George Tsontakis
George Tsontakis | |
|---|---|
| Born | October 24, 1951 Astoria, Queens, New York City |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, conductor |
George Tsontakis (born Astoria, Queens, New York City, October 24, 1951) is an American composer and conductor.
Early life and education[edit]
He was born in New York City, and is of Greek descent. Tsontakis studied composition with Hugo Weisgall and Roger Sessions at the Juilliard School from 1974 to 1978, and later with Franco Donatoni at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.
Career[edit]
His music has been performed and broadcast by major orchestras, chamber ensembles, and festivals throughout North and South America, Europe and Japan.
Tsontakis was honored with the "Academy Award" in 1995 from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was the fourth recipient of the coveted Ives Living Fellowship, in 2007. Pianist Stephen Hough's recording of Tsontakis's "Ghost Variations" on Hyperion Records was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Classical Composition,[1] and was the only classical recording among Time magazine's 1998 Top Ten Recordings. Tsontakis received the Berlin Prize from the American Academy in Berlin in 2002, and the University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for his Violin Concerto No. 2 in 2005.[2][3][4][5]
A proficient conductor of orchestral and choral music, Tsontakis has been a composer-in-residence with the Aspen Music Festival and conductor and the founding director of the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble at the Aspen Music School, where he teaches composition. He was an assistant professor at the Brooklyn College Conservatory of Music, and has served on the faculty of Sarah Lawrence College. He is Distinguished Faculty, Composer-in-Residence of the Bard College Conservatory of Music in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.[6] He was a Weil fellow at Auburn University Montgomery.
Tsontakis's music has been recorded by KOCH International, New World, and Opus One, and is published by Merion Music and Poco Forte Music.[citation needed]
In 2008, his Violin Concerto No. 2, recorded by violinist Steven Copes and the SPCO, was nominated for a Grammy in the category of Best Classical Contemporary Composition, but lost to John Corigliano's Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan. He served as composer-in-residence with the Albany Symphony (2007–2012) as well as the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center (2009–10).[citation needed]
References[edit]
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2008-12-05. Retrieved 2009-01-30.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Composer José Enrique González Medina on Writing Music Musicians Love | Table Talk". 7 March 2020.
- ^ "George Tsontakis". 18 May 2006.
- ^ "Yaddo Composer George Tsontakis Wins Prestigious Charles Ives Award". Archived from the original on 2007-01-11. Retrieved 2010-09-26.
- ^ "Composer George Tsontakis Wins Prestigious Charles Ives Award". 12 December 2006.
- ^ "George Tsontakis". www.bard.edu. Archived from the original on 2006-09-01.
External links[edit]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
- 20th-century classical composers
- 21st-century classical composers
- American male classical composers
- American classical composers
- American male conductors (music)
- Aspen Music Festival and School faculty
- Bard College faculty
- Brooklyn College faculty
- Sarah Lawrence College faculty
- Auburn University faculty
- Auburn University at Montgomery faculty
- Berlin Prize recipients
- Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia alumni
- Juilliard School alumni
- Musicians from Queens, New York
- People from Astoria, Queens
- American people of Greek descent
- 1951 births
- Living people
- Pupils of Roger Sessions
- 21st-century American composers
- 20th-century American composers
- 20th-century American conductors (music)
- 21st-century American conductors (music)
- 20th-century American male musicians
- 21st-century American male musicians