Rob Kapilow’s
All You Have to Do Is Listen: Music from the Inside Out, is now available in book stores and online. [ more ]
“A wonderful guy who brings music alive!” For more than 15 years, Rob Kapilow has brought the joy and wonder of classical music – and unraveled some of its mysteries – to audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Characterized by his unique ability to create an “aha” moment for his audiences and collaborators, whatever their level of musical sophistication or naiveté, Kapilow’s work brings music into people’s lives: opening new ears to musical experiences and helping people to listen actively rather than just hear. As the Boston Globe said, “It’s a cheering thought that this kind of missionary enterprise did not pass from this earth with Leonard Bernstein. Rob Kapilow is awfully good at what he does. We need him.” Kapilow’s range of activities is astonishingly broad, including his What Makes It Great?® presentations (now in their twelfth seasons in New York and Boston), his family compositions and FamilyMusik® events, and his “Citypieces”. The reach of his interactive events and activities is wide, both geographically and culturally: from Native American tribal communities in Montana and inner-city high school students in Louisiana to wine-tasters in the Napa Valley, and from tots barely out of diapers to musicologists long out of Ivy League programs, his audiences are diverse and unexpected, but invariably rapt and keen to come back for more. Kapilow’s popularity and appeal are reflected in notable invitations and achievements: he appeared on NBC’s Today Show in conversation with Katie Couric; he presented a special What Makes It Great?® event for broadcast on PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center in January 2008; and he has written a book – All You Have To Do Is Listen – which will be published by the new alliance between Wiley and Lincoln Center on October 1, 2008. A documentary film, named Summer Sun, Winter Moon after Kapilow’s choral/symphonic work of the same name, will trace the process of that work’s composition from its conception through to its premiere, and will be broadcast on public television in fall 2008/spring 2009. What Makes It Great?®
Kapilow’s What Makes It Great?® (WMIG) made its auspicious debut on NPR’s Performance Today nearly 15 years ago, and with its accessible ten-minute format it quickly attracted a wide base of fans and followers. Snowballing in popularity, it developed into a full-length concert evening and was soon snapped up by presenters looking to build new audiences. What Makes It Great?® now sells out regular subscription series in Kansas City (14th season) and Cerritos, CA (eleventh season), as well as at New York’s Lincoln Center and Boston’s Celebrity Series, both now entering their twelfth seasons. Last year Kapilow inaugurated a new series of WMIG concerts at the prestigious Washington Performing Arts Society. Kapilow’s WMIG offerings around the country this season range from Bach’s Double Violin Concerto and Haydn’s String Quartet in G, Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings and Mendelssohn’s Octet, to Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8 and Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht. At the beginning of this year, PBS’s Live From Lincoln Center broadcast a special What Makes It Great?® show, bringing it to TV screens throughout the US; worldwide audiences were also able to see and experience Kapilow’s trademarked presentations when Lincoln Center inaugurated a series of WMIG video podcasts last October. Kapilow designed a series of WMIG events especially for teenagers, and, in 2005, he introduced them to thousands of middle- and high-school children in collaboration with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. At the end of 2002, Kapilow’s Bernstein “Songbook” event at the Lincoln Center was selected as one of the New York Times’s “Top Ten Moments” of 2002’s theater offerings. Rob Kapilow’s What Makes It Great?® programs are available on CD, on the Vanguard Everyman Classics label. In discs devoted to Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusic and the “Jupiter” Symphony, Kapilow breaks the music down in a listener-friendly way – pulling themes apart, demonstrating how the tunes might sound in lesser hands, guiding listeners through the maze of melodies – and then finishes up with a complete performance of the work. FamilyMusik®
Rob Kapilow, affectionately nicknamed America’s “pied piper of classical music,” has found many new young fans through his family compositions and presentations. A highlight of Kapilow’s 2008-09 season is his new family piece, Jabberwocky, which receives its premiere in Vancouver in January 2009. That work will also be performed at Lincoln Center in April, to celebrate the reopening of Alice Tully Hall, and again in Boston in May. Kapilow’s Tap Dance Concerto, jointly commissioned by the New York’s Lincoln Center, the Celebrity Series of Boston, and Vancouver’s Music in the Morning, was premiered in those three cities in the 2006-07 season. Kapilow has written numerous commissioned works, including the first musical setting of a Dr. Seuss work, Green Eggs and Ham. Kapilow’s inimitable presentation, “Green Eggs and Hamadeus”, which features his own work alongside Mozart’s Eine kleine Nachtmusik in a lively mix of discussion and performance, is available on CD on the Vanguard Classics label. The Seuss work has achieved great popularity in the theater world, prompting Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer to name it the most popular children’s piece since Peter and the Wolf. Other compositions include Dr. Seuss’s Gertrude McFuzz; a Christmas-Hanukkah pair of pieces (Chris Van Allsburg’s Polar Express, for the Boston Celebrity Series, and Elijah’s Angel, a setting of the children’s book by Michael Rosen); and Kapilow’s first opera, Many Moons, based on the James Thurber story, with a libretto by Hilary Blecher. Another popular family piece by Kapilow is Play Ball!, a setting of “Casey at the Bat”, which was performed as part of Lincoln Center’s FamilyMusik® series in March 2007. Great Performers of Lincoln Center introduced a new series of Kapilow’s FamilyMusik® programs during the 2004-05 season (marking the first family music series at the prestigious venue). Kapilow also presents an annual FamilyMusik® series in Boston (his 13th season there begins in November) and in Vancouver. “Citypieces” and Commemorative Compositions Involving large communities in the inspiration and compositional process of his commemorative works, Kapilow has left a profound mark on the nation’s cities and regions. His most recent such project examined and reflected on the historic impact of the Lewis and Clark expedition (commemorating its bicentennial) from the perspective of the Native American Indians. Co-commissioned by the St. Louis Symphony, the Carlsen Center (on behalf of the Kansas City Symphony), and the Louisiana Philharmonic, the large choral/orchestral work, Summer Sun, Winter Moon, received its premiere performances in the fall and winter of 2004. Kapilow invited Darrell Kipp, a writer and educator from the Blackfeet Tribe of Montana, to collaborate as librettist. A documentary film, also named Summer Sun, Winter Moon, followed the composition’s process from conception to premiere, and will be broadcast on public television in fall 2008/spring 2009. Independent filmmaker Hugo Perez has produced and directed the documentary for New York-based illume productions; the documentary has received the prestigious and competitive honor of completion funds from the Independent Television Service (ITVS) arm of PBS. After receiving great acclaim for “Citypiece: DC Monuments” (a millennium composition commissioned by the Kreeger Museum for the Kennedy Center and the National Symphony Orchestra), Kapilow reprised his interactive compositional format in a state-wide project commissioned by the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra and the State of Louisiana, as part of the 2003 celebrations for the bicentennial of the Louisiana Purchase. The work was toured throughout the state of Louisiana. Kapilow has conducted many new works of musical theater, ranging from the Tony Award-winning Nine on Broadway to the premiere of Frida for the opening of the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s “Next Wave Festival” and premieres of works for the American Repertory Theater. He is the conductor/creative director of FamilyMusik® for the Boston Celebrity Series and at New York’s Lincoln Center, and has been conductor/director of FamilyMusik® for New York’s 92nd Street Y, co-director of the Rutgers SummerFest Festival, assistant conductor of the Opera Company of Boston, Music Director of the touring company Opera New England, and conductor of the Kansas City Symphony’s summer FamilyFare program. He was also music director of the Yale Symphony Orchestra for five seasons. At the age of 19, Kapilow interrupted his academic work at Yale University to study with the legendary Nadia Boulanger. Two years later, after graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, he continued his studies at the Eastman School of Music. After graduating from Eastman, he returned to Yale, where he was assistant professor for six years at the university. Kapilow’s career has been marked by numerous major awards and grants. He won first place in the Fontainebleau Casadesus Piano Competition and was the second-place winner of the Antal Dorati Conductor’s Competition with the Detroit Symphony. Kapilow was a featured composer on Chicago Public Radio’s prestigious “Composers In America” series and is a recipient of an Exxon “Meet-the-Composer” grant and numerous ASCAP awards. He was the first composer ever to be granted the rights to set Dr. Seuss’s words to music, and his music is published exclusively by G. Schirmer. Kapilow lives in River Vale, NJ, with his wife and three children. A note for the press: He prefers to be called Rob (rather than Robert) Kapilow. August 2008 |
