|
"Composer and clarinetist Derek Bermel recalls the much earlier model of virtuosos such as Rachmaninoff and Kreisler."- Justin Davidson, Newsday
"There doesn't seem to be anything Bermel can't do with the clarinet."
- Richard Dyer, Boston Globe
Still in his 30's, DEREK BERMEL has been hailed by colleagues, critics, and audiences across the globe for his creativity and theatricality as a composer of chamber, symphonic, dance, theater, and pop works, and his versatility and virtuosity as a clarinetist, conductor, and jazz and rock musician.
Bermel's clarinet playing has been hailed by the New York Times as "brilliant" and "first rate". He premiered his own critically acclaimed clarinet concerto, Voices, with the American Composers Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, and revisited it with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, the BBC Symphony in London, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic (John Adams conducting).
Bermel is the founding clarinetist of Music from Copland House, a creative center for American Music. He has premiered dozens of new works for clarinet in appearances as soloist throughout the U.S. and Europe, including recitals in New York, Amsterdam, Los Angeles, Detroit, Jerusalem, The Hague, Paris, and radio broadcasts on the BBC (London), NCRV (Amsterdam), and WQXR (New York).
Other recent concerto appearances include Bolcom's Concerto for Clarinet with the Lexington (KY) Philharmonic and the Greensboro (NC) Symphony, André Hajdu's klezmer concerto Jewish Rhapsody with the Westchester Philharmonic (NY), and the Copland Concerto at the Crested Butte Music Festival (CO). In January 2007 He will perform John Adams' concerto Gnarly Buttons with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, with the composer conducting.
As a composer, Bermel has received many of today's most important awards, including the Rome Prize, Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Millennium Prize from Faber Music (UK), and residencies at the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, Tanglewood, Aspen, Bowdoin, Banff, Yaddo, Sacatar, and Civitella Ranieri. His music is published by Peermusic Classical (US) and Faber Music (UK).
Bermel's hands-on experience with music of cultures around the world is woven into his language as a composer and performer. He studied ethnomusicology and orchestration in Jerusalem, and later traveled to Bulgaria to study the Thracian folk style, Dublin to study uillean pipes, and Ghana to study the Lobi xylophone.
Well-versed in the classical and jazz repertoire on both clarinet and piano, he trained at Yale University and the University of Michigan, studying clarinet with Ben Armato of the Metropolitan Opera and Fred Ormand at the University of Michigan. He studied composition at Yale University with Michael Tenzer, at the University of Michigan with William Albright and William Bolcom, and later with Henri Dutilleux and Louis Andriessen.
Bermel performs on Soul Garden , the first disc of his chamber music, was released in 2002 on CRI records (now New World Records) to much acclaim. A second disc, by the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, featuring four orchestral works - including Bermel performing his own concerto - is due to be released in 2007.
In Spring 2006 he will perform the Philharmonia (London) will perform an all-Bermel concert as part of their Music of Today series. He has performed his music at festivals internationally, including De Suite Muziekweek (Amsterdam), Imagine (Memphis), Cactus Pear (San Antonio), Gaudeamus (Amsterdam), Society of Composers, Inc. National Conference (Iowa), Society for New Music (NY), Bowling Green (Ohio), Focus! (NY), Interlochen (Michigan), Huddersfield (U.K.), Thunderclaps (Den Haag), and Banff (Alberta).
Bermel is co-artistic director of the Dutch-American interdisciplinary ensemble TONK, which he founded along with electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans and poet Wendy Walters.
Recent commissions include those by the National Symphony, St. Louis Symphony, New Jersey Symphony, Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, WNYC Radio, Westchester Philharmonic, Aspen Music Festival, Pacific Symphony, Gilmore Festival, Eighth Blackbird/Greenwall Foundation, Fromm Foundation, Flute/Clarinet Duo Consortium, Fabermusic Millennium Series, Tanglewood Music Center, American Composers Orchestra, Aspen Music Festival, Albany Symphony/Meet the Composer, De Ereprijs (Netherlands), Birmingham Royal Ballet (U.K.), Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, New York International Fringe Festival, TONK, Jazz Xchange (U.K.), pianists Christopher Taylor and Andy Russo, organist William Albright, baritone Timothy Jones, cellist Fred Sherry, and the New York Youth Symphony.
He has led master classes and held residencies throughout the U.S. and abroad at schools including Yale University, University of Michigan (Ann Arbor), Longy School of Music, Peabody School of Music, Columbia University, Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music, RISDI, Rotterdam Conservatorium (Netherlands), University of Western Michigan (Kalamazoo), University of Chicago, Universita Federal da Bahia (Brazil), University of Texas (Austin), UCLA, University of North Carolina (Greensboro), Eastern Carolina University, Northwestern University, Aspen School of Music, Bowdoin Festival of Music, Duquesne University, Central Michigan University, and the Tanglewood Music Center.
|
