 |
||||
|
|
|
|||
|
Composers BureauKirke MechemBiography ASCAP recently registered performances of Mechem's music in 42 countries. His three-act opera, Tartuffe, has had 300 performances in six countries. Songs of the Slave, a suite for bass-baritone, soprano, chorus and orchestra from his opera, John Brown, has produced standing ovations in the more than forty cities where it has been performed. Mechem's talents have been acknowledged through numerous honors, including retrospectives, grants, commissions and special anniversary performances. They have come from, among many others, the United Nations, the National Gallery, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Choral Directors Association, the Music Educators National Conference and the National Opera Association (lifetime achievement award). Vocal music is at the heart of Mechem's work. He is often called the "dean of American choral composers." Eight doctoral dissertations have been written on various aspects of his choral music. The Choral Journal has written that "his musical settings combine high artistic integrity with the ability to communicate directly with performers and audience." Seven Joys of Christmas is the title of his most popular seasonal work and is the title of a new CD released on the Arsis label. It includes all his Christmas music as well as many of his other sacred choral titles. His comic opera, The Newport Rivals, an American update of Sheridan's classic play, The Rivals, will be premiered in 2007 by Lyric Opera San Diego followed by performances by a consortium of other companies. The premiere of John Brown, a large-scale opera about the American abolitionist, will be staged May 3 – 11, 2008 in the Lyric Theatre, 11th & Central, Kansas City, MO. Mechem is currently composing an opera based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. Kirke Mechem's compositions since 1980 have been published exclusively by G. Schirmer, New York. Before 1980 his principal publishers were:
Performance Rights Society ASCAP, ASCAP Building, One Lincoln Plaza, New York, NY 10023 Principal Works
Contact Information 49 Marcela Avenue |
 |
||
|
Last updated
1/31/2007 |
||||
|
||||
KIRKE MECHEM was born and raised in Kansas and educated at Stanford and Harvard universities. He is the composer of more than 250 published works in almost every form. He conducted and taught at Stanford and was for several years composer-in-residence at the University of San Francisco. He lived in Vienna for three years where he came to the attention of Josef Krips, who later championed Mechem's symphonies as conductor of the San Francisco Symphony. He was guest of honor at the 1990 Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow and was invited back for an all-Mechem symphonic concert by the USSR Radio-Television Orchestra in 1991. The concert was recorded by Melodiya and released on the Russian Disc label.