News
November, 2011. Three World Premiers:
1. "Gig Songs" for Violin, Cello, Soprano and Piano performed in Chicago by Patrice Michaels and the Lincoln Trio.
2. Piano Sonata # 5 World Premier in Philadelphia by Pianist Clipper Ericson. The piece was subsequently recorded for a new Laurie Altman CD to be released this spring and produced by Judith Sherman. The recording took place at the Academy of Arts and Letters in New York City.
3. ByGone Days / Rock Strands , for Flute, Bb Clarinet and Piano received its world premiere in Princeton New Jersey by the group trio@play.
Altman has been named Artistic Program Director of "Connections", a music festival taking place in Spiez Switzerland from 8-10 June at the Eden Hotel. The concert will feature concerts by American Jazz Musicians Laurie Altman, Scott Lee, Andrew Rathbun and Jeff Hirschfield, and K+K Vienna Quartet plus Piano, featuring members of the Vienna Philharmonic. The concerts will feature a number of World Premiers of new Altman pieces.
Spring 2012. Altman`s "Homage a Stravinsky" and "South of New Jersey" will be performed at a contemporary music festival in Zurich.
Nov. 17th, 2011. World Premiere of Altman`s "Bygone Days/ Rock strands scored for Flute, Clarinet and Piano.
Nov 3rd, 2011. The World Premiere of Altman`s "Piano Sonata 5 at Temple University by Clipper Ericson. The Sonata will also be performed on 13 November at Bristol Chapel, as part of the Liszt Festival.
Nov. 2nd, 2011. World Premiere of Altman`s "Gig Songs" commissioned by the Lincoln Trio and Soprano Patrice Michaels in Chicago Illinois with a radio broadcast to follow on November 14th,
May 23rd, 2011, Vienna Austria, in the Musikverian Hall, a performance of Altman`s String Quartet, "South of New Jersey" by members of the Vienna Philharmonic. Great audience response.
April 15th, 2011, the world premiere of Altman`s work for Soprano and Orchestra, "The River Merchant`s Wife: a letter", performed at Lawrence University by Soprano Patrice Michaels , a 60 voice women`s choir and orchestra. Great audience enthusiasm for the piece.
Laurie Altman made this move to Switzerland where he divides his time between a newly built home in Spiez and an apartment in Zurich. In May, specifically, the 12th-14th of May, two of his compositions, "Homage to Stravinsky" for instrumental Octet and his String Quartet, "South of New Jersey" will be featured in a new Festival in Zurich. In addition, "South of New Jersey" will be performed by members of the Vienna Philharmonic in Vienna next May as well. Altman will be returning to America in April - specifically, April 15th for the World Premiere of his composition, "The River Merchants Widow: A Letter", written for Orchestra, Soprano and Female Choir. The Premiere will take place at Lawrence University in Appleton Wisconsin,with Soprano Patrice Michaels as soloist. Altman will be in the Composer-in- Residence at Lawrence from the 10th to the 17th of April under the envelope of a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship. Finally, Anders Miolin, one of Europe's finest Guitarists will be performing in a number of Altman's guitar works in the coming season. More details, dates, etc, to follow.
September 2008 was the release of a new CD on Albany Records entitled "On Course" and featuring all compositions by Laurie Altman. The CD includes a diverse
group of Altman's classical works including two string quartets, two instrumental octet's, as well as pieces for solo voice, baritone and piano, flute, soprano and piano, and a chamber work for
two pianos. There is a broad cross section of musicians involved from New York City -The Fountain Chamber Music Society, musicians from Bang on Cans as well as others from Princeton New
Jersey and the midwest. The album was produced by Judith Sherman, this year's Grammy Award winner in classical music who has over the years been a producer and engineer for such composers
as Steve Reich, Steven Mackey, John Adams, as well as groups such as the Kronos and Brentano String Quartets and Eight Blackbirds.
Altman’s music is extremely popular in Mexico due to frequent performances by pianist, Ana Cervantes. Performances most recently have taken place in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Salon/Ciudad Universitaria. Altman’s composition Pedro’s Story is featured on pianist Cervantes’ recent CD entitled Rumor de Paramo.
At the end of 2007 Altman's vocal "reimagining" of Christoph von Gluck's soprano
aria, "O del mio dolce ardor" was featured on soprano Patrice Michaels CD, American Songs on Cedille Records. This was a world premiere recording and both the CD and Altman's composition have received excellent reviews.
Early in 2008, Mexican pianist, Ana Cervantes CD, "Solo Rumores" was released on the Quindecim Recording label located in Mexico City. It featured a solo piano work by Laurie Altman, "Pedro's Story", which in addition to the recording received its world premiere in Mexico City on the 28th of November, 2007. The CD has thus far received excellent reviews as has Altman's
composition.
Finally, Laurie Altman has been commissioned by Princeton University to create a work for the University's student orchestra and jazz band under the leadership of Ruth Ochs and Anthony
Branker Jr. The work should receive its world premiere in Richardson Hall in early May of 2009.
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Laurie Altman and Friends at the Trenton War Memorial. Spring 2006.
Laurie Altman (Piano)
Dylan Altman (Guitar, Vocals)
David Steel (Guitar)
Clifford Adams (Trombone)
Scott Lee (Bass)
Andrew Rathbun (Tenor Sax)
Woody Mann (Guitar, Vocals)
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| photo by Paul Mordetsky |
Reviews
Altman's music continues to receive critical acclaim from audiences as well as the media.. He has performed at such venues as The Blue Note, and internationally in Finland and the Soviet Union. His music can be heard on the American Gramophone, GS, and Progressive recording labels.
Fanfare March/April 2009
Colin Clarke
Laurie Altman studied at Mannes. His lists his teachers as Lester Trimble and William Sydeman; he has worked with the Chicago Symphony in 1991 and with the Orpheus Chamber Ensemble. Altman has lectured at the Universities of North Carolina, Princeton, Rutgers, and New York.
A sense of dance is the connecting thread between all of these pieces. South of New Jersey (1997), for string quartet, was originally written for piano. The quartet version is not just an arrangement but is also an expansion of the original. Tightly organized sections vie with more easy-going, heavily jazz influenced passages for solo violin. The octet, Hommage a Stravinsky (2006) is heavily influenced by Stravinsky’s 1923 Symphonies of Wind Instruments, both thematically and harmonically. The characteristic sound of the sax, however, shifts the sound to a different level (Altman deliberately avoided Stravinsky’s original instrumentation). This is a hugely enjoyable piece. As Altman puts it, “Each of the three movements begins with a direct quote from Stravinsky’s work. What follows are my elaborations, the ways and places I might have chosen to take this work, had I written it in the first place.” The result is never less than fascinating. The chosen group of performers plays the rhythms astonishingly tightly. The recording (Judith Sherman, Westminster Choir College, Princeton, 2007) reflects the very highest professional standards. Detail is wonderfully rendered, but the sound picture is not dry in the least.
Calle de la Amargura (“Street of Bitterness”) sets words by the Cuban-born novelist/poet, Pablo Medina. The scoring is imaginative, as is the actual word-setting. Altman never distorts meanings, although he does experiment a little with syntax. The language of the text is English. Patrice Michaels’s light and agile soprano suits the scale of the chamber scoring perfectly. Michaels, incidentally, sings more Altman on a disc entitled “American Songs” (reviewed by Evan Dickerson in Fanfare 30:4).
The Theme, Variations, and Finale for two pianos of 1985 is the earliest dated work on the disc. Apparently a favorite work of the composer’s, it takes an E-Dorian theme through variations that increase in texture just as they decrease in proportion. There is a light dance feel to this piece; the theme itself exudes gentleness. Despite the expertise of the preceding pieces, this work seems the most confident in compositional terms – it sounds as if it comes from the pen of a composer utterly at ease with himself. The general aura is autumnal.
The Three Antarctic Songs dates from 2006. Texts are by the composer in response to a trip to Antarctica. To conjure up the sense of space breathed by that vast continent, Altman uses wide chord spacings and creates a sense of the unhurried, particularly in the long (8:55) central song. Elem Ney is the fine baritone who commissioned the work and who delivers the text with such authority. This set of songs I the most memorable music of the disc (although States of Waiting runs it a close contest). The octet On Course is overtly programmatic (of a sea journey). The colors the composer uses are predominantly bright and vibrant; the pure string sonority that pens Come Dance with Me (2006, for string quartet and piano) appears in high (and somewhat welcome) contrast. The music becomes increasingly more complex, and includes a tango and improvisations.
Finally, States of Waiting for solo voice (with text by Davied Herrstrom). The angst-laden text (describing a mother’s tense wait to hear whether her daughter’s cancer is confirmed) includes two inserted children’s songs as a means of personalizing the mother’s anguish. Seat singing is used to indicate situations in which words fail. The singer here, again Patrice Michaels, is simply amazing. Her purity of utterance, her superb diction and, above all, her affinity for Altman’s chosen mode of expression all demand the highest respect. This is gripping, hypnotic stuff that views with the Antarctic Songs as the jewel of this disc.
