Entries in biography (3)

Friday
Oct022009

Robert Elvin -- Biography

Date20091002 at 16:35

Robert Elvin is a native of Minnesota.  

His early years in the upper Midwest were spent working as a professional woodwind player.  He was the principal clarinetist with the University of Minnesota Orchestra and also appeared with the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra and the MacPhail Wind Ensemble. In addition, he worked in the pit orchestras of stage shows and traveled extensively with Jazz and show bands throughout the United States.  

After moving to San Francisco he became involved in the visual arts and worked as a commercial photographer and teacher of lighting for both still imagery and motion pictures.  

Robert believes that blending the direct involvement of a well educated director with the organic quality inherent in smaller unit productions is the key to strong narrative. He is also interested in film theory and exploring the concept of the film as short story in his work. The Savant is his first film, and is based on these ideas.  

Mr. Elvin holds degrees from the University of Minnesota in social anthropology and the San Francisco Art Institute in photography.  

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Wednesday
Apr082009

Egon Petri Biography - Classics Online

Date20090408 at 24:22

Egon Petri

via Egon Petri - Classics Online

The pianist Egon Petri was born in Hanover in 1881 and had his first violin lessons at the age of five from his father, the Dutch-born violinist Henri Petri, a favourite pupil of Joseph Joachim. Henri Petri had become Konzertmeister at the Royal Theatre in Hanover in 1881 and two years later took up a similar position with the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, before moving in 1889 to lead the Royal Chapel Orchestra in Dresden Egon Petri started his study of the piano in 1888, going on to further work under Richard Buchmayer, a musician and scholar with a strong interest in earlier music, and with Teresa Carreno.

He also studied the organ, the French horn and composition, while completing his general education at the Dresden Kreuzschule in 1899. His first employment was as second violin in his father’s quartet and as a member of the Royal Orchestra in Dresden, but by 1901 it had become apparent to him that his true vocation was that of a pianist, a decision in which he was encouraged by Ferruccio Busoni, a friend of the family.

Petri went on to take lessons with Busoni in Berlin, where he also studied philosophy, continuing his studies under Busoni in Weimar and Dresden, before embarking on a concert career, at first in Holland and Germany, then throughout Europe and in the United States. One of the first foreign musicians of stature to visit the Soviet Union, he won considerable and continuing success there.

Image via Wikipedia

His association with Busoni, with whom he appeared in London in 1921 in two-piano recitals, remained of importance, influencing his style of performance and making him one of the foremost interpreters of Busoni’s work. Enjoying, at the same time, a very considerable reputation as a teacher, Petri served as a professor at the then Royal Manchester College of Music from 1905 to 1911, following this with similar work in Basle and at the Berlin Hochschule fur Musik. In 1927 he had made his home at Zakopane in Poland, but in 1938 he moved to America, spending the war years as pianist-in-residence at Cornell University and becoming an American citizen.

In 1947 he moved to Mills College in California, holding a similar position there and only interrupting his stay to teach briefly in Basle. He died in 1962.

 

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Sunday
Apr052009

Wikipedia biography prepared for Sarah Cahill

Date20090405 at 21:14

Notes

Sarah Cahill didn’t have a Wikipedia page, so I got one started for her. I had my first wiki war, but her page and I survived. My little “war” had to do with name disambiguation and Sarah Cahill (beauty pageant titleholder).

I’ve been given an editor’s review, and with assistance from two other Wikipedians, I’ve learned a good deal about both Wikipedia and encyclopedic writing.

The issue of biographies of living persons in a collaborative effort such as Wikipedia is fraught with difficulties and pitfalls. It’s quite a lengthy process to understand all the ways in which edit wars erupt, and the reasons people leave the Wikipedia community in dismay and anger. It’s also quite interesting to review the ways Wikipedia “editors” and other “experts” often have irreconcilable differences, if you will.

Pauline Oliveros was kind enough to thank me in a comment on the original blog post, and gave me one small title correction.

This is the biography as of April 6, 2010. Note: the following links (except “External” ones) take you to Wikipedia.

 

Wikipedia: Sarah Cahill (pianist)

Sarah Cahill (1960-), an American pianist born in Washington, D.C., is a long-time resident of Berkeley, California. She is best known for performances of new works, many of them written for her. Cahill has also established a reputation as a writer on music and as a radio-show host.

Background

Born into a musical and academic family in Washington, D.C., at the age of five Sarah Cahill moved to California when her father, James Cahill became Professor of Chinese Art History at U. C. Berkeley.[1] Her father owned an extensive collection of records, including rare historical recordings of composers and pianists such as Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bartok, Artur Schnabel, Walter Gieseking and Clara Haskil. Cahill began her formal piano studies at the age of six, and at seven she began studying with Sharon Mann. By twelve she was performing concertos with several local orchestras. At sixteen she was invited to Sommermusikwochen, a chamber music festival in Trogen, Switzerland where she played Bach’s D major Toccata. Skipping her final year of high school she went directly to the San Francisco Conservatory where Adams composed China Gates for her. She finished her academic studies at the University of Michigan where she continued her musical training with Theodore Lettvin.

Cahill has written music reviews for Gramophone Explorations, Historical Performance, ClassicsToday.com, Grove’s Dictionary and other international publications, and liner notes for recordings by John Adams, Terry Riley, and others. In 1985 she became the music critic for the East Bay Express and has been published in the San Francisco Chronicle, the Village Voice Literary Supplement, and others.

Biography

Cahill is a renowned performer of new American music who has commissioned, premiered and recorded numerous works for solo piano.[1][2][3][4][5][6] Compositions dedicated to her include John Adams’ China Gates, Frederic Rzewski’s Snippets 2, Pauline Oliveros’ Quintuplets Play Pen, and Kyle Gann’s Private Dances and On Reading Emerson. She has also premiered works by Lou Harrison, Terry Riley, Evan Ziporyn, Julia Wolfe, Ingram Marshall, Ursula Mamlok, George Lewis, Leo Ornstein and many others.

In late 2008 and 2009 Cahill developed and performed a new project known under two titles A Sweeter Music, and Notes on the War: The Piano Protests, where she asked composers for piano music on the subject of peace. The second title was printed in the New York Times, but was not Cahill’s original title.[7][8] Commissioned composers include Preben Antonsen, Michael Byron, Paul Dresher, Ingram Marshall, Jerome Kitzke, Mamoru Fujieda, Kyle Gann, Peter Garland, Phil Kline, Jerome Kitzke, Meredith Monk, Pauline Oliveros, Yoko Ono, Larry Polansky, Bernice Johnson Reagon, The Residents, Terry Riley, Frederic Rzewski and Carl Stone. In later performances of A Sweeter Music Cahill’s spouse John Sanborn contributed video content to accompany the music, displayed across three screens and synchronized to the performance.[9]

Projects developed previously by Cahill include Playdate, a group of commissioned pieces about childhood combined with classical works; the commission of an evening of new scores for four hands by Terry Riley, performed with pianist Joseph Kubera; and a concert of recent Italian music, featuring premieres by Luciano Chessa, Andrea Morricone, and others.[10]

Another of Cahill’s projects is Bay Area Pianists, an organization she founded in 1993. In 1996, in association with New Music Bay Area, Cahill created the annual Garden of Memory walk-through concert at the Julia Morgan-designed Chapel of the Chimes wherein audience members move through the environment with new music ensembles performing simultaneously throughout the spaces.[11] In 2003 she co-curated the Berkeley Edge Fest at Cal Performances.

As a radio personality Cahill has hosted weekly radio shows on the classical and contemporary music scenes on both KPFA 94.1FM in Berkeley, where her program was cited as “One of the 100 Best Things in the Bay Area” by Citysearch magazine, and on KALW 91.7FM in San Francisco.

Cahill investigated the impact early 20th-century American modernists had on the composers of her time and explored these influences in concert programs at the Miller Theater at Columbia University, Lincoln Center, Merkin Hall, Galapagos Art Space in New York City, Spoleto Festival USA, the Phillips Collection, the Freer Gallery (part of the Smithsonian Piano 300 gala), and at the Other Minds festival in San Francisco. She has also performed at the Nuovi Spazi Musicali festival at the American Academy in Rome, the Santa Fe New Music Series, and at the Pacific Crossings Festival in Tokyo, Japan.

Cahill is married to the filmmaker John Sanborn; together they are raising their daughter Miranda.

Selected discography

References

  1. ^ a b Snap, Martin. Tribute to a teacher: Show honors art historian. Oakland Tribune. 2007-04-27. URL:http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4176/is_20070427/ai_n19063655. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjqMy5LE)
  2. ^ Kosman, Joshua. Avant-garde concert melds laptop, traditional piano fare. San Francisco Chronicle. 2008-12-01. Page E11. URL:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/11/05/DDGDJ9LL7P1.DTL. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckhkBQXI)
  3. ^ Butts, Mickey. A Séance for the Ear. San Francisco Classical Voice. 2007-02-27. URL:http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/otherminds2_2_27_07.php. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckizshVg)
  4. ^ Alburger, Mark. The Attraction of the New. San Francisco Classical Voice. 2008-12-01. URL:http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/noevalley_1_30_07.php. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5cklipKcf)
  5. ^ Kuderna, Jerry. Contemporary Cantabile. San Francisco Classical Voice. 2006-05-09. URL:http://www.sfcv.org/arts_revs/cahill_5_9_06.php. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckppTLYT)
  6. ^ Ross, Alex. Dreams and séances. The New Yorker. 2005-11-01. URL:http://www.therestisnoise.com/2005/11/i_just_had_an_a.html. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5ckhqwqB2)
  7. ^ Mike, SF. Sarah Cahill’s Sweeter Music. sfciviccenter.blogspot.com. 2008-09-13. URL:http://sfciviccenter.blogspot.com/2008/09/sarah-cahills-sweeter-music.html. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjrp0pkE)
  8. ^ Kozinn, Allan. When Downtown Comes Uptown. The New York Times. 2008-09-07. Page AR69, New York edition. URL:http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/07/arts/music/07kozi.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink. Accessed: 2008-12-01.
  9. ^ Richardson, Derk. Peace Pieces: Sarah Cahill commissions a sweeter music. San Francisco Chronicle, 2009-10-03. URL:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2009/01/22/derk.DTL. Accessed: 2009-10-03. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5kFYWw9W2)
  10. ^ The Petaluma Post. Three Dance Palace Evenings Feature Storytelling And Fun. The Petaluma Post. 2005-01-01. URL:http://www.petalumapost.com/Jan%2005%20Galleys/04.pdf. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjuxX8Rs)
  11. ^ Kosman, Joshua. Chapel of the Chimes a natural fit for a musical game of hide-and-seek. San Francisco Chronicle. 2007-06-19. Page D1. URL:http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/19/DDG47QGA4R1.DTL. Accessed: 2008-12-01. (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/5cjvokDrt)

External links

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