Roland Trogan (August 6, 1933 – May 1, 2012) was an American composer, teacher and author.
Biography
Born in
Saginaw, Michigan
Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...
, Trogan was a musical prodigy. He performed classical piano music as a teenager on WKNX Radio in Saginaw from 1947 to 1950, before beginning formal training in composition at the
University of Michigan
, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...
. There he studied with
Ross Lee Finney
Ross Lee Finney Junior (December 23, 1906–February 4, 1997) was an American composer who taught for many years at the University of Michigan.
Life and career
Born in Wells, Minnesota, Finney received his early training at Carleton College ...
,
Luigi Dallapiccola
Luigi Dallapiccola (February 3, 1904 – February 19, 1975) was an Italian composer known for his lyrical serialism, twelve-tone compositions.
Biography
Dallapiccola was born in Pisino d'Istria (at the time part of Austria-Hungary, current ...
and
Leslie Bassett
Leslie Raymond Bassett (22 January 1923 – 4 February 2016) was an American composer of classical music. Bassett received the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Bassett had a lifelong relationship with the University of Michigan School of Music. ...
and received his
B.Mus.
Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or music school, conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consi ...
in 1954,
M.Mus. in 1955, and
D.M.A.
The Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) is a doctoral academic degree in music. The DMA combines advanced studies in an applied area of specialization (usually music performance, music composition, or conducting) with graduate-level academic study in su ...
in 1963. His compositional work during this time was recognized by awards from
BMI and the
Louisville Symphony, which performed Trogan's ''Two Scenes for Orchestra'' in 1955. A
Fulbright Scholarship for study in Rome was rescinded by the
House Committee on Un-American Activities
The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly dubbed the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloy ...
because Trogan had signed a petition supporting the prominent
socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
,
Norman Thomas
Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was an American Presbyterian minister who achieved fame as a socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.
Early years
Thomas was the ...
. In addition to graduate fellowships in music theory and English, Trogan was engaged as Associate Conductor and Composer-in-Residence by the Saginaw Civic Symphony, under the Russian-American conductor
Joseph Cherniavsky
Joseph Cherniavsky ( yi, יוסף טשערניאַװסקי) (c. 1890-1959) was a Jewish American cellist, theatre and film composer, orchestra director, and recording artist. He wrote for the Yiddish theatre, made some of the earliest novelty rec ...
. Trogan came to Cherniavsky's attention after learning of Trogan's prize winning one-act opera, ''The Hat Man'' (1954), which was widely performed. While a graduate student Trogan produced chamber works for vocal and instrumental ensembles: the ''Sextet for Wind Quintet and Piano'', ''Elegy for String Quartet and Contralto'', and incidental music for
Berthold Brecht's ''
The Good Woman of Szechuan''. Additional works from that time include ''Duos on Tone Rows'', ''Five Pieces for Piano'', and his ''Soliloquy for Piano'', which was published in 1955 in ''Generation'' magazine as an homage to
Arnold Schoenberg.
In 1960 Trogan began studies with
Roger Sessions
Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...
in
Princeton, New Jersey
Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of whi ...
and divided his musical activities between Michigan and New York. In New York he organized public concerts, lectures and seminars featuring prominent individuals and ensembles including the composers
Henry Cowell and
Wallingford Riegger
Wallingford Constantine Riegger ( ; April 29, 1885 – April 2, 1961) was an American modernist composer and pianist, best known for his orchestral and modern dance music. He was born in Albany, Georgia, but spent most of his career in New York Ci ...
, the
Grand Prix du Disque
Grand may refer to:
People with the name
* Grand (surname)
* Grand L. Bush (born 1955), American actor
* Grand Mixer DXT, American turntablist
* Grand Puba (born 1966), American rapper
Places
* Grand, Oklahoma
* Grand, Vosges, village and co ...
-winning Kohon String Quartet, the violinist Max Polikoff and the violist
Walter Trampler Walter Trampler (August 25, 1915 – September 27, 1997) was a German musician and teacher of the viola and viola d'amore.
Born in Munich, he was given his first lessons at age six by his violinist father. While still in his youth, he played well e ...
. After completing his doctoral thesis, the ''Concerto for Violin and Orchestra'' in 1963, Trogan relocated to
Staten Island, New York
Staten Island ( ) is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County, in the U.S. state of New York. Located in the city's southwest portion, the borough is separated from New Jersey by the Arthur Kill and the Kill Van Kull and ...
and began his public musical career. His works were performed in New York City's major concert venues, including
Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...
and
Carnegie Hall. Recordings of his music were widely broadcast and interviews of the composer were frequent on both TV and international radio. Premieres of his piano music were presented by
Paul Jacobs and
Metropolitan Opera
The Metropolitan Opera (commonly known as the Met) is an American opera company based in New York City, resident at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center, currently situated on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The company is oper ...
conductor
Richard Woitach, and his ''Sonata for Unaccompanied Violin'' was performed by Harold Kohon at
The Town Hall. Trogan also taught for several years for at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
, and privately for prominent individuals and families, including the families of violinist
Isaac Stern
Isaac Stern (July 21, 1920 – September 22, 2001) was an American violinist.
Born in Poland, Stern came to the US when he was 14 months old. Stern performed both nationally and internationally, notably touring the Soviet Union and China, and ...
, actor
Richard Burton
Richard Burton (; born Richard Walter Jenkins Jr.; 10 November 1925 – 5 August 1984) was a Welsh actor. Noted for his baritone voice, Burton established himself as a formidable Shakespearean actor in the 1950s, and he gave a memorable pe ...
, diplomat
Felix Rohatyn
Felix George Rohatyn ( ; May 29, 1928 – December 14, 2019) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He spent most of his career with Lazard, where he brokered numerous large corporate mergers and acquisitions from the 1960s through ...
, actor
Christopher Plummer
Arthur Christopher Orme Plummer (December 13, 1929 – February 5, 2021) was a Canadian actor. His career spanned seven decades, gaining him recognition for his performances in film, stage, and television. He received multiple accolades, inc ...
,
Sarasota Opera
Sarasota Opera is a professional opera company in Sarasota, Florida, USA, which
was founded as the Asolo Opera Guild and, until 1974, presented a visiting company's productions. Between 1974 and 1979, it set about mounting its own productions in t ...
director Victor DeRenzi, and
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera (NYCO) is an American opera company located in Manhattan in New York City. The company has been active from 1943 through 2013 (when it filed for bankruptcy), and again since 2016 when it was revived.
The opera company, du ...
conductor
Julius Rudel
Julius Rudel (6 March 1921 – 26 June 2014) was an Austrian-born American opera and orchestra conductor. He was born in Vienna and was a student at the city's Academy of Music. He emigrated to the United States at the age of 17 in 1938 after ...
. His compositions of this period included ''The Seafarer Cantata'', ''Five Nocturnes for Piano'', and the first ''Piano Sonata''.
He then took a hiatus from composing and turned his attention to his family and to the founding of a music school on Staten Island in 1975, which he continued to direct until his death.
[Dr. Trogan's Music School]
About Dr. Trogan
/ref> Although he adopted a lower public musical profile, he continued to be recognized with three grants from the American Academy of Arts and Letters
The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, music, and art. Its fixed number membership is elected for lifetime appointments. Its headqu ...
. In 1997, Trogan's second compositional period began with the creation of much piano music, his ''Chamber Symphony'', and ''Más ficciones (por Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
)'' for unaccompanied violin. In 2004 he founded Patrice Editions, L.L.C., a company devoted to recording and publishing contemporary music. Trogan has written a book, ''The Circle and the Diamond: The Odyssey of Music'', in which he proposes new procedures for the analysis of music as well as ways of understanding Western music in relation to the changing temporal perspectives in European civilization. Up until his death, he continued to compose new works. His last known work-in-progress was ''Missa Cavuto'', a work for soprano and piano.
References
External links
Dr. Trogan's Music School
– official website
Roland Trogan
on WorldCat
WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trogan, Roland
2012 deaths
1933 births
Musicians from Saginaw, Michigan
American male classical composers
American classical composers
20th-century classical composers
21st-century classical composers
University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance alumni
Pupils of Roger Sessions
21st-century American composers
20th-century American composers
Classical musicians from Michigan
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians