Americans in Rome: Music by Fellows of the American Academy in Rome

Artistic Director and Music Committee Bios

Donald Berman has been described as a "thorough, exciting, and persuasive musician" (New York Times) and "a pianist of stupendous abilities" (Boston Globe). His work has ranged from Mozart concertos with the Columbus Symphony to American works at Stanford University, to recitals linking Haydn and Schubert with new music, one of which the New York Times called a "thrillingly clear performance." Mr. Berman was a prizewinner at the 1991 Schubert International Competition and is a member of Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble since 1987. He has been featured by League/ISCM at Merkin Hall, the Masters of Tomorrow series in Germany, French Cultural Services (Fauré Sesquicentennial), and many others. He has been guest artist on a number of National Public Radio programs, and has performed with the Martha Graham and Mark Morris Dance Companies. He has premiered works for Collage, Real Art Waves, Core Ensemble, and on his series Firstworks for First Night Boston, and Pioneers and Premieres. In the 2002-03 season, Mr. Berman will be presented by the Miller Theater (NYC) in a concert of new editions of unpublished works by Ruggles and Ives. His recording The Unknown Ives (CRI, 1999) was named among the best CDs of the year by Fanfare magazine. CRI has also issued Arthur Levering: School of Velocity. He studied with Leonard Shure at the New England Conservatory, John Kirkpatrick, George Barth at Wesleyan University, and Mildred Victor. Mr. Berman co-directs the New Music Ensemble at Tufts University.

Kathryn Alexander's interests go beyond the traditional boundaries of music. She draws upon a variety of disciplines, including literature, the visual and plastic arts, the sciences, and technology to develop formal schemes for her works. Her music has been performed throughout North and South America and Western Europe. Her most recent projects include mania!, for solo percussionist and interactive audio/video, and dreams ... reveries, for the So Percussion Group. She has received commissions from the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University, the Rockefeller Foundation, the Barlow Endowment, the Vermont Chamber Music Conference, the New Music Consort, The Women's Philharmonic, the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Boston Musica Viva, and the National Flute Association. She has won annual Special Awards from ASCAP, a Composer's Fellowship from the NEA, and held residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, among others. Ms.Alexander completed her BM at Baylor University and then continued at The Cleveland Institute of Music, where she studied composition with Donald Erb and Eugene O'Brien FAAR'72. She later earned her DMA at the Eastman School of Music, working with Samuel Adler, Barbara Kolb FAAR'71, RAAR'76, Allan Schindler and Joseph Schwantner. She also studied with Leon Kirchner at the Tanglewood Music Center. Ms. Alexander has taught at the University of Oregon, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, and Dartmouth College. She is currently Associate Professor of Composition at Yale University.

Robert Beaser is often cited as an important figure among the "New Tonalists", and through a wide range of media has firmly established his own voice as a synthesis of Western tradition and American vernacular. Mr. Beaser has received commissions from the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the American Composers Orchestra and the Baltimore Symphony. He has received a music award from the American Academy of Arts & Letters, a Grammy nomination for Best Classical Composition, and Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships. His opera The Food of Love, which was commissioned by the New York City Opera, Glimmerglass Opera and WNET (libretto by playwright Terence McNally), was broadcast on Great Performances. His music has been recorded for ARGO, New World, EMI and others. Mr. Beaser holds a Doctorate from the Yale School of Music. He is currently Chairman of the Composition Department at The Juilliard School and serves as Artistic Director to the American Composers Orchestra.

John Harbison has reached the level of prominence befitting a composer possessed of the exceptional resourcefulness and expressive range he displays. Among his principal works are four string quartets, three symphonies, the cantata The Flight into Egypt (Pulitzer Prize 1987), and three operas. His most recent opera, The Great Gatsby (for which he wrote both music and libretto), was commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera, premiered to great acclaim in 1999 and revived in 2002. The 2002-03 season will see the premiere of his Requiem (Boston Symphony) and the New York premiere of Four Psalms. Recent premieres include Partita (Minnesota Orchestra's Centennial commission), the ensemble version of Mottetti di Montale, and the song cycle North and South by the Chicago Chamber Musicians. Mr. Harbison has been composer-in-residence with the Pittsburgh Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Tanglewood, Marlboro and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festivals. More than 30 of his compositions have been recorded on the Nonesuch, Northeastern, Harmonia Mundi, New World, CRI, and other labels. As conductor, Mr. Harbison has led the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, and the Handel & Haydn Society Orchestra, as well as a number of vocal ensembles. Mr. Harbison was educated at Harvard University and earned an MFA from Princeton University. He joined the faculty of M.I.T. in 1984, and is currently on the faculty of the Aspen Music Festival.

Paul Moravec is the composer of over seventy orchestral, chamber, choral, lyric, electro?acoustic, and multi?media compositions. His music has earned numerous distinctions and commissions and has been performed and recorded throughout the U.S. and Europe.On compact disc: Songs of Love and War for SATB Chorus/Orchestra on a CD featuring The Dessoff Choirs & Orchestra; Sonata for Violin and Piano on BMG/RCA Classics; SpiritDance, an orchestral work on the Vienna Modern Masters label; and an album of chamber compositions titled Circular Dreams on CRI. Recent premieres include The Time Gallery with Eighth Blackbird at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Cool Fire with the Bridgehampton Chamber Players; Montserrat: Cello Concerto with Arthur Fiacco and the Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola (NYC); Vita Brevis with tenor Paul Sperry; and Spirit, a dramatic cantata commissioned for the 75th anniversary of the landmark trans-Atlantic flight of the Spirit of St. Louis . Premieres coming up this season include Tempest Fantasy with the Trio Solisti and David Krakauer at the Morgan Library; No Words, commissioned by Concert Artists Guild for pianist James Lent and the Gotham Gay Chorus; and a new septet commissioned for the 20th anniversary season of the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. A graduate of Harvard University and Columbia University, his principal teachers include Jack Beeson, Mario Davidovsky, RAAR'97, Chou Wen?chung, and Fred Lerdahl, RAAR'88. He has taught at Harvard, Columbia, Dartmouth, and Hunter College and currently heads the Music Department at Adelphi University. Paul Moravec is represented by Sozo Arts at www.sozoarts.com and his website is at www.paulmoravec.com.

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