Composer Portrait: The Music of Paul Schoenfield (Milken Center Chamber Music Series)
Composer Portrait: The Music of Paul Schoenfield (Milken Center Chamber Music Series)
MILKEN CENTER CHAMBER MUSIC SERIES
The Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience presents the Milken Center Chamber Music Series, concerts of uplifting and distinctive chamber music curated by Neal Stulberg, Artistic Director.
Composer Portrait: The Music of Paul Schoenfield
4 PM – Sunday, June 8, 2025
Ensemble Room, Ostin Music Center, UCLA
From Milken Center Artistic Director Neal Stulberg:
Paul Schoenfield (1947-2024) was a unique and brilliant musician of decidedly American Jewish Experience. A virtuoso concert pianist and hugely gifted composer who wrote for first-class performers and ensembles, Paul was a devoutly orthodox Jew and a remarkable person. Retiring as professor of composition at the University of Michigan until 2021, he split his time between the U.S. and Israel. His music — a fascinating mashup of klezmer/Hasidic, liturgical, jazz, bluegrass, blues and Americana, by turns intimate, frenetic, devotional, sardonic and terrifying— is well represented in the Milken Archive.
Paul and I both grew up in Detroit, and I intersected with him professionally through the years. One chamber concert is hardly enough to do justice to his range and brilliance, but we’re going to try. Performed by UCLA students, faculty and alumni, the concert concludes with his 2001 Pulitzer Prize-nominated song cycle, “Camp Songs” for mezzo-soprano, baritone and instrumental ensemble.
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A Paul Schoenfield Video Sampler
Portrait of Pinchas – Memorial Concert for Paul Schoenberg
Young People’s Concert Series – Leonard Bernstein
Featuring a 19-year-old Schoenfield (clip is at 5:11)
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This event is made possible by the Lowell Milken Center for Music of American Jewish Experience at the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.
You can attend events at Lani Hall in person or via livestream.
Repertoire
Tales from Chelm for string quartet (1991)
- Adam Millstein, violin
- Xenia Deviatkina-Loh, violin
- Ben Bartelt, viola
- Charles Tyler, cello
Intermezzo No. 2 for piano (2004)
- Gaby Sipen, piano
Carolina Réveille for violin, viola, cello, piano (1996)
- Xenia Deviatkina-Loh, violin (TBD)
- Ben Bartelt, viola
- Chris Cho, cello
- Gaby Sipen, piano
– INTERMISSION –
Four Motets from Psalm 86 for unaccompanied chorus (SSAATTBB) (1995)
- UCLA Chamber Singers ensemble
- Sopranos: Madison Chamberlain, Krystal Mao, Mia Ruhman, Laur Trustee
- Altos: Camryn Deisman, Sofia Dell’Agostino, Olivia Salazar
- Tenors: Andres Delgado, Joseph Marcinik, Matthew Smith
- Basses: Kevin Cornwell II, James Scott, Kyle Xu
- Conductor: Yani Araujo
Camp Songs for mezzo-soprano, baritone, violin, cello, double bass, clarinet, piano (2001)
- Michelle Rice, soprano
- Dominic Delzompo, baritone
- Adam Millstein, violin
- Charles Tyler, cello
- Skyler Lee, double bass
- Alexander Parlee, clarinet
- Austin Ho, piano