Joseph Pehrson

Joseph Pehrson (b. Detroit, 1950) is an American composer-pianist who has written works for a wide variety of media including orchestra and chamber works. They have been performed at numerous venues including Merkin Hall, Weill Recital Hall, Symphony Space in New York and throughout the U.S., Eastern Europe and Russia. Since 1983, Pehrson has been co-director of the Composers Concordance in New York.

Pehrson studied at the Eastman School of Music and the University of Michigan (DMA 1981). His teachers included composers Leslie Bassett, Joseph Schwantner, and, informally, Otto Luening and Elie Siegmeister in New York.

Compositions

As of 2007, Pehrson has written more than fourteen hours of music.

Belgian horn player Francis Orval requested ensemble pieces from 1987 to 1991 including Hornucopia, a piece for ten horns, and a piece for solo horn in just intonation, Harmonic Etude, which was premiered at Merkin Hall. In 1992 and 1993, the Goliard Concerts, through recommendation of composer Eric Ewazen, performed several pieces in the Metropolitan New York area, in Warwick, NY and on a tour of southern states. They also requested a new piece, Pehrson’s humorous Confessions of the Goliards for tenor and chamber ensemble.

Starting in 1992, flute player Gerardo Levy of New York University presented Pehrson’s Etheroscape for eight flutes biannually with his students and requested a new ensemble piece Forest of Winds. He also asked for two new solo pieces.

In 1998 Pehrson’s Exhilarations for clarinet, cello and piano was the winner of a competition by the Chicago Ensemble and was performed at the Three Arts Club in Chicago. Pianist Jeffrey Jacob took an interest in Three Pianopieces in 1998, performing the piece in Ohio and Germany and later recording it professionally. Again through Ewazen, the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble requested a new chamber work, Pehrson’s Trumpet in a New Surrounding which was performed at the Dia Arts Center in 1997.

Pehrson had a May 1997 residency at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where his Fuoco for Brass Quintet was performed. Pehrson’s ensemble piece Wild, Wild West was requested and performed by Liviu Danceanu’s Archaeus Ensemble in Romania and Moldova in 1997, 1999 and 2004.

Several works in unusual tunings have been featured on Johnny Reinhard’s American Festival of Microtonal Music continuously since the 1980’s. In 2001 and 2003 Pehrson traveled to Russia for a series of concerts arranged by composer Anton Rovner. In 2005, organist Carson Cooman premiered Pehrson’s Organum for solo organ and the work was performed in Russia at the Glinka Museum by Kirill Umansky as part of the Moscow Autumn Festival. In April, 2006, Peter Jarvis and April McCloskey of the “DoubleStop Percussion Duo” premiered Pehrson’s Inner Voices II for percussion and near-just-intonation electronics at William Patterson College, repeating it at Connecticut College in December, 2006. Pianist Juny Jung performed Three Pianopieces in Weill Recital Hall of Carnegie Hall, May, 2006. Flautando for flute and guitar was presented by the New York Composers Circle in June, 2006. Victoria and Robert Paterson’s American Modern Ensemble presented Levitations for viola and piano, October, 2006. Pehrson has works recorded on Capstone and New Ariel CDs and many pieces are published by Seesaw Music, Corp., now a division of Subito Music.

A number of Pehrson's recent pieces employ the 72 equal temperament and the twenty-one note Blackjack scale.

ee also

Hexany His "ViolaHexy" is for a partially stellated Hexany

External links

* [http://users.rcn.com/jpehrson/JosephPehrson.html Pehrson biography and mp3s]
* [http://composers.meetup.com/87/members/3973199/ The New York Composers Meetup Group]
* [http://www.compositiontoday.com/composers/492.asp Sheet music]
* [http://sonic-arts.org/monzo/blackjack/blackjack.htm The Blackjack scale]