Jaffe: Light Dances “Chamber Concerto No. 2” MP3 Music Bridge Records Stephen Jaffe’s Light Dances has the capacity, rare in contemporary music, to bring a delighted smile to the listener. In a sense, everything else a reviewer can say follows from that. One imagines that the composer has become accustomed to taking his bows before audiences who read more
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“Culture Opens Us Up” – a Conversation With Robert Carl on LIGHT DANCES and Other Works
March 18, 2019 – 10:24 am
An interview by composer Robert Carl on Bridge’s new release of Light Dances (Chamber Concerto No. 2) to appear in Fanfare Magazine’s May Issue. Bridge 4001. To login via Fanfare Magazine: Light Dances Interview: Feature Article by Robert Carl “Culture Opens Us Up, With Luck”: An Interview with Stephen Jaffe Buy Jaffe: Light Dances Jaffe: read more
Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia’s 200th Anniversary Announced
December 17, 2018 – 9:15 pm
Stephen Jaffe, Augusta Read Thomas, Tania Léon and Roberto Sierra have been commissioned to create new works for the Musical Fund Society’s 200th Anniversary in 2020.
LIGHT DANCES Recording: Da Capo Chamber Players Bridge 4001
December 17, 2018 – 9:06 pm
Stephen Jaffe’s LIGHT DANCES (Chamber Concerto No. 2) was released on December 7, 2018. The very sympathetic performance features the Da Capo Chamber Players and Michael Lipsey, percussion. Click the blue link above to sample on Spotify, iTunes, HD Tracks, etc. The cover photo and the art inside the booklet is by Brian H. Peterson.
A Symphony of Spiral and Light (PARADES)
November 5, 2018 – 10:03 pm
My newest ensemble work is A Symphony of Spiral and Light (PARADES), for orchestral winds, brass and percussion (41 musicians!). The work was commissioned by the University of Maryland who will give the first performance in May, 2019 under the leadership of Michael Votta, and ten other co-commissioners who will present premiere performances during 2020. read more
A FOREST UNFOLDING Premiere in New Hampshire and Maine
August 2, 2018 – 10:55 am
Premiere Performances: Sunday August 12 at 5 PM (Peterborough, New Hampshire) by Electric Earth Concerts Sunday August 18 at 7:30 (Portland Chamber Music Festival, Portland, Maine) A FOREST UNFOLDING (Collaborative Cantata by Eric Moe, Stephen Jaffe, David Kirkland Garner and Melinda Wagner) with texts by W.S. Merwin, Anne LaBastille, Richard Powers, Henry David Thoreau and read more
MIGRATIONS Concert Video
August 2, 2018 – 10:38 am
An archival performance of the September, 2017 premiere of MIGRATIONS (Chamber Concerto No. 4) featuring Gabriel Richard, violin and chamber ensemble. Many listeners asked for a link to the video of the first performance, which has now been made available by the Franklin Humanities Center. The music starts at 3.20” on the video, and is read more
Jane Hawkins
March 16, 2018 – 10:31 am
Our dear friend and colleague Jane Hawkins passed away just after Thanksgiving. Here is a link to a Department of Music post about her life: https://music.duke.edu/news/pianist-jane-hawkins-1950-2017-professor-practice-and-former-chair-department-music At a faculty meeting in December, I read a poem by Zelda, the Israeli poet: “Everybody has a name.” A link to Marcia Falk’s translation: http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poem/item/3275/auto/EACH-OF-US-HAS-A-NAME
Olly Wilson
March 16, 2018 – 9:56 am
Very sad this morning to learn of the death of OLLY WILSON. Olly was a composer of versatile originality and commitment, and one of the most agreeable and effective colleagues one could have. Olly comported himself with almost regal, diplomatic bearing, assuming with dignity and poise the privileged position he came to occupy by virtue read more
MIGRATIONS: Chamber Concerto No. 4 for violin solo and ensemble
August 24, 2017 – 9:09 am
MIGRATIONS, commissioned for the Department of Music by our alumna PENKA KOUNEVA, will receive its premiere by Gabriel Richard, violin and ensemble, on September 16, 2017. The concert also features Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrenden Gesellen (Songs of a Wayfearer) in Arnold Schoenberg’s arrangement, with Susan Dunn, soprano, attractive compositions by Bright Sheng and Penka read more