance presentations. Lectures, recitals, cabaret performances, art showings and readings are also part of the program.

Kenneth Frazelle is an American composer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley Silverman</span>

Stanley Silverman is an American composer, arranger, conductor and guitarist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black conductors</span>

Black conductors are musicians of African, Caribbean, African-American ancestry and other members of the African diaspora who are musical ensemble leaders who direct classical music performances, such as an orchestral or choral concerts, or jazz ensemble big band concerts by way of visible gestures with the hands, arms, face and head. Conductors of African descent are rare, as the vast majority are male and Caucasian.

Peter Aderhold is a German composer and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jens Thoben</span> German clarinetist

Jens Thoben is a German clarinetist and an orchestra and chamber musician. He is faculty professor for clarinet and chamber music at Lübeck Academy of Music and certified teacher of Lichtenberger® Applied Physiology of the Voice. His musical interest is broad and applies in particular to formats that cross genres.

Garrett Keast is an American conductor of symphony orchestra, opera, and ballet and founder of the Berlin Academy of American Music (BAAM).

Thomas Paul is an American bass and voice teacher who had an active performance career during the second half of the 20th century. While more frequently heard in oratorios and other concert literature, Paul also appeared in operas during his career with companies like the New York City Opera, the San Francisco Opera, and Washington National Opera. In 1964 he created the role of Jack Spaniard in the world premiere of Robert Ward's The Lady From Colorado at the Central City Opera. In 1976 he portrayed Jared Bilby in the world premiere of Carlisle Floyd's Bilby's Doll at the Houston Grand Opera. He was a full time professor of voice at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester from 1973 through 1998, and also taught at the Aspen Music Festival and School.

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Fliotsos, Anne; Vierow, Wendy (9 June 2008). American Women Stage Directors of the Twentieth Century. University of Illinois Press. pp. 120–1. ISBN   978-0-252-03226-4.
  2. ↑ Plunka, Gene A. (1999). Jean-Claude Van Itallie and the Off-broadway Theater. University of Delaware Press. pp. 109–111. ISBN   978-0-87413-664-7.
  3. ↑ Clifton, Keith E. (2008). Recent American Art Song a Guide . Lanham: Scarecrow Press. p.  193. ISBN   9780810862104.
  4. ↑ Dietz, Dan (9 March 2010). Off Broadway Musicals, 1910-2007: Casts, Credits, Songs, Critical Reception and Performance Data of More Than 1,800 Shows. McFarland. pp. 328–9. ISBN   978-0-7864-5731-1.
  5. ↑ Lewis, David H. (23 September 2002). Broadway Musicals: A Hundred Year History. McFarland. pp. 106–7. ISBN   978-0-7864-8114-9.
  6. ↑ Clifton, Keith E. (5 September 2008). Recent American Art Song: A Guide . Scarecrow Press. pp.  193–4. ISBN   978-1-4616-7078-0.
  7. ↑ "Stanley Walden | Artist | GRAMMY.com". grammy.com.
  8. ↑ "Here and Now Series: Stanley Walden at 90 / Jamie Jordan, Gilbert Kalish, Daniel Schlosberg | Bargemusic".

Bibliography

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.