Alexander Frey: Difference between revisions
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'''Alexander Frey''' is an American [[symphony orchestra]] [[Conductor (music)|conductor]] internationally acclaimed for his "electrifying, passionate performances".{{cite quote|date=April 2011}} He is also a [[virtuoso]] [[organist]] and [[pianist]]. A highly charismatic artist on the podium, Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and has enjoyed great success in the [[concert hall]] and [[opera house]], and in the music of [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and [[Hollywood]]. [[Leonard Bernstein]] referred to him as "a wonderful spirit".{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} |
'''Alexander Frey''' is an American [[symphony orchestra]] [[Conductor (music)|conductor]] internationally acclaimed for his "electrifying, passionate performances".{{cite quote|date=April 2011}} He is also a [[virtuoso]] [[organist]] and [[pianist]]. A highly charismatic artist on the podium, Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and has enjoyed great success in the [[concert hall]] and [[opera house]], and in the music of [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] and [[Hollywood]]. [[Leonard Bernstein]] referred to him as "a wonderful spirit".{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} |
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In addition to his regular appearances as a conductor on major concert series, Frey is known for being able to completely learn entire concert programs virtually overnight and follow with giving performances of great depth, and is very frequently called upon to replace conductors who have canceled their engagements, often at the last minute. |
In addition to his regular appearances as a conductor on major concert series, Frey is known for being able to completely learn entire concert programs virtually overnight and follow with giving performances of great depth, and is very frequently called upon to replace conductors who have canceled their engagements, often at the last minute. |
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A well-read, witty and urbane figure, Frey has been called a "a raconteur, a modern-day [[Oscar Levant]]" by American writer and [[Prairie Home Companion]] host [[Garrison Keillor]], and "a true Renaissance man" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author [[Studs Terkel]].{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} Frey has been a strong proponent for interdisciplinary education in the arts. As a musician acclaimed for exploring new and deeper ways of musical expression, Frey is known as a maverick and controversial artist. |
A well-read, witty and urbane figure, Frey has been called a "a raconteur, a modern-day [[Oscar Levant]]" by American writer and [[Prairie Home Companion]] host [[Garrison Keillor]], and "a true Renaissance man" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author [[Studs Terkel]].{{citation needed|date=April 2011}} Frey has been a strong proponent for interdisciplinary education in the arts. As a musician acclaimed for exploring new and deeper ways of musical expression, Frey is known as a maverick and controversial artist. |
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Frey is an official Steinway Artist. |
Frey is an official Steinway Artist. |
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He is also Musical Advisor for the Hollywood in Vienna Festival held every year in Vienna, Austria. |
He is also Musical Advisor for the Hollywood in Vienna Festival held every year in Vienna, Austria. |
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[[Category:Classical organists]] |
[[Category:Classical organists]] |
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[[Category:American people of Greek descent]] |
[[Category:American people of Greek descent]] |
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[[Category:Greek |
[[Category:American people of Greek descent]] |
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[[Category:Living people]] |
[[Category:Living people]] |
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[[Category:American pianists]] |
[[Category:American pianists]] |
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Revision as of 22:21, 10 April 2011
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| This article contains wording that promotes the subject in a subjective manner without imparting real information. (April 2011) |
Alexander Frey | |
|---|---|
 Alexander Frey in rehearsal 2007 | |
| Born | October 5, 1969 Chicago, Illinois, United States |
| Occupation(s) | Conductor, pianist, organist, composer, recording artist. |
Alexander Frey is an American symphony orchestra conductor internationally acclaimed for his "electrifying, passionate performances".[This quote needs a citation] He is also a virtuoso organist and pianist. A highly charismatic artist on the podium, Frey is in great demand as one of the world's most versatile conductors, and has enjoyed great success in the concert hall and opera house, and in the music of Broadway and Hollywood. Leonard Bernstein referred to him as "a wonderful spirit".[citation needed]
In addition to his regular appearances as a conductor on major concert series, Frey is known for being able to completely learn entire concert programs virtually overnight and follow with giving performances of great depth, and is very frequently called upon to replace conductors who have canceled their engagements, often at the last minute.
A well-read, witty and urbane figure, Frey has been called a "a raconteur, a modern-day Oscar Levant" by American writer and Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor, and "a true Renaissance man" by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel.[citation needed] Frey has been a strong proponent for interdisciplinary education in the arts. As a musician acclaimed for exploring new and deeper ways of musical expression, Frey is known as a maverick and controversial artist.
In January 2008, during an interview broadcast on Radio Cairo while conducting in Egypt, Frey stated that "Music is a peaceful island in a river of sadness."[This quote needs a citation]
In recent years, he has taken to playing his solo recitals with a lamp next to or on the piano providing the only stage light (and often the only lighting in the concert hall as well), and an oriental rug underneath the instrument to "create an intimacy between my audience and the music, as if everyone were in my living room listening together."
A resident of Berlin, Germany, Frey has been frequently invited by the city's diplomatic community to perform for heads of state including President Bill Clinton and the Dalai Lama, and former German chancellors Helmut Kohl and Gerhard Schroeder, among others.
Frey is an official Steinway Artist.
He is also Musical Advisor for the Hollywood in Vienna Festival held every year in Vienna, Austria.
Frey is of Greek-American descent.
Conducting
Frey was Principal Conductor of the Rome Philharmonic Orchestra from 1996 to 2002, and during that time was the only American music director of an Italian symphony orchestra.
Frey was appointed conductor of the Bohemia Symphony Orchestra (later named the Stern Chamber Orchestra) in Prague, Czech Republic, a position he has held since 2000. He was conductor of Prague's historic Karlin Theater from 2004 to 2008 where he conducted 50 performances per season.
His many recent guest conducting appearances include performances on five continents with the Rio de Janeiro Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, Sibelius Symphony Orchestra, Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, Seoul Royal Symphony Orchestra, Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra of Berlin, Brandenburg Chamber Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Sicily (Palermo), Bari Symphony Orchestra, and the Collegium Symphonium Veneto (Padua) among others. He also conducted Ensemble Europa (members of the Israel Philharmonic and Deutsche Oper orchestras) in sold-out concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Berlin commemorating the 50th anniversary of World War II and the liberation of the concentration camps. In 2006, he conducted Prague's official orchestral gala concert (with the Stern Chamber Orchestra) celebrating Mozart's 250th birthday on the day of the composer's birth. In 2010, he was the only American conductor invited to conduct an Italian orchestra for the Festa della Repubblica, the Italian independence day on which all the major orchestras in Italy give concerts in honor of the occasion.
Frey has also been Music Director for major productions at the Edinburgh International Festival (where he was awarded the festival's Critics' Prize), the Wiener Festwochen (Theater an der Wien, Vienna), Venice Festival (Teatro La Fenice), Holland Festival, the Fifth European Festival, and the Copenhagen Opera Festival.
From 1992 to 1996, he was Music Director of Germany's most renowned theater, the Berliner Ensemble, founded by Bertolt Brecht, where he collaborated with the celebrated stage director Peter Zadek. Frey was the first American to hold a position at the Berliner Ensemble, as well as being the theater's first non-German Music Director; his historic predecessors who held the same music directorship included the composers Kurt Weill, Hanns Eisler, and Paul Dessau. While there, Zadek and Frey's artistic collaboration made theater history by producing several revolutionary and innovative productions which received great international acclaim. They adapted Vittorio DiSica's classic film Miracle of Milan (Miracolo e Milano) for the stage using the actual entire dialogue script from the film. Frey devised the idea of restoring the entire original film score and performing it live throughout the play using the exact same music cues as in the film, marking the first time this technique was ever used. He repeated this method for a subsequent production in Austria of a stage version of the film Arsenic and Old Lace. For Miracle of Milan, Frey and the production were nominated for a Berlin Theater Critics' Prize. Frey also produced and directed the Berliner Ensemble's A Paul Dessau Evening, a highly acclaimed multimedia retrospective of the musical and dramatic works of the theater's music director of the 1950s.
Piano/organ performances
As pianist and organist, Frey has performed with many symphony orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra (ORF), Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin (Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra), Deutsches Sinfonie-Orchester, Rome Philharmonic Orchestra, the orchestra of the Teatro Regio di Torino (with whom he appeared as soloist in the 3 inaugural concerts opening Torino's newly restored opera house), the Cairo Symphony Orchestra, Bohemian Symphony Orchestra (Prague), the chamber orchestra of the Palacio de Bellas Artes (the chamber orchestra of the opera house of Mexico City), Orchestra Filarmonica Italiana and Neues Barockorchester Berlin among others, under such conductors as Claudio Abbado, John Mauceri, Michael Tilson Thomas and Howard Shore.
He frequently played recitals with the renowned Grammy Award-winning tenor, Jerry Hadley. Frey has performed chamber music with violinist Ruggiero Ricci and the Vermeer Quartet, among others. In 1985, Ricci and Frey performed New York City's official concert commemorating the anniversary of the birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, given in a sold-out Alice Tully Hall on the actual day of the composer's 300th birthday. He has performed concerts in Europe with American writer and A Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor.
Frey's annual schedule also includes worldwide recital tours. He was the first organist ever to perform an entire symphony of Gustav Mahler as a solo work for organ. This historic achievement resulted in Frey's live performance of the organ transcription Gustav Mahler's Symphony #5 (transcribed by Jerry Kinsella) being regarded as one of seven performances listed as "the most important organ-related events of the 20th century" by The American Organist magazine.
In Barrie Gavin's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs several solo keyboard works and the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, which exists only in a manuscript piano score. Most of the background piano music in the film is also taken from Frey's performances of the composer's music.
Recording awards
A highly honored recording artist, Frey has received the Deutscher Schallplattenpreis (Germany's highest recording honor), Choice of the French Media Critics, Best Recording of the Year (Fi Magazine), Best Original Cast Recording of the Year-2005 (Borders Music), Favorite Record of the Year-2005 (ArkivMusic), the Bronze World Medal of the New York Festival, BBC Critics Choice, Record of the Month (MusicWeb, UK), Best Instrumental CD of the Month (Galaxie Magazine, Canada) and Best CD of the Month (Best New Classics). June 2005 marked the release of a new CD of Frey conducting the world premiere recording of Leonard Bernstein's Peter Pan, which Frey restored from the composer's manuscripts, including almost an hour of music previously unheard. This historic recording features Broadway star Linda Eder in the role of Wendy, and internationally acclaimed baritone Daniel Narducci singing the role of Captain Hook. The CD debuted as #11 on the Billboard Classical Music Chart, eventually rising to become the 8th highest selling classical music recording in the world and third highest selling musical theater recording during the weeks following its release. It also became the best selling recording of Koch International Classics, the record company which produced it. Frey's CD of the complete solo piano music of Leonard Bernstein (also on Koch International Classics) is considered to be the definitive performance of that music. His ongoing project is recording the complete piano works of Erich Wolfgang Korngold (Koch International Classics) and he is regarded as the leading interpreter of Korngold's keyboard music. Frey's recordings can also be found on the Decca and Deutsche Grammophon labels.
Selected discography
- Leonard Bernstein: Peter Pan, World Premiere Recording (Koch International Classics)
- Leonard Bernstein: The Complete Works for Solo Piano (Koch International Classics)
- Shimon Knoll: Thou Shall Not Kill, piano works and chamber music (Pool Classics)
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: Between Two Worlds - Suite for piano and orchestra (Decca)
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Complete Works for Piano, vol. 1 (Koch International Classics)
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold: The Romance of Korngold (Deutsche Grammophon)
- Frank Wildhorn: Jekyll and Hyde (Czech Cast Recording)
DVD
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold-The Adventures of a Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, (Arthaus Musik)
Contemporary music and the music of Hollywood
Frey's strong commitment to both contemporary music and the film music of Hollywood is also evident in the number of premieres he has performed. At the 2009 "Hollywood in Vienna Festival" held in Vienna, Austria, Frey gave the first public live performance of John Williams' music to Jean-Jacques Annaud's Seven Years in Tibet when he played a piano transcription of the complete score to that film. He also performed the world premieres of Max Steiner's Wiener Lob and a large-scale piano transcription of David Arnold's music for the film Independence Day in concert with Arnold in attendance. In Mexico, Frey conducted the Latin American premiere performances of both Bernard Herrmann's music for Alfred Hitchcock's film Vertigo and Franz Waxman's music for the 1941 film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. He also gave the first public performance of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's music for the 1944 film Between Two Worlds, as well as the European premiere of the Suite from Schindler's List, composed and arranged by John Williams. In Barrie Gavin's documentary film, Erich Wolfgang Korngold-Adventures of Wunderkind: A Portrait and Concert, Frey performs the first public hearing of Korngold's second symphony, composed in Hollywood at the end of the composers life and exists only in piano score, in addition to playing several solo keyboard works and most of the background piano music.
He has conducted James Helme Sutcliffe's Gymnopedie and Night Music (both world premieres), Charles Kalman's Hudson Concerto, Naji Hakim's Hymne de l'Univers (North American premiere) and Ada Gentile's Adagio and Adagio Prima, Adagio Seconda. As pianist, Frey has given the world premieres of Leonard Bernstein's Five Anniversaries and Thirteen Anniversaries, as well as the European and Asian premieres of that composer's Sonata for the Piano. He also gave the world premieres of Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Vier Walzer (Four Waltzes), Kurt Weill's Albumblatt (the composer's only work for solo piano) and Franz Schubert's unpublished Fugue in D minor for organ.
Frey is Musical Advisor to the Hollywood in Vienna Festival.
Radio biography
An hour-long radio program about Frey's life and work, hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Studs Terkel, was made in 1998 in the United States. In 2001, Frey gave live performances for the BBC (with the renown soprano Marta Eggerth) when the two artists gave recitals together in American and Europe and an all-Verdi program for RAI (Italy).
Education
Frey studied in Chicago with the legendary pianist, harpsichordist and teacher, Gavin Williamson (1898–1989) a renowned pupil of Wanda Landowska, whose legacy revived the harpsichord repertoire in the mid-20th Century. He received the Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees (both with honors) from the University of Michigan where he studied organ with Robert Glasgow and conducting with Gustav Meier.