Aaron Jay Kernis.” – Forbes
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“In the 20th century there were giants in the land. Charles Ives, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Aaron Copland, and Leonard Bernstein. But who is filling those shoes now? Heading many lists is Aaron Jay Kernis.” – Forbes Winner of the coveted 2002 Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition and one of the youngest composers ever to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize, AARON JAY KERNIS is among the most esteemed musical figures of his generation. With "fearless originality [and] powerful voice" (The New York Times), each new Kernis work is eagerly awaited by audiences and musicians alike, and he is one of today's most frequently performed composers. His music, full of variety and dynamic energy, is rich in lyric beauty, poetic imagery, and brilliant instrumental color. His works figure prominently on orchestral, chamber, and recital programs world-wide and have been commissioned by many of America‘s foremost performers, including sopranos Renee Fleming and Dawn Upshaw, violinists Joshua Bell, Pamela Frank, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and James Ehnes (for the BBC Proms), pianist Christopher O'Riley and guitarist Sharon Isbin, and such musical institutions as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra (for the inauguration of its new home at the Kimmel Center), Walt Disney Company, Rose Center for Earth and Space at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, Ravinia Festival (for James Conlon’s inaugural season), San Francisco and Singapore Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, Lincoln Center Great Performers Series, American Public Radio; Los Angeles and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestras, and Aspen Music Festival and programs from Philadelphia to Amsterdam (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam Sinfonietta), Santa Barbara to France (Orchestra National De France) throughout Europe and beyond. Recent and upcoming commissions include a flute, for Marina Piccinini, viola, for Paul Neubauer, trumpet, and violin, for James Ehnes, concerti for orchestras from the Detroit Symphony and London Philharmonic to the Saint Paul and Los Angeles Chamber Orchestras, Melbourne, Dallas and Toronto Symphonies; new string quartets for the Jasper and Borromeo Quartets; a work for the San Francisco Girls and Brooklyn Youth Choruses with The Knights for the New York Philharmonic 2016 Biennial; and his 4th Symphony. One of America's most honored composers, Mr. Kernis was recently inducted in to the Classical Music Hall of Fame. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, he received the coveted Grawemeyer Award in Music Composition (2002) for the cello and orchestra version of "Colored Field"; the 1998 Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet No. 2 ("musica instrumentalis"); and Grammy Award nominations for both "Air" and his Second Symphony. He has also been awarded the Stoeger Prize from the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Rome Prize, an NEA grant, a Bearns Prize, a New York Foundation for the Arts Award, and three BMI Student Composer Awards. He is the Workshop Director of the Nashville Symphony Composer Lab and, for 11 years, served as New Music Adviser to the Minnesota Orchestra, with which he co-founded and directed its Composer Institute for 15 years. He currently teaches composition at Yale School of Music, a position he's occupied since 2003. His works have been recorded on Nonesuch, Koch, Naxos, Signum, and Argo, Britain’s esteemed label, with which Mr. Kernis had an exclusive recording contract. Previously issued CDs include a widely acclaimed CD with Hugh Wolff conducting the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in Mr. Kernis's Symphony No. 2, "Invisible Mosaic III," and "musica celestis" was nominated for a Grammy, and won France's Diapason d'or Palmares for Best Contemporary Music Disc of the Year. Other recordings include a disc of his Pulitzer-Prize winning String Quartet No. 2 ("musica instrumentalis") and Musica Celestis, both on Arabesque with the Lark Quartet; works for violinists Pamela Frank and Joshua Bell with David Zinman and the Minnesota Orchestra, and his Double Concerto with guitarist Sharon Isbin, violinist Cho-Liang Lin and Hugh Wolff leading the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. Originally released on Virgin/EMI was his cello version of "Colored Field" and "Air," created for the Norwegian virtuoso Truls Mork and the Minnesota Orchestra with Eiji Oue. Several of his important works recorded on Argo have been re-released by Phoenix, including his Second Symphony, “Musica Celestis” for String Orchestra, “Invisible Moasic III, and "Symphony in Waves," with Gerard Schwarz and the New York Chamber Symphony. Recent critically acclaimed recordings include his “Goblin Market,” and “Invisible Mosaic II,” on the Signum label with The New Professionals, Rebecca Miller conductor, and Mary King narrator; “Three Flavors,” featuring pianist Andrew Russo, violinist James Ehnes and the Albany Symphony under David Alan Miller’s direction, and a disc of his solo and chamber music, “On Distant Shores,” on Phoenix. Aaron Jay Kernis was born in Philadelphia on January 15, 1960. He began his musical studies on the violin; at age 12 he began teaching himself piano and, the following year, composition. He continued his studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Manhattan and Yale Schools of Music, working with composers as diverse as John Adams, Charles Wuorinen and Jacob Druckman. Kernis first came to national attention in 1982 with the acclaimed premiere of his first orchestral work, "dream of the morning sky," by the New York Philharmonic at its Horizons Festival. Leta Miller's book-length portrait of Kernis and his work was published in 2014 by University of Illinois Press as part of its American Composer series. He has taught composition at Yale School of Music since 2003. Mr. Kernis's music is published by AJK Music, administered by Associated Music Publishers/G.Schirmer. Photo: Richard Bowditch PRESS THE NEW YORK TIMES “arresting, remarkable, with fearless originality and a powerful voice.” FANFARE “Kernis remains at the top of the profession. He also remains at the top of his game.” THE NEW YORKER “Few American composers have made as substantial a contribution to the string-quartet repertory as Aaron Jay Kernis, whose ebullient Quartet No. 2, “Musica Instrumentalis,” garnered him the Pulitzer Prize.” LA SCENA MUSICALE “A violinist himself, Kernis composes gratefully for the instrument, with a full spectrum of tone colours. I find this very lyrical piece totally accessible and delightful - it was a highlight of the evening.” THE BOSTON MUSICAL INTELLIGENCER "He’s tapped something primal in his work. But nothing like, say, Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Not so violent. Here [in Perpetual Chaconne], a different range from the emotional spectrum...there are over arching non- musical impressions, at least for me, of ‘struggling, healing, feeling, discovering, changing, and (mostly) continually searching...There’s much going on, and loads of dissonance and some harsh gestures as promised, but integrated, or crafted in a way to be ultra player-listener-friendly. It is immediately accessible because of, not in spite of, this craft and detailed workmanship. Kernis has taken us on a small journey that covers considerable terrain, in tribute to several before him (including Beethoven). He has made a variation of the variation form, the chaconne, and turned it in to a truly dynamic composition." BUFFALO NEWS “An indelible memory was formed by Aaron Jay Kernis’ 1990 “Musica Celestis.” Like Barber’s ubiquitous “Adagio,” it began life as the slow movement of a string quartet, and was quickly arranged for full string orchestra. Its evocations of endless hymns of praise to God included whispered strings in exquisite soft harmonies, with a gradual accretion to treacherously high, keening string tessitura. A quick cutoff drops instantly back into slow, lush harmonic thoughts where gentle consecutive falling intervals coalesce to form a hauntingly spiritual and deeply satisfying conclusion.” CALGARY HERALD “The sublime… Aaron Kernis' major new work 'Pieces of Winter Sky.' Here was a beautiful composition, featuring poignant solos, delicately accompanied by the most unobtrusive percussion passages, highlighting a perfectly balanced, lyrical second section. The final section combined a variety of colours and textures to paint a deeper complexion of winter as both savage and sublime, ultimately concluding this remarkable work's successful narrative arc with the same cool timbres with which it began.” BROADWAYWORLD “Pulitzer-winning composer Aaron Kernis's major new work [Pieces of Winter Sky] for eighth blackbird shimmers elusively in a gauzy haze..." SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE “[Still Movement With Hymn]...a potent elegy for piano and strings. The score itself, with its anguished climaxes and interludes of serene mourning, is exquisite.” THE BALTIMORE SUN “This frequently performed and recorded composer’s popularity attests to his savvy melding of two seeming opposites, romanticism and minimalism. His work often is described as eclectic and accessible…When Kernis winds up a conversation saying “music is communication”; you know what he means.” Aaron Jay Kernis: Violin Concerto (2017) WORLD PREMIERE: Toronto Symphony, March 8, 2017 "A bravura performance of a movement that bristled with rhythmic vitality." "An impressive showcase for the violin as well as orchestra...it deserves to be heard again." "The resulting sounds [of the soloist/orchestral dialogue] created new and revealing colours of their own...ending in a transcendent