Bernard Rands

Bernard Rands ( born March 2, 1934 in Sheffield ) is an American composer and professor of English origin.

Life

Bernard Rands completed his music studies at the University of Wales, Bangor, where Reginald Smith Brindle was his teacher, 1958. He continued his studies in Italy with Roman Vlad, Luigi Dallapiccola and Luciano Berio, as well as in Germany with Pierre Boulez and Bruno Maderna. From 1960, he taught himself at the University of Wales. In 1963 the Darmstadt premiered under Maderna work of Six Actions brought him the first time, a greater attention to the music world. In 1966 he studied thanks to a Harkness Fellowship at Princeton University and the University of Illinois, where he came into contact with, among others, John Cage. In 1969 he was Granada Fellow at the University of York, where he subsequently taught until 1975.

In the same year Rand moved to the United States and in 1983 was awarded the U.S. citizenship. With the song cycle Canti del Sole, premiered by the tenor Paul Sperry, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Zubin Mehta, Rand won the 1984 Pulitzer Prizes of Music. Shortly thereafter, he received a professor at Boston University and the Juilliard School. 1986 brought him the two orchestral suites Le Tambourin the Kennedy Center Friedhelm Award. Since 1988 he has held the Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Harvard University. 1989-1995 he was Composer in Residence with the Philadelphia Orchestra. 2000 won the inclusion of composition Canti d' Amor with the ensemble Chanticleer a Grammy Award. In 2004, Bernard Rands member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Rand received numerous commissions and is also active as a conductor. He is married to the composer Augusta Read Thomas.

Work

Rand has published more than 100 compositions, in addition to instrumental music also several vocal works. 2011, the opera was premiered Vincent, which, like the two Suites Le Tambourin concerns from the 1980s to the life and work of Vincent van Gogh. In particular, the early works were often influenced by his serialism dominated, the Italian avant-garde associated teacher and partially use graphical notation and aleatoric elements.