Seattle Orchestra Concert Showcases Contemporary Immigrant Composers

Music by Canadian-born Henry Brant; and German-born Stefan Wolpe and Samuel Adler will also be on the program. The performance will take place in the Illsley Ball Nordstrom Recital Hall and is part of Seattle Symphony's Coming to America: Composers in Pursuit of a Dream Festival.

Additional performers include students and faculty of the University of Washington School of Music and Cornish College of the Arts; Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras; and students of local music teacher Bonnie Blanchard.

Born in Mannheim, Germany, Samuel Adler (b. 1928), the son of a prominent Jewish cantor, fled to the United States in 1939 with his family. After earning degrees from both Boston and Harvard Universities, he taught at the Eastman School of Music from 1966 until his retirement in 1994.

Henry Brant (1913–2008) was born to American parents in Montreal, Canada. A prominent Hollywood orchestrator and proponent of acoustic spatial music, Brant has taught on the faculty of Columbia University, The Juilliard School and Bennington College. This performance marks the World premiere of his Piano Quartet.

French composer Joël-Francois Durand (b. 1954) came to America in 1984 to pursue a Ph.D. in composition at the Stony Brook University in New York. In 1991, he became a professor of composition at the University of Washington School of Music.

Henri Lazarof (b. 1932) is a Bulgarian-born composer who moved to the United States in 1957 and received his Master of Fine Arts from Brandeis University. He became a professor of composition at UCLA in 1962, and continues that role today as Professor Emeritus.

Jovino Santos Neto (b. 1954) is a Brazilian composer and pianist who relocated to the United States in 1993. He currently teaches piano, composition and jazz ensemble at Cornish College of Arts in Seattle.

German-born composer Stefan Wolpe (1902–1972) immigrated to America in 1938 and settled in New York. He held several teaching posts, including at the Brooklyn Free Music Society, Contemporary Music Society, Philadelphia Academy of Music and Long Island University. -- www.seattlesymphony.org