A confident, fully-grown composing talent. -WASHINGTON POST ........................................................................................... Inspired, well-devised touches throughout. Mr. Rogerson has a gift for transitions, for moving us from moment to moment, section to section, while maintaining the coherence of the work as a whole. -THE NEW YORK TIMES .................................................................................................. A prodigy in a field well-acquainted with prodigies. –CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
Copyright 2012. All rights reserved.
Hailed as a “confident, fully-grown composing talent” (The Washington Post), Chris Rogerson’s music has been praised for its “virtuosic exuberance” and “haunting beauty” (The New York Times). He has received commissions and performances from the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Grand Rapids Symphony, the New World Symphony, the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, the Brentano Quartet, and the JACK Quartet. His music has been performed in venues including Carnegie Hall, the Library of Congress, the Kennedy Center, and Merkin Hall.
Recently, Chris was honored with a Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He has also won awards from ASCAP, the Theodore Presser Foundation, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the National Association for Music Education, the New York Art Ensemble, and the Aspen Music Festival (Jacob Druckman Award).
Chris has been in residence at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the Ucross Foundation. He has also been Composer-in-Residence for the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington, Young Composer-in-Residence at Music from Angel Fire, and a fellow at the Aspen Music Festival, the Cabrillo Festival, and the Norfolk New Music Workshop.
Born in 1988, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music and the Yale School of Music with Jennifer Higdon, Aaron Jay Kernis, and Martin Bresnick, and is currently a doctoral fellow at Princeton University. Chris is represented by Young Concert Artists, Inc.
Duration: 4 minutes
2-2-2-2, 4-2-2-1, timp+2, strings
Commissioned by the Chicago Sinfonietta
To be premiered by Mei-Ann Chen and the Chicago Sinfonietta in June 2013
Duration: 5 minutes
2-2(EH)-2-2, 4-3-3-1, timp+3, hp, pno/cel, strings
Commissioned by the New World Symphony
Premiered by Joshua Gersen and the New World Symphony in March 2012
Duration: 10 minutes
2-1-2-1, 2-2-0-0, timp+2, hp, solo cello, strings
Commissioned by the New York Youth Symphony
Premiered by Jay Campbell and the New York Youth Symphony with Ryan McAdams conducting at Carnegie Hall
Duration: 7 minutes and 30 seconds
2-2-2-2, 2-2-2-0, timp+2, hp, pno/cel, strings
Written for the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra
Subsequent performances with the Yale Philharmonia, Palm Beach Atlantic Symphony, Kansas City Philharmonia, and Harrisburg Youth Symphony
Duration: 4 minutes
2-2-2-2, 4-2-2-1, timp + 2, hp, strings
Commissioned by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra for Paul Ferington
Subsequent performance by the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra
Duration: 6 minutes
2-2-2-2, 4-2-2-1, timp+2, hp, strings
Commissioned by the Amherst Symphony Orchestra
Subsequent performance with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Duration: 7 minutes and 30 seconds
2(picc)-2-2-2, 4-2-2-1, timp+3, hp, strings
2011 Aspen Music Festival Jacob Druckman Award
Premiered by the Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Subsequent performances with the Aspen Concert Orchestra and the Grand Rapids Symphony
Duration: 5 minutes
3(picc)-2-2-2, 4-2-2-1, timp+3, hp, pno, strings
Premiered by JoAnn Falletta and the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra
Subsequent performances with the Curtis Symphony Orchestra and the Grand Rapids Symphony
Duration: 10 minutes
Written for the Brentano Quartet
Duration: 20 minutes
Commissioned by the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington
Premiered by Jasmine Lin, Burchard Tang, Priscilla Lee, and Alessio Bax at Fasig-Tipton Pavilion in Lexington, Kentucky
Duration: 18 minutes
Commissioned by Young Concert Artists, Inc.
Premiered by Benjamin Beilman and Yekwon Sunwoo at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Art Museum, Merkin Hall, and the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston
Duration: 8 minutes
Written for the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble
Duration: 5 minutes
Commissioned by Natalie Helm
Lullaby: no bad dreams, for violin and piano (2009)
Duration: 7 minutes
2011 National Federation of Music Clubs Marion Richter Award
Commissioned by Curtis-on-Tour for Benjamin Beilman and Yekwon Sunwoo
Premiered at venues including the Library of Congress, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Ravinia Festival
Duration: 12 minutes
2010 New York Art Ensemble Composition Contest Winner
2010 Society for New Music Prize
Commissioned by Music From Angel Fire, Ida Kavafian, Director
Performed by the Old City String Quartet and the JACK Quartet
Duration: 18 minutes
Commissioned by the Curtis Institute of Music
Premiered by Vicki Powell and Lio Kuokman
Duration: 10 minutes
2009 counter)induction composition competition winner
Premiered at the Tenri Cultural Center in New York City
Duration: 17 minutes
2008 ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composers Award
Premiered by Yao Zhai and Lio Kuokman
Performed at venues including Chamber Music Northwest, Third Angle New Music, and ClarinetFest!
Duration: 7 minutes
Written for Robert Belinic
Premiered at the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts
Duration: 12 minutes
Commissioned by Brook Speltz
Premiered at Sprague Memorial Hall at Yale University
Duration: 15 minutes
Commissioned by Young Concert Artists, Inc.
Premiered by Charlie Albright in the Kennedy Center and Merkin Hall
Duration: 6 minutes
Commissioned by Milena Pajaro van-de-Stadt
Duration: 7 minutes
Premiered by Hans Boepple in Pebble Beach, CA
Duration: 9 minutes
Written for Kettle Corn New Music
To be premiered by soprano Mellissa Hughes and pianist Lisa Moore in March 2013
Duration: 9 minutes
Written for Brandon Cedel and musicians of the Curtis Institute
Still,
for string quartet
Four Autumn Landscapes,
for clarinet and piano
Lullaby: no bad dreams,
for violin and piano
Lullaby: no bad dreams,
for violin and piano
Open Air,
for orchestra
Open Air,
for orchestra
Three Children’s Poems of Eugene Field,
for soprano and piano
String Quartet No. 2
String Quartet No. 2
“There were inspired, well-devised touches throughout. …Mr. Rogerson has a gift for transitions, for moving us from moment to moment, section to section, while maintaining the coherence of the work as a whole. …[And] the ending is lovely.”
“…[A] prodigy in a field well-acquainted with prodigies, [Rogerson] drew the finale based on Frank Gehry’s exuberant Jay Pritzker Pavilion in Millennium Park. In his ‘Open Air’, listeners can almost feel fireworks following the curves of Gehry’s sculpted shell.”
“Bravo to [Rogerson] for creating a piece people could enjoy on first hearing. This five-minute piece charmed. … Rogerson has a flair for using the instruments’ various colors. … At the end of it, I heard someone saying he wished it were longer. That is high and rare praise in the world of contemporary music.”
“…[In] the finale, Mr. Rogerson deftly evokes flickering fireflies and children scampering to catch them. Heard in its New York premiere, the work was sympathetically played and warmly received.”
“His music is evocative, a blend of light textures with the simplicity of a film score plus big, walls of near-dissonant sound, heavy on percussion, brass blaring heroically … good enough to earn an extra measure of applause as he resumed his seat in the audience.”
“…Rogerson’s ‘Four Autumn Landscapes’ was the most overtly beautiful, a musical postcard about seasonal change, from autumn to winter.”
“After the intermission comes the main event, the world premiere performance of Chris Rogerson’s Summer Night Music. … Rogerson has the advantage of an imagination that sometimes allows him to think outside the instrumental box. …The composer is accessing all aspects of summer, including the haunting nature of the season in which more beings can wander under the cover of darkness. It is also filled with passages of joy and playfulness….”
“Rogerson’s work, ‘Open Air,’ salutes Frank Gehry’s Jay Pritzker Pavilion at Millennium Park with a punchy fanfare driven by declamatory brasses and timpani.”
“…Rogerson won the New York Art Ensemble’s 2010 competition … for his well-made String Quartet No. 1. … There were echoes of Bartok in the slashing figures of ‘Duel,’ the vigorous first movement. Passages of haunting beauty in ‘Hymn,’ the solemn second movement, gave way to ‘dance,’ the lively finale.”
Young Concert Artists | 250 West 57 Street, Suite 1222 | New York, NY 10107
Monica J. Felkel, Director of Artist Management
Vicki Margulies, Artist Manager
management@yca.org / (212) 307-6657
For a full electronic press kit, bio, and list of compositions, please visit my page at yca.org.
If you have any questions and would like to email me, my email is rogerson.chris@gmail.com.
