STEPHEN JAFFE's music has been regularly featured at major contemporary festivals including the Nottingham, Tanglewood, and Oregon Bach Festivals, and heard throughout the U.S., Europe, and China by ensembles including the R.A.I. of Rome, the San Francisco and New Jersey Symphonies, Berlin's Spectrum Concerts, and many others. Recent projects include Concerto for Violin and Orchestra for the American violinist Nicholas Kitchen, Offering, for flute, viola and harp, Songs of Turning, for chorus and orchestra, and Spinoff for guitarist David Starobin.Jaffe has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the Rome Prize, the Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, the American Academy of Arts and Letters Prize, Brandeis Creative Arts Citation, and fellowships from Tanglewood, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Foundation. Jaffe studied composition at the Conservatoire de Musique in Geneva, and continued his studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He is Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Professor of Music at Duke University, where he has taught since 1981. Together with Scott Lindroth, Jaffe is directs Duke's contemporary music concert series Encounters: with the Music of Our Time, and works with a inventive and gifted group of young composers.
See also http://presser.com/jaffe.html
http://www.duke.edu/music/graduate/grad_fac.html
Recordings
Spinoff for guitar on New Dance David Starobin, guitar. Bridge 9084 (1998). (Grammy Award Nominee, Best Instrumental soloist , 1999)Impromptu for piano, on Strange Attractors: New American Music for Piano, Albany CD (Troy 231). Patricia Goodson, piano (1997)
Fort Juniper Songs for soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano, on To Sun, To Feast & To Converse: New American Music for Vocal Duet. Albany CD (Troy 172). Terry Rhodes, soprano, Ellen Williams, mezzo-soprano, Stephen Jaffe, piano (1995)
Stephen Jaffe : The Rhythm Of The Running Plough, Double Sonata, and Four Songs With Ensemble, Bridge CD BCD 9047. Speculum Musicae, D'Anna Fortunato, Anton Nel, Barry Snyder, Prism Orchestra (1994)
Three Figures and A Ground on The Now and Present Flute, Neuma 450-88. Patricia Spencer, flute, Linda Hall, piano (1994)
First Quartetfor string quartet, Ciompi Quartet, Albany Records, Troy CD 073 (1993)
Centeringfor two violins, Linda Quan, Curtis Macomber, violins. C.R.I. 513 (1983)
See also http://www.bridgerecords.com/html
Selected Large Ensemble Works
Violin Concerto (1997-99) for Violin and Orchestra 35'
Songs of Turning (1996) for Chorus and Orchestra 25'
Four Images (1983; rev. 1987) for Orchestra 21'
Autumnal (1986) for Orchestra 24'
The Rhythm of the Running Plough (1988) for chamber orchestra 14'
Three Yiddish Songs (1978) for soprano and orchestra 23'
Three Images (1979) for chorus and chamber orchestra 15'
Rega Raga (1975) for Jazz Ensemble 16-20'Selected Vocal and Chamber Works
Offering (1996) flute, harp and viola 16'
Spinoff (1998) guitar 3'
Chamber Concerto ("Singing Figures") Oboe solo, vln., vla., vc. pino, harpsichord, celesta (two players) 21'
Pedal Point (1993) baritone, 3 vle., 4 vc., timpani 18'
First Quartet (1991) string quartet 33' Kennedy Center Friedheim Award, 1991
Double Sonata (1989) two pianos 22'
Three Figures and a Ground (1987) flute and piano 18'
Fort Juniper Songs (1989) soprano, mezzo-soprano and piano 18'
Four Songs With Ensemble (1988) mezzo sopr., alto fl (& fl.), vla., vc., pno. 18'
The Reassurance (1995) high voice and piano 5'
Triptych (1995) piano and woodwind quintet 22'
Quartet from Arch (1981) violin, cello, clarinet and piano
Partita (1981) cello, piano and percussionFor complete information, including performance materials, consult the performance department, Theodore Presser Co. (610) 525-3636
http://presser.come-mail: sjaffe@acpub.duke.edu
Upcoming Concerts and Performances (1999-2000)
July 29, 1999 First Quartet. Ciompi Quartet, MacDowell Colony, Peterborough, New Hampshire
(Monadnock Music Concert)
February 26, 2000 Four Songs with Ensemble Twentieth Century Consort, Milagro Vargas, mezzo-soprano, Christopher Kendall, conductor, Hirschorn Museum, Washington, D.C.
March 10 and 13, 2000 Violin Concerto (world premiere performances). Nicholas Kitchen, violin, and Greensboro Symphony, Stuart Malina, conductor.
May 18, 19,and 21, 2000 Fort Juniper Songs in Essen, Duisberg and Issenbruck, Germany. Terry Rhodes and Ellen Williams.Encounters:With The Music of Our Time, Duke University
The 1999-2000 Encounters season at Duke University is as follows:September 18, 1999 Susan Narucki, soprano, and Christopher Oldfather, piano. Featuring music of Earl Kim, Gyorgy Kurtag, David Rakowski, and others. Ernest Nelson Music Room, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina
January 29, 2000 with Joseph Schwantner, Mary Duke Biddle Distinguished Composer Resident for 1999-2000. Program includes Two Poems of Aguedo Pizzaro, and two large ensemble pieces: Elixir by Schwantner, and Akrostikon-Wortspiel (Acrostic Wordplay) by Insuk Chin.
February 19, 2000. Music from China. Together with the Institute for the Arts we are pleased to help bring the award winning Music from China to Duke for performances on traditional Chinese instruments. The program includes both traditional and contemporary music by some of China's leading composers, and most heralded instrumentalists. Wang Guo-wei, huqin (Artistic Director), Min Xiao-fen, pipa, Chen Tao, dizi, Hu Jian-bing, sheng Susan Cheng, zheng , Helen Yee, yangqin & percussion Program Traditional Folk and Classical Music: The Moon Reflected in the Pool at Erquan huqin solo Hua Yanjun Sheng solo A Moonlit River in Spring ensemble featuring pipa San Wu Qi, Xing Jie, ensemble featuring dizi Contemporary Music: Valley Stream for dizi, guanzi, zheng and percussion Zhou Long Duo Ye for pipa solo Chen Yi Wild Field for zhonghu, dizi, percussion (winner of the Music from China composition competition) Ye Guohui
Associated date: Saturday, February 20: The Ciompi Quartet with Min Xiao-fen, pipa.
March 25, 2000 with the Ciompi Quartet, Timothy Holley, and others. Program includes Mario Davidovsky's Quartet No. 5, Martin Bresnick's "three stars" trio for violin, clarinet and piano, and "Spiritual Songs" by William Banfield, whose opera "Lulyala" will be premiered at Duke one week later. All concerts in the Ernest Nelson Music Room, East Duke Building, Duke University.
For further information, consult the Department of Music's web page http://www.duke.edu/music/