The Pulitzer Prize-winning composer was also praised during his visit to Helsinki’s Musica nova festival.
Pulitzer Prize Winner composer David Del Tredici died Saturday at his home in New York, weakened by Parkinson’s disease. He was 86 years old, born March 16, 1937 in Cloverdale, California.
Del Tredici amazed even professional pianists with his piano playing skills, but a harsh teacher made him switch to a full-time composer early on.
In the 1950s, Del Tredici studied the modernism of his time Roger Sessionsin in the lead and received encouragement early on, for example Aaron Coplandilta and Darius Milhaud’lta.
At first, he made complex works James Joycen to the texts, but he received greater public popularity Lewis Carrollin based on books Alice in Wonderland -with his works, which gradually broadened his style to become more and more traditional and melodic.
He was performed by classical music stars conductor Sir Georg Soltista soprano to Barbara Hendricks. He was also once the composer-in-residence of the New York Philharmonic. He received the Pulitzer Prize in 1980.
Of Thirteen visited at the invitation of the Musica nova festival in Helsinki in 2000 and received from the critic of Helsingin Sanomat braggart for example An Alice Symphonysta.
In an interview with HS Del Tredici mentioned at the time that he was increasingly interested in “provocative poetry” and that he would next compose music for homoerotic and pornographic poems. According to him, homosexuality was an underused topic in art music.
He graduated the following year Gay Life for baritone and orchestra (2001), which received many performances. Instead Wondrous the Merge series about the passionate relationship between a professor and his student experienced partial censorship in the premiere.
There was also confusion My Favourite Penis Poems (2002). Despite its success, Del Tredici had to wait six years before the work was finally premiered in New York in 2008.
Del Tredici was also a remarkable pedagogue who taught e.g John Adams at Harvard. He later went on to teach at Boston and Yale universities and the City College of New York.
Read more: Alice in Wonderland music note