Jennifer Higdon
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Jennifer Higdon (born December 31, 1962) is an American composer of classical music and flutist.
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[edit] Biography
Higdon was born in Brooklyn, but spent her first 10 years in Atlanta before moving to Tennessee. With almost no advanced flute training, she studied at Bowling Green State University towards a degree in flute performance. While at Bowling Green she met Robert Spano, who was teaching a conducting course there; Spano would go on to be the foremost champions of Higdon's music in the American orchestral community. Other conductors who have worked extensively with Higdon include Christoph Eschenbach, Marin Alsop, and Leonard Slatkin. Higdon earned an Artist's Diploma from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with David Loeb . She then obtained a master's degree and doctoral degree in composition from the University of Pennsylvania under the tutelage of George Crumb.
Higdon teaches composition at the Curtis Institute where she holds the Milton L. Rock Chair in Compositional Studies. She served with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra as Composer-in-Residence in 2005-2006, with the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra in 2006-2007 and with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2007-2008. Her musical style uses elements of traditional tonality and she demonstrates an uncanny knack for interesting color combinations. In 2002, Higdon received two commissions from major symphonies; her Concerto for Orchestra was commissioned by the Philadelphia Orchestra and City Scape by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. blue cathedral, a one-movement tone poem dealing with the death (from melanoma) of her brother, Andrew Blue Higdon, has quickly become the most performed modern orchestral piece by a living American composer; it has been performed by more than 200 orchestras since its premiere in 2000.
[edit] Aesthetic
Many of Jennifer Higdon's pieces are considered Neoromantic, tend to use octatonic scales; they display a freedom of form, intense dynamic changes and dense textures. Although Higdon's pieces are mostly tonal, some atonality is still present.
[edit] Critical reception
Higdon's music is popular with orchestras and audiences and the League of American Orchestras recently reported Higdon as one of the most performed living American composers [1]. This popularity can vary among critics, but In general, critics' reviews of her music are positive. Examples: "Higdon's music is lithe and expert," says Robert Battey of The Washington Post. "Jennifer Higdon's vivid, attractive works have made her a hot commodity lately," says Steve Smith of The New York Times. "Jennifer Higdon is in my assessment one of the greatest of the newer composers," says Steven Ritter of Audiophile Audition [2]. On her Concerto for Orchestra, Richard Morrison in The Times (London) stated that "it is rare to witness a big new orchestral piece being acclaimed as Jennifer Higdon's Concerto for Orchestra was cheered on...The most impressive aspect is the panache with which a huge orchestra is deployed...This colourful, ever-changing instrumental panoply is doubtless one reason why the work makes an instant impression...Higdon's work is traditionally rooted yet imbued with integrity, freshness and a desire to entertain. A promising mixture. More, please."
Criticism of her style, however, can be fierce: Andrew Clements in the Guardian gave a CD of Higdon's music a minimal one-star rating. He referred to the music as "American contemporary music at its most vacuous, a noisy mishmash...supremely forgettable".[3]. Rowena Smith, also in the Guardian referred to Higdon's Blue Cathedral as "pure new-age fluff, undemanding, unadventurous tonality dressed up as a quasi-mystical experience by the addition of bells and chimes. " [4] Tom Service, also in the Guardian also criticized Higdon's Concerto For Orchestra. He wrote, "The problem Higdon's piece...is that its flamboyant gestures.. function only as surface effects, without creating any real structural momentum."[5] Similarly, though in a more positive review, Raymond Tuttle wrote that "[e]ven though the Concerto for Orchestra is not remarkable for its melodic content, there is so much color and brilliance in Higdon's writing...that few listeners will notice, let alone care that the work is not very deep". [6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.americanorchestras.org/images/stories/ORR_0708/ORR_summary_0708.pdf
- ^ http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=6074
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/apr/30/classicalmusicandopera.shopping4
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2007/apr/16/classicalmusicandopera2
- ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004/apr/08/classicalmusicandopera1
- ^ http://www.classical.net/music/recs/reviews/t/tlc80620b.php
[edit] External links
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