1. biografia

[amministratore_1]

Oliver KNUSSEN
via
Snape, Suffolk, Great Britain
tf/cell:
mail:
http://www.fabermusic.com/Composers-Bio ... oserId=376
luogo e data di nascita: Glasgow (Great Britain), 1952

Oliver Knussen studied composition with John Lambert between 1963 and 1969, and also received encouragement from Britten. He spent several summers studying with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood in Massachusetts and in Boston. He later became the head of contemporary music activities at Tanglewood, between 1986 and 1993.
Though Oliver Knussen began composing at about the age of six, it was an ITV programme about his father's work with the London Symphony Orchestra that prompted the commissioning for his first symphony (1966–1967). Aged 15, Knussen stepped in to conduct his symphony's première at the Royal Festival Hall, London, on 7 April 1968, after István Kertész fell ill. After his debut, Daniel Barenboim asked him to conduct the work's first two movements in New York a week later. In this work and his Concerto for Orchestra (1968–1970), he had quickly and fluently absorbed the influences of modernist composers Britten and Berg as well as many mid-century (largely American) symphonists, whilst displaying an unusual flair for pacing and orchestration. It was as early as the Second Symphony (1970–1971), in the words of Julian Anderson, that "Knussen's compositional personality abruptly appeared, fully formed".
Knussen has been principal guest conductor of The Hague's Het Residentie Orkest (Residentie Orchestra) between 1992 and 1996, the Aldeburgh Festival's co-artistic director between 1983 and 1998 and the London Sinfonietta's music director between 1998 and 2002 – and is now that ensemble's conductor laureate.
In 2005 Knussen was the music director of the Ojai Music Festival.
Since September 2006, Knussen has been artist-in-association to the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, and since 2009 to the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
His major works from the 1980s are his two "children's operas", Where the Wild Things Are and Higglety Pigglety Pop!, both libretti by Maurice Sendak – and based on Sendak's own eponymous children's books. Where the Wild Things Are received its New York premiere by New York City Opera in November 1987, and the company has plans to revive the work in concert in April 2011.
As of fall 2012, Knussen was writing a symphonic adagio for the Philadelphia Orchestra. He was also planning to finish two concertos that he has worked on for several years: one for piano and one for cello.
His recordings as a conductor include works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, Elliott Carter, Igor Stravinsky, Alexander Goehr, Robin Holloway and Poul Ruders.