Carson Kievman
www.carsonkievman.com

Link to short biography

For decades, Carson Kievman has followed an independent course that has blended New Music with the theatrical, visual and literary arts. Yet neither his music nor his career has found their way into easy categories. His symphonies, operas and experimental works have been performed internationally in stage, concert, dance, and museum settings, from the Berkeley Art Museum, the Pennsylvania Ballet, the Florida Philharmonic, and a music-theater retrospective at the Nationaltheater-Mannheim. The recipient of numerous international awards, Kievman was honored with a Naumberg Fellowship to Princeton University and a commission Henry Eight's Harvest, for Henry's Eight Consort from the Niedersachsen Musiktage to for a concert open the European Expo 2000 in Germany and broadcast throughout Europe by NDR Radio.

Kievman He created over 22 multimedia music-theater works, including 7 full length stage works, such as Hamlet, Tesla, and California Mystery Park (see list of works).. However, with the advent of the 1990s, Kievman has written several large scale orchestral works, including Symphony No. 2(42)" ,  "Symphony No. 3, and Symphony No. 4. He is currently writing a fifth symphony and just completed a movement from Chamber Symphony No. 1(628) commissioned for the 2005 spring season by the Collegiate School in New York City (the oldest school in American - founded in 1628). Symphony No. 2(42) was commissioned by the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra (James Judd, Music Director) to honor the 200th anniversary of Mozart's death, and recorded by the Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra-Katowice, and the Polish Radio Choir of Krakow, Delta David Gier, conductor, and released on New Albion Records. Pianist David Arden has recorded Kievman's solo piano works, including "The Temporary & Tentative Extended Piano" and "Nuts & Bolts," for release in May 2000 on CRI Record's Emergency Music label.. Symphony No. 3 (Hurricane) was released on MPA Records and was also recorded by the amazing Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Delta David Gier, conductor.  He has counted among his teachers & mentors; (composers) Olivier Messiaen, James Tenney, Earle Brown, Luigi Nono and Morton Subotnick, (producer) Joseph Papp, (conductor) Mario di Bonaventura, (scholars) Scott Burnham, Rob Wegman and Kofi Agawu and (legendary theatrical and musical attorney) L. Arnold Weissberger.

Other recent compositions include, working on a new composition for the Kronos String Quartet. Heer Ranja Prototype written for Paul Hillier's Theater of Voices (2002). Sine Nomine was commissioned by the Princeton Conference on Josquin des Prez (d.1521), and performed by the Binchois Consort (England) for the International Josquin Conference (2000) at Princeton University.  It was premiered on October 30, 1999 at the Princeton University Chapel, Andrew Kirkman, conductor.  Performances followed in St. Paul's Chapel at Columbia University (11/3/99) and in Nicholas Music Center at Rutgers University (11/01/99).   Symphony No. 4 (Biodiversity) read by The New Jersey Symphony (1999). Besides Symphony No. 5 and Chamber Symphony, Kievman is currently working on adapting his dissertation into a book on The Music of Transcendence, writing a new work for the Brentano String quartet, and he is completing an opera called "Songs of the White Woman", which will be directed by Richard Foreman in New York City.  Additonally, he is preparing his multi-media opera Tesla for the New York City Opera Vox Festival 2004 on May 25 performed at Symphony Space by the Encompass New Opera Theater.

Kievman moved to New York City in 1977 and worked there until 1991. His work led to several European tours of his music in the 1970s and 1980s, and then a commission from the Tanglewood Music Festival in 1978.  He was appointed as composer-in-residence for Joseph Papp and his New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater, and entered the national spotlight with over 63 sold out & critically acclaimed performances of his music-theater works "Wake Up, It's Time To Go To Bed!  (& Multinationals & the Heavens) in 1979 -- "Kievman is a Wizard!" The Village Voice; "Enthralling" The New York Times; "Great Art" The Boston Globe. This success was followed by the first opera commission "Intelligent Systems" ever given for the prestigious Donaueschingen Festival in Germany, and subsequently an appointment as the first composer-in-residence to the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra which solidified his reputation by the creation of "Symphony No. 2(42)." A recording of Symphony No. 2(42) performed by the Polish Radio National Symphony - Katowice and the Polish Radio Choir of Krakow, and released by New Albion Records has been acclaimed by music writers like Mark Swed, who selected the recording as one of the Top 10 Classical CDs of 1996! (Los Angeles Times) and the Post & Courier's 'Spoleto Today', "One of the most powerful musical experiences I have had in recent times" and by "Blue Gene Tyranny's All-Music Guide "An original and brilliantly expansive work".

SOME CAREER HIGHLIGHTS Include: May 4, 1999, the Serioso String Quartet and child violin soloist Dakota Kievman (composer's daughter) performed the First performance of Starving Angels at Princeton University's Taplin Auditorium.  On May 14 Bertram Turetsky was at Princeton for the Premiere of Kievman's new music-theater work, Contrabassimi.  Directed by Mr. Kievman this was a joint production between the Princeton Composer's Ensemble and the Princeton Program in Theater & Dance.  November 1998 - Premiere of "Meditation" extended work for solo piano at Princeton University, performed by pianist David Arden.  March 1999 - New York City Premiere of "Nuts & Bolts" solo piano at Merkin Concert Hall, performed by pianist Joseph Kubera.  In April of 1998 Kievman's Symphony No. 4 was read by the New Jersey Symphony, Lawrence Leighton Smith, conducting in Richardson Auditorium on the Princeton University campus. In 1996 Symphony No. 2(42) was performed at the 1996 Spoleto Festival (Piccolo) by the Charleston Symphony Orchestra. In 1995 an all Kievman production was presented at the NationalTheater of Mannheim, Germany. Kievman's multi-media composition "Multinationals & The Heavens" was produced at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse fur Neue Musik, at California Institute of the Arts, in New York City, and subsequently in the musical theaters and halls throughout Europe. In 1978, the Tanglewood Music Festival, in cooperation with the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, commissioned him to create the first music theater work produced by the festival since the 1960's. In 1979, several of Kievman's music-theater works, including WAKE UP, IT'S TIME TO GO TO BED, were produced at New York City's Public Theater. In 1982 he became the first composer ever commissioned to write a full length opera -- "Intelligent Systems" -- for the prestigious Donaueschingen Musik Tages, in Germany. In 1987, he was invited by the Eugene O'Neill Opera/Music Theater Conference to begin work on a new opera -- "Tesla" -- about the life of genius inventor, Nikola Tesla. Also in 1987, Joseph Papp commissioned Mr. Kievman to compose an opera based on Shakespeare's "Hamlet". In 1990, Carson Kievman's music was performed at New Music America Festival - Montreal. Kievman was appointed Composer-in-Residence of the Florida Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990. Kievman's piano music was performed by pianist David Arden in Europe and the US with a performance at Merkin Hall in New York City (together with the US premiere of Gorecki's Piano Sonata).