Catalog: Biographies: Page 3 of 25

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Basho, Matsuo

Japanese poet (see songs) 1644 - 1694, working primarily in Japanese

This entry contributed by G&K around 10/14/98

The founding father of haiku. Combined compassion with intense observation of nature and humanity

Other Web Site: http://search.biography.com/print_record.pl?id=1569

See also The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa (Poetry) in the Singers' Bibliography

This entry contributed by G&K around 10/14/98

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Bass, Franta

Czech (Jewish) poet (see songs) 9/4/1930 - 10/28/1944, working primarily in Czech

This entry contributed by G&K around 9/29/99

A boy born in Brno, sent to the Terezin concentration camp at the age of 11, and killed in Auschwitz at the age of 14.

See also I Never Saw Another Butterfly... (Poetry) in the Singers' Bibliography

This entry contributed by G&K around 9/29/99

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Berg, Christopher

American composer (see songs) 6/30/1949 - , working primarily in English

This entry contributed by G&K around 11/26/98

This biography is borrowed with permission from Benton Hess, who himself says he took most of the biographical information from Berg's own bio. Any mistakes are almost certainly mine, though.
Christopher Berg's first music lessons were with his father, a composer and pianist, who introduced him to the modern classics--with particular emphasis on Hindemith and Schoenberg--at a very early age. His mother's abiding love for operetta and American musical comedy was a tempering influence in the development of his greatest affinities: the art song literature, the French masters of the early twentieth century (above all Ravel and Poulenc), the English nationalist school (especially Holst) and that odd man who combines elements of both, Delius. It was during this period, too, that he first encountered the works of Gertrude Stein, icluding the Stein/Thomson opera Four Saints in Three Acts, which affected him profoundly. He firmly believes that, along with Ferruccio Busoni, Thomson is one of the most unerrated major composers of this century. Entirely self-taught as a composer, Berg's first compositions, the two Gertrude Stein songs, opus 1, date from his university years. In Ann Arbor, while studying literature, music, and the liberal arts at the University of Michigan and clerking at Discount Records, he first read Nabokov, an important influence. His most important mentor in his first New York sojourn was the pianist and composer Robert Helps, with whom he studied both at the Manhattan School of Music and in California. From 1972-77 he was associated with the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College while also serving as the music director for the Lesser Oakland Dance Theater. In 1977 he moved to New Mexico, where he founded a contemporary music ensemble called New Music/New Mexico, still flourishing today as the Santa Fe Pro Musica. Berg was a fellow of the Yaddo Foundation in 1978. Returning to New York in 1980, Christopher Berg has since maintained a busy schedule making recordings (of his own works and the works of others), fulfilling his many commissions, lecturing at Juilliard or at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and composing art songs for some of the most gifted artists of our time. Performances of Mr. Berg's work have not been limited to the United States; recently his music has been heard in Japan, England, Bucharest, and Stockholm. With good reason, Christopher Berg has been branded "an American Hugo Wolf."

Tender Tender Music: 163 West 10th Street, Suite 3RE; New York, NY 10014; phone/fax (212)691-6957. TENTENDER@aol.com . Exclusive Selling Agent Classical Vocal Reprints.

This entry contributed by G&K around 11/26/98

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