Nicholas Maw
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John Nicholas Maw (5 November 1935 – 19 May 2009) was a British composer.
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[edit] Biography
Born in Grantham, Lincolnshire, Maw was the son of Clarence Frederick Maw and Hilda Ellen Chambers. He attended the Wennington School, a boarding school, in Wetherby in the West Riding of Yorkshire. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was 14. He attended the Royal Academy of Music on Marylebone Road in London where his teachers were Paul Steinitz and Lennox Berkeley. He then studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger and Max Deutsch.[1]
In 1960, he married Karen Graham. They had a son and daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1976. For the past 24 years he lived in Washington, DC with his companion Maija Hay, a ceramic artist.[1]
From 1998 until 2008, Maw served on the faculty of the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University, where he taught music composition.[2] He had previously served on the faculties of Yale University, Bard College, Boston University, the Royal Academy of Music, Cambridge University, and Exeter University. He had been a resident of Washington, DC since 1984, and died at his home there on May 19, 2009 at age 73 due to heart failure with complications from diabetes.[1]
[edit] Compositions
Maw is best known for the orchestral pieces Odyssey (1987) and The World in the Evening (1988), the guitar work Music of Memory (1989) and a violin concerto (1993) written for Joshua Bell. His music has been described as neo-romantic but also as modernist and non-tonal (for instance Personæ, his ongoing cycle of piano pieces).[1]
In 2002 an opera, Sophie's Choice (based on William Styron's novel), was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. It was premièred at the Royal Opera House under the direction of Sir Simon Rattle, and afterwards received a new production by stage director Markus Bothe at the Deutsche Oper Berlin and the Volksoper Wien, which had its North American premiere by the Washington National Opera in October 2006. Mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, who sang Sophie in London, reprised the title role at the National Opera, joined by American baritone Rod Gilfry as Nathan Landau, the schizophrenic man who initially rescues Sophie and then persuades her to join him in a suicide pact. Maw also prepared a concert suite for orchestra based on the music.[1]
A performance of Odyssey took place in BBC's Maida Vale Studios on 9 December 2005, and was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 two days later. Simon Rattle has also conducted a recording of the work by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.[1]
[edit] Chronological list of compositions
1956 Eight Chinese Lyrics for mezzo-soprano
1956-7 Requiem for voices & orchestra
1957 Flute Sonatina
1957 Nocturne for mezzo-soprano & chamber orchestra
1959 Six Chinese Songs for contralto & piano
1962 Chamber Music for oboe, clarinet, horn, bassoon & piano
1962 rev 1966 Scenes & Arias, for orchestra & three female voices
1964 rev 1966 rev 1970 One Man Show, opera
1965 String Quartet 1
1966 Severn Bridge Variation for a composite work with Malcolm Arnold, Michael Tippett, Alun Hoddinott & Daniel Jones
1966 Sinfonia for chamber orchestra
1966 Six Interiors for tenor & guitar
1966 Sonata for Strings & Two Horns
1966 The Voice of Love, Eight Peter Porter songs for mezzo-soprano & piano
1967 Double Canon for Igor Stravinsky on his 85th Birthday
1967-70 The Rising of the Moon, three act opera
1967-70 arr 1972 Concert Music from The Rising of the Moon for orchestra
1971 Epitaph, Canon in Memory of Igor Stravinsky for flute, clarinet & harp
1972-5 1979 1985-7 Odyssey for orchestra
1973 Personae I, II & III for piano
1973 rev 1977 Serenade for orchestra
1973-6 Eight Life Studies for fifteen strings
1975 Te Deum for voices & orchestra
1979 La Vita Nuova, five songs for soprano & ensemble
1980 The Ruin for solo horn & voices
1981 Flute Quartet
1981 Summer Dances for orchestra
1982 Night Thoughts for solo flute
1982 String Quartet 2
1982 The Old King's Lament for solo double-bass
1982-3 Spring Music for orchestra
1984 Little Suite for solo guitar
1985 Sonata Notturna for cello & strings
1985-6 Personae IV, V & VI for piano
1987 Little Concert for oboe, two horns & strings
1988 Ghost Dances, imaginary ballet for five players
1988 The World in the Evening for orchestra
1989 5 American Folksongs for voice & piano
1989 rev 1991 Roman Canticle for baritone, flute, viola & harp
1989-91 Music of Memory for solo guitar
1990-1 Piano Trio
1991 American Games for wind orchestra
1992 Shahnama for chamber orchestra
1992 The Head of Orpheus for soprano & two clarinets
1993 Violin Concerto
1994 String Quartet 3
1994-5 Dance Scenes for orchestra
1995 Voices of Memory for orchestra
1995-6 Hymnus for voices & orchestra
1996-7 Solo Violin Sonata
1997 Stanza for solo violin
1999-2002 Sophie's Choice, four act opera after William Styron's novel
2001 Intrada for string quartet
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d e f Allan Kozinn (May 19, 2009). "Nicholas Maw, British Composer, Is Dead at 73s". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/20/arts/music/20maw.htm?_r=1. Retrieved May 19, 2009.
- ^ "Obituaries: Composer Nicholas Maw dies at seventy-three; voice teacher Richard Miller; scholar William Ashbrook; veteran singers Eric Garrett and Robert Nagy.". Opera News. August 2009, vol 74, no. 2. http://www.metoperafamily.org/operanews/issue/article.aspx?id=5286&issueID=336. Retrieved July 30, 2009.
[edit] External links
- Extended biography
- Guardian December 2002 article
- Nicholas Maw - Daily Telegraph obituary
- "British Composer Brought 'Sophie's Choice' to Opera Stage", The Washington Post, May 20, 2009
