Meyer Kupferman (July 3, 1926 – November 26, 2003) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and

clarinetist This article lists notable musicians who have played the clarinet. Classical clarinetists * Laver Bariu * Ernest Ačkun * Luís Afonso * Cristiano Alves * Michel Arrignon * Dimitri Ashkenazy * Kinan Azmeh * Alexander Bader * Carl Baermann * ...

Life

Meyer Kupferman was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to Jewish parents.Meyer Kupferman
at the Milken Archive of Jewish Music; accessed January 9, 2014 A self-taught composer, Kupferman first gained attention in the late 1940s when his early opera "In A Garden" was premiered at the

Tanglewood Tanglewood is a music venue in the towns of Lenox and Stockbridge in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts. It has been the summer home of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 1937. Tanglewood is also home to three music schools: the T ...

and

Edinburgh Festival __NOTOC__ This is a list of arts and cultural festivals regularly taking place in Edinburgh, Scotland. The city has become known for its festivals since the establishment in 1947 of the Edinburgh International Festival and the Edinburgh Fe ...

s. From 1951 to 1993 he was on the faculty of

Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York. The college models its approach to education after the Supervision system, Oxford/Cambridge system of one-on-one student-faculty tutorials. Sara ...

. He also served as Chairman of the Music Department for five terms. Kupferman began music at the age of five on violin. As an adult he claimed little memory of his violin instruction, but at age 10 he began to play the clarinet. He taught himself piano and studied music theory at

The High School of Music & Art The High School of Music & Art, informally known as "Music & Art" (or "M&A"), was a public specialized high school located at 443-465 West 135th Street in the borough of Manhattan, New York, from 1936 until 1984. In 1961, Music & Art and the High ...

in New York City, subsequently attending

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

in New York. As a young man Kupferman played jazz in bars and clubs on

Coney Island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

, and arranged for

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

s. In 1951 he was hired as Professor of Composition and Chamber Music at Sarah Lawrence College, a position he held until 1994. In the 1950s he began to experiment with twelve-tone row techniques, and in 1961 devised his "Infinities Row," consisting of the group of notes of G–F–A–B–B–D–F–E–C–E–A–C, which would become the only tone row he used subsequently in his major works. In 1990 he published ''Atonal Jazz''. Much of Kupferman's music contains large gestures and short dramatic hooks which are a critical to his compositional technique (his "gestalt form"). His works are eclectic syntheses of disparate elements. Their extremes of contrast, and outrageousness were reflections of his personal life. Kupferman resided in

Rhinebeck, New York Rhinebeck is a village (New York), village in the Rhinebeck (town), New York, town of Rhinebeck in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 2,657 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie, New York, Poughkeepsie– ...

, where he and his wife Pei-Fen welcomed members of the community. On the day before Thanksgiving, November 26, 2003, he died of heart failure.

Filmography

* ''

Blast of Silence ''Blast of Silence'' is a 1961 American neo-noir written, directed by, and starring Allen Baron. The film also stars Molly McCarthy and Larry Tucker and features Peter H. Clune. It was produced by Merrill Brody, who was also the cinematographe ...

'' (1961)

Notes

References

* Esko, Gary, ''A Talk with Meyer Kupferman'', interview, http://www.jamesarts.com/internationalcomposer/kupferman.html. * Kraft, Leo, on ''New Music Connoisseur''

* Phillips, Robert, “Meyer Kupferman’s Compositions with Classical Guitar” '' Soundboard (magazine), Soundboard'' vol. xxvii, nos. 3&4, Winter/Spring 2001, 7-14. * Sadie, S. (ed.) (1980) ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music & Musicians'', ol. # 10

External links

*
Meyer Kupferman Web Site Soundspells Web Site (Kupferman's publisher)
December 9, 1991 {{DEFAULTSORT:Kupferman, Meyer 20th-century classical composers Twelve-tone and serial composers American male classical composers Jewish American classical composers American classical composers American people of Romanian-Jewish descent The High School of Music & Art alumni Musicians from New York City Sarah Lawrence College faculty 1926 births 2003 deaths 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians 20th-century American Jews 21st-century American Jews