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| Jonathan Leshnoff |
 Named
by the Baltimore Sun as an "Artist to Watch," Jonathan Leshnoff’s works
have been performed and are currently programmed internationally by the
Philadelphia, Baltimore, IRIS, Buffalo, Kyoto, Curtis Institute, Kansas
City, National Gallery of Art, Boca Raton, Columbus, Extremadura
(Madrid) Orchestras, among others, and chamber music performances by
the Da Capo Chamber Players and the Smithsonian’s Twenty-First Century
Consort. The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts recently
commissioned him for a full-length Oratorio, to be premiered by The
Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia and Roberto Minczuk during the Kimmel
Center's inaugural International Arts Festival in 2011. During the same
season, he had three other major premieres: The Philadelphia Orchestra,
under the direction of Robert Spano, premiered his flute concerto
written for Philadelphia Orchestra Principal Flutist, Jeffrey Khaner
and a new orchestral work, Starburst , was premiered by Marin Alsop and
The Baltimore Symphony and his Yiddish Suite was premiered by Gil
Shaham at the 92nd Street Y in NY. He is currently the
composer-in-residence with the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra. The first of three recordings devoted exclusively to Leshnoff's music was released on the Naxos “American Classics” label and selected among Naxos’s top 40 CDs for 2009. It includes his Violin Concerto, performed by violinist Charles Wetherbee and the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Markand Thakar, and his String Quartet No. 1, performed by the Carpe Diem String Quartet. Other Naxos releases feature his Symphony No. 1 conducted by Michael Stern and the IRIS Chamber Orchestra, and Leshnoff's chamber music. His music has been lauded by the Strings Magazine as “quite distinct from anything else that’s out there,” by the Memphis Commercial Appeal as “a fluid, thoughtful work, superbly textured and unafraid to be intellectual,” and by the Baltimore Sun as “remarkably assured, cohesively constructed and radiantly lyrical.” The New York Times declared in a November, 2008 review that “the afternoon’s keenest discovery was Mr. Leshnoff.” Currently an Associate Professor of Music at Towson University in Maryland, his academic duties include teaching contemporary music history, orchestral arranging, music theory and private composition lessons. Outside of the university, he can be found running around local Baltimore playgrounds with his children. He can be visited on line at www.jonathanleshnoff.com. Office: CA 2095 |