Kirke Mechem

Kirke Mechem Lewis ( born August 16, 1925 in Wichita ( Kansas) ) is an American composer. His best known work is the opera Tartuffe by Molière 's comedy.

Life

Kirke Mechem grew up in a musical family and received as a child piano lessons from his mother, who had studied piano in Germany. After he had initially enrolled at Stanford University for English, how his father to become a writer, he moved after a few years of study and studied harmony and counterpoint. In 1953 he completed his Master's degree from Harvard University.

After Mechem had worked for three years at Stanford University as a choral conductor, he moved to Vienna for several years, before he returned to California in 1963 and worked as a composer and lecturer at the University of San Francisco. He still lives today with his family in San Francisco.

For his contributions to choral music and opera Mechem 2012 was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Kansas.

Compositions

Mechems oeuvre comprises mainly choral works, including women's choirs, male choirs and pieces for mixed choir a cappella and choral works with piano or orchestral accompaniment. In addition, Mechem wrote piano pieces, works for various chamber music ensembles, orchestral pieces (including two symphonies ) and four operas, to which he also wrote the libretti. He is best known for the opera Tartuffe, which is based on the comedy Tartuffe by Molière and was performed since its premiere in 1980 over 400 times.