 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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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Lalo Schifrin's Third Concerto/2008's Project
Having had the pleasure to record Lalo Schifrin's Second Piano Concerto with Lalo conducting, I am deeply honored by his desire to compose his Third Concerto for me. Of course, now comes the daunting and challenging task to organize the project set for premieres in the 2008-09 season, though with Lalo's global presence through his acclaimed 'Jazz Meets the Symphony', I anticipate interest on the various continents his music has been embraced. Please feel free to be in touch if this project might be of interest. Wishing you a happy summer,
Jeffrey
Veteran Composer Lalo Schifrin and Jeffrey Biegel Team for Concerto Project
By Naturally Sharp Inc.
July 11, 2005
Following the collaboration of veteran composer, Lalo Schifrin, and pianist Jeffrey Biegel in a recording of Schifrin's "Concerto no. 2 'The Americas'" with the Bayerischer Rundfunk in Germany, with Schifrin conducting, the two artists have discussed a new concerto project for the 2008-09 season. Mr. Schifrin has expressed his interest to compose his next major work for piano and orchestra titled, 'Concerto no. 3 for Piano and Orchestra' exclusively for Mr. Biegel, who has organized projects and has performed new works by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Charles Strouse, Lowell Liebermann ('Concerto no. 3' global project for 2006-07-08) and Richard Danielpour ('Concerto for Piano and Percussion' with Nexus in 2006-07).
Lalo Schifrin is a true Renaissance man. As a pianist, composer and conductor, he is equally at home conducting a symphony orchestra, performing at an international jazz festival, scoring a film or television show, or creating works for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and even The Sultan of Oman. His music is a synthesis of traditional and twentieth-century techniques, and his early love for jazz and rhythm are strong attributes of his style. ?Invocations,? ?Concerto for Double Bass,? ?Piano Concertos No. 1 and No. 2,? ?Pulsations,? ?Tropicos,? ?La Nouvelle Orleans,? and ?Resonances? are examples of this tendency to juxtapose universal thoughts with a kind of elaborated primitivism. In the classical composition field, Schifrin has more than 60 works.
He has written more than 100 scores for films and television. Among the classic scores are ?Mission Impossible,? ?Mannix,? ?The Fox,? ?Cool Hand Luke,? ?Bullitt,? ?Dirty Harry,? ?The Cincinnati Kid,?and ?Amityville Horror.? Recent film scores include ?Tango,? ?Rush Hour,? ?Rush Hour 2,? ?Bringing Down The House,?, ?The Bridge of San Luis Rey,? ?After the Sunset,? and ?Abominable.?
To date, Lalo Schifrin has won four Grammy Awards (with twenty-one nominations), one Cable ACE Award, and received six Oscar nominations.
Among Schifrin?s other conducting credits are the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, the Mexico Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Mexico City Philharmonic, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra of Saint Luke (New York City), and the National Symphony Orchestra of Argentina.
His ?Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra,? was recorded by the London Philharmonic Orchestra featuring soloist Angel Romero. ?Dances Concertantes? for clarinet and orchestra which he conducted at the Pyramids of Teotihuacan in Mexico with Placido Domingo as the tenor soloist. The event was telecast in 1989. In 1999, this concert was released on CD, DVD and VHS.
Schifrin was commissioned by the Steinway Foundation to write his ?Piano Concerto No. 2,? which was premiered by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich, in Washington, D.C. at the Kennedy Center on June 11, 1992, featuring Cristina Ortiz as the soloist. The full-length concert is featured in a film score CD ?Something to Believe In? with Jeffrey Biegel and the Munich Rundfunk Orchestra.
In that year, he also produced, conducted and arranged a CD featuring Jose Carreras with the London Symphony Orchestra: ?Friends for Life.? Among Schifrin?s most recent commissions include ?Fantasy for Screenplay and Orchestra? for Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony, premiered in 2002-2003 season, and Symphonic Impressions of Oman, which was commissioned by the Sultan of Oman, recorded in England with the London Symphony Orchestra, and released by Aleph Records in 2003. His recent key appearances in 2003 include Schifrin with the Georgian State Symphony Orchestra; with The Moscow Symphony Orchestra and with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Geneva, Switzerland.
Lalo Schifrin has been appointed ?Chevalier de l?Ordre des Arts et Lettres,? one of the highest distinctions granted by Frances? Minister of Culture, which in this case was Mr. Jack Lang.
For more information about Mr. Schifrin, please visit his web site www.schifrin.com
Jeffrey Biegel has become a foremost interpreter of the standard repertoire and a pioneer in new projects, having performed the first live internet concerts and premieres of several new works for piano and orchestra. He is in demand as a soloist, teacher and chamber music collaborator. In addition he has also composed new music for choir available at www.halleonard.com and has arranged and recorded his own solo transcriptions of 'The Best of David Foster' for PianoDisc and 'The Best of Josh Groban' to be released by PianoDisc in late 2005. For more information about Mr. Biegel, you can visit his web site www.cyberecital.com
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For information about the Lalo Schifrin Piano Concerto Project, please contact Monica Robinson at MRLTD6062@aol.com or 1-914-962-6062.
posted by Jeffrey Biegel
8:32 PM
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