 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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Saturday, September 17, 2005
New World A Comin'--which version??????
I'm in Muncie, Indiana, with the wonderful Muncie Symphony Orchestra and conductor Kirk Trevor (with whom I've worked together in Knoxville). We agreed on 'Rhapsody in Blue' and Ellington's 'New World A-Comin'. I've only known the Maurice Peress orchestration, available through Schirmer, so when I met Kirk today to go over the score, he showed me another version--Jeff Tyzik's arrangement--uh oh--now what! The music is different for each--and I really enjoyed browsing through the Tyzik arrangement (also through Schirmer). However, how does one perform either one? I had only one hour to make a single arrangement--and it worked--it is merged and it actually sounds quite nice. I was afraid we'd have to ditch the piece, but with tacets here and tacets there, and me adding the melody when the orchestra doesn't have it--well, it worked somehow--and sounds beautiful. Wouldn't it be kinda neat to be able to go online to a publisher or rental site and download and print out parts--especially in a situation like this??
posted by Jeffrey Biegel
12:28 AM
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