ÿþ<html> <head> <title>Forest Hill Chamber Music Festival 2004</title> <style> a:link {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:active {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:visited {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:hover {color:000000;text-decoration: none} </style> </head> <body bgColor=ffffff topmargin=15 leftmargin=0 text=555555 link=000000 alink=000000 vlink=000000> <center> <a href="index.html"><img src="title01w.gif" border=0></a><BR> <BR><font size=3> { <a href="p1.html">6/11</a> &nbsp; <a href="p2.html">6/12</a> &nbsp; <a href="p3.html">6/13</a> &nbsp; <a href="p4.html">6/13</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="artists.html">artists</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="notes.html">program notes</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="photos.html">photos</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="contact.html">tickets</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="ack.html">acknowledgements</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="intro.html">about</a> } <BR><BR><BR> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <TR> <Td align=right valign=top> <table border=0 cellpadding=15 cellspacing=0><TR><TD align=right> <a href="n01-bach.html">Johann Sebastian Bach </a><BR> <a href="n02-beet.html">Ludwig van Beethoven </a><BR> <a href="n03-berg.html">Alban Maria Johannes Berg </a><BR> <a href="n14-druk.html">Jacob Raphael Druckman </a><BR> <a href="n04-dvor.html">Antonín DvoYák </a><BR> <a href="n05-hind.html">Paul Hindemith </a><BR> <a href="n06-mech.html">Kirke Mechem</a><BR> <a href="n07-mess.html">Olivier Messiaen</a><BR> <a href="n08-moza.html">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart </a><BR> <a href="n09-rohde.html">Kurt Rohde</a><BR> <a href="n10-ss.html">Charles Camille Saint-Saëns </a><BR> <a href="n11-scho.html">Arnold Schönberg </a><BR> <a href="n12-schub.html">Franz Peter Schubert </a><BR> <a href="n13-schum.html">Robert Schumann</a><BR> </td></tr></table> </td> <TD valign=top> <img src="black.gif" width=1 height=310><BR> </td> <TD valign=top width=500> <Table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=15><TR><TD> <font size=5><center><b>Jacob Raphael Druckman</b><font size=2><br><i> b. 1928 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; d. 1996 New Haven, Connecticut</i></center><font size=3><br><br> <b>Valentine for Double Bass (1969)</b><br> <br> One of the most prominent of contemporary American composers, Jacob Druckman received early training in violin and piano, then subsequently studied composition at the Juilliard School with Bernard Wagenaar, Vincent Persichetti, and Peter Mennin, and at Tanglewood with Aaron Copland. Later, he continued his studies at the Ecole Normale de Musique in Paris. <br><br>Druckman produced a substantial list of works embracing orchestral, chamber, and vocal music, with a considerable focus in electronic music. He also composed for theater, films, and dance. He was a teacher, a conductor, and a highly effective spokesman for contemporary music and musicians. In 1972 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for  Windows, his first work for large orchestra. <br><br>During his career he received many grants and awards, among them Fulbright, Thorne Foundation, Guggenheim, and commissions from many orchestras and music organizations, such as Radio France, the Chicago Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, Juilliard Quartet, Koussevitzky Foundation Library of Congress, and Paris s IRCAM. In the last years of his life, he was Professor of Composition at the School of Music at Yale University. <br><br><i>Los Angeles Times</i> Music Critic Mark Swed has written:  At the heart of the works of Jacob Druckman lies the bold, sure, and often arrestingly physical dramatic gesture....Yet Druckman's scores have always exhibited another characteristic as well: that of careful structure, built with meticulous attention to detail. The process of integrating these two sides of his character...has been a consistent factor throughout the composer's development. <br><br> Valentine for Double Bass was written on commission from the Groupe de Recherche Musicale de Paris. One critic s review proclaimed:  This piece is not just a great double bass composition  it's one of the greatest 20th Century pieces written  really! <br><br>Another described it:  Valentine & asks its contrabass soloist to sing, whisper, and attack his instrument with a padded percussion mallet as well as with the bow and fingers. Combining all this with a manner of musical speech that consists of nervously pointillist shards results in a unique listening experience; this is one delightfully warped, almost perverse little bouquet to its instrument s literature. It s truly wonderful to hear. <br> </td></tr></table> </td> </tr> </table> </body></html>