 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).
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Monday, June 27, 2005
Cyberconcerts worldwide--a reality??
There was a recent posting at orchestralist titled 'food for thought', and I chimed in with this vision I had from the early 1990s (which eventually became the first online cyber-recital in 1997) to help boost orchestra income: to have concert halls hooked up to the web and offer cybercast concerts online anywhere in the world for a nominal fee to 'attend the virtual concert'. I envision this in this century to help save orchestras in their fears of a reduction in on-site attendance--with home theatres and 'at home' subscriptions, this has the potential to significantly boost income for orchestras (and any series for that matter). As technology advances, and the anti-piracy issues online become advanced in the coming years, one would hope that a home theatre and large screen tv can bring the concert experience directly to the home audience, reaching a far larger audience (even school music programs) to foster the next generation of concertgoers. In addition, one might eventually be able to download a specific selection from any given concert through itunes and pay a download fee as they do for recorded music today. Alas, much would need to be worked through legally, and I am sure that guest artists performing with orchestras or on recital/chamber series would want a piece of the action should their performance(s) be used outside of the concert hall. All things are possible--and it might be advantageous to the local service providers and computer gurus to bring the concert venues to the web. If you visit o-list, you'll see a few replies to the idea. I hope to live long enough to see this become a reality.
posted by Jeffrey Biegel
12:17 PM
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