Annual American Composers Update
Samuel Magrill
Samuel Magrill serves as Professor of Music and Composer-in-Residence
at the University of Central Oklahoma (UCO), in Edmond.
He has received his 11th consecutive ASCAP award and is
listed in the 1998
Outstanding Young Men of America.
In collaboration with Mr. Narasimhachari, he transcribed
Indian music into Western notation for a booklet entitled
Music of India, Vol. I: Exercises. During the Society
of Composers, Inc. National Conference at Indiana University,
Apr. 16, 1998, he gave a lecture on "The Electric Collection:
Preserving Music Made in Studios that no Longer Exist."
The Edmond Historical Society Museum offered an exhibit,
"The Genesis of an Opera", Feb. 1998, about the creation
of Magrill's
The Gorgon's Head, and hosted a reception
in his honor Feb. 12, 1998. At UCO, he won a Faculty Research
Grant and was promoted to full professor.
Premieres
The Gorgon's Head (1997), a one-act opera based
on a portion of Nathaniel Hawthorne's
A Wonder Book,
was comissioned and premiered by the UCO Opera, Kay Creed,
director, Feb. 19-22, 1998, with a 35-piece orchestra
conducted by the composer. In 1998,
"Tess" Variations,
for solo cello, was heard first with Dr. Tess Remy-Schumacher
at UCO recitals (Sept. 9-10); at a MacDowell Club Meeting,
in Oklahoma City (Oct. 7); and at an Oklahoma Music Theory
Roundtable Meeting held at UCO (Oct. 9).
Performances
A Society of Composers, Inc. Region VI meeting at the
University of Texas at Arlington featured
Hong's Song
(1997), for solo violin, with Dr. Hong Zhu, Feb. 27, 1998.
A UCO program included
Suite for Piano I and II (1971);
Three Poems of Wallace Stevens (1971),
Reflections
(1986), and
Vignettes (1991), with soprano Pamela
Richman; and
Swans in the Blue (1997), with flutist
Amy Zuback and clarinetist Daniel Hodge, all with the
composer at the piano, July 10, 1998. On Oct. 7, 1998,
the same program except that
"Tess" Variations
replaced
Swans in the Blue was heard at an Oklahoma
City MacDowell Club Meeting. At Zuback's Aug. 2, 1998
UCO flute recital, she played
Swans in the Blue
with Jennifer Rucker, clarinet, and Magrill, piano. Richman
and Magrill performed
Reflections and
Vignettes
Oct. 6, 1998 at an Oklahoma City Pianists' Club meeting.
Recordings
The Gorgon's Head; one-act opera; Spectrum.
Further Information
