Joel Feigin is an internationally performed composer whose operas, chamber, orchestral, and piano works have been widely praised for their “very strong impact, as logical in musical design as they are charged with emotion and drama” (Opera Magazine).
Feigin’s first opera, Mysteries of Eleusis, written on a Guggenheim Fellowship and commissioned by Theatre Cornell, was later featured at the Moscow Conservatory and at the Russian American Operatic Festival. His second opera, Twelfth Night, commissioned by Long Leaf Opera, has been produced in North Carolina, Chicago, and Southern California, receiving critical acclaim for its “magical score” that brought audiences spontaneously to their feet (Bravo California). Excerpts have also appeared at the Opera America New Works Sampler (2006) and New York City Opera’s VOX 2003 Showcase.
His current opera-in-progress, Outcast at the Gate, has had highly successful workshops at the Colburn School in Los Angeles and in New York at The Center for Contemporary Opera, with critic James Grant calling it “a wonderful new opera… contemporary, but with echoes of the distant past… a closely observed mirror of our time.”
Feigin’s instrumental works include orchestral, chamber, and piano compositions, such as Aviv: Concerto for Piano and Chamber Orchestra, written for Yael Weiss on a Fromm Commission. His recordings include Music for Chamber Orchestra (Toccata Classics), Lament Amid Silence (MSR), and Transience (Albany), which have been praised for their “unique compositional voice” (David DeBoor Canfield) and as “a comprehensive survey of Feigin’s sincere, communicative, and deeply felt music” (Hubert Culot).
Concerts devoted solely to Feigin’s music have been presented in Russia, Armenia, and New York at Merkin Hall and Lincoln Center’s Bruno Walter Auditorium. During his year as a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the Moscow Conservatory, two all-Feigin concerts were given at the Conservatory and the Scriabin Museum.
Dr. Feigin studied with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau and Roger Sessions at The Juilliard School. His many honors include a Mellon Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Senior Fulbright Fellowship, and the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His compositions are archived in the Joel Feigin Collection at the New York Public Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center.
Feigin is Professor Emeritus of Composition at UC Santa Barbara and a longtime student of Zen Buddhism under the late Sojun Mel Weitsman Roshi.
Website: www.joelfeigin.com
Mosaic in Two Panels for String Quartet (1997)
In this work, the traditional elements of a classical string quartet are fragmented like the polished stones of a mosaic. The piece unfolds in two large movements—or panels—separated by a pause, yet fragments of a lively sonata movement, a lyrical slow movement, and a fast, energetic rondo continually interrupt each other, creating a mercurial and unpredictable sequence of events. Each panel also contains two short movements: a mysterious introduction and a rapid fragment that highlights crucial structural joints.
Mosaic in Two Panels is dedicated to the composer’s wife, Severine Neff, and the composer expresses deep gratitude for the dedication and devotion of the Lehner String Quartet in bringing this performance to life.