Gregory Spears is an American
composer of instrumental and operatic works that blend aspects of romanticism, minimalism, and early music. Among his best known works are the operas ''
Fellow Travelers
The term ''fellow traveller'' (also ''fellow traveler'') identifies a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member of that o ...
'' and ''Paul's Case'', as well as his Requiem.
[
]
Early life and education
Spears grew up in
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. He attended
Eastman School of Music
The Eastman School of Music is the music school of the University of Rochester, a private research university in Rochester, New York. It was established in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman.
It offers Bachelor of Music ...
, received a master's degree at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
, and earned his Ph.D. at
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...
.
[
] He studied with
Hans Abrahamsen and
Per Nørgård
Per Nørgård (; born 13 July 1932) is a Danish composer and music theorist. Though his style has varied considerably throughout his career, his music has often included repeatedly evolving melodies—such as the infinity series—in the vein o ...
while a
Fulbright Scholar at the
Royal Danish Academy of Music.
[
]
Career
His opera ''Fellow Travelers'', adapted from the novel of the same name by
Thomas Mallon with a libretto by Greg Pierce, premiered at
Cincinnati Opera
Cincinnati Opera is an American opera company based in Cincinnati, Ohio and the second oldest opera company in the United States (after the New York Metropolitan Opera). Beginning with its first season in 1920, Cincinnati Opera has produced operas ...
on June 17, 2016 and has since then been produced across the United States and has garnered many positive reviews.
Anthony Tommasini
Anthony Carl Tommasini (born April 14, 1948) is an American music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "a discerning critic, whose taste, knowledge and judgment have made him a must-read", Tommasini was the chief ...
in ''The New York Times'' wrote: "Originality in the arts is a vague and overhyped virtue. Few works are completely original. All creative artists borrow from others, both masters they revere and contemporaries they may be in competition with. Still, originality just comes through sometimes, as the composer Gregory Spears demonstrates in his personal, boldly quirky score for the wrenching, and sadly timely, opera “Fellow Travelers."
And John von Rhein wrote in the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television a ...
'': "Spears is unusually sensitive to the irregular cadences of American speech, and his setting of words to music is masterly... "Fellow Travelers" is one of the most accomplished new American operas I have encountered in recent years." Since its world premiere, it has received over 13 productions by companies such as
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...
,
Prototype Festival
Prototype Festival is an annual, weeklong contemporary opera and musical theater festival held in New York City.
Program
Prototype Festival is an annual, weeklong festival of contemporary opera and musical theater. The festival encourages n ...
,
Minnesota Opera
Minnesota Opera is a performance organization based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was founded as the Center Opera Company in 1963 by the Walker Art Center, and is known for premiering such diverse works as ''Where the Wild Things Are'' by Oliver ...
,
Florida Grand Opera
Florida Grand Opera (FGO) is an American opera company based in Miami, Florida. It is the oldest performing arts organization in Florida and the seventh oldest opera company in the United States. FGO was created in 1994 from the consolidation of ...
,
Boston Lyric Opera
Boston Lyric Opera (BLO) is an American opera company based in Boston, Massachusetts, founded in 1976. BLO is the largest and longest-lived opera company in New England. BLO employs nearly 350 artists and creative professionals annually—vocalist ...
,
Des Moines Metro Opera
Des Moines Metro Opera is an opera company in Indianola, Iowa, a town of approximately 14,000 inhabitants which lies some south of Des Moines, Iowa. It was founded by Robert L. Larsen and Douglas Duncan in 1973. The director is Michael Egel.
...
,
Virginia Opera
Virginia Opera is an opera company based in the Commonwealth of Virginia which was first organized in 1974 by a group of Norfolk, Virginia community volunteers.
The company presented its first productions in 1975, and in the following four decad ...
,
Arizona Opera, and more.
His latest opera ''Castor and Patience'' was commissioned for Cincinnati Opera's 100th anniversary season with an original libretto by
Tracy K. Smith. The world premiere was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic from 2020 to July 2022. The opera received a Critic's Pick
from ''The New York Times'' and was also named in ''The New York Times'' Best Classical Music Performances of 2022. Zachary Woolfe in his review for ''The New York Times'' describes the work: "The agonies and pleasures of “Castor and Patience,”... are like those of a less densely orchestrated Puccini. As in “Tosca,” “La Bohème” or “Madama Butterfly,” unabashedly, even shamelessly effusive vocal lines draw us poignantly close to characters in a rending situation: here, a Black family riven by disagreement over whether to sell part of a precious plot of land."
Gregory Spears and
Tracy K. Smith's upcoming opera ''The Righteous'' is commissioned by
Santa Fe Opera
Santa Fe Opera (SFO) is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe, New Mexico. After creating the ''Opera Association of New Mexico'' in 1956, its founding director, John Crosby, oversaw the building of the first opera house on a newl ...
and will make its world premiere there in summer 2024.
He currently teaches composition at
State University of New York at Purchase.
Style
Spears' music often draws on earlier musical styles processed through contemporary minimalist techniques.
''The New York Times''s Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim described his opera ''Fellow Travelers'': "But what makes ''Fellow Travelers'' such a satisfying operatic experience is the old-fashioned combination of a swift-flowing and deft libretto and gorgeous music."
Alex Ross in ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'' elaborates: "The harmony is largely tonal, but it is anti-Romantic in effect, tending instead toward a decorous neo-Baroque sensibility. Voices and instruments often perform courtly pirouettes against sustained chords and even pulses. The atmosphere is one of hushed disclosure: the music implies more than it says. What emerges is a potently ambiguous sound world that conveys human warmth and chill in equal measure. Above all, it is a transparent medium in which singing actors can speak instead of shout."
Heidi Waleson described Spears' compositional style in her ''
Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
'' review of the opera ''
O Columbia'': "Mr. Spears writes brilliantly for vocal ensembles. Starting with neoclassical-style clarity, he builds textured, complex musical structures that sound old and new at the same time, and his skillful text settings use minimalist-like repetition to give Mr. Vavrek's pointed, thoughtful words even more power and emotional specificity."
Steve Smith, in his ''New York Times'' review of the opera ''Paul's Case'', based on the
Willa Cather
Willa Sibert Cather (; born Wilella Sibert Cather; December 7, 1873 – April 24, 1947) was an American writer known for her novels of life on the Great Plains, including '' O Pioneers!'', '' The Song of the Lark'', and '' My Ántonia''. In 192 ...
short story
of the same title, described the score: "Mr. Spears's elegantly spare music, with its gamelan-redolent modes and clockwork repetitions, Baroque vocal fillips, intricately woven ensembles and dramatically placed dissonances, further infuses the tale with a sense of ritual and inevitability."
David Patrick Stearns, in his ''
Philadelphia Inquirer
''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Penns ...
'' review of Spears' ''Requiem'', described his musical influences: "Spears intersperses the swan myth with the requiem text, much of it reflecting lyrical Baltic influences of Arvo Pärt, but with a young composer's restlessness. The swan's song is speculatively re-created with otherworldly vocal ornaments. The piece also contains counterpoint that echoes 16th-century madrigals as well as a modern sense of theatrical timing that keeps your ears on edge until the last note."
Selected works
Opera
* ''The Righteous'', world premiere at Santa Fe Opera, Libretto by
Tracy K. Smith, 2024
* ''Castor and Patience'', world premiere at Cincinnati Opera, Libretto by
Tracy K. Smith, 2022
* ''Jason and the Argonauts'', world premiere at
Lyric Opera of Chicago
Lyric Opera of Chicago is one of the leading opera companies in the United States. It was founded in Chicago in 1954, under the name 'Lyric Theatre of Chicago' by Carol Fox, Nicola Rescigno and Lawrence Kelly, with a season that included Maria ...
, Libretto by Kathryn Walat, 2016
* ''
Fellow Travelers
The term ''fellow traveller'' (also ''fellow traveler'') identifies a person who is intellectually sympathetic to the ideology of a political organization, and who co-operates in the organization's politics, without being a formal member of that o ...
'', world premiere at Cincinnati Opera, Libretto by Greg Pierce, 2016
* ''O Columbia'', commissioned by
Houston Grand Opera, Libretto by
Royce Vavrek
Royce Vavrek is a Canadian-born Brooklyn-based librettist, playwright, dance scenarist, musical theatre writer and filmmaker known for his collaborations with composers David T. Little, Missy Mazzoli, Mikael Karlsson, Ricky Ian Gordon, Paola Pr ...
, 2015
* ''Paul's Case'', world premiere at
UrbanArias, Libretto by Kathryn Walat, 2013
* ''Wolf-in-Skins'', work-in-progress with choreographer and librettis
Christopher Williams* ''The Bricklayer'', commissioned by
Houston Grand Opera, Libretto by Farnoosh Moshiri, 2012
Orchestra
* ''Love Story'', written for countertenor
Anthony Roth Costanzo
Anthony Roth Costanzo is an American countertenor, actor, and producer who has led performances at opera companies around the world. Beginning his career in musical theatre at the age of 11, he has since been featured at the Metropolitan Opera ...
and commissioned by
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...
, 2021
* ''Concerto for Two Trumpets and Strings'', written for trumpeter Brandon Ridenour and commissioned by the BMI Foundation/Carlos Surinach Fund and Concert Artist Guild, 2019
* ''A New Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei for the Mozart Requiem'', commissioned by
Seraphic Fire and the Firebird Chamber Orchestra, 2013
Film score
* ''Macbeth'', directed by
Kit Monkman, 2018
Large chamber ensemble
* ''The Tower and the Garden'', for choir and string quartet, commissioned by
The Crossing (choral ensemble), 2018
* ''Virginiana'', on texts by
Robert Bolling
Colonel Robert Bolling (December 26, 1646July 17, 1709), sometimes called Robert Bolling, Sr., after he gave a son his own name, was a wealthy early American settler planter and merchant.
Ancestry and early life
Robert Bolling was the son o ...
, commissioned by The Damask Ensemble and New Vintage Baroque, 2015
* Requiem, commissioned by Christopher Williams Dances and released by
New Amsterdam Records
New Amsterdam Records is a record label in New York City that was formed in 2008 by Judd Greenstein, Sarah Kirkland Snider, and William Brittelle to promote classically trained musicians who fall between traditional genre boundaries. Often abbrev ...
, 2010
Chamber ensemble
* ''String Quartet No. 2'', world premiere by Chatter at SITE Santa Fe, 2022
* ''The Census at Bethlehem'', for cello and harpsichord, world premiere by Chatter at SITE Santa Fe, 2022
* ''Our Lady'', written for Ryland Angel and The Sebastian Chamber Players, 2011
* ''Buttonwood'', for string quartet, commissioned for performance by the
JACK Quartet in 2010
[
]
Solo piano
* ''Seven Days'', written for pianist Pedja Muzijevic, world premiere by
92nd Street Y, 2021
* ''Toccata (Troika)'', commissioned for the
New York International Piano Competition The New York International Piano Competition (NYIPC) in New York City is a biennial piano competition open to pianists of all nationalities ages 16–21. No contestant is eliminated during the competition's four rounds. A cash award is also presente ...
by the
Stecher and Horowitz Foundation, 2018
* ''Toccata (Wild Horses)'', commissioned by Marika Bournaki, 2012
Voice and piano
* ''Walden'', on texts by
Henry David Thoreau, a song cycle commissioned for baritone
Brian Mulligan by Vocal Arts DC, 2018
* ''Aquehonga'', for mezzo-soprano and piano, commissioned by Five Boroughs Music Festival, 2017
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Spears, Gregory
American male classical composers
21st-century classical composers
Living people
American classical composers
21st-century American composers
Eastman School of Music alumni
Yale University alumni
Princeton University alumni
Musicians from New York City
American opera composers
Male opera composers
Year of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Classical musicians from New York (state)
Classical musicians from Virginia
21st-century American male musicians