Composer/keyboardist/producer Elodie Lauten creates operas, music for dance and theatre, orchestral, chamber and instrumental music. Not a household name, she is however widely recognized by historians as a leading figure of post-minimalism and a force on the new music scene, with 20 releases on a number of labels.
Her opera Waking in New York, Portrait of Allen Ginsberg was presented by the New York City Opera (2004 VOX and Friends) in May 2004, after being released on 4Tay, following three well-received productions. OrfReo, a new opera for Baroque ensemble was premiered at Merkin Hall by the Queen's Chamber Band, whose New Music Alive CD (released on Capstone in 2004) includes Lauten's The Architect. The Orfreo CD was released in December 2004 on Studio 21. In September 2004 Lauten was composer-in-residence at Hope College, MI. Lauten's Symphony 2001, was premiered in February 2003 by the SEM Orchestra in New York. In 1999, Lauten's Deus ex Machina Cycle for voices and Baroque ensemble (4Tay) received strong critical acclaim in the US and Europe. Lauten's Variations On The Orange Cycle (Lovely Music, 1998) was included in Chamber Music America's list of 100 best works of the 20th century.
Born in Paris, France, she was classically trained as a pianist since age 7. She received a Master's in composition from New York University where she studied Western composition with Dinu Ghezzo and Indian classical music with Ahkmal Parwez. Daughter of jazz pianist/drummer Errol Parker, she is also a fluent improviser. She became an American citizen in 1984 and has lived in New York since the early seventies
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Friday, May 13, 2005
Wolfganging Uptown
Since the film Amadeus portrayed Mozart as the Bad Boy of classical music, his popularity has reached epic heights, and 20 years later, Lincoln Center is still naming a festival after him. The Mozart myth endures: the blessed child turned rebel, dead at 35, under mysterious circumstances. Was he assassinated and by whom? A jealous rival? The man who commissioned the Requiem and wanted to own it? Did Mozart poison himself with mercury to cure syphilis? Was he punished for making fun of the Masonic rituals in The Magic Flute? Besides early romanticism, what is it in his music that makes it so likeable?
Mozart’s music has an esthetic of grace and simplicity – simple, but not plain, a clarity that makes the listener just about guess what the next note is going to be, melodies that are as memorable as jingles. These same elements nowadays would almost guarantee rejection from orchestral committees, who seem to judge music on the basis of its level of complication. Mozart writes well in C major, and is not ashamed of it.
The festival this year has a clever international bent, focusing on where Mozart might have been (and funnily, where he wasn’t, like Russia and Australia), and the highlights include: Bach Cantatas staged by Peter Sellars, performed by Lorraine Hunt Lieberson; a performance of Rameau and Handel by the French early music star, harpsichordist & conductor Emmanuelle Haim; a Handel oratorio choreographed by Baroque aficionado Mark Morris, and several programs on period instruments.
posted by Elodie Lauten
6:53 PM
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