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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Sunday, December 04, 2005
Misinterpretations of 4’33?
John Cage’s 4’33 remains a much talked-about, but misunderstood piece. Some people see it as a joke. My Italian friend Renzo Pognant told me about a performance of 4'33 in Torino, where the audience literally went crazy when nothing was being played - there was a riot in the theater. Some think, in a rather scholarly fashion, that it relates to silence, a known Cage interest. But what the piece accomplishes is actually much deeper and more radical. It questions the formality of performance in Western music. In many other cultures, music happens in real life, not on stage. Maybe 4’33 is all of the above, but I would hate to see that last aspect ignored. Why do I think of 4’33 now? Because we need revolutionary works. Because there is a judge who sentences minor offenders to weird and unusual punishments like sleeping in a park. Because we could soon be going back 50 years in the women’s right to choose.
posted by Elodie Lauten
4:17 PM
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