Martin Bresnick

Martin Bresnick (born 1946) is a composer of contemporary classical music, film scores and experimental music.

Education and early career

Bresnick was born and raised in the Bronx,[1] and is a graduate of New York City's specialized High School of Music and Art. He was educated at the University of Hartford (B.A. '67), Stanford University (M.A. '68, D.M.A. '72), and the Akademie für Musik, Vienna ('69-'70),[2] and studied composition with John Chowning, Gyorgy Ligeti and Gottfried von Einem. He went on to teach at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Stanford University and the Yale School of Music.[3]

Career

As a professor at Yale, he has been a widely influential teacher of contemporary composition. In 2006, he was elected to the membership of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, an organization that bestowed their first Charles Ives Living Award[4] on him in 1998. Bresnick's work has also earned him many prizes over the years, including a Fulbright Fellowship, the Rome Prize, two National Endowment of the Arts grants and an Ancona Prize for his 1979 composition "Conspiracies".

His compositions tend to be concise and direct in expression. Most of them are chamber music compositions, including three string quartets (1968, 1984, 1992), a piano trio (1988), *** for clarinet, viola and piano (1997), and music for diverse ensembles. Many of his works, ranging from solo piano to chamber and orchestral settings, were composed as a cycle called Opere della Musica Povera, or Works of a Poor Music.

His music has been recorded by Cantaloupe Music, Composers Recordings Incorporated, Centaur, New World Records, Artifact Music and Albany Records and is published by Carl Fischer Music (NY), Bote and Bock, Berlin and CommonMuse Music Publishers, New Haven.

Film work

As a composer for films, he has contributed many scores for documentary films, including Arthur and Lillie (1975) and The Day After Trinity (1980),[5] both of which were nominated for Academy Awards. He also composed the score for the award-winning, PBS-broadcast documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet, produced by Unity Productions Foundation.

Personal life

He is married to the pianist Lisa Moore.

Recordings

References

  1. ↑ Bresnick, Martin (25 May 2011). "Prague 1970: Music in Spring". The New York Times. Opinionator. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  2. ↑ "Martin Bresnick bio". MartinBresnick.com. Retrieved 27 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Liner notes, Composers Recordings Inc. LP CRI SD 468, 1982.
  4. ↑ http://www.artsandletters.org
  5. ↑ Credited on film upon release: 20 January 1981 (USA)

External links

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