Jose Serebrier: The Year 2020 for woodwind quintet

JosĂŠ Serebrier The Year 2020 for Woodwind Quintet

2020 was an enigmatic, puzzling and unforgettable year for everyone in the entire world, even more so perhaps than the World Wars. Even as horrible as those wars were, they did not affect every human being in the entire planet as the pandemic of the year 2020 has. The title of the opening section in this quintet, “In Memoriam: The Death of George Floyd and Countless Others,” speaks for itself. The middle section, “Windance Revisited,” is a re-imagined version of my Windance for strings, originally a tribute to the music of Manuel de Falla. This section is meant to provide a respite from the doleful first and last segments. The finale, “The Year 2020,” is an elegy – a questioning cry.

—José Serebrier

José Serebrier established himself as a significant composer very early in his career. He was 17 when Leopold Stokowski gave the world premiere of his Symphony No. 1. Awarded two consecutive Guggenheim Fellowships at 19 and 20, he remains the youngest person to have ever obtained these awards in any field. Subsequent awards for his compositions include a Rockefeller Foundation award as Composer in Residence with the Cleveland Orchestra, at the invitation of George Szell; a Harvard Musical Association Commission Award (for Fantasia for string quartet); a Pan American Union Publication Award (for Elegy for Strings); a National Endowment for the Arts Commission (Orpheus x Light, a ballet for the Joffrey Ballet); a BMI Young Composers Award (for his Symphony No. 1 and Quartet for Four Saxophones); and commissions from the American Accordionists Association and others. Serebrier’s works have been recorded by Leopold Stokowski, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, and many others, and are available on BIS, Reference Recordings, Naxos, Warner Classics, Decca, Universal, RPO Records, Toccata Classics, SOMM Recordings, Cedille, and Sony. He is one of the most recorded classical artists in history.

A prolific conductor with over 300 CD releases, José Serebrier has made international tours with the Russian National Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Spain, Orchestra of the Americas, RTE National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, Philharmonia, Toulouse Chamber Orchestra; and US tours with the Pittsburgh Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, and many others. When he was 21 years old, Leopold Stokowski hailed him as “the greatest master of orchestral balance”. George Szell then discovered Serebrier when he won first prize in the Ford Foundation American Conductors Competition. Serebrier was music director of America’s oldest music festival, in Worcester, Massachusetts, until he organized Festival Miami and served as its artistic director for many years. “Serebrier Conducts Prokofiev, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky”, filmed at the Sydney Opera, has been shown over 50 times on U.S. television. Serebrier also conducted at the 2004 Grammy Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, telecast live to 174 countries.

José Serebrier’s dual career as a composer and conductor has been honored with numerous Grammy Award nominations, the Latin Grammy award for Best Classical Recording of the Year, a Grand Prix du Disque in France, the Deutsche Schallplatten Award in Germany, and the Music Retailers Association Award in England.

For further information: www.joseserebrier.com www.peermusicClassical.com