Paul Schoenfield

Last updated
Schoenfield at the piano in 1993 Paul Schoenfield at the piano.jpg
Schoenfield at the piano in 1993

Paul Schoenfield, also spelled Paul Schoenfeld or Pinchas Schoenfeld, [1] was born January 24, 1947, in Detroit, Michigan and died April 29, 2024, in Jerusalem, Israel. He was a classical composer and pianist known for combining popular, folk, and classical music forms.

Contents

He began to take piano lessons at the age of six, and wrote his first composition a year later. In 1966 he appeared with Leonard Bernstein on one of the New York Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts [2] and made his Town Hall recital debut while still in his teens. [3] Among his teachers were Julius Chajes, Ozan Marsh and Rudolf Serkin. He held a B.A. degree from Carnegie-Mellon University and a Doctor of Music Arts degree from the University of Arizona.

Musical and Educational career

Schoenfield was for many years an active concert pianist, performing as a soloist and with chamber groups including Music from Marlboro. [4] With violinist Sergiu Luca he recorded the complete violin and piano works of Béla Bartók. He gave the premiere of his own piano concerto Four Parables with the Toledo Symphony in 1983. Jeffrey Kahane recorded the work in 1994 with John Nelson and the New World Symphony. [5] Also on the Argo CD are Vaudeville, Schoenfeld's concerto for piccolo trumpet, played by Wolfgang Basch, and Klezmer Rondos, concerto for flute, baritone and orchestra, performed by flutist Carol Wincenc. Critic Raymond Tuttle called the CD: "Some of the most life-affirming new music I've heard in a long time", while he characterized Four Parables as "wild silliness in the face of existential dread."

One of Schoenfield's most frequently performed and recorded works is his piano trio Café Music, which was commissioned by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) and inspired by Schoenfeld's turn as house pianist at Murray's steakhouse in Minneapolis, Minnesota. [6] It premiered under the title Divertimento at an SPCO chamber concert on January 25, 1987 with violinist Leslie Shank, cellist Joshua Koestenbaum, and Schoenfeld at the piano.

In 1994, the same year he was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize, an evening of Schoenfield's pieces was presented at Reinberger Hall by violinist Lev Polyakin and other members of the Cleveland Orchestra with the composer at the piano. Cleveland Orchestra principal violist Robert Vernon gave the world premiere of Schoenfield's viola concerto in 1998, and made the premiere recording, released on Naxos Records in the same year. [7] Andreas Boyde gave the European premiere of Four Parables in 1998 with the Dresdner Sinfoniker and Jonathan Nott, a live performance which was issued on the Athene Records label in 1999. [8] In 2008 the work was released on Black Box Classics with Andrew Russo and the Prague Philharmonia led by JoAnn Falletta. Also on the CD Russo plays Four Souvenirs with violinist James Ehnes and the piano trio Café Music with Ehnes and cellist Edward Arron.

Schoenfield's two-act opera, The Merchant and the Pauper, was commissioned by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and given its premiere there in 1999. [9] Its libretto is adapted from a tale fashioned and first told in 1809 by one of the most significant personalities in Hassidic history, philosophy, and lore- Rabbi Nachman of Bratslav (1772-1811), the founder of the Bratslaver Hassidic sect. Schoenfield's song cycle Camp Songs was commissioned by Seattle's Music of Remembrance (MOR). It was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2003. [10] [11] The song cycle Ghetto Songs, commissioned by MOR, was recorded in 2009 by Naxos. In 2010 Schoenfield's Sonata for Violin and Piano was premiered at Lincoln Center with Cho-Liang Lin, violin, and Jon Kimura Parker, piano.

Schoenfeld’s introspective nature led him on an unconventional career which shifted gradually from performance to composition, moved between the U.S. and Israel, and embraced diverse interests in mathematics and the Talmud. “I’ve always found something lacking in just being a perpetrator of old music by dead composers,” he confessed. [12]

Schoenfield taught at the University of Toledo and the University of Akron and capped his career as an educator in 2021, retiring as Professor of Composition at the University of Michigan.

Works

A partial list of his compositions is available via the Milken Archive of Jewish Music. [13] Paul Schoenfield scores are available from Migdal Publishing [14] and Opus Imprints. [12]

Discography (as pianist)

1978

Czech Music for Violin (works by Smetana, Dvořák, and Janáček) (with Sergiu Luca, violin) Nonesuch LP H-71350 [15]

1981

Béla Bartók: Complete Music for Violin and Piano (with Sergiu Luca, violin; David Shifrin, clarinet) Nonesuch 2-LP set DB-79021 [16]

1983

Alex Lubet: Two Octave Studies Minnesota Composers Forum/McKnight Disc LP MN-101 [17]

Scott Joplin: The Best of Scott Joplin (The Entertainer; The Cascades; Palm Leaf Rag; Elite Syncopations; Maple Leaf Rag; Easy Winners; Solace; Swipsey Cakewalk) Pro Arte LP SDS-613 and cassette SCS-613 [18]

1984

Stanislaw Skrowaczewski: Trio for Clarinet, Bassoon and Piano (with Joseph Longo, clarinet; John Miller, bassoon) innova LP MN-102 [19]

1987

Paul Schoenfield: Three Country Fiddle Pieces (with Robert Davidovici, violin) New World Records LP and CD NW-334 [20]

1988

Dominick Argento: Peter Quince At The Clavier (with the Dale Warland Singers; Dale Warland, cond.) Musical Heritage Society LP 912199 and CD 512199 [21]

1989

Paul Schoenfield: Café Music (with Young-Nam Kim, violin; Peter Howard, cello) innova LP, CD, and cassette MN-108 [22]

1991

Stephen Paulus: All My Pretty Ones (with soprano Ruth Jacobson) Albany CD TROY-036 [23]

Paul Schoenfield: Ufaratsta and Achat Sha’alti (with Carol Wincenc, flute) New World CD NW-80403 [24]

2001

Paul Schoenfield: British Folk Songs (with Nathaniel Rosen, cello) Albany CD TROY-494 [25]

2004

Paul Schoenfield: Burlesque and Carolina Réveille (with Lev Polyakin, violin; Robert Vernon, viola; Nathaniel Rosen cello; John Sampen, saxophone; Michael Sax, trumpet; Don Miller, percussion) innova CD 544 [26]

2008

Paul Schoenfield: British Folk Songs (with Yehudi Hanani, cello) Naxos CD 8.55980

2009

Paul Schoenfield: Camp Songs and Ghetto Songs (with Angela Niederloh, mezzo-soprano; Erich Parce and Morgan Smith, baritones; Music of Remembrance) Naxos CD 8.559641 [27]

2015

Paul Schoenfield: Al hanissim (with Essential Voices USA chorus; Judith Clurman, cond.) Dorion Sono Luminus CD DSL-92182 [28]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joan Tower</span> American composer, concert pianist and conductor

Joan Tower is a Grammy-winning contemporary American composer, concert pianist and conductor. Lauded by The New Yorker as "one of the most successful woman composers of all time", her bold and energetic compositions have been performed in concert halls around the world. After gaining recognition for her first orchestral composition, Sequoia (1981), a tone poem which structurally depicts a giant tree from trunk to needles, she has gone on to compose a variety of instrumental works including Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, which is something of a response to Aaron Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man, the Island Prelude, five string quartets, and an assortment of other tone poems. Tower was pianist and founding member of the Naumburg Award-winning Da Capo Chamber Players, which commissioned and premiered many of her early works, including her widely performed Petroushskates.

Meriwether Lewis Spratlan Jr. was an American music academic and composer of contemporary classical music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Achron</span> Composer and violinist based in the United States (1886-1943)

Joseph Yulyevich Achron, also seen as Akhron was a Russian-born Jewish composer and violinist, who settled in the United States. His preoccupation with Jewish elements and his desire to develop a "Jewish" harmonic and contrapuntal idiom, underscored and informed much of his work. His friend, the composer Arnold Schoenberg, described Achron in his obituary as "one of the most underrated modern composers".

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.

Bruce Adolphe is a composer, music scholar, the author of several books on music, and pianist. He is currently Resident Lecturer and Director of Family Concerts of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, where he has been a key figure since 1992. Adolphe performs his weekly "Piano Puzzler" segment on the nationally broadcast Performance Today classical music radio program hosted by Fred Child. "Piano Puzzler" was on National Public Radio starting in 2002, and is now on American Public Media. The program is also available as a podcast and from iTunes. Mr. Adolphe was also founding artistic director of Off the Hook Arts Festival, an interdisciplinary festival combining music, science, and visual arts, based in Fort Collins, Colorado, from 2010 to 2022.

Phillip Ramey is an American composer, pianist, and writer on music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Sleeper</span> American classical composer (1956–2022)

Thomas M. Sleeper was an American composer and conductor. He was the Orchestra Conductor at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida from 1985 to 1993, and Director of Orchestral Activities and Conductor of the University of Miami Frost Symphony Orchestra until his retirement in 2018. He was also the director of the Florida Youth Orchestra from 1993 to 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barjansky Stradivarius</span> Musical instrument

The Barjansky Stradivarius of c.1690 is an antique cello fabricated by the Italian Cremonese luthier Antonio Stradivari (1644-1737).

Ruth Pierce Posselt was an American violinist and educator.

Huw Thomas Watkins is a British composer and pianist. Born in South Wales, he studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he received piano lessons from Peter Lawson. He then went on to read music at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr, and completed an MMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Anderson. Huw Watkins was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, where he used to teach composition. He is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music.

<i>The Piano Concerto/MGV</i> 1994 studio album by Michael Nyman

The Piano Concerto/MGV is the 23rd album by Michael Nyman, released in 1994. It contains two compositions, The Piano Concerto and MGV. The first is performed by Kathryn Stott and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michael Nyman, and the second is performed by the Michael Nyman Band and Orchestra with Michael Nyman at the piano.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wanda Wiłkomirska</span> Polish violinist (1929–2018)

Wanda Wiłkomirska was a Polish violinist and academic teacher. She was known for both the classical repertoire and for her interpretation of 20th-century music, having received two Polish State Awards for promoting Polish music to the world as well as other awards for her contribution to music. She gave world premiere performances of numerous contemporary works, including music by Tadeusz Baird and Krzysztof Penderecki. Wiłkomirska performed on a violin crafted by Pietro Guarneri in 1734 in Venice. She taught at the music academies of Mannheim and Sydney.

Wendy Warner is a cellist from Chicago, Illinois. She performs both as a soloist with major orchestras and as a chamber musician around the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohammed Fairouz</span> American composer

Mohammed Fairouz is an American composer.

Paul Fetler was an American composer. He received his bachelor's degree from Northwestern University and was taught composition by David Van Vactor. Following his bachelor's, Fetler earned a master's degrees from Yale, and then accepted a position at the University of Minnesota where he obtained his doctorate. In addition to Vactor, Fetler also studied with Paul Hindemith, Quincy Porter, and Boris Blacher, and taught many composers at Minnesota including Eric Stokes, Donald Keats, Marjorie Rusche, Michael Schelle, Stephen Paulus, Libby Larsen, and Carol Barnett. See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#Paul Fetler.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renaud Capuçon</span> French violinist

Renaud Capuçon is a French classical violinist. Since late 2016 he has been teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music.

This is a partial discography of composer Charles Wuorinen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kirill Troussov</span>

Kirill Troussov is a German violinist and violin teacher based in Munich, Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Clearfield</span> American composer

Andrea Clearfield is an American composer of contemporary classical music. Regularly commissioned and performed by ensembles in the United States and abroad, her works include music for orchestra, chorus, soloists, chamber ensembles, dance, opera, film, and multimedia collaborations.

References

  1. "Paul Schoenfeld: Professor of Composition". Faculty & Staff Profiles , School of Music, Theatre & Dance. University of Michigan . Retrieved 21 August 2018.[ dead link ]
  2. Episode 35 (Young Performers No. 7), broadcast November 23, 1966.
  3. Klein, Howard (October 22, 1966). “Young Schoenfield Offers Varied Bill”. The New York Times. p. 18
  4. Ericson, Raymond (November 5, 1975). "Superb Marlboro". The New York Times. p. 33
  5. "Paul Schoenfield, Kahane • Basch • Wincenc, The New World Symphony, John Nelson - Four Parables • Vaudeville • Klezmer Rondos | Releases | Discogs".
  6. "Paul Schoenfield's "Cafe Music"". www.yourclassical.org. January 25, 2022.
  7. "SCHOENFIELD: Viola Concerto / Four Motets / The Me.. - 8.559418 | Discover more releases from Naxos". www.naxos.com.
  8. "Andreas Boyde, Dvorak, Schoenfield – Piano Concerto In G Minor, Piano Concerto Four Parables (1999, CD) - Discogs".
  9. Kozinn, Allan (June 19, 1999). “Nefarious Goings-On In the Wilds of Allegory”. The New York Times. Section B, page 12.
  10. Fischer, Heinz Dietrich (2010). The Pulitzer Prize Winners for Music: Composer Biographies, Premiere Programs and Jury Reports. Peter Lang. ISBN   978-3-631-59608-1.
  11. "Finalist: Camp Songs, by Paul Schoenfeld". Pulitzer.org. 2003. Retrieved 1 November 2020.
  12. 1 2 "Paul Schoenfield". Opus Imprints.
  13. "Schoenfield, Paul". Milken Archive of Jewish Music.
  14. "Migdal Publishing (The Music of Paul Schoenfeld)". United Music and Media Publishers.
  15. "Sergiu Luca, Paul Schoenfield – Czech Music For Violin (1978, Vinyl) - Discogs".
  16. "Béla Bartók – The Complete Music For Violin And Piano (1981, Vinyl) - Discogs".
  17. "Eric Stokes / David Means / Gerald Near / Alex Lubet / Richard Paske – New Music From Minnesota (1983, Vinyl) - Discogs".
  18. "Paul Schoenfield – The Best Of Scott Joplin (1983, Vinyl) - Discogs".
  19. "Stanislaw Skrowaczewski / Paul Fetler / Carleton Macy – New Music From Minnesota (1984, Vinyl) - Discogs".
  20. "Robert Davidovici, Steven De Groote, Paul Schoenfield - Works By: Hugh Aitken, Aaron Copland, Walter Piston, Paul Schoenfield, Gunther Schuller | Releases | Discogs".
  21. "Dominick Argento - Peter Quince At The Clavier / I Hate And I Love | Releases | Discogs".
  22. "Open Boundaries (1989, CD) - Discogs".
  23. "You searched for paulus". Albany Records.
  24. https://www.discogs.com/release/9077659-Paula-Robison-Ransom-Wilson-Carol-Wincenc-Solisti-New-York-Chamber-Orchestra-Alasdair-Neale-Brian-Ze
  25. "Chamber Music of Paul Schoenfield". Albany Records.
  26. "Cafe Music | Innova Recordings". www.innova.mu.
  27. "SCHOENFIELD, P.: Camp Songs / Ghetto Songs / SCHWA.. - 8.559641 | Discover more releases from Naxos". www.naxos.com.
  28. "Cherished Moments: Songs of the Jewish Spirit". Sono Luminus | Recording Studio & Record Label.