- Frank Lewin
Frank Lewin (
27 March 1925 –18 January 2008 ) was an Americancomposer and teacher.Biography
Frank Lewin was born March 27, 1925, in Breslau, Germany. He and his family escaped from Germany in 1939, spent a year in Cuba, and came to the United States in 1940. Lewin studied composition with
Felix Deyo at theBaldwin Conservatory (Long Island, New York); withJack Frederick Kilpatrick andHans David atSouthern Methodist University ; withRoy Harris in Logan, Utah; and withRichard Donovan andPaul Hindemith at theYale University School of Music , where he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1951.Lewin composed and edited music for feature, documentary, and television films, including dozens of original scores for
The Defenders andThe Nurses . He wrote incidental music for plays from Shakespeare to Tennessee Williams, and composed scores for historical outdoor dramas byPaul Green and others, in various parts of the country. He also wrote a number of concert compositions including two operas, several orchestral works, concertos for viola and harmonica, song cycles, and choral music.Lewin was a professor at the
Yale School of Music from 1971 to 1992, teaching composition for film; and at theColumbia University School of the Arts from 1975 to 1989, where he taught the course "Music in Modern Media."Works
Operas
*"Gulliver", an opera in two acts, with some sections composed by Easley Blackwood and Elliot Kaplan (1975)
*"Burning Bright", based on the novel and play byJohn Steinbeck (1993)Orchestral
*"Evocation" (1960)
*"Concerto for Harmonica and Orchestra", (1960), revised and transcribed for viola in 2006 by violist Brett Deubner.
*"Concerto on Silesian Themes", viola concerto (1965).Choral
*"Psalm 121" (1942)
*"Psalm 148" (1949)
*"Psalm 137" (1956)
*"Behold, How Good" (1959)
*"Seasons" (1962)
*"Music for the White House" (1965)
*"Requiem for Robert F. Kennedy (Mass for the Dead, in English)" (1969)olo Vocal Music
*"Shall I Compare Thee" (1949)
*"A Dutch Lullaby" (1952)
*"Innocence and Experience" (1961)
*"Variations of Greek Themes" (1977)
*"A Musical Nashery" (1980)
*"Wedding Music" (1981)
*"Phoenix" (1993)
*"She Walks in Beauty" (1994)Instrumental
*"Dunlap's Creek", for organ and English horn (1953)
*"Music for the New Family of Violins", for the eight instruments designed and built byCarleen M. Hutchins (1965)Theater Music
*"The Trojan War Will Not Take Place" by Jean Girudoux (1952)
*"Theater of the Soul" by Nicolai Evreinov (1953)
*"Summer and Smoke" byTennessee Williams (1954)
*"The Tempest" byWilliam Shakespeare (1955)
*"Knight of the Burning Pestle" byBeaumont and Fletcher (1955)
*"Twelfth Night" byWilliam Shakespeare (1956)
*"Taming of the Shrew" byWilliam Shakespeare (1957)
*"Blood Wedding" byFederico García Lorca (1957)
*"A Midsummer Night's Dream" byWilliam Shakespeare (1958)
*"Thieves' Carnival" byJean Anouilh (1958)
*"Leonce and Lena" by George Büchner (1958)
*"The Tempest" byWilliam Shakespeare (1967)
*"Caesar at the Rubicon" byTheodore White (1971)
*"Streets of Gold" by Tom DeTitta (1992)Historical Outdoor Dramas
*"Beyond the Sundown" by
Kermit Hunter (1975)
*"The McIntosh Trail" byKermit Hunter (1976)
*"Dust on her Petticoats" byKermit Hunter (1976)
*"Hernando DeSoto, Conquistador" byKermit Hunter (1976)
*"Blue Jacket" by W.L. Mundell (1982)
*"Trumpet in the Land" byPaul Green (1984)
*"The White Savage" by Joseph Bonamico and Mark Durbin (1997)Film and Television
*"The Nurses", television series (1961-63)
*"The Defenders", television series (1962-65)
*"A Year Toward Tomorrow", documentary film (1967)
*"The Plot Against Harry", theatrical film (1989)Writings
* The Soundtrack in Nontheatrical Motion Pictures. Society of Motion Picture Engineers, 1958.
* Man and His Sound--Expo 67. Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, 1968.
* Burning Bright, The Genesis of an Opera, Lyrica Society, 1985.
* The Music of Language in a Passage from Tannhäuser, Ars Lyrica, Journal of the Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations, Volume XIII, 2003.
Awards
* Fellowships from the
National Endowment for the Arts andNew Jersey State Council on the Arts
* Distinguished Artist Award fromNew Jersey State Council on the Arts References
*cite book|last=Auld|first=Louis E.|title=Burning Bright, The Genesis of an Opera: an interview with Frank Lewin|year=1985|publisher=Lyrica Society|location=Guildford, CT|id=ISBN 0-937129-00-3
External links
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0506816/ Frank Lewin at imdb.org]
* [http://members.aol.com/franklewin Frank Lewin's Official Website]
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