Arthur Weisberg

Arthur Weisberg (April 4, 1931 January 17, 2009) was an American bassoonist, conductor, composer and author.

Biography

Weisberg was born in New York City. He attended The High School of Music & Art, majoring in bassoon and studying with Simon Kovar, and graduating in 1948.[1]

Soon after leaving Juilliard, he found notable success securing the principal chairs with the Houston and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras and second bassoon with the Cleveland Orchestra, before coming back to New York City. After pursuing study of conducting with Jean Morel he again returned to the bassoon as principal for Symphony of the Air as well as bassoonist of the New York Woodwind Quintet for 14 years.

In the realm of conducting he has conducted the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, and the Sjaellands and Aalborg Symphonies of Denmark. Weisberg founded and conducted the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble.

Weisberg also extensively taught, having held posts at the Juilliard School, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Yale School of Music, Manhattan School of Music, and Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

He recorded several renderings of 20th-century music, such as from Schoenberg (Pierrot Lunaire, Erwartung), Varèse, Messiaen, and contemporary American composers (e.g., Elliott Carter, Stefan Wolpe, and George Crumb), mostly with the Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, the Orchestra of the 20th Century, and the Ensemble 21. These met with considerable critical acclaim. Weisberg also conducted Charles Schwartz's 1979 jazz symphony Mother______! Mother______! with Clark Terry and Zoot Sims.[2]

Books

Weisberg also authored two books: The Art of Wind Playing (G. Schirmer) and Performing 20th Century Music-a Handbook for Conductors and Instrumentalists (Yale University Press) as well as composed and edited numerous scores, including the Bach Cello Suites.[3]

"Future Bassoon" system

Weisberg introduced a new bassoon which he claimed was "absolutely unable to crack. Perfect slurs on the most problematic notes. Never having to flick again. Ease of fingering. Better quality and pitch on six of the worst notes. This is what the Weisberg System promises and delivers, and it does all of this automatically, with no new fingerings to learn."[4]

Selected compositions

References

  1. "Notable Alumni," Alumni & Friends of LaGuardia High School. Accessed Nov. 8, 2016.
  2. Mother______! Mother______! at AllMusic
  3. Indiana University faculty biography page. Archived December 17, 2006, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved March 22, 2007.
  4. Future Bassoon system website. Retrieved March 22, 2007.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 11/14/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.