2009.08.20: Berkeley Symphony has named a Berkeley native, composer Gabriela Lena Frank, as creative advisor
Peace Corps Online:
Directory:
Peru:
Peace Corps Peru:
Peace Corps Peru: Newest Stories:
2009.08.20: Berkeley Symphony has named a Berkeley native, composer Gabriela Lena Frank, as creative advisor
Berkeley Symphony has named a Berkeley native, composer Gabriela Lena Frank, as creative advisor
Frank spoke of her sense of being fortunate as a freelance composer in demand. "Most of my work, however, takes me far from my beloved hometown of Berkeley . . . My new role as creative advisor to the brilliant Joana Carneiro and the energetic Berkeley Symphony staff and musicians is a dream." Frank, of Peruvian-American heritage, has been widely recognized, including a Guggenheim Fellowship for this year. Her work has been performed by more than 100 orchestras, as well as popular local groups like the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Chanticleer and the Kronos Quartet. Current and forthcoming projects include a premiere by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, and an opera on Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo, a collaboration with Cuban playwright Nilo Cruz, 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winner. Frank was born in Berkeley in 1972 and holds degrees from Rice University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She has studied composition with William Albright, Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, and Michael Daugherty. Gabriela Lena Frank's musical influences come from her own polyglot background. Her mother is Peruvian, her father is descended from Lithuanian Jews, and she grew up in Berkeley, California. Her parents met when her father was a Peace Corps worker in Peru in the 1960s.
Berkeley Symphony has named a Berkeley native, composer Gabriela Lena Frank, as creative advisor
Berkeley Symphony Names New Creative Advisor
By Ken Bullock Special to the Planet
Thursday August 20, 2009
Berkeley Symphony and its incoming music director, Joana Carneiro, have named a Berkeley native, composer Gabriela Lena Frank, as creative advisor. Frank will help shape the symphony's programming, assist community outreach programs, and serve as mentor to the emerging composers of the symphony's Under Construction program for development of new music. The announcement was made last Monday, two weeks after the symphony named the four current Emerging Composers-In-Residence and alternate for the current Under Construction series.
Frank will also play a key role in Carneiro's debut concert as music director on Oct. 15 at Zellerbach Hall, when Carneiro will conduct the West Coast premiere of Frank's "Peregrinos" (Pilgrims), inspired by stories of Latino immigrants, the subject of a recently completed PBS documentary.
Carneiro conducted the World Premiere of Frank's "New Andean Songs" in March 2008 for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, during which time she and Frank struck up a close friendship. They had both been graduate students at the University of Michigan.
"When I was appointed music director," Carneiro said, "and discovered that Gabriela was born, raised and lives in Berkeley, the musical relationship between Berkeley Symphony and Gabriela became an artistic priority."
Carneiro continued: "I have learned immensely from Gabriela. Her knowledge of the city-socially and artistically-is overwhelming . . . My relationship with Gabriela was born from music and from a deep admiration for her voice as one of the most talented composers I have had the privilege to work with."
Frank spoke of her sense of being fortunate as a freelance composer in demand. "Most of my work, however, takes me far from my beloved hometown of Berkeley . . . My new role as creative advisor to the brilliant Joana Carneiro and the energetic Berkeley Symphony staff and musicians is a dream."
Frank, of Peruvian-American heritage, has been widely recognized, including a Guggenheim Fellowship for this year. Her work has been performed by more than 100 orchestras, as well as popular local groups like the San Francisco Girls Chorus, Chanticleer and the Kronos Quartet. Current and forthcoming projects include a premiere by Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble, and an opera on Mexican painters Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo, a collaboration with Cuban playwright Nilo Cruz, 2003 Pulitzer Prize-winner.
Frank was born in Berkeley in 1972 and holds degrees from Rice University and a doctorate from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. She has studied composition with William Albright, Leslie Bassett, William Bolcom, and Michael Daugherty.
Among Frank's duties will be mentoring the Emerging Composers-In-Residence for the symphony's Under Construction program for development of new music, the composers for the upcoming season announced Aug. 3: Bruce Christian Bennett of San Francisco, who received a Ph.D. in compostion from UC Berkeley; Patricio Da Silva of Danville, in his second season with Under Construction; Don Myers of Aptos, student and teaching assistant to the late composer Lou Harrison; and composer and violinist Andy Tan (An Tan), currently an MA candidate in composition at UC Davis. Berkeley composer and jazz bassist Clark Suprynowicz, another of last season's Under Construction composers, was named as alternate for the 2009-10 season.
Joana Carneiro will conduct orchestral readings and performances of the composers' short works commissioned for the series, with the composers present, Sunday, Dec. 6 (on the theme "1969") and Sunday, Feb. 7, 2010 (on the theme "The Greek Muse"). Besides Frank's activities with the composers-in-residence, other composers from Berkeley Symphony's subscription concert series who will participate in mentoring include John Adams and Steven Stucky. Carneiro has also announced she will consider compositions from this season's series for further development and possible premier in a future symphony subsciption concert.
Under Construction was initiated in 1993; the 2009-10 season marks the third year of the program's expansion to include composers-in-residence whose commissioned short works are to be presented over a series of evenings. Each is a Bay Area resident who has not had a previous work in full symphony performance.
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: August, 2009; Figures; Peace Corps Peru; Directory of Peru RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Peru RPCVs; Music
When this story was posted in May 2010, this was on the front page of PCOL:
Peace Corps Online The Independent News Forum serving Returned Peace Corps Volunteers
| Memo to Incoming Director Williams PCOL has asked five prominent RPCVs and Staff to write a memo on the most important issues facing the Peace Corps today. Issues raised include the independence of the Peace Corps, political appointments at the agency, revitalizing the five-year rule, lowering the ET rate, empowering volunteers, removing financial barriers to service, increasing the agency's budget, reducing costs, and making the Peace Corps bureaucracy more efficient and responsive. Latest: Greetings from Director Williams |
Read the stories and leave your comments.
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
Story Source: Berkeley Daily Planet
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; Figures; COS - Peru; Music
PCOL44858
99