Composer Portrait – The Music of Stanley Walden (Milken Center Chamber Music Series)
Composer Portrait – The Music of Stanley Walden (Milken Center Chamber Music Series)
Composer Portrait: The Music of Stanley Walden (b. 1932)
4 PM Sunday February 16, 2025
Lani Hall; UCLA
From Milken Center Artistic Director Neal Stulberg:
Stanley Walden (b. 1932) has led a remarkably rich musical life: clarinetist with the New York Philharmonic, composer of concert, opera, stage and film music; filmmaker, writer, improvisation expert, educator and more. Walden has written for some of the great American musicians and orchestras of our time, including pianists Robert Levin and Gilbert Kalish, singers Jan DeGaetani and Reri Grist, cellist Joel Krosnick, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra and Louisville Orchestra. He co-wrote the music for the notorious 1969 musical “Oh! Calcutta!” with Peter Schickele.
Performed by UCLA students, faculty and alumni, this Composer Portrait concert showcases Walden’s enormous range as a chamber composer and includes some of his Jewish-themed works, including Variations on a Yiddish Theme for string quartet and Sh’mah for violin and cello. Now a resident of Palm Springs, the composer will be joining us for the concert and will discuss his career from the stage, interspersed with showings of video clips from some of his staged productions.
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A Stanley Walden sampler
“The Goldberg Variations” (a 2014 musical)
A 90th birthday tribute article in the Palm Springs Desert Sun titled
“The singular life and voice of composer Stanley Walden”
Chutzpah! A Video Autobiography of Stanley Walden’s Life and Career
Attend Milken Center events at Lani Hall in person or via livestream:
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Repertoire
Variations on a Yiddish Theme for string quartet (2022)
Xenia Deviatkina-Loh, violin
Michelle Sheehy, violin
Ben Bartelt, viola
Jeffrey Ho, cello
Similes: Five Miniatures for solo piano (1998)
Coronach: A Kaddish for alto solo, English horn and speaker (1989)
Milena Gligic, alto
Thacher Schreiber, English horn
Neal Stulberg, speaker
Sh’mah for violin and cello (2002)
Xenia Deviatkina-Loh, violin
Jeffrey Ho, cello
– INTERMISSION –
Grandma (Millie) from Three Ladies for alto solo and piano (1983)
Milena Gligic, alto
Gaby Sipen, piano
Mazeppa for baritone solo and piano
Jared Jones, baritone
Gaby Sipen, piano
Q & A from the stage, including showings of excerpts from selected stage productions
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More Composer Portrait Chamber Music Series Dates:
ON THE ROAD – Temple Beth Torah, Ventura, CA
Composer Portrait: The Music of Stanley Walden
3 PM Sunday, March 9, 2025
Composer Portrait: The Music of Paul Schoenfield
4 PM Sunday, April 27, 2025