Osvaldo Golijov
Born in 1960, Osvaldo Golijov was raised in an Eastern
European Jewish household in La Plata, Argentina, a provincial
capital of half a million people about 50 kilometers from Buenos
Aires. Born to a piano teacher mother and physician father, Golijov
was raised surrounded in chamber classical music, Jewish liturgical
and klezmer music, and the new tango of Astor Piazzolla. He studied
piano at the local conservatory and studied composition privately
with Gerardo Gandini, subsequently moving in 1983 to Israel, where
he studied with Mark Kopytman at the Rubin Academy of Jerusalem
and immersed himself in the colliding musical traditions of that
city.
Upon moving in the United States in 1986, Golijov earned his Ph.D.
at the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied with George
Crumb. In 1990, as a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, Golijov
received Tanglewood's Fromm Commission, resulting in Yiddishbbuk,
which was premiered by the St. Lawrence String Quartet during
Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music in July 1992. Working
together with the St. Lawrence String Quartet was a turning point
in Golijov's musical life, as the SLSQ was the first group of
players to dive into Golijov's volatile and label-defying musical
world and project it in its true, full form. In June 2002, EMI
released Yiddishbbuk, a CD of Golijov's chamber music, celebrating
tenyears of collaboration with the SLSQ, featuring Todd Palmer,
Mark Dresser, Tara O'Connor, and the Ying Quartet. The CD
was nominated for two Grammy Awards.
While at Tanglewood,
Golijov became personally acquainted with the Kronos Quartet.
This relationship, now a decade old, has become a central one
to Golijov. One of his works, K'vakarat, was recorded
later for Kronos and cantor Misha Alexandrovich. In 1997, Kronos
and clarinetist David Krakauer recorded Golijov's Klezmer-accented
The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind. Although
Dreams and Prayers was commissioned by the Cleveland
Quartet, who premiered and toured it with clarinetist Giora
Feidman, that ensemble disbanded before they had a chance to
record it. The Kronos CD of Dreams and Prayers became
what constitutes a bestseller in the classical world. Golijov
has collaborated on about 30 works with the Kronos Quartet,
including a series of arrangements of music from all over the
world. Eight of them appear in the CD Caravan and seven
arrangements and one composition appear in Nuevo (nominated
for a Grammy Award) both on the Nonesuch label. The collaborations
with the Kronos Quartet also allowed Golijov to work with artists
such as the gypsy band Taraf de Haidouks, who participated in
the recording of Golijov's soundtrack for Sally Potter's film
The Man Who Cried (starring Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett),
as well as the Mexican Rock Band Cafe Tacuba, tablas virtuoso
Zakir Husssain, and legendary Argentine musician and producer
Gustavo Santaolalla.
In 2000, the premiere of Golijov's
Le Pasión Según San Marcos took the music world
by storm. It was commissioned by Helmuth Rilling for the European
Music festival to commemorate the 250th anniversary of J. S.
Bach's death. The piece featured the Schola Cantorum of Caracas,
with the Orquesta La Pasion (especially assembled for this work
by Golijov), together with percussionist Mikael Ringquist, all
conducted by Maria Guinand. The Passion integrates the multiple
manifestations of the Christian faith in Latin America (and
Golijov's own Jewish roots) in a musical universe, which critics
and audiences in Europe and America alike praised for encompassing
popular and classical idioms, acknowledging the past, and opening
the door to a fruitful and communicative musical future.
The Passion was given its U.S. Premiere by the Boston Symphony
Orchestra and in Fall 2002, completed a North American tour
which includes the premiere in New York and Los Angeles.
The CD of the premiere of this work, on the Hanssler Classic
label, received a Grammy nomination in 2002.
Golijov has received numerous commissions, including those from
the composer Hans Werner Henze on behalf of the city of Munich; the
Spoleto USA Festival; New York's Lincoln Center; the Schleswig Holstein
Music and Oregon Bach festivals, and the Boston Symphony. In addition,
Golijov has been composer-in-residence at Merkin Hall in New York,
the Spoleto USA Festival (1998 and 2002) and the Los Angeles Philharmonic's
Music Alive series (2001-02). He is currently an Associate Professor
at College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he
has taught since 1991; is on the faculties of the Boston Conservatory
and the Tanglewood Music Center; and has been Composer-in-Residence
for Marlboro Music, Ravinia, and the Cape and Islands festivals.
Golijov is also the recipient of many awards, including those given by New
York's Lincoln Center, Washington's Kennedy Center, the Guggenheim Foundation,
and the National Endowment for the Arts. His compositions have been performed
by ensembles such as the Boston Symphony, LA Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra,
New World Symphony, Orpheus Chamber Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, Birmingham
Contemporary Music Group; conductors Robert Spano, Seiji Ozawa, Esa Pekka Salonen,
Oliver Knussen, Miguel Harth Bedoya, and Maria Guinand; singers Dawn Upshaw,
Luciana Souza and Courtenay Budd; and instrumentalists such as Todd Palmer
and Gil Kalish.
2002 completed works
by Golijov include the following: Three Songs for Soprano
and Orchestra, a centennial commission by the Minnesota
Orchestra featuring Dawn Upshaw as soloist, which premiered
in March; Tenebrae, a new work commissioned by the
Spoleto USA festival, which premiered there in June featuring
soprano Courtenay Budd, clarinetist Todd Palmer and the St Lawrence
String Quartet; and a soundtrack, in collaboration with Gustavo
Santaolalla, for a short film on September 11 by Alejandro Iñárritu
(director of "Amores Perros"), performed by Santaolalla, L.
Warner, and the Kronos Quartet (premiered in Paris on September
11, 2002).
Upcoming projects include commissions
from Carnegie Hall and the Boston Symphony, works for Dawn Upshaw,
the Kronos Quartet and a chamber opera for the Tanglewood Music
Center to be premiered at Tanglewood in August 2003 (co-produced
by the Boston Symphony, Lincoln Center and the Los Angeles Philharmonic).
His works are published by Ytalianna Music Publishing and recorded
on Nonesuch, Sony Classical, Hanssler Classics, and EMI.