Bruce Adolphe
b. 1955 Bruce Adolphe, composer, author, and educator, has composed music for some of the best performers in the world. Itzhak Perlman commissioned the Bitter, Sour, Salt, Suite, eight short movements and comic poems about food, which he performed at Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Boston’s Symphony Hall, and recently recorded for Telarc. Mr. Perlman also recorded Adolphe’s Marita And Her Heart’s Desire with members of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and Adolphe’s new poems for “Carnival of Animals” on the disk, Classical Zoo. An die Musik’s commission of Adolphe’s humorous Little Red Riding Hood for narrator and chamber ensemble proved so successful that the organization commissioned him to write a comic version of Goldilocks for them. The two works are expected to be paired on CD featuring Dr. Ruth Westheimer as narrator. Other renowned performers who have played Adolphe’s music include clarinetist David Shifrin, the Beaux Arts Trio, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra, and the Brentano, Miami, Mendelssohn, and Orion String Quartets. Adolphe’s operas Mikhoels The Wise and The False Messiah were premiered at the 92nd Street Y. The Tell-tale Heart is based on the story by Edgar Allen Poe and his children’s opera, The Amazing Adventures Of Alvin Allegretto, was written for the Metropolitan Opera Guild. He has served as Composer-in-Residence throughout the USA including Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, La Jolla Chamberfest, Santa Fe, Pensacola, and Grand Canyon Chamber Music Festivals, and Bravo! Colorado. His scores for films include , music for the permanent documentary at the National Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC. As Music Advisor and Education Director of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1992, Adolphe gives pre-concert lectures in Alice Tully Hall, directs the educational outreach programs, teaches the popular seminar Inside Chamber Music, programs and hosts the Meet the Music! family concert series, and works with David Shifrin in the programming of contemporary music. Adolphe has served on the faculties of The Juilliard School and New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, and as Visiting Lecturer at Yale. In addition to his educational work at Lincoln Center, he continues to work in community outreach programs throughout the USA, including extensive programs in New Mexico, California, Oregon, Florida, Kansas, New Jersey, and New York. Adolphe has authored three books, The Mind’s Ear: Exercises For Improving The Musical Imagination For Performers, Listeners, And Composers, published by MMB Music, Inc., Saint Louis, MO; and What To Listen For In The World and Of Mozart, Parrots, and Cherry Blossoms In The Wind, pUblished by Limelight Editions, New York City. The CD Turning, Returning, features four of his chamber works recorded by the Brentano String Quartet with pianist Marija Stroke. l7arry On, Caramoor! a suite for narrator and orchestra was premiered at the opening of the Caramoor International Music Festival 1999. SylVia McNair premiered A Thousand Years Of Love for voice and piano and The Purple Palace, a narrated work for family audiences, was written for and premiered by the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Adolphe has co-founded Polly Rhythm Productions, a company that creates and produces inspiring musical and educational repertoire for kids and families. He lives in Manhattan with ‘-‘~ wife, pianist Marija Stroke, their daughter Katja, and Polly Rhythm, the opera-singing p-drrot.
Titles:
- – Momentum
- – Quartet for Oboe and Strings (Violin, Viola, Cello)
- – Desperate Measures for Two Trumpets, Horn and Trombone
- – Angel Fanfire
- – In the Same Breath
- – To His Imaginary Mistress
- – Rikudim for Flute and Harp
- 1978 – Woman Why Do You Weep?
- 1979 – The Tell – Tale Heart
- 1981 – Mikhoels the Wise: An Opera in Two Acts About the Life of Solomon Mikhoels
- 1984 – Ladino Songs of Love and Suffering for Soprano, Guitar and Horn
- 1984 – Out of the Whirlwind
- 1986 – Canticum Arcanum for Tenor, Violin, Piano and SATB Chorus
- 1986 – Night Journey for Chamber Orchestra
- 1986 – Trio No. 1
- 1987 – Night Journey for Woodwind Quintet
- 1988 – T-D-T: ‘Texture-Dynamics-Timbre
- 1988 – Rainbow
- 1988 – Ta Woop!
- 1988 – Hoodoo Duo for Viola and Bass
- 1988 – Hoodoo Duo for Violin and Cello
- 1988 – Three Pieces: For Kids in the Audience and Chamber Orchestra
- 1990 – String Quartet No. 1: By a Grace of Sense Surrounded
- 1990 – Machaut is My Beginning for Flute, Clarinet and Piano Trio
- 1990 – At the Still Point, There the Dance Is: Quintet for Clarinet and Strings
- 1990 – Voices of Moonlight
- 1990 – Triskelion
- 1991 – I’m Inclined to New Music
- 1991 – String Quartet No. 2: Turning, Returning
- 1991 – Bridgehampton Concerto
- 1992 – Whispers of Mortality: String Quartet No. 4
- 1992 – And All is Always Now
- 1992 – Piano Trio No. 2
- 1992 – A White Light Still and Moving
- 1993 – Urban Scenes
- 1993 – Marita and Her Heart’s Desire: A Chamber Music Fairy Tale for Large Ensemble and Actress
- 1993 – In Memories of
- 1994 – The Amazing Adventure of Alvin Allegretto: A One-Act Comic Opera for Kids and Their Families
- 1995 – Bitter, Sour, Salt Suite
- 1995 – Body Loops
- 1996 – Bird Songs for Soprano, Flute, Violin and Piano
- 1996 – Grace Notes
- 1996 – Grace Notes for Soprano and Mixed Quartet
- 1997 – Songs of Radical Innocence for Clarinet and Chamber Orchestra
- 1997 – Little Red Riding Hood for Narrator and Mixed Quintet
- 1997 – After the End
- 1997 – Songs of Radical Innocence
- 1998 – Carry On Caramoor! Suite for Narrator and Orchestra
- 1998 – A Thousand Years of Love: A Song Cycle
- 1998 – Couple
- 1998 – The Purple Palace for Narrator and Chamber Orchestra
- 1998 – Goldilocks and the Three Bears for Narrator and Mixed Quintet
- 1998 – Carry On Caramoor!
- 1999 – Well, It’s Not Exactly Beethoven
- 1999/2001 – Memories of a Possible Future
- 2000 – Tyrannosaurus Sue: A Cretaceous Concerto
- 2001 – Tough Turkey in the Big City for Narrator and Six Players
- 2002 – Before Words and After
- 2002 – Red Dogs and Pink Skies
- 2002 – Three Secret Stories
- 2003 – Oceanophony for Chamber Ensemble
- 2003 – Oceanophony for Chamber Orchestra
- 2003 – Witches, Wizards, Spells and Elves: The Magic of Shakespeare
- 2004 – Songs of Life and Love: Settings of Poems by Persian, Arab, Israeli, and American Women
- 2004 – Time Flies
- 2004 – Oh Gesualdo, Divine Tormentor!
- 2005 – Wind Across the Sky for Soprano and Piano Trio
- 2005 – Aha! for Chamber Orchestra
- 2005 – Into a Cloud
- 2005 – Concerto for Violin and Orchestra
- 2005 – The Tiger’s Ear: Listening to Abstract Paintings
- 2005 – What Dreams May Come?
- 2006 – Time Piece
- 2006 – The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
- 2006 – Farmony
- 2006 – Zephyronia
- 2006/2008 – Crossing Broadway
- 2007 – Bad Twinkle Day
- 2007 – Self Comes to Mind for Cello and Two Percussion
- 2008/2009 – Let Freedom Sing: The Story of Marian Anderson
- 2009 – Drumming a Dream for Narrator and Mixed Quintet
- 2009 – Drumming a Dream for Narrator and Mixed Quartet
- 2009 – Do You Dream in Color?
- 2009 – Do You Dream in Color?
- 2010 – Santa and Isolde: A Holiday Opera Fantasy for Brass
- 2010 – Carnival of the Creatures
- 2010 – Fra(nz)g-mentation
- 2010 – Reach Out, Raise Hope, Change Society: A Cantata in Ten Movements
- 2010 – City Sounds
- 2011 – Flutogram
- 2011 – Pearls, Tears of the Sea: Two Songs for High Voice and Piano
- 2012 – Do You Dream in Color? (shorter Lucerne Edition)
- 2012 – Piano Concerto (reduced score)
- 2012 – Coyote Scatters the Stars
- 2012 – Piano Puzzlers
- 2012 – Emma and the Blue Baku
- 2012 – Obedient Choir of Emotions
- 2012 – Piano Concerto
- 2013 – I Will Not Remain Silent (solo violin part)
- 2013 – Concertino for Chamber Orchestra
- 2013 – Mary Cassatt: Scenes from Her Life
- 2013 – I Will Not Remain Silent: Concerto for Violin and Chamber Ensemble
- 2013 – Concertino for Percussion Solo
- 2013 – Concertino for Woodwinds
- 2013 – Concertino for Brass
- 2013 – Concertino for Strings
- 2013 – My Inner Brahms: An Intermezzo
- 2013 – I Will Not Remain Silent: Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Inspired by the Life of Joachim Prinz
- 2013 – The End of Tonight for Mezzo-Soprano, Alto, 3 Cellos and Piano
- 2014 – Einstein’s Light
- 2014 – Musics of Memory for Piano, Marimba, Guitar and Harp
- 2015 – Seven Thoughts Considered as Music
- 2015 – Chopin Dreams
- 2016 – Dvorshock: Fantasia on a theme from New World Symphony
- 2016 – Fantasia Krushelnytska
- 2017 – Thuenpa Puen Zhi (The Four Harmonius Friends): A Buddhist Tale
- 2017 – Out of the Air for Clarinet, Cello and Piano
- 2017 – Coiled
- 2017 – ContraDictions
- 2017 – Old MacDonald
- 2018 – I Saw How Fragile and Infinitely Precious the World Is
- 2018 – Berceuse
- 2018 – I Too Bleed and Hope for Beauty
- 2019 – The King, the Cat, and the Fiddle for String Quintet, Piano and Narrator
- 2019 – Music is a Dream for Oboe, Cello and Piano
- 2019 – The King, the Cat, and the Fiddle for String Quintet, Piano and Narrator (English Narration)
- 2019 – Water Songs
- 2019 – The Nightingale for Solo Violin and Narrator
- 2019 – Vom Konig, vom Kater, und der Fiedel fur Streichquintett, Klavier und Erzahler
- 2019 – Are There Not a Thousand Forms of Sorrow?
- 2019 – We Were the Music
- 2020 – My Lost One
- 2020 – Gather Round the Table
- 2020 – Study in Solitude for Oboe and Strings
- 2020 – Diesen Kuß der ganzen Welt! (This Kiss to the Whole World!)
- 2020 – My Lost One
- 2021 – Portraits for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Violoncello, and Piano
- 2022 – Dreaming and Thinking for Piano and String Quintet
- 2022 – Elegy for Roger
- 2022 – Piano Puzzlers: The 20th Anniversary Book