Peter Bucknell
Encyclopedia
Peter Wentworth Bucknell (born 1967) is an Australia
n-born classical
violist
and filmmaker residing in Manhattan
in the United States
.
with Apollo's Fire
, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Les Concerts du Monde, Los Angeles Musica Viva, and the Geminiani Chamber Orchestra (named for Francesco Geminiani
). Bucknell performed the Australian premiere
, broadcast live by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
, of Chaconne
for Viola and Orchestra by Michael Colgrass
.
As a member of the award-winning Quatuor Danel (Danel Quartet), specialising in the string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, Bucknell has performed at Wigmore Hall
, at La Grange de Meslay in the Loire Valley
(Tours
), in many other European halls, and on Radio France
. During a tour with the Stradivari Sextet, Bucknell played the "Mahler Stradivarius
."
Peter Bucknell has performed with the Raw Fish quartet
at the George Crumb
Festival in New York, in concerts in Taiwan
and La Jolla and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
, playing George Crumb
's Black Angels
and Steve Reich
's Different Trains
. He is a founding member of the New York Harp Trio.
Award. In 1996, one of his Quartets won the Interpretation Prize in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.
He studied in Melbourne
at the Victorian College of the Arts
with Nathan Gutman and Marco van Pagee; in Los Angeles, California
with world-famous violist and teacher Donald McInness; in Siena
, Italy
at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
with Yuri Bashmet
; and in Cologne, Germany with Rainer Moog, a student of Walter Trampler
at the Juilliard School, the principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
under Herbert von Karajan
and one of the few violists with a successful career as a soloist.
Bucknell holds a Bachelor of Economics and Commerce
degree from the University of Melbourne
and a Doctor of Music
degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
where he studied with the highly respected violin
ist and professor
Mitchell Stern. Bucknell was for several years Assistant Professor of viola
at the Crane School of Music
, State University of New York at Potsdam
.
Peter Bucknell is the son of Tasmanian-born painter
Toni Bucknell Toni Bucknell of Melbourne
, Australia. He is married to Israel
i-born mezzo-soprano
Rinat Shaham
.
CDs on the classical music label, Musica Omnia, with the Atlantis Trio and the Atlantis Ensemble:
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n-born classical
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
violist
Violist
-Notable violists:A* Julia Rebekka Adler * Sir Hugh Allen , conductor* Kris Allen * Johann Andreas Amon * Paul Angerer , composer* Steven Ansell * Atar Arad * Cecil Aronowitz...
and filmmaker residing in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
.
Performance
Peter Bucknell has been a soloistSolo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...
with Apollo's Fire
Apollo's Fire
Apollo's Fire, The Cleveland Baroque Orchestra is a popular and critically acclaimed period-instrument ensemble specializing in early music based in Cleveland, Ohio. The ensemble unites a select pool of early music specialists from throughout North America and Europe...
, the Los Angeles Baroque Orchestra, Les Concerts du Monde, Los Angeles Musica Viva, and the Geminiani Chamber Orchestra (named for Francesco Geminiani
Francesco Geminiani
thumb|230px|Francesco Geminiani.Francesco Saverio Geminiani was an Italian violinist, composer, and music theorist.-Biography:...
). Bucknell performed the Australian premiere
Premiere
A premiere is generally "a first performance". This can refer to plays, films, television programs, operas, symphonies, ballets and so on. Premieres for theatrical, musical and other cultural presentations can become extravagant affairs, attracting large numbers of socialites and much media...
, broadcast live by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly referred to as "the ABC" , is Australia's national public broadcaster...
, of Chaconne
Chaconne
A chaconne ; is a type of musical composition popular in the baroque era when it was much used as a vehicle for variation on a repeated short harmonic progression, often involving a fairly short repetitive bass-line which offered a compositional outline for variation, decoration, figuration and...
for Viola and Orchestra by Michael Colgrass
Michael Colgrass
Michael Colgrass is an American-born Canadian musician, composer, and educator.His musical career began in Chicago as a jazz musician . He graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in percussion performance and composition, including studies with Darius Milhaud at the Aspen Festival...
.
As a member of the award-winning Quatuor Danel (Danel Quartet), specialising in the string quartets of Dmitri Shostakovich, Bucknell has performed at Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall is a leading international recital venue that specialises in hosting performances of chamber music and is best known for classical recitals of piano, song and instrumental music. It is located at 36 Wigmore Street, London, UK and was built to provide London with a venue that was both...
, at La Grange de Meslay in the Loire Valley
Loire Valley
The Loire Valley , spanning , is located in the middle stretch of the Loire River in central France. Its area comprises approximately . It is referred to as the Cradle of the French Language, and the Garden of France due to the abundance of vineyards, fruit orchards, and artichoke, asparagus, and...
(Tours
Tours
Tours is a city in central France, the capital of the Indre-et-Loire department.It is located on the lower reaches of the river Loire, between Orléans and the Atlantic coast. Touraine, the region around Tours, is known for its wines, the alleged perfection of its local spoken French, and for the...
), in many other European halls, and on Radio France
Radio France
Radio France is a French public service radio broadcaster.-Mission:Radio France's two principal missions are:* To create and expand the programming on all of their stations; and...
. During a tour with the Stradivari Sextet, Bucknell played the "Mahler Stradivarius
Stradivarius
The name Stradivarius is associated with violins built by members of the Stradivari family, particularly Antonio Stradivari. According to their reputation, the quality of their sound has defied attempts to explain or reproduce, though this belief is controversial...
."
Peter Bucknell has performed with the Raw Fish quartet
Quartet
In music, a quartet is a method of instrumentation , used to perform a musical composition, and consisting of four parts.-Western art music:...
at the George Crumb
George Crumb
George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
Festival in New York, in concerts in Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
and La Jolla and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival
The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival is a six week long summer Festival of chamber music held annually in July and August and located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. It was founded in 1972 and presented its first series of concerts in 1973. Well-known musicians and young performers appear each season in...
, playing George Crumb
George Crumb
George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...
's Black Angels
Black Angels (Crumb)
Black Angels , subtitled "Thirteen Images from the Dark Land" is an avant-garde work composed by George Crumb for "electric string quartet." It was composed over the course of a year and is dated "Friday the Thirteenth, March 1970 " as written on the score...
and Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...
's Different Trains
Different Trains
Different Trains is a three-movement piece for string quartet and tape written by Steve Reich in 1988. It won a Grammy Award in 1990 for Best Contemporary Classical Composition.The work's three movements have the following titles:...
. He is a founding member of the New York Harp Trio.
Background
In 1992, Bucknell (then aged twenty-five) won the Auckland, New Zealand International Viola Congress Competition and the Queen Elizabeth II Silver JubileeSilver Jubilee of Elizabeth II
The Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II marked the 25th anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and other Commonwealth realms...
Award. In 1996, one of his Quartets won the Interpretation Prize in the Osaka International Chamber Music Competition.
He studied in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
at the Victorian College of the Arts
Victorian College of the Arts
The Faculty of the VCA and Music is a faculty of the University of Melbourne, in Victoria . VCAM is located near the Melbourne central business district, on two campuses, one - the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music - on the Parkville campus of the University of Melbourne, and the other - the...
with Nathan Gutman and Marco van Pagee; in Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
with world-famous violist and teacher Donald McInness; in Siena
Siena
Siena is a city in Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the province of Siena.The historic centre of Siena has been declared by UNESCO a World Heritage Site. It is one of the nation's most visited tourist attractions, with over 163,000 international arrivals in 2008...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana
Accademia Musicale Chigiana
The Accademia Musicale Chigiana is a music institute in Siena, Italy. It was founded by Count Guido Chigi Saracini in 1932 as an international centre for advanced musical studies. It organises Master Classes in the major musical instruments as well as singing, conducting and composition...
with Yuri Bashmet
Yuri Bashmet
Yuri Abramovich Bashmet is a Russian conductor and violist.Direct patrilineal descendant of Besht.-Biography:Yuri Bashmet was born on 24 January 1953 in Rostov-on-Don in the family of Abram Borisovich Bashmet and Maya Zinovyeva Bashmet . "Father's mother, Tsilya Efimovna, studied singing at the...
; and in Cologne, Germany with Rainer Moog, a student of Walter Trampler
Walter Trampler
Walter Trampler was a German musician and teacher of the viola and viola d'amore.Born at Munich, he began to study music at the age of 6, learning from his father, a violinist. In his youth, he toured Europe performing as the violist of the Strub String Quartet...
at the Juilliard School, the principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra
The Berlin Philharmonic, German: , formerly Berliner Philharmonisches Orchester , is an orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. In 2006, a group of ten European media outlets voted the Berlin Philharmonic number three on a list of "top ten European Orchestras", after the Vienna Philharmonic and the...
under Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
and one of the few violists with a successful career as a soloist.
Bucknell holds a Bachelor of Economics and Commerce
Bachelor of Commerce
A Bachelor of Commerce is an undergraduate degree in commerce and related subjects. The degree is also known as the Bachelor of Commerce and Administration, or BCA...
degree from the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
and a Doctor of Music
Doctor of Music
The Doctor of Music degree , like other doctorates, is an academic degree of the highest level. The D.Mus. is intended for musicians and composers who wish to combine the highest attainments in their area of specialization with doctoral-level academic study in music...
degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook
State University of New York at Stony Brook
The State University of New York at Stony Brook, also known as Stony Brook University, is a public research university located in Stony Brook, New York, on the North Shore of Long Island, about east of Manhattan....
where he studied with the highly respected violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Mitchell Stern. Bucknell was for several years Assistant Professor of viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
at the Crane School of Music
Crane School of Music
The Crane School of Music is located in Potsdam, New York, and is one of three schools which make up the State University of New York at Potsdam....
, State University of New York at Potsdam
State University of New York at Potsdam
The State University of New York at Potsdam, also known as SUNY Potsdam, or, colloquially, Potsdam, is a public university located in the Village of Potsdam in St. Lawrence County, New York. Founded in 1816, it is among the 50 oldest colleges in the United States...
.
Peter Bucknell is the son of Tasmanian-born painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
Toni Bucknell Toni Bucknell of Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, Australia. He is married to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
i-born mezzo-soprano
Mezzo-soprano
A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...
Rinat Shaham
Rinat Shaham
Rinat Shaham is an Israeli born mezzo-soprano who has received numerous accolades for her international operatic, concert and recital performances.-Life and career:...
.
Discography
Recent releases include two chamber musicChamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...
CDs on the classical music label, Musica Omnia, with the Atlantis Trio and the Atlantis Ensemble:
- Felix MendelssohnFelix MendelssohnJakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
's Piano trioPiano trioA piano trio is a group of piano and two other instruments, usually a violin and a cello, or a piece of music written for such a group. It is one of the most common forms found in classical chamber music...
No. 1, Op.49 and Piano sextetPiano sextetA piano sextet is a composition for piano and five other musical instruments, or a group of six musicians who perform such works. There is no standard grouping of instruments with that name, and compared to the string quartet or piano quintet literature, relatively few such compositions exist...
, Op. 110 - Robert SchumannRobert SchumannRobert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
's Piano QuintetPiano Quintet (Schumann)The Piano Quintet in E flat major, Op. 44, by Robert Schumann was written in 1842. Like most piano quintets, it is written for piano and string quartet .- Background :...
Op. 44, Franz SchubertFranz SchubertFranz Peter Schubert was an Austrian composer.Although he died at an early age, Schubert was tremendously prolific. He wrote some 600 Lieder, nine symphonies , liturgical music, operas, some incidental music, and a large body of chamber and solo piano music...
's Trout QuintetTrout QuintetThe Trout Quintet is the popular name for the Piano Quintet in A major by Franz Schubert. In Otto Erich Deutsch's catalogue of Schubert's works, it is D. 667...
and song "Die ForelleDie ForelleFranz Schubert composed his lively lied "Die Forelle" in early 1817 for solo voice and piano. The text is from a poem by Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart. In the Deutsch catalog of Schubert's works it is number 550, or D550...
." (Eighth release in "The Romantics" series.)
External links
- Peter Bucknell, Melbourne University Alumni Profile
- Peter Bucknell - New York Harp Trio
- History of la Grange de Meslay
- Dame Joan Sutherland Award Article by the American Australian Association.
- Musica Omnia
- Osaka International Chamber Music Competition