The recipient of a Pulitzer Prize, a MacArthur Foundation
fellowship, and an array of other major awards and honors,
George Perle occupies a commanding position among American
composers of our time. Born in Bayonne, NJ, May 6, 1915, he
received his early musical education in Chicago. After graduation
from DePaul University, where he studied composition with
Wesley LaViolette, and subsequent private studies with Ernst
Krenek, Perle served in the US Army during World War II. After
the War, he took post-graduate work in musicology at New York
University. His PhD thesis became his first book, Serial
Composition and Atonality, now in its sixth edition.
Perle’s music has been widely performed in this country
and abroad. Major commissions have resulted in significant works,
among them Serenade III (1983) for solo piano and chamber
orchestra, choreographed by American Ballet Theater and nominated
in a Nonesuch recording, for a Grammy Award (1986); Woodwind
Quintet No.4 (Pulitzer Prize, 1986); Piano Concerto
No.1 (1990), commissioned for Richard Goode during Perle’s
residency with the San Francisco Symphony; Piano Concerto
No.2 (1992), commissioned by Michael Boriskin; Transcendental
Modulations for Orchestra, commissioned by the New York
Philharmonic for its 150th anniversary; and Thirteen Dickinson
Songs (1978) commissioned by Bethany Beardslee. Recent
works include Brief Encounters (fourteen movements
for string quartet), Nine Bagatelles for piano, Critical
Moments and Critical Moments 2 for six players,
and Triptych for solo violin and piano. A particularly
notable portion of Perle’s catalog consists of pieces
for solo piano, many of which have been recorded by Michael
Boriskin on New World Records.
Perle's
compositions have figured on the programs
of Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia,
New York Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic,
BBC, and other major orchestras in
this country and abroad. Perle's works
are recorded on Nonesuch, Harmonia
Mundi, New World, Albany, CRI and
other labels. He has been a frequent
Visiting Composer at the Tanglewood
Music Festival and Composer-in-Residence
with the San Francisco Symphony.
Though
Perle is above all a composer, the breadth of his musical interests
has led to significant contributions in theory and musicology
as well. He has published numerous articles in scholarly journals
and seven books, including the award-winning Operas of Alban
Berg. He has been a guest professor at major universities
and a much sought after lecturer and commentator on TV, here
and abroad. He is Professor Emeritus at the City University
of New York.
As
music critic Andrew Porter has written, “Perle’s
renown as an analyst and scholar may have diverted some of the
attention that should be given to his merits as a composer…What
matters to listeners is his achievement: the vividness of his
melodic gestures, the lively rhythmic sense, the clarity and
shapeliness of his discourse and, quite simply, the charm and
grace of his utterance.”
