Biography
Richard Beaudoin (PhD) studied composition in London at the Royal Academy of Music, and in the United States at Brandeis University and Amherst College. His works have been commissioned and performed by some of the finest musicians in Europe and America, including the Staatstheater-Kassel, soprano Annette Dasch, conductor Christopher Ward, the Chiara String Quartet, pianist Marilyn Nonken, organist Christian Wilson, pianist Constantine Finehouse, and tenor Joseph Kaiser. He has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, and has worked at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France.
While living in Europe, Mr. Beaudoin’s music was performed in London’s Royal Festival Hall by members of the Philharmonia Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins, the BBC Singers, violinist Clio Gould and pianist Philip Howard. Since returning to the United States, his music has been performed in Weill Recital Hall in New York by tenor Joseph Kaiser, at Boston’s Institute for Contamporary Art by the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble, and by pianist Marilyn Nonken and the Chiara and Lydian String Quartets. His work has recently been heard in Germany, England, Italy, Portugal, Holland, Israel, Canada and around the United States. In May 2005 he was invited to Christ Church Cathedral at Oxford University to attend a concert that included four of his new works.
In April 2008, the Staatstheater-Kassel produced of Mr. Beaudoin’s chamber opera, Himmelfahrt, based on a text by Heinrich Heine. The work, conducted by Christopher Ward and directed by Sebastian Müller, ran for six performances. The first act of his opera-in-progress based on Herman Melville’s Pierre was staged in August 2007 at London’s Arcola Theatre, and starred Joseph Kaiser and Annette Dasch. Later this year, the pianist Constantine Finehouse will release a new CD entitled Backwards Glance, pairing two of Beaudoin’s works with two by Johannes Brahms. His latest song-cycle for Joseph Kaiser, Romanzero Lieder, based on late poems by Heinrich Heine, was scheduled to have its première at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall in April 2008. His next song-cycle, for the German soprano Annette Dasch, will be performed in Germany, Amsterdam and Vienna in 2009.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, most notably the Theodore Holland Award from London's Royal Academy and the Ira Gershwin Prize for Music and Theater Arts from Brandeis University. His primary teachers include Michael Finnissy, David Rakowski, Martin Boykan, Eric Chafe and Lewis Spratlan. Mr. Beaudoin’s scholarly writing has been published by Perspectives of New Music and Organised Sound.
Mr. Beaudoin currently holds the post of Lecturer on Music at Harvard University.
