Richard Beaudoin
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, 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, and has worked at the Camargo Foundation in Cassis, France. Mr. Beaudoin currently holds the post of Lecturer on Music at Harvard University.
In Development
Annette Dasch & Nach-fragen
The renowned German soprano Annette Dasch (Elsa at Bayreuth 2010) and the Konzerthaus-Dortmund have commissioned Mr. Beaudoin to compose a large song-cycle for voice and piano. The text of the work is drawn from the 1968 novel Nachdenken über Christa T. by the eminent East German writer Christa Wolf.
Mr. Beaudoin’s work, titled Nach-fragen (which loosely translates as The Inquiries), is a setting of prose passages from the novel. The 17-song cycle is organized into three large sections, and is punctuated by three settings of the epigraph of Wolf’s novel: “Was is das: Dieses Zu-sich-selber-Kommen des Menschen?” (What is it: this coming-to-oneself?). Both the text and the music deal directly with unanswered questions – regarding time, identity and society.
Nach-fragen is dedicated to Annette Dasch, and the fabric of the work is woven with musical versions of her name. The première will be given by Ms. Dasch and the pianist Wolfram Rieger on 18 March 2008 at the Konzerthaus-Dortmund.
Featured Performances
- Dec11
- St. John’s, Smith Square, London, England
Clive Driskill-Smith premières Summer Canons
- Mar18
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Konzerthaus-Dortmund, Dortmund, Germany
Annette Dasch, soprano and Wolfram Rieger, piano première Nach-fragen
