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David Del Tredici

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Composer and pianist David Del Tredici is generally recognized as the father of the Neo-Romantic movement in music. Trained in serial techniques, his early works, many of them settings of poems by James Joyce, reflect quirky individuality in the handling of those orthodox musical materials. Soon, however, he broke away from the language of his teachers to explore the fantasy world of Lewis Carroll, and in so doing, developed his own unique voice – a rich musical idiom of color, humor and sentiment – worked out on vast orchestral canvases of tonal sound. His fascination with Lewis Carroll's “Alice in Wonderland” books has yielded a surprising diversity from the spiky, witty settings of Pop-Pourri and Adventures Underground (which include folk and rock ensembles), to the extravagant, theatrical opera-cantata, Final Alice, and the lush, neo-romantic Child Alice. Del Tredici's music has been commissioned and performed by nearly every major American and European orchestral ensemble. Best-selling recordings were made of both Final Alice and In Memory of a Summer Day (Part I of Child Alice); the latter work won Del Tredici the Pulitzer Prize in 1980. Recent years have seen Del Tredici turn from Carroll to American poetry as a fount of inspiration, yielding more than 50 songs in the past few years. The New York Philharmonic, under the direction of Kurt Masur, commissioned and performed The Spider and The Fly in May 1998, while the Eos Orchestra premiered Del Tredici's monodrama Dracula in March 1999. More recently, his Chana’s Story and Miz Inez Sez – song cycles for soprano and piano – have been premiered. For Del Tredici, Victorian sensibility has yielded to the urban contemporary – tormented relationships, personal transformations, and the joys and sorrows of gay life. In fact, his most recent premiere was a 45-minute song cycle for baritone and orchestra called Gay Life, commissioned by Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony. Del Tredici's recent songs moved one San Francisco critic to comment that they "must surely herald a bright new era for the neglected tradition of song composition." In addition to the Pulitzer Prize, Del Tredici's many compositional honors include Guggenheim and Woodrow Wilson fellowships, the Branden and Friedheim Awards, grants from the NEA, and election to The American Academy of Arts and Letters. He currently sits on the Boards of Directors of Yaddo, the Mac Dowell Colony and the Aaron, Copland Fund for Music and is Distinguished Professor of Music at the City College of New York. A California native, Del Tredici began his performing career as a pianist at age 17, and has appeared with many symphony orchestras, including the San Francisco Symphony. He went on to receive his B.A. (and was elected Phi Beta Kappa) at the University of California at Berkeley and later earned a M.F.A. in 1964 from Princeton University. Former teachers include composers Earl Kim, Seymour Shiffin Shiffrin and Roger Sessions, and pianists Bernhard Abramowitsch and Robert Helps. Mr. Del Tredici currently lives in New York City and Stamford with his partner, Ray Warman.

Title	Ensemble Type	Composed	Duration	Media
Four Songs on Poems of James Joyce	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:00:00
Acrostic Song [flute, harp]	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice		00:04:00
Acrostic Song [high voice, piano]	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:04:00
Acrostic Paraphrase	Solo instrument, non-keyboard		00:11:00
Acrostic Song [medium voice, piano]	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble		00:04:00
Magyar Madness	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2006	00:35:00
Paul Revere's Ride	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	2005	00:25:00
Rip Van Winkle	Orchestra	2005	00:27:00
On Wings of Song	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2004	00:30:00
Gotham Glory	Keyboard	2004	00:35:00
Ballad in Lavender: Portrait-Fantasy on the letters/notes/name: B, R (re=D), U (ut=C), C, E	Keyboard	2004	00:14:00
Fantasy on 'Nobody Knows'	Orchestra	2003	00:05:00
Four Heartfelt Anthems	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	2003	00:17:00
String Quartet	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2003	00:25:00
Three Gymnopedies	Keyboard	2003	00:15:00
Grand Trio	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	2002	00:38:00
What Lips My Lips Have Kissed	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2001	00:05:00
Wildwood Etude	Keyboard	2001	00:06:00
Wondrous the Merge	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2001	00:20:00
Gay Life	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	2000	00:35:00
Wedding Song	Keyboard	2000	00:03:00
Arm Candy	Keyboard	1999	00:05:30
Three Baritone Songs	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1999	00:23:00
Honey Money Loves	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1999	00:04:00
Lament for the Death of a Bullfighter	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1998	00:45:00
My Favorite Penis Poems	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1998	00:35:00
The Spider and the Fly	Orchestra	1998	00:45:00
Ballad in Yellow	Keyboard	1998	00:05:00
Brother	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1997	00:30:00
Cabbages and Kings	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1996	00:10:00
Chana's Story	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1996	00:35:00
Dracula,	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1996	00:20:00
Opposites Attract	Keyboard	1996	00:04:30
Miz Inez Sez	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1996	00:30:00
Cello Acrostic	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1995	00:06:30
Heavy Metal Alice	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1994	00:23:00
Brass Symphony	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1992	00:25:00
Steps	Orchestra	1990	00:31:00
Acrostic Song (with postlude): from Final Alice	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1987	00:07:30
Acrostic Song from 'Final Alice'	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1987	00:04:00
Tattoo	Orchestra	1986	00:20:00
Haddock's Eyes	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1985	00:20:00
March to Tonality	Orchestra	1985	00:22:00
Virtuoso Alice: Grand Fantasy on a Theme from 'Final Alice'	Keyboard	1984	00:13:00
Last Gospel, The	Unknown	1984	00:13:00
All in the Golden Afternoon	Orchestra	1981	00:35:00
Quaint Events	Orchestra	1981	00:25:00
In Memory of a Summer Day	Orchestra	1980	01:00:00
Happy Voices	Orchestra	1980	00:17:00
Acrostic Song [guitar]	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1979	00:04:00
Acrostic Song from 'Final Alice' [harp]	Solo instrument, non-keyboard	1979	00:04:00
Acrostic Song from 'Final Alice' [fl, pno]	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1979	00:04:00
Acrostic Song from 'Final Alice'	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1979	00:04:00
Acrostic Song from 'Final Alice'	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1979	00:04:00
Final Alice	Orchestra	1976	01:00:00
Vintage Alice	Orchestra	1972	00:28:00
Adventures Underground	Orchestra	1971	00:20:00	Adventures Underground
Adventures Underground	Orchestra	1971	00:23:00
Pop-pourri	Chorus, with or without Solo Voices	1970	00:28:00
Lobster Quadrille, The: from Alice in Wonderland	Orchestra	1969	00:12:00
An Alice Symphony	Orchestra	1969	00:41:00
Illustrated Alice	Orchestra	1969	00:17:00
The Lobster Quadrille	Orchestra	1969	00:13:00
Syzygy	Orchestra	1966	00:24:00
Night Conjure Verse: A Cycle of Songs	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1965	00:18:00
I Hear an Army	Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble	1964	00:13:00
Scherzo, piano, 4 hands	Keyboard	1960	00:00:00
Fantasy Pieces	Keyboard	1960	00:06:00
String Trio	Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice	1959	00:08:00
Soliloquy	Keyboard	1958	00:07:00

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David Del Tredici