Steve Mackey
Steven Mackey was born in 1956 to American parents stationed in Frankfurt, Germany. His first musical passion was playing the electric guitar in rock bands based in northern California. He later discovered concert music and has composed for orchestras, chamber ensembles, dance, and opera. He regularly performs his own work, including two electric guitar concertos, and numerous solo and chamber works. He is also active as an improvising musician performing with his band Big Farm.
In 2010-11 he composed a piano concerto for Orli Shaham, co-commissioned by the LA Philharmonic and the St. Louis and New Jersey Symphonies. He also composed an orchestral work for the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia. He will be performing in a variety of contexts including his role as guitarist and narrator in his music theater piece called SLIDE with Eighth Blackbird and Rinde Eckert.
As a composer, Mackey has received numerous awards and has been the composer-in-residence at major music festivals, including Tanglewood, Aspen, and the Holland Festival. Among his commissions are works for the Chicago, St Louis, New World, and San Francisco Symphonies, the Dutch Radio Symphony, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the BBC Philharmonic, the Scottish and Swedish Chamber Orchestras, the Kronos Quartet, the Koussevitzky Music Foundation in the Library of Congress, Fromm Music Foundation, Brentano String Quartet, Borromeo String Quartet, Fred Sherry, Dawn Upshaw, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and many others.
As a guitarist, Mackey has performed his chamber music with the Kronos Quartet, Arditti Quartet, London Sinfonietta, Nexttime Ensemble (Parma), Psappha (Manchester), and Joey Baron. As a concerto soloist he has performed with many conductors including David Robertson, Michael Tilson Thomas, Peter Etvos, Dennis Russell Davies, and many others. His monodrama, Ravenshead, for tenor/actor (Rinde Eckert) and electro-acoustic band/ensemble (the Paul Dresher Ensemble), has been performed nearly 100 times and is available on a MINMAX CD. In a year-end review of cultural events, USA Today acclaimed the work the "Best New Opera of 1998."
Recent CD releases include Steven Mackey: Dreamhouse, an hour-long oratorio for amplified vocal ensemble, electric guitar quartet, and orchestra conducted by Gil Rose on the BMOP sound label. Dreamhouse was nominated for four Grammy awards, including Best Classical Album of 2010. Also newly released is Busted Micro Shorts, three chamber works featuring percussionist Tim Williams and the Psappha ensemble. Other available discs of Mackey's work include Lost and Found: Mackey performing his own solo electric guitar music, released by Bridge Records in 1996; Tuck and Roll: Michael Tilson Thomas conducting orchestral music by Mackey, released in 2001 by BMG-RCA Red Seal; String Theory: the Brentano String Quartet playing string quartets and string quartets with the addition of other instruments, released in 2003 on Albany Records; Heavy Light: Mosaic playing mixed chamber ensemble music, released in 2004 by New World Records. Interior Desigin (2006): featuring music for violin with Curtis Macomber on Bride Records and Speak Like the People, Write Like the King (2008): string quartets and octets for the Borromeo and Brentano Quartets also on Bridge Records. Tuck and Roll and Lost and Found both made the New York Times year-end top ten list, along with similar lists in several other publications. Individual works by Mackey are included on numerous collections on Nonesuch, BMG/Catalyst, CRI, Newport Classics, and many other labels.
Mackey is currently Professor of Music and chair of the Department of Music at Princeton University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1985. Helping to shape the next generation of composers and musicians, he teaches composition, theory, 20th-century music, improvisation, and a variety of special topics. He regularly coaches and conducts new work by student composers, as well as 20th-century classics. He was the recipient of Princeton University's first Distinguished Teaching Award in 1991. Mackey's web site is www.stevenmackey.com. His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes. He lives in Princeton, New Jersey with his wife, composer Sarah Kirkland Snider, and their son Jasper.
Orli Shaham
A consummate musician recognized for her grace and vitality, Orli Shaham has established an impressive international reputation as one of today's most gifted pianists. Hailed by critics on four continents, Ms. Shaham is in demand for her prodigious skills and admired for her interpretations of both standard and modern repertoire. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch recently praised her "wit, passion, delicacy and humor", and London's Guardian has called Ms. Shaham's playing "perfection".
Orli Shaham has performed with most major orchestras in the United States, as well as with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Stockholm Philharmonic and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, among others. She is a frequent guest at numerous summer festivals from Mostly Mozart to Verbier, and has given recitals at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and many more around the world.
In addition to her customary schedule of recitals and performances with orchestras, the 2010-2011 season brings two new projects to Orli Shaham’s list of artistic accomplishments. Ms. Shaham is recording a CD of Jewish music with her brother, the violinist Gil Shaham (Canary Classics). And in the fall, she launches a five-part series of interactive daytime concerts for kids at the hip Greenwich Village nightclub Le Poisson Rouge.
Driven by a passion to bring classical music to new audiences, Orli Shaham maintains an active parallel career as a respected broadcaster, music writer and lecturer. She has taught music literature at Columbia University, and contributed articles to Piano Today, Symphony, and Playbill magazines. Ms. Shaham has served as artist in residence on National Public Radio’s Performance Today.
In addition to her musical education, Orli Shaham holds a degree in history from Columbia University. Orli Shaham lives in New York and St. Louis with her husband, conductor David Robertson, teenage stepsons Peter and Jonathan, and pre-school twins Nathan and Alex.
