UMass Dartmouth to bestow honorary degree as part of performance, capping several days of master classes, other events
On April 13, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth will give world-renowned composer John Corigliano an honorary doctorate in music as part of an evening of performance at the Zeiterion Theatre featuring the New Bedford Symphony Orchestra (NBSO), capping several days of master classes, talks and practice sessions.
Corigliano has won the Pulitzer Prize in Music, as well as three Grammys and an Academy Award for his score to the 1998 film "Red Violin" over his forty year career. The writer of three symphonies and more than 100 scores, his first chamber score, the "Violin Sonata" (1964) is now a standard of the American violinist's repertory, having been performed or recorded hundreds of times.
His peers have called him "simply one of our great American composers" (Yo-Yo Ma); "one of the most talented composers I know of today" (Leonard Bernstein); and "the real thing" by Aaron Copland.
A gifted teacher to generations of musicians, Corigliano is currently the Distinguished Professor of Music at Lehman College, City University of New York and a member of the composition faculty at the Julliard School of Music.
On April 11, Corigliano will be honored at a private NBSO reception and concert by soloist Michael Ludwig, who will perform the "Red Violin" concerto with the NBSO on Saturday.
On Friday, April 12, Corigliano will give a Composer's Talk titled "Building Music" to music students, faculty and NBSO members on main campus at the College of Visual and Performing Arts.
The Talk will be followed by a Composer's Master Class with three of CVPA's best student composers. Members of the music faculty and music educators from across the SouthCoast with their students have been invited to attend.
On Saturday April 13, Corgiliano will attend a practice session of the New Bedford Youth Orchestra with NBYO and NBSO conductor David MacKenzie.
That evening, Corigliano and MacKenzie will hold an on-stage, pre-concert talk with at 7:00 p.m., and Corigliano will return to the stage as the intermission includes the honorary degree presentation ceremony, followed by a reception.