Gregory Wanamaker
Saturday, March 28, 2020
5:30-6:20pm
Lecture
A Question of Balance and Color: A Composer’s Thoughts when Writing for Mixed Duos
A great deal of music-making today involves small chamber groups of unusual instrumentation looking for original music written for their ensembles or for new works specifically composed for them. Chamber music is for more promising for composers in this regard than, say, orchestral music because the resulting work is far more likely to receive several performances in a variety of venues, recordings, and future possibilities with other ensembles. I can safely say that most, if not all, composers are grateful for any opportunity to collaborate with chamber musicians for these reasons.
Among the most challenging of these projects are mixed duos for winds, a genre that is growing so quickly that conferences such as this one focus on these most intimate - and most portable - of ensembles. Wind duos can be performed literally anywhere: No pianos are necessary. Impromptu performances are possible in parks, airports, and shopping malls. They are relatively easy to program in concert halls, recital spaces, and in nursing homes. The practical possibilities are virtually endless.
The creation of meaningful, worthwhile pieces of substance akin to the more traditional ensembles like a string quartet or piano trio, however, often presents significant challenges to a composer. Issues of balance and blend, sustaining single textures, creating substantial structures, and even physical concerns, like breathing, often arise when composing a mixed wind duo.
I am not sure that I have mastered the art of composing for mixed wind duos, but I have composed several successful ones, an unsuccessful one, and one that has achieved repertoire status for clarinet and saxophone.
Through the use of recordings and projected score examples of works I have composed for several wind duos, my lecture-demonstration, “A Question of Balance and Color: A Composer’s Thoughts when Writing for Mixed Duos”, will address the issues mentioned above as well as those involved in rehearsals, coaching, and performance.
The list of excerpts I will refer to in my lecture will come from the following list:
Duo Sonata (2002)
clarinet and alto saxophone
Elegy (2016)
reed quintet
The Space Between Us (2016)
reed quintet
Double Cadenza (2013)
oboe and tenor saxophone
Still Moving (2012/2017)
flute, alto saxophone; flute, clarinet
Ragahoro Breakdown (2015)
clarinet and alto saxophone
Vigil (2018)
tenor saxophone and bass clarinet
Slink (2018)
alto saxophone and bass trombone
Three Episodes (2008)
soprano saxophone and electric guitar
Night, Night Listen Well (1992)
countertenor and viola
Lecturer Bio
Combining athletic virtuosity and lyrical expressionism, Gregory Wanamaker’s music has been called “pure gold, shot through with tenderness and grace” (San Francisco Chronicle), “achingly beautiful” (Palm Beach Daily News), “compelling” (Audiophile Audition), “outstanding” (American Record Guide), and “a technical tour de force” (Fanfare).
Prolific in all musical media from solo instrumental works to music for chorus and orchestra including multimedia works, Wanamaker’s best-known works are his chamber works that exploit unique timbral characteristics and technical extensions of wind instruments. To date, his virtuosic Duo Sonata for clarinet and saxophone has received over 400 performances world-wide and is featured on five commercial recordings. His Sonata deus sax machina was one of the required pieces for finalists of the 2014 Adolphe Sax International Competition in Dinant, Belgium and the 2020 Pushechnikov Foundation International Competition for Wind Instruments, Saxophone Division in Moscow.
Gregory Wanamaker’s multimedia collaboration with Carrie Mae Weems, A Story Within a Story, was commissioned in 2011 by the Syracuse-based Society for New Music, and was supported in part by a National Endowment for the Arts 2011 Access to Artistic Excellence Grant. He also is the recipient of a 2012 Individual Artist Commission from The New York State Council on the Arts in addition to awards from ASCAP, The National Association of Composers/USA and Britten-On-The-Bay.
Gregory also collaborates with director and writer, Garth Bardsley, with whom he has composed several substantial works. Their Adirondack Songs for chorus and large wind ensemble is available on Mark Records. Their recent work Laude!, for choir and orchestra, was premiered in at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY for seasonal broadcast on PBS affiliate stations.
Wanamaker’s recent residencies include SAX18 at The Conservatorium van Amsterdam, The Music and Aesthetics Symposium at The University of Florida, the inaugural American Single Reed Summit at Truman State University, and the XVIII World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb. In June 2019, his recent chamber music was featured in a concert at Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, South Carolina.
His album Light and Shadows, Waves and Time features 21 musicians from around the globe in world premiere recordings of 8 of his recent chamber works. Released by Navona Records in April 2018, his music also appears on 10 other commercial labels including Innova, Equilibrium, Albany, Centaur, Blue Griffin, Soundset, Mark Custom, White Pine, and Summit. He publishes his own music, which is available exclusively through this website at www.gregorywanamaker.com.
Wanamaker is currently Professor of Composition at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam where he has served since 1997. He studied composition with William Averitt, Thomas Albert, Anthony Branker and Ladislav Kubík.
Saturday, March 28, 2020
5:30-6:20pm
Lecture
A Question of Balance and Color: A Composer’s Thoughts when Writing for Mixed Duos
A great deal of music-making today involves small chamber groups of unusual instrumentation looking for original music written for their ensembles or for new works specifically composed for them. Chamber music is for more promising for composers in this regard than, say, orchestral music because the resulting work is far more likely to receive several performances in a variety of venues, recordings, and future possibilities with other ensembles. I can safely say that most, if not all, composers are grateful for any opportunity to collaborate with chamber musicians for these reasons.
Among the most challenging of these projects are mixed duos for winds, a genre that is growing so quickly that conferences such as this one focus on these most intimate - and most portable - of ensembles. Wind duos can be performed literally anywhere: No pianos are necessary. Impromptu performances are possible in parks, airports, and shopping malls. They are relatively easy to program in concert halls, recital spaces, and in nursing homes. The practical possibilities are virtually endless.
The creation of meaningful, worthwhile pieces of substance akin to the more traditional ensembles like a string quartet or piano trio, however, often presents significant challenges to a composer. Issues of balance and blend, sustaining single textures, creating substantial structures, and even physical concerns, like breathing, often arise when composing a mixed wind duo.
I am not sure that I have mastered the art of composing for mixed wind duos, but I have composed several successful ones, an unsuccessful one, and one that has achieved repertoire status for clarinet and saxophone.
Through the use of recordings and projected score examples of works I have composed for several wind duos, my lecture-demonstration, “A Question of Balance and Color: A Composer’s Thoughts when Writing for Mixed Duos”, will address the issues mentioned above as well as those involved in rehearsals, coaching, and performance.
The list of excerpts I will refer to in my lecture will come from the following list:
Duo Sonata (2002)
clarinet and alto saxophone
Elegy (2016)
reed quintet
The Space Between Us (2016)
reed quintet
Double Cadenza (2013)
oboe and tenor saxophone
Still Moving (2012/2017)
flute, alto saxophone; flute, clarinet
Ragahoro Breakdown (2015)
clarinet and alto saxophone
Vigil (2018)
tenor saxophone and bass clarinet
Slink (2018)
alto saxophone and bass trombone
Three Episodes (2008)
soprano saxophone and electric guitar
Night, Night Listen Well (1992)
countertenor and viola
Lecturer Bio
Combining athletic virtuosity and lyrical expressionism, Gregory Wanamaker’s music has been called “pure gold, shot through with tenderness and grace” (San Francisco Chronicle), “achingly beautiful” (Palm Beach Daily News), “compelling” (Audiophile Audition), “outstanding” (American Record Guide), and “a technical tour de force” (Fanfare).
Prolific in all musical media from solo instrumental works to music for chorus and orchestra including multimedia works, Wanamaker’s best-known works are his chamber works that exploit unique timbral characteristics and technical extensions of wind instruments. To date, his virtuosic Duo Sonata for clarinet and saxophone has received over 400 performances world-wide and is featured on five commercial recordings. His Sonata deus sax machina was one of the required pieces for finalists of the 2014 Adolphe Sax International Competition in Dinant, Belgium and the 2020 Pushechnikov Foundation International Competition for Wind Instruments, Saxophone Division in Moscow.
Gregory Wanamaker’s multimedia collaboration with Carrie Mae Weems, A Story Within a Story, was commissioned in 2011 by the Syracuse-based Society for New Music, and was supported in part by a National Endowment for the Arts 2011 Access to Artistic Excellence Grant. He also is the recipient of a 2012 Individual Artist Commission from The New York State Council on the Arts in addition to awards from ASCAP, The National Association of Composers/USA and Britten-On-The-Bay.
Gregory also collaborates with director and writer, Garth Bardsley, with whom he has composed several substantial works. Their Adirondack Songs for chorus and large wind ensemble is available on Mark Records. Their recent work Laude!, for choir and orchestra, was premiered in at the Crane School of Music in Potsdam, NY for seasonal broadcast on PBS affiliate stations.
Wanamaker’s recent residencies include SAX18 at The Conservatorium van Amsterdam, The Music and Aesthetics Symposium at The University of Florida, the inaugural American Single Reed Summit at Truman State University, and the XVIII World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb. In June 2019, his recent chamber music was featured in a concert at Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, South Carolina.
His album Light and Shadows, Waves and Time features 21 musicians from around the globe in world premiere recordings of 8 of his recent chamber works. Released by Navona Records in April 2018, his music also appears on 10 other commercial labels including Innova, Equilibrium, Albany, Centaur, Blue Griffin, Soundset, Mark Custom, White Pine, and Summit. He publishes his own music, which is available exclusively through this website at www.gregorywanamaker.com.
Wanamaker is currently Professor of Composition at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam where he has served since 1997. He studied composition with William Averitt, Thomas Albert, Anthony Branker and Ladislav Kubík.