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Alex Weiser

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Alex Weiser
BornNew York City, New York, USA
GenresContemporary classical
OccupationComposer
Years active2019-present
WebsiteOfficial website
EducationYale University
New York University

Alex Weiser is an American composer of contemporary classical music.

Early life and education

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Weiser was born in New York City[1] to a Jewish family. He attended Stuyvesant High School[2] and Yale University,[3] and received a master's degree in Music Theory and Composition from New York University. He studied with Paul Alan Levi,[2] Martin Bresnick,[4] Michael Gordon, and Julia Wolfe among others.[5]

Career

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Weiser's debut album, and all the days were purple, was released by Cantaloupe Music in April 2019,[6] and was named a 2020 Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Music.[7] The album features singer Eliza Bagg singing songs set to poetry in Yiddish and English by poets including Anna Margolin, Rachel Korn, Abraham Sutzkever, Emily Dickinson, and William Carlos Williams.[8] Probing contemporary Jewish identity, the album grew out of Weiser's work as the Director of Public Programs at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.[9]

Weiser's album in a dark blue night, released by Cantaloupe Music in March 2024,[10] features mezzo-soprano Annie Rosen and explores Jewish immigrant New York City through two song cycles. The first, "in a dark blue night," features five settings of Yiddish poetry written by newly arrived immigrants in the late 1800s and early 1900s which depict the city at night. The second song cycle, "Coney Island Days," sets to music the recorded memories of Weiser's late grandmother, discussing her childhood in the bustling immigrant world of Coney Island in the 1930s and 40s — days at the beach, at the family's knish store, and at the Russian bath.[11]

Other of Weiser's works explore Jewish themes as well including three operas: State of the Jews, which is a historical drama about Theodor Herzl,[12] The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language, a chamber opera about Yudel Mark, Max Weinreich, and the famous unfinished multi-volume Yiddish dictionary,[13] and Tevye's Daughters, an opera based on the Sholem Aleichem story Shprintse.[14] Other works exploring Jewish themes include after shir hashirim for chamber orchestra which takes its inspiration from the biblical Song of Songs.[15]

Common themes in Weiser's work also include death and transience as exemplified by his work Three Epitaphs.[16] Other major works have included shimmer for eight spatially arrayed cellos written for and recorded by Ashley Bathgate as a companion piece to Steve Reich's Cello Counterpoint,[17] and water hollows stone for piano four hands, written for HOCKET.[1]

In addition to his work as a composer and at YIVO, Weiser is co-founder and artistic director of Kettle Corn New Music,[18] and worked for about five years as the Director of Operations and Development at the MATA Festival.[19] Weiser is also active as a writer of prose on music, culture, and Jewish history. His articles have appeared in various outlets including Smithsonian Folklife Magazine, Jewish Renaissance, New Music Box, Tablet Magazine, and In Geveb.[20]

Discography

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Featured on

References

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  1. ^ a b Norton, Nick (16 November 2015). "HOCKET Interviews Composers, round 4: Alex Weiser". New Classic LA. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  2. ^ a b "Clarity and Awe: Spotlight on Composer Alex Weiser". YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  3. ^ Tommasini, Anthony (24 May 2013). "New Tunes, Old Friends and Poems Set to Song". New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  4. ^ Pfitzinger, Scott (March 1, 2017). Composer Genealogies: A Compendium of Composers, Their Teachers, and Their Students. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-4422-7224-8.
  5. ^ Delarue (5 May 2014). "An Auspicious Portrait of Emerging Composers Fjola Evans and Alex Weiser". Lucid Culture. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
    - Weiser, Alex. "Biography". Alex Weiser Official Website. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  6. ^ "Alex Weiser". Cantaloupe Music. March 2019. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  7. ^ "The 2020 Pulitzer Prize Finalist in Music". Pulitzer Prize. Retrieved 17 December 2020.
  8. ^ Oltuski, Ilona. "And All The Days Were Purple". Sequenza 21. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
  9. ^ Portnoy, Eddy (27 March 2019). "From Alex Weiser, A New Musical Home For Yiddish". The Forward. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
    - delarue (12 April 2019). "Alex Weiser Resurrects a Brilliantly Obscure Tradition of Jewish Art-Song". New York Music Daily. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
    - Haber, Gordon (2 April 2019). "Jewish But Not Judaic: Alex Weiser's New Album". LABA Journal. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
    - Weiser, Alex. "A Homecoming to a Jewish World I Never Knew Existed". YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Retrieved 21 April 2019.
    - Pisano, Steven. ""and all the days were purple": Music by Alex Weiser at Roulette". Feast of Music. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  10. ^ "Alex Weiser". Cantaloupe Music. March 2024. Retrieved 4 April 2024.
  11. ^ "A Jewish grandmother's Coney Island memories inspire a new album by her composer grandson". 28 March 2024. Retrieved 2024-04-05.
  12. ^ Grudo, Gideon (11 May 2019). "For Some Jews, Yiddish History Is Sanctuary. For Others, It's 'Dangerous.'". The Daily Beast. Retrieved 13 May 2019.
    - Kutzik, Jordan (5 December 2019). "New Opera About Theodor Herzl Explores His Complex Nature". Forward. Retrieved 19 January 2020.
  13. ^ "Episode 0310: The Great Dictionary of the Yiddish Language". The Yiddish Book Center. 28 October 2021. Retrieved 24 September 2023.
    - Soloski, Alexis (July 2023). ""Every Word Deserves To Be Remembered": How An Unfinished Dictionary Inspired An Opera". Pakn Treger.
  14. ^ "Public Events". Retrieved 24 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Cantata Profana Performs Gustav Mahler's Das Lied Von Der Erde - Concert Program" (PDF). YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  16. ^ Kriegeskotte, Christian (14 June 2016). "Kettle Corn New Music Closes 4th Season with Epitaphs and Fairytales". I Care If You Listen. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  17. ^ da Fonesca-Wollheim, Corinna (22 June 2017). "Cellist in an Echo Chamber, Echo Chamber". New York Times. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
    - Andrews, Matthew Neil. "Spontaneous Combustion reviews 2: sublime solos, dynamic duo". Oregon Arts Watch. ArtsWatch. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  18. ^ Allen, David (8 June 2015). "Review: Lisa Moore at DiMenna Center". The New York Times. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
    - Meyer, Jack (4 June 2014). "Kettle Corn Pops at The DiMenna Center". The Huffington Post. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
  19. ^ Oteri, Frank (9 April 2018). "MATA at 20". New Music Box. New Music USA. Retrieved 7 May 2018.
    - Smith, Steve (10 June 2019). "Recitals: Alex Weiser". The New Yorker. Retrieved 8 June 2019.
  20. ^ https://www.alexweiser.com/writings
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