|
Celebrating His 75th Birthday on 2.27.18!
Deutsche Grammophon will release an all-Lauridsen recording in 2018 to include three premieres, performed by the Chamber Choir of Europe under the direction of Nicol Matt.
The music of American composer Morten Lauridsen occupies a permanent place in the standard vocal repertoire of the Twenty-First Century. His eight vocal cycles, instrumental works, art songs and series of motets (including O Magnum Mysterium) are performed throughout the world and have been recorded on over two hundred CDs, including several that received Grammy nominations.
Mr. Lauridsen (b. 1943) served as Composer-in-Residence of the Los Angeles Master Chorale from 1995-2001 and is Distinguished Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music and Honorary Artistic President of INTERKULTUR/World Choir Games. An award-winning documentary by Michael Stillwater, Shining Night – A Portrait of Composer Morten Lauridsen, was released in 2012.
A native of the Pacific Northwest, Lauridsen worked as a Forest Service firefighter and lookout (on an isolated tower near Mt. St. Helens) before traveling to Los Angeles to study composition at USC. He now divides his time between Los Angeles and his summer cabin on a remote island off the northern coast of Washington State.
In 2006 Morten Lauridsen was designated an "American Choral Master" by the National Endowment for the Arts and in 2007 he received the National Medal of Arts from the President in a White House ceremony, "for his composition of radiant choral works combining musical beauty, power and spiritual depth that have thrilled audiences worldwide." The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the United States government. In 2016 Morten Lauridsen received the ASCAP Foundation “Life in Music” award in a ceremony at Lincoln Center in New York.
www.mortenlauridsen.net
|
