Daniel David Feinsmith
Jewish Fringes
The 21st Jewish Music Festival has commissioned the virtuosic Daniel David Feinsmith to compose a piece that explores Jewish sensibilities in a post-modern world. The piece will be performed by the renowned pianist Sarah Cahill. This performance will be part of Jewish Fringes, Thursday, March 16, 2006; 7:30 pm at the Thrust Stage/Berkeley Repertory Theatre.
"Daniel David Feinsmith's Leviathan for solo piano, Op. 27 (2002) was more overtly spectacular. It's a bring down the house piece in the grand tradition, which exploits the full range of the keyboard through the use of tumultuous parallel chords in the lowest register, motor rhythms and climactic triads straight out of the 19th century. [The Music] powerfully conjured the mythical serpent of the Torah, in Holzman's more than able hands." - Classical Music Review
"Rewardingly idiosyncratic… the music is riveting and original” - San Francisco Chronicle
”Fiercely raw… the intensity that bleeds off the score is undeniably effective”- TV Guide
"Striking directly to a powerful emotion"- New York Times
“Exciting”, “Genius” - Michael Disend, Librettist and Award Winning Fiction Author of "Stomping The Goyim"
Of Sarah Cahill:
"Phenomenal technique, an instinctive command of recent aesthetics, and quite possibly the most interesting repertoire of any pianist around." - Kyle Gann, Village Voice
"A reigning diva of avant-garde pianism" -Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle
DANIEL DAVID FEINSMITH (b. NYC) is a modern experimental classical composer whose studies of composition and musicianship span Western and Eastern classical musics.
Mr. Feinsmith hails from a family of virtuosic composers, performers, and writers. At an early age, Mr. Feinsmith was steeped in classical music through his parents and grandfather, who were variously members of the NY Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Denver Symphony Orchestra, Little Orchestra Society, Indianapolis Symphony, the Jerusalem Symphony and others. His father Marvin Feinsmith has composed numerous solo, chamber, and symphonic works. His family history boasts a multigenerational line of composers, musical performers and writers which has been traced in an unbroken line as far back as the 1600s, including his grand uncle Leonid Andreyev, the greatest writer of the russian revolution.
Mr. Feinsmith composes works for concert soloists and ensembles. He has studied Western Composition under Terry Riley, John Corigliano, John Thow and Edmund Campion. Mr. Feinsmith has also studied North Indian Classical Music under Ali Akhbar Khan, Terry Riley, Shabda Kahn, Pandit Jagdish Mohan, Sri Karunamayi, Ustad Mashkur Ali Khan and others, in the U.S. and numerous visits to Asia.
Mr. Feinsmith has received commissions and awards from The Kronos Quartet, The American Brass Quintet, The Alexander String Quartet, Grammy Nominee Solo Pianist David Holzman, Pianist Sarah Cahill, Argosy Foundation, Ross McKee Foundation, Yaddo Artists Residency, Djerassi Residency Program, Filmmaker Rob Nilsson, Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley Civic Arts Commission, the Jess Shensen Music Fund of Congregation Emanu-El, The Sifriya Foundation, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum and others. He is presently composing under commission and for his own ensembles, with members including bassist Michael Manring, Cellist Matt Haimovitz, and tabla player Sameer Gupta. He works and teaches in Emeryville, California