Institutes | College/Adult Courses | For Young Performers | General Information
Forms and Registration | Contact Us
NEC Summer School: Institutes and Intensives
The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller:
Scratching the Surface of a Compleat Musician
Ran Blake, Department of Contemporary Improvisation, New England Conservatory
Fred Harris, Director of Wind Ensembles, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Gunther Schuller, Composer, Conductor, President Emeritus, New England Conservatory
July 28-August 7, 2008 (five meetings)
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday,* Thursday: 5:30-8:30 p.m.
*Special public evening with conversations/performances:
Tu, August 5, 2008, 6:30 p.m.
Pulitzer Prize-winning composer and MacArthur "Genius Grant" recipient Gunther Schuller is a unique figure in American music history. The quality and quantity of his productivity in nearly every facet of music (composition, performance, recording, writing, teaching, and publishing), classical and jazz, will no doubt ever be replicated.
As a young man, Schuller played French horn for Toscanini and Fritz Reiner, among other giants, and performed and recorded with Miles Davis, Gil Evans, John Lewis, and Charles Mingus. By the time he was 40, he had become a major composer, receiving performances by world-class orchestras and conductors, important chamber ensembles and famous jazz artists. He had also begun a new movement in contemporary music, which he called Third Stream, and he had become a first-rate and discerning conductor. In 1967, he became the president of New England Conservatory, forever changing the face and mission of the school and others like it. The author of six books (including two of the most important jazz histories ever conceived and a unique and fascinating exploration of the art of conducting), Schuller has recently completed the first volume of his autobiography. Without a doubt, there is no other musician working today who has contributed more to the American classical and jazz music landscapes than Gunther Schuller.
Ran Blake's innovative annual summer course will spotlight the musical worlds of Gunther Schuller. The course will provide students with an extremely rare opportunity to interact with Maestro Schuller about his music, his life as a composer, conductor and author, and his vast experience working with dozens of the most important classical and jazz artists of the second half of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st. An analysis and discussion of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony will also be included. Ran Blake (another MacArthur Fellow), and Fred Harris (completing a book on Stanislaw Skrovaczewski, Seeking the Infinite) will join Maestro Schuller in leading classes.
Note: The Tuesday, August 5th class will be a public evening of conversations and performances held at New England Conservatory.
1 UG/G credit: $1000/$2000
Early-bird discounted tuition (registered/paid by June 28, 2008): $850/$1700
1 SCE credit: $500
Early-bird discounted tuition (registered/paid by June 28, 2008): $435
Non-credit: $355
Early-bird discounted tuition (registered/paid by June 28, 2008): $310
All plus $30 NEC registration fee