Eric Whitacre

Eric Whitacre (born January 2, 1970^[1]) is an American composer of choral and wind band music and electronic music. He has also served as a guest conductor for ensembles throughout Europe, Asia, Australia and the Americas.

He currently resides in Los Angeles, California with his wife, soprano Hila Plitmann, and son.

Musical background

Whitacre began his musical training while an undergraduate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he studied composition with avant garde Ukrainian composer Virko Baley and choral conducting with David Weiller. It was here that he wrote his Ghost Train triptych for concert band. Whitacre received a Master's degree at the Juilliard School with composition studies under both John Corigliano and David Diamond .^[2]

Music

In the past decade, Whitacre has become a prominent composer for educational concert band and choral music. Some of his choral works are especially popular among high school and college vocal ensembles across the United States.

Whitacre premiered his first work for stage, Paradise Lost, in 2004 at California State University, Northridge, one year after premiering the work's musical suite in Berlin, Germany in the summer of 2003. The show is only distantly related to Milton's Paradise Lost. The music of this opera is a mixture of many different styles of music including trance, classical, electronica, and traditional opera. Paradise Lost premiered at the Theatre @ Boston Court in Pasadena in July and August 2007 with full cast, taiko drums, DJ, anime, and flying rigs.

Related projects

Whitacre's music—particularly his music for choir—has inspired the creation of a number of national and international music festivals. In July 2004, the Sydney Opera House hosted the first annual Eric Whitacre Wind Symphony Festival. In June 2007, Venice and Florence, Italy hosted the first Venice Whitacre Festival.

Whitacre is a founding member of the consortium BCM International, a quartet of composers consisting of himself, Steven Bryant, Jonathan Newman, and James Bonney, who, according to their mission statement, aspire to "enrich the wind ensemble repertoire with music unbound by traditional thought or idiomatic cliché".

Works

Brass ensemble

• Lux Aurumque

Concert band

• Equus
• Ghost Train Triptych
  • The Ride
  • At the Station
  • Motive Revolution
• Godzilla Eats Las Vegas!
• Noisy Wheels of Joy
• October
• Sleep (Choral Transcription)
• Lux Aurumque (Choral Transcription, transposed a semitone lower from C-Sharp Minor to C Minor)
• Cloudburst (Choral Transcription)

Choral

• A Boy and A Girl (poem by Octavio Paz)
• Cloudburst (poem by Octavio Paz)
• Five Hebrew Love Songs (poem by Hila Plitmann)
• Her Sacred Spirit Soars (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Leonardo Dreams of His Flying Machine (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• Little Birds (poem by Octavio Paz)
• little tree (poem by e e cummings)
• Lux Aurumque (poem by Edward Esch; translated into Latin by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• She Weeps Over Rahoon (poem by James Joyce)
• Sleep (poem by Charles Anthony Silvestri)
• This Marriage (poem by Jalal al-Din Rumi)
• Three Flower Songs
  • I Hide Myself (poem by Emily Dickinson)
  • With a Lily in Your Hand (poem by Federico García Lorca)
  • Go, Lovely Rose (poem by Edmund Waller)
• Three Songs of Faith (poems by e e cummings)
  • i will wade out
  • hope, faith, life, love
  • i thank You God for most this amazing day
• When David Heard (from II Samuel 18:33)
• Water Night(poem by Octavio Paz; translated by Muriel Rukeyser)
• Winter (poem by Edward Esch)

String ensemble

• Lux Aurumque
• Water Night

Theatre

• Paradise Lost: Shadows and Wings

Other arrangements

• Rak HaHatchala (Only the Beginning)[aka The Five Hebrew Love Songs]; for soprano voice, solo violin, piano

References

1. ^ CD booklet for Cloudburst and other choral works, Hyperion Records CDA67543 http://www.hyperion-records.com/details/67543.asp
2. ^ Biography at http://www.ericwhitacre.com

External links

• Official site