Performer Blogs@Sequenza21.com
The career of pianist Jeffrey Biegel has been marked by bold, creative achievements and highlighted by a series of firsts.

He performed the first live internet recitals in New York and Amsterdam in 1997 and 1998, enabling him to be seen and heard by a global audience. In 1999, he assembled the largest consortium of orchestras (over 25), to celebrate the millennium with a new concerto composed for him by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. The piece, entitled 'Millennium Fantasy for Piano and Orchestra', was premiered with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. In 1997, he performed the World Premiere of the restored, original 1924 manuscript of George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' with the Boston Pops. Charles Strouse composed a new work titled 'Concerto America' for Biegel, celebrating America and honoring the heroes and events of 9-11. Biegel premiered the piece with the Boston Pops in 2002. He transcribed the first edition of Balakirev's 'Islamey Fantasy' for piano and orchestra, which he premiered with the American Symphony Orchestra in 2001, and edited and recorded the first complete set of all '25 Preludes' by Cesar Cui.

Currently, he is assembling the first global consortium for the new 'Concerto no. 3 for Piano and Orchestra' being composed for him by Lowell Liebermann for 2005-06-07. The World Premiere will take place with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Andreas Delfs on May 12-14 2006, followed by the European Premiere with the Schleswig Holstein Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gerard Oskamp, February 6-9, 2007.

Biegel is currently on the piano faculty at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College, at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY).

Visit Jeffrey Biegel's Web Site
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
Terry Teachout's assessment of the future

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article.asp?aid=11904073_1

This is a well put-together article by Terry Teachout assessing the 21st century concerns of the direction of 'classical' music. I think people are waiting for the next great work or composer to change the direction of music in the 21st century--if we could all program now with combining the best of over 300 years without fear that we'd be reprimanded becuase it doesn't stick with the norm, there's a great wealth of music out there--and I'm waiting for a foundation or commissioning project that invites the creme-de la-creme movie score writers to start churning out symphonic works and concerti. The agency Gorfaine/Schwartz has the arsenal of composers--have many of them been commissioned to compose for the concert hall as of yet?
posted by Jeffrey Biegel 6:41 AM