Immerse yourself in an emotional violin solo, get swept up by stunningly prestissimo
strings, and experience the layered splendor of four hands on two
pianos. Three Tributes is a music CD (with an accompanying booklet)
featuring three breathtaking, original scores that would make a welcome
addition to anyone’s collection of chamber orchestra music.
The CD features award-winning composers Kevin Puts, Andrea Clearfield and Gunther Schuller, along with a host of world-class performers. Three Tributes was commissioned by fellow
musicians (and brothers) Robert and James Freeman as a way of honoring
their family’s musical legacy, which spans three generations. Their
parents, Henry and Florence Knope Freeman, were both children of
musicians and graduated the Eastman School of Music in Rochester in
1930.
Both
Robert and James Freeman studied piano and theory at Cambridge’s Longy
School while graduating from Milton Academy, and studied performance
during the summers at Tanglewood, Blue Hill and Marlboro. They went on
to Harvard, where each graduated with honors, followed by travelling
fellowships for study in Europe.
Robert
took his Ph.D. in music history at Princeton and taught there for five
years before moving to MIT, where he made tenure just before moving for
24 years to the directorship of the Eastman School — his parents’ alma
mater — followed by two years as president of the New England
Conservatory and six as dean of the College of Fine Arts at the
University of Texas at Austin.
James
went straight from Harvard to Swarthmore College, where he taught and
conducted for 37 years, served as departmental chair for 16 years and as
Daniel Underhill Professor of Music. In 1988 he founded Philadelphia’s
new music group Orchestra 2001, directing it until 2015 when he resigned
to take on a new ensemble, Chamber Orchestra FIRST EDITIONS. In 1991 he
was a Fulbright lecturer and conductor at the Moscow Conservatory, and
has returned to Moscow many times since then to give concerts of new
American music.
Both
brothers have made lots of recordings, and have published their share
of well-reviewed books and articles. When the idea arose to commission
some original scores to honor their family legacy, Robert and James
sought out music’s finest to bring their vision for Three Tributes to fruition.
Two
of the composers featured on the CD have won the Pulitzer Prize. Kevin
Puts is currently at work on an opera for the Metropolitan Opera. Andrea
Clearfield, who took her DMA at Temple, is the founder of the
Philadelphia Salon Concert Series, featuring contemporary, classical,
jazz, world and electronic music, together with multimedia and spoken
word arts. The late Gunther Schuller was one of the 20th Century’s
music stars as composer, conductor, author and administrator. He was a
great admirer of their father’s bass playing, and a good friend.
Robert and James hope that Three Tributes
will inspire others to undertake similar projects. Neither of them is
aware of any similar event in the history of music where two brothers
from a family of professional musicians — spanning at least two
generations before them — have commissioned significant works as a
tribute to their parents and for future generations to enjoy.
