Gregory Spears

Gregory Spears is an American composer of instrumental and operatic works that blend aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music.[1] Among his best known works are the operas Fellow Travelers and Paul's Case, as well as his Requiem.[2]

Gregory Spears
Born
Virginia
NationalityAmerican
Alma materEastman School of Music, Yale University, Princeton University
Musical career
Occupation(s)composer
LabelsFanfare Cincinnati, New Amsterdam Records
Websitewww.gregoryspears.com

Background

Spears grew up in Virginia. He attended Eastman School of Music, received a master's degree at Yale University, and earned his Ph.D. at Princeton University.[3] He studied with Hans Abrahamsen and Per Nørgård while a Fulbright Scholar at the Royal Danish Academy of Music.[4]

Style

Spears' music often draws on earlier musical styles processed through contemporary minimalist techniques.[5]

The New York Times's Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim described his opera Fellow Travelers: "But what makes Fellow Travelers such a satisfying operatic experience is the old-fashioned combination of a swift-flowing and deft libretto and gorgeous music." [6] Alex Ross in The New Yorker elaborates: "The harmony is largely tonal, but it is anti-Romantic in effect, tending instead toward a decorous neo-Baroque sensibility. Voices and instruments often perform courtly pirouettes against sustained chords and even pulses. The atmosphere is one of hushed disclosure: the music implies more than it says. What emerges is a potently ambiguous sound world that conveys human warmth and chill in equal measure. Above all, it is a transparent medium in which singing actors can speak instead of shout." [7]

Heidi Waleson described Spears' compositional style in her Wall Street Journal review of the opera O Columbia: "Mr. Spears writes brilliantly for vocal ensembles. Starting with neoclassical-style clarity, he builds textured, complex musical structures that sound old and new at the same time, and his skillful text settings use minimalist-like repetition to give Mr. Vavrek's pointed, thoughtful words even more power and emotional specificity."[8]

Steve Smith, in his New York Times review of the opera Paul's Case, based on the Willa Cather short story of the same title, described the score: "Mr. Spears's elegantly spare music, with its gamelan-redolent modes and clockwork repetitions, Baroque vocal fillips, intricately woven ensembles and dramatically placed dissonances, further infuses the tale with a sense of ritual and inevitability."[9]

David Patrick Stearns, in his Philadelphia Inquirer review of Spears' Requiem, described his musical influences: "Spears intersperses the swan myth with the requiem text, much of it reflecting lyrical Baltic influences of Arvo Pärt, but with a young composer's restlessness. The swan's song is speculatively re-created with otherworldly vocal ornaments. The piece also contains counterpoint that echoes 16th-century madrigals as well as a modern sense of theatrical timing that keeps your ears on edge until the last note."[10]

Fellow Travelers, adapted by Greg Pierce from the novel of the same name by Thomas Mallon, premiered at Cincinnati Opera on June 17, 2016. It received positive notices in Opera News,[11] The New York Times,[12] and parterre box.[13]

Selected works

Opera

Chorus and orchestra
  • A New Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei for the Mozart Requiem, commissioned by Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, 2013[19]

Large chamber ensemble

Small chamber ensemble
  • Our Lady, written for Ryland Angel and The Sebastian Chamber Players, 2011[21]
  • Buttonwood, commissioned for performance by the JACK Quartet in 2010[22]

Solo piano

Voice and piano
  • Walden, a song cycle commissioned for performance by Vocal Arts DC, 2018 [25]

References
  1. "Profile Gregory Spears". New Music USA. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  2. "Gregory Spears – Requiem". New Amsterdam Records (published June 2010). 2011. Retrieved March 18, 2018.
  3. "Gregory Spears '02 MM wins Carlos Surinach Commission". Yale School of Music. August 10, 2015. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  4. "Gregory Spears – Profile". Schott Music. Retrieved March 19, 2018.
  5. Ross, Alex (February 3, 2014). "The Opera Lab". The New Yorker. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  6. da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna (December 7, 2016). "The Best Classical Music of 2016". The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  7. Ross, Alex (January 15, 2018). "An Opera About Gay Life in D.C. in the Fifties". The New Yorker. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  8. Waleson, Heidi (September 28, 2015). "O Columbia and Sweeney Todd Reviews". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  9. Smith, Steve (January 10, 2014). "Prototype Presents Operatic Version of Paul's Case". The New York Times. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  10. Stearns, David Patrick (November 13, 2011). "New Recordings". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  11. Cohn, Fred (July 2016). "Fellow Travelers". Opera News. 81 (1). Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  12. da Fonseca-Wollheim, Corinna (June 20, 2016). "Review: Gay Love in the Time of McCarthy". The New York Times. Retrieved June 22, 2016.
  13. Anna, Donna (June 21, 2016). "Cruise, control". parterre.com. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  14. von Rhein, John (May 9, 2016). "Lyric to premiere youth opera 'Jason'". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 9, 2017.
  15. "Home Cincinnati Opera". cincinnatiopera.org. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  16. Catlin, Roger (April 22, 2013). "Skillful singers bring a short story to life in UrbanArias Paul's Case". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  17. Stearns, David Patrick (January 21, 2013). "Beasts of a musical wild". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  18. Waleson, Heidi (March 19, 2012). "The Bricklayer - Houston Grand Opera - A Glimpse Behind the Wall". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  19. Fleshler, David (November 16, 2013). "Seraphic Fire's premiere of complete Mozart Requiem effectively blends old and new". southfloridaclassicalreview.com. South Florida Classical Review. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  20. Prisco, Jaime (February 19, 2015). "New Vintage Baroque, Damask Ensemble Tour". classicalite.com. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  21. "PSNY: Gregory Spears - Our Lady". eamdc.com. Retrieved November 24, 2015.
  22. "Gregory Spears – Buttonwood – string quartet". eamdc.com. PSNY, Project Schott New York. 2010. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
  23. "2018 Winners Of The New York International Piano Competition Announced At Awards Ceremony Held On Friday Night". broadwayworld.com. Broadway World. June 25, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  24. "Gregory Spears – Toccata (Wild Horses) – solo piano". eamdc.com. PSNY, Project Schott New York. 2012. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  25. "Interview: Composer Gregory Spears Unpacks Thoreau in Upcoming DC World Premiere". dcmetrotheaterarts.com. DC Metro Theater Arts. April 24, 2018. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
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