Benjamin Lees ( born Benjamin Lees , real surname Lisnyansky ; January 8, 1924 , Harbin - May 31, 2010 , New York ) is an American composer.
| Benjamin Fox | |
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| Professions | , , , |
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| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship |
Biography
Born in a family of Jewish emigrants from Russia; the composer's father was a watchmaker. [4] In early childhood, he moved with his family to San Francisco , at the age of five he began to practice piano under the direction of Kiva Rodetsky, also an emigrant. In 1939 , the family moved to Los Angeles, Lees continued to study music under the direction of singer Marguerite Bitter. In 1942 - 1945 served in the US Armed Forces. After demobilization, he entered the University of Southern California , where his compositional teachers were Halsey Stevens and Ingolf Dahl . In the late 1940s. Fox's work attracted the attention of George Antheil , who acted as a mentor to the young composer. Finally, after four years under the leadership of Anteyle, Fox received a Fromm Foundation scholarship and went to improve his skills in France.
The first works of the Fox, which attracted wide attention, appeared in the second half of the 1950s. The second symphony ( 1958 ) was first performed by the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of George Sell - according to the New York Times reviewer, in it the composer declared himself as an individual who found his own way [5] . In the same year, a violin concert was written, first performed by Henryk Schering , and later recorded by Ruggiero Ricci . Returning to the United States in 1961 , Fox taught for 15 years in various educational institutions, including the Peabody Conservatory (1962-1964, 1966-1968) and the Juilliard School (1976-1977). Among his subsequent works, the Concerto for String Quartet and Orchestra ( 1964 ), written for Gary Graffman, the Second Piano Concerto ( 1966 ), dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust, the Fourth Symphony “Memorial Candles” for soprano, violin and orchestra ( 1985 ) and the Fifth Symphony “ Squid Nickel ”( 1986 ), whose record in 2003 was nominated for a Grammy Award .
The fox stayed away from the most popular techniques in 20th century American music - atonality, serialism, minimalism
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 German National Library , Berlin State Library , Bavarian State Library , etc. Record # 103773452 // General regulatory control (GND) - 2012—2016.
- ↑ 1 2 BNF identifier : Open Data Platform 2011.
- ↑ 1 2 SNAC - 2010.
- ↑ Obituary in The Guardian
- ↑ Howard Taubman. An individualist; Clevelanders Introduce Lees' 2d Symphony // The New York Times, February 09, 1960 .