Annual American Composers Update
Morris Moshe Cotel
Morris Moshe Cotel chairs the Composition Department at the Peabody Conservatory of Music of The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD. His cat Ketzel, won Special Mention for her
Piece for Piano, Four Paws, transcribed by Cotel, in the Paris New Music Review's "60 Seconds for Piano" International Competition, as noted by articles in
The New York Times (Nov. 10, 1997),
The New York Jewish Week (Dec. 12, 1997), and The Johns Hopkins University newspaper
The Gazette (Jan. 20, 1998). In 1997-98, he gave composition seminars at Yale University, the Juilliard School of Music, the University of Chicago (Oct. 28, 1997), and the University of Missouri at Kansas City; and spoke about composition at Stanford University (Aug. 17-21, 1997), and the Rubin Academy of Music, in Jerusalem, Israel (Mar. 29-Apr. 3, 1998). He presented compositions at Bar Ilan University, in Tel Aviv. Sponsored by the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, a one-hour video interview with the composer was taped in New York on Feb. 23, 1998 for the Milkin Archive of American Jewish Music.
(Cotel took early retirement from Peabody in 2000 in order to pursue rabbinical studies and was ordained as Rabbi in 2003. His senior thesis, a one-man show entitled Chronicles: A Jewish Life at the Classical Piano which describes his transformation from composer/pianist to rabbi has been performed many times throughout the United States.)
Premieres
Five Quatrains, for soprano and chamber ensemble, was heard first at the Peabody Conservatory with Phyllis Bryn-Julson and conductor Robert Sirota, Jan. 10, 1997. In 1998,
Piece for Piano Four Paws premiered with 10-year-old pianist Shruti Kumar at a Peabody Conservatory "Here & Now" program aired on NPR (Jan. 21), followed by European premieres in Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum (Mar. 28) and at The Hague's Korzo Theatre (Apr. 3).
Performances
Also heard at the Peabody "Here & Now" program were
Tehom, for three pianos;
Haftarah, a fantasy for piano; and
Variations with a Little Help, for piano, left hand alone.
My Shalom, My Peace, for treble choir, harp, and percussion, and
August 12, 1952: The Night of the Murdered Poets, for narrator and ensemble, are scheduled for a Feb. 28, 1999 program at the Holocaust Museum, Washington, DC, with the Concert Artists of Baltimore, Edward Polochick, conducting.
August 12, 1952: The Night of the Murdered Poets had 1997 performances with narrator Danny Newman and the Chicago Sinfonietta, conducted by Paul Freeman, at Dominican University, in River Forest, IL (Oct. 26) and at Chicago's Orchestra Hall (Oct. 27); and with Musica Viva, under Reynold Simpson, at the University of Missouri, Kansas City (Oct. 28).
Publications
Five Quatrains; SCI/European American Music, 1998.
Recordings
Five Quatrains; Bryn-Julson, soprano, Sirota conducting;
Capstone Records, 1998.
Further Information
