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Andrew Rudin

ANDREW RUDIN [roo-DEEN] (b. 1939) is a Texas-born composer of Swedish ancestry whose many contributions to the literature of electronic music brought him early recognition. Critic Michael Caruso, reviewing his Violin Concerto in 2007, remarked “Andrew Rudin has been an important presence in the local contemporary music scene for the past four decades.” His Il Giuoco was the first large-scale work for Moog Synthesizer, a U.S. representative in the 5th Paris Biennale. His synthesized music is heard in the sound-track of the film Fellini: Satyricon and his Tragoedia was the second of Nonesuch Records’ electronic music commissions, described by critic Alfred Frankenstein as “The best large-scale electronic work I have ever heard. In Andrew Rudin's hands the electronic idiom finally comes of age.”

His interest in theatrical music has resulted in ballets for the Pennsylvania Ballet, Murray Louis, Dance Theatre Workshop, Louis Falco, Jeff Duncan, London Contemporary Dance Theatre, and four collaborations with Alwin Nikolais, as well as incidental music for Tennessee Williams’ Outcry and numerous scores for PBS Television. In 1972, his opera The Innocent was produced in Philadelphia by Tito Capobianco. His orchestral and chamber music has been performed throughout the United States by such artists as pianists Lydia Artymiw, Beth Levin, Steve Beck and Marcantonio Barone, violinists Diane Monroe and Miranda Cuckson, violist Brett Deubner, cellists Sam Magill and Eugene Moye, percussionist Anthony Orlando, of the Philadelphia Orchestra, flutists Mimi Stillman and Patricia Spencer, and clarinetist Ronald Reuben. Recent concertos for Violin, Viola, and Piano have brought him renewed recognition.

“Extroverted, engaging and driven by an almost heroic sense of drama, Rudin has a gift for the kind of gesture that grabs you by the ears and won’t let go.”, wrote the Washington Post at the 2008 premiere of his Piano Concerto. Of the Viola Concerto, Fanfare magazine declared “The concerto is an important addition to the none-too-large repertoire for this instrument.” He is the recipient of fellowships from Yaddo, The MacDowell Colony, Ucross Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, among his many grants and awards. His teachers have included George Rochberg, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Ralph Shapey, Kent Kennan, and Paul Pisk.

He has taught on the faculties of the Juilliard School and The Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts, where he was founding director of the Electronic Music Center. He is retired from the faculty of The University of the Arts (Philadelphia), where he taught from 1964 to 2001. His music may be heard on the Centaur, Innova, and ERM labels, and is published by Associated Music Publishers as well as Skåne Hill Music. The composer’s professional affiliation is BMI.

Music for Solo Piano by Andrew Rudin

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for Piano and Small Orchestra
30'
Cast in the traditional three movements — fast, slow, fast — influence and indebtedness to Bartók is noticeable in the two outer movements. In the meditative slow movement, there are allusions both to Beethoven’s 3rd concerto, with its dialogue-like alternation between soloist and orchestra, and in the main body of the movement, a nod to […]
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16'30"
The Sonata for Piano was composed expressly for Beth Levin in the early weeks of January 2013 during a residency at the Edward MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire. Movement one is dominated by a satirical character of extreme contrasts in dynamics, abrupt gestures, and pauses. Its organization might be described as “quasi sonata form”, since […]
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Music for other instruments by Andrew Rudin

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for Violoncello and Piano
Cello
14'
Inspired by Debussy’s Sonata for ‘Cello, the movement titles suggest a scenario in which the two players interact somewhat like actors in a series of scenes. In “Proclamation” the piano clearly opposes the ideas put forward by the cello. the “attaca” 2nd movt., “Repartee” finds them backing off their confrontation, and exchanging somewhat barbed witicisms […]
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for string orchestra
23'40"
Composed in 2007 and only recently premiered in Philadelphia by Orchestra 2001, SEPTEMBER TRILOGY moves from the anxiety, mounting dread, and unexpected event, through a somewhat cynical militaristic demonstration, to a soulful contemplation and a search for understanding.  The titles and the subsequent realization that it appropriately commemorates the events of 9/11 were understood by […]
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for two pianos
Piano
6'
Overture/Rondo is a transcription and rearrangement of the third and final movement of my Concerto for Piano and Small Orchestra. The original soloist’s role has now been re-distributed, alternating between the two pianists, and other such adjustments have been made to more equitably divide the music. In the Concerto, there is a considerably longer cadenza […]
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for Piano and Small Orchestra
Piano
30'
Cast in the traditional three movements — fast, slow, fast — influence and indebtedness to Bartók is noticeable in the two outer movements. In the meditative slow movement, there are allusions both to Beethoven’s 3rd concerto, with its dialogue-like alternation between soloist and orchestra, and in the main body of the movement, a nod to […]
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for mixed septet
Cello
Clarinet
Double Bass
Flute
Percussion
Piano
Viola
13'30"
Chiaroscuro was composed in 1991 for the CONVERGENCE Ensemble, a group of dancers and musicians, who gave the first performance at The Painted Bride Gallery in Philadelphia. In the concept of the dance, lighting played a major role, sometimes silhouetting dancers posed like sculptures against a light background, sometimes presenting them brightly against the dark, […]
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for two pianos & percussion
Percussion
Piano
18'
The two roughly equal-length movements relate to each other by contrast– the first, rather somber; the second more jubilant. Both movements are through-composed, without apparent repetition or recapitulation. However, symmetries and parallels exist between the two. Canons begin movement one, and conclude movement two. Both begin with introductions, followed by a main section which builds […]
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appetizers for unaccompanied violin
Violin
10'
These “tasty snacks” grew out of a period of daily sketching. Any one of them or a grouping of several might be played as encores. These eight were chosen and arranged in this order from a group of 12 or 13 originally. They are dedicated to violinist Diane Monroe, who had given the premier of […]
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