Jan Krzywicki (left) and Sebastian Currier (right)
American Composers Forum, Philadelphia Chapter presents an online artist talk between composers Jan Krzywicki and Sebastian Currier. During this free Artist to Artist Talk, the two composers will discuss their creative process, reflect on their artistic influences, and share recent work.
This event is co-presented with Network for New Music ahead of the concert Intersections, a celebration of Jan Krzywicki’s 30th anniversary conducting the ensemble.
FREE, REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED. PLEASE RESERVE ONE SPOT PER HOUSEHOLD. A Zoom link will be sent to you the day of the event.
Jan Krzywicki (b. 1948) is active as a composer, conductor and educator. As a composer he has been commissioned by prestigious performers, and organizations such as the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, the Chestnut Brass Company, Network for New Music, and performed across the United States by ensembles such as the Colorado Quartet, Network for New Music, Pennsylvania Ballet, Portland Symphony Orchestra, Alea III, and others. His works have been heard at conferences of the College Music Society, the Society of Composers, and on national public radio. He has received awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP, Meet the Composer, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. Krzywicki has been a resident at the Rockefeller Foundation (Bellagio, Italy), at the Bogliasco Foundation (Bogliasco, Italy), and has been a Fellow at the MacDowell, Yaddo, Millay and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts colonies. His work is published by Alphonse Leduc & Cie, Theodore Presser Co., Tenuto Publications, Lyra Music Company, and Heilman Music, and can be heard on Capstone Records, Albany Records, North-South Recordings and De Haske Records. As a conductor he has led chamber and orchestral groups in literature from the middle ages to the present, including a large number of premieres. Since 1990 he has been conductor of the contemporary ensemble Network for New Music. Krzywicki is a professor of music theory at Temple University, where he teaches music theory, composition, and conducts the New Music Ensemble.
Sebastian Currier is the recipient of the prestigious Grawemeyer Award. Heralded as "music with a distinctive voice" by the New York Times and as "lyrical, colorful, firmly rooted in tradition, but absolutely new" by the Washington Post, his music has been performed at major venues worldwide by acclaimed artists and orchestras, including Anne-Sophie Mutter, the Berlin Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, and the Kronos Quartet.
His music has been enthusiastically embraced by violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, for whom he wrote Time Machines, which she premiered with the New York Philharmonic in June 2011 and subsequently performed with various orchestras in the United States, Europe, and Asia. He also wrote Aftersong for her, which she performed extensively in the US and Europe, including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Barbican in London, and the Grosses Festspielhaus in Salzburg. A critic from the London Times said, "if all his pieces are as emotionally charged and ingenious in their use of rethought tonality as this, give me more."
He has received many prestigious awards including the Berlin Prize, Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, and an Academy Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and has held residencies at the MacDowell and Yaddo colonies. He received a DMA from the Juilliard School and from 1999-2007 taught at Columbia University. He is currently Artist in Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, New Jersey.