Spring 2024
Two films released by the Library of Congress, featuring Michael Alec Rose in conversation with violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved about Rose’s two solo violin works composed expressly for the Brookings Amati and Ward Stradivari violins.
Both instruments have a home in the Music Division at the Library, a collection curated by Carol Lynn Ward Bamford.
YouTube sites:
Library of Congress sites:
‘Eclipse’ on Two Violins with Peter Sheppard Skærved & Michael Alec Rose (LINK)
and
‘Philia’ on Two Violins with Peter Sheppard Skærved & Michael Alec Rose (LINK)
February 21, 2024
Hesperides
Turner Hall
Blair School of Music
Trio for violin, viola and piano,
dedicated to my dear friends Connie Heard, Kathryn Plummer, and Amy Dorman
February 10, 2024
Gaudere aude!
Ingram Hall
Blair School of Music
First movement of a symphonic work called Crescere Aude (Dare To Grow), commissioned by Vanderbilt for the entire Blair School Composition Faculty to celebrate Vanderbilt University’s sesquicentennial.
Premiere performance by Ernesto Estigarribia Mussi conducting the Vanderbilt Orchestra:
2022-2024
“Knowledge Exchange Violin“
Peter Sheppard Skærved, violin, in collaboration with Michael Alec Rose
Solo violin and viola works composed for the great violinist on site at the following institutions, with a particular focus on composing music for specific artworks, landscapes, and historic instruments.
Here are selected films and audio recordings of the Knowledge Exchange Violin Collaboration:
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.:
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford:
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City:
Library of Congress, Washington D.C.:
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Farnham Heath, England:
Works composed for Il Cannone Guarnerius and the “Sivori”, Niccolò Paganini’s violins on exhibit at Palazzo Doria Tursi, Genova, Italy:
Spring/Summer, 2022
BEAUTIFUL WORLD
A Million Alien Gospels (Ballet in Two Acts)
composed by Michael Alec Rose
and presented by Ventana Ballet & Austin Camerata
(https://www.ventanaballet.com/beautifulworld)
Cosmic Dialogues with Ventana Ballet
Q&A with Ali Smith and Michael Alec Rose
Vanderbilt University Fine Arts Gallery presents:
A Q&A with Ali Smith and Michael Alec Rose
Moderated by Leonard Folgarait, Professor of History of Art
Friday, October 30, 1:00pm CST via Zoom
Join us for a conversation between composer Michael Alec Rose and painter Ali Smith, moderated by Leonard Folgarait, distinguished professor of History of Art at Vanderbilt University.
Artist, composer and art historian will venture behind the scenes of Dream for Light Years, in their discussion of the creative and collaborative processes that led to an inspired exhibition at the Fine Arts Gallery.
This talk is open to the public and will be held via Zoom.
2020
2020:
“Beethoven Now!”
Digital Salon hosted by the Goethe-Institut of New York City, May 30, 2020
(Michael Alec Rose’s spiel begins @36:35)
– –
To The Four Winds (for flute, oboe, horn, and bassoon)
Composed for members of the Blair Woodwind Quintet, to be included on their 2020 recording of new works for various instrumentations.
– –
Dream for Light Years: Ali Smith & Michael Alec Rose
An exhibition of paintings and music at the Vanderbilt Fine Arts Gallery:
Ali Smith, Border, 2020. Oil on canvas
Description of project at Vanderbilt News:
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/04/15/visit-dream-for-light-years-visual-musical-exhibition-online/
https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2020/04/15/visit-dream-for-light-years-visual-musical-exhibition-online/
(postponed to the fall of 2020)
Lolly Willowes: Opera in Two Acts
Poster and promotional videos for Lolly Willowes (Opera in Two Acts):
Lolly Willowes (Opera in Two Acts, 2017-18) by Michael Alec Rose, is based on the 1926 novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner. The opera was funded by the maximum Artist Development Grant ($15,000) from the Houston Arts Alliance, together with an online fundraising campaign (which reached a stretch goal of $8,500), with a professional company of singers, players, theatrical director, choreography for two dancers, costume designer, set designer, etc.). Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH), April 18 and 20, 2019:
https://matchouston.org/events/2019/lolly-willowes
2019
John Marin, Sun, Sea, Land – Maine, 1921
String Quartet No. 3 (1986), Puck Quartet, The Baltimore Station Shelter for Veterans, March 29, 2019; Maryland Correctional Institution for Women, March 30, 2019:
https://ourjoyfulnoisebaltimore.org/2018-2019-season
Lolly Willowes (Opera in Two Acts, 2017-18), funded by the maximum Artist Development Grant ($15,000) from the Houston Arts Alliance, together with an online fundraising campaign (which reached a stretch goal of $8,500), with a professional company of singers, players, theatrical director, choreography for two dancers, costume designer, set designer, etc.). Based on the novel by Sylvia Townsend Warner. Midtown Arts & Theater Center Houston (MATCH), April 18 and 20, 2019:
https://matchouston.org/events/2019/lolly-willowes
Message of Puissant Baal (for mixed chorus and piano), Inversion Ensemble, conducted by Trevor Shaw, on its Summer Concerts (“Heroes/Monsters”), June 1 & 2, 2019, Austin, Texas.
A Tree of Life, ALIAS Ensemble, Nashville, Tennessee, June 4, 2019.
Composer-in-Residence with the Cassatt String Quartet, Seal Bay Festival, Vinalhaven Island, Maine, with premiere performances throughout the region of Maine Title (String Quartet No. 7, 2018) July 11-18, 2019:
http://www.sealbayfestival.org/main.html
Myotonic (Caprice No. 4 for Solo Viola, 2018), Diana Mathews, viola, Concert Series, Wimbledon, London, October 25, 2019.
(photo credit: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts)
In memoriam: Mary Oliver (1935-2019)
Michael Alec Rose has set three of Mary Oliver’s poems, now accessible via Soundcloud:
1) “In Blackwater Woods,” Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry and pianist Lynn Rice-See.
(The second song of Rose’s song cycle titled “The Way In” (1986).)
2) “First Snow,” Mezzo-soprano Sharon Mabry and pianist Lynn Rice-See.
(The fourth and final song of Rose’s song cycle titled “The Way In” (1986).)
3) “Sleeping in the Forest,” Tenor Tony Boutté and pianist Margaret Kampmeir.
This song comes from my 1985 song cycle News of the Universe. This performance was part of the 2015 retrospective of music by Michael Alec Rose at Opera America/National Opera Center in New York City. Reflections by the composer:
Especially moving for me is Tony and Peggy’s interpretation of this song, performed here 30 years after the two of them premiered the song cycle at the Eastman School. Back then, I was the first composer to ask and receive Ms. Oliver’s permission to set her work to music. I’m thinking of putting what she said to me (when I finally met her a few years ago) on my tombstone: “You still doing that? Composing? You know, you’re the only one I ever liked.” I was so flabbergasted I didn’t know what to say. I won’t tell you what foolish and inarticulate thing I said. To be painfully evenhanded, it too should go on my tombstone.
Michael Alec Rose: Three Interventions
—Premiere of THREE INTERVENTIONS at the Blanton Museum, Austin, Texas, May 19, 2018:
—Interview with Michael Alec Rose on KMFA 89.5 Austin Classical Radio:
http://www.kmfa.org/programs/6-classical-austin/episodes/3004-austin-camerata-s-music-festival
2018
Recent Completed Works, Premieres:
-Musica senza rumore (2017), suite for solo piano, composed for Prince Jonathan Doria and the Doria Pamphilj Gallery in Rome, Italy, premiere (TBA) in collaboration with the Rome Chamber Music Festival.
– Lolly Willowes, music drama in two acts, performances in April 2019 at MATCH Midtown Arts & Theater Center in Houston, Texas.
February 11, 2018
Ching-Yi Lin, violin
Andrew Braddock, viola
Cole Concert Hall
Stephen F. Austin State University
Nacodoches, Texas
—performances of Caprices #1 and #3 for solo viola, and Mornington Caprice (#2) for violin and viola
February 25, 2018
Melissa Treinkman, mezzo-soprano (doctoral recital)
Jasper Jimenez, piano
USC Thornton School of Music
Rilke Songs: Music set to poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
—performances of “October Day” and “The Way In” from the song cycle The Way In
This recital will be live-streamed at: https://youtu.be/uVz-9TmSQfs
Wednesday, April 18, 2018, 8:00 PM
Violins of Hope: Music of the Holocaust for Strings and Winds
Musicians of the Blair School of Music and the Nashville Symphony
The program includes the following:
Michael Alec Rose, The Entire World: Jewish Songs from Eastern Europe (flute, violin, and cello)
https://events.vanderbilt.edu/index.php?eID=120120
Friday, May 4, 2018
“Pastorals”: a program celebrating the links between music and craft
Peter Sheppard Skaerved, violin
London premiere of Il Ritorno: Perambulation for Solo Violin (composed for Peter, 2014-2016)
Performance at The Forge, Craft Central, Isle of Dogs, London
May 17, 2018
Three Interventions for string quartet, commissioned by Austin Camerata for its premiere at the Blanton Museum of Art, in front of the three artworks which inspired the music.
June 5, 2018
Featured guest artist, joining photographer Brian Peterson for a special event at the Michener Art Museum in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. The event will focus on the elusive subject of Beauty, honoring the release of Mr. Peterson’s new book I Give My Eyes…
September 15, 2018
One Day University lecture, New York City (registration required)
“Beethoven and the Beatles: Hearing the Connection”
September 21, 2018
Il Ritorno: Perambulation for Unaccompanied Violin (2013-2015), Peter Sheppard Skaerved, violin. Music, Technology and Innovation Research Centre, De Montfort University (Leicester, UK): “Bringing New Music to New Audiences” (International Conference).
October 3, 2018
Hopeful Monsters (for string orchestra, 2011), Ramakrishnan Kumaran, conductor, Faculty Composers Concert, Blair School of Music, Nashville, Tennessee.
Michael Alec Rose 