Ivan Alexandrovich Tcherepnin (

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

: ''Иван Александрович Черепнин'') (February 5, 1943 in

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– April 11, 1998 in

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) was an

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, then later

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, composer and a noted innovator in the field of electronics and modular synthesizers. Ivan was born into a highly musical family, his father and grandfather,

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and Nikolai, being distinguished

composers, and his mother

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(born: Lee Hsien Ming) a well-known pianist. His elder brother, Serge is also a composer. He studied with

Leon Kirchner Leon Kirchner (January 24, 1919 – September 17, 2009) was an American composer of contemporary classical music. He was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and he won a Pulitzer Pr ...

Karlheinz Stockhausen Karlheinz Stockhausen (; 22 August 1928 – 5 December 2007) was a German composer, widely acknowledged by critics as one of the most important but also controversial composers of the 20th-century classical music, 20th and early 21st-century ...

Henri Pousseur Henri Léon Marie-Thérèse Pousseur (23 June 1929 – 6 March 2009) was a Belgian classical composer, teacher, and music theorist. Biography Pousseur was born in Malmedy and studied at the Academies of Music in Liège and in Brussels from 1947 t ...

, and Pierre Boulez. After teaching briefly at both the

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and Stanford University, he became director of the Harvard University Electronic Music StudioHarvard University Electronic Music Studio website
/ref> from 1972, remaining there until his death in 1998. The Tcherepnin legacy continues with two of Ivan's sons, Stefan and Sergei. Ivan Tcherepnin was the winner of the 1996

Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition The Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition () is an annual prize instituted by Henry Charles Grawemeyer, industrialist and entrepreneur, at the University of Louisville in 1984. The award was first given in 1985. Subsequently, the Grawemeyer Awar ...

for his ''Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra''. His other honors include awards from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (1963–1995) and the National Endowment for the Arts (1977). His performance of "Santur Opera" earned the 1982 Grand Prize of the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria. Tcherepnin's notable students include Curt Cacioppo.

Selected compositions

*''Fêtes (Variations on Happy Birthday)'' (1975) *'' Le va et le vient'' (1978) *Santur Opera (1977) *''Flores Musicales'' (1980) *Double Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Orchestra (1995) – winner of the

University of Louisville The University of Louisville (UofL) is a public research university in Louisville, Kentucky. It is part of the Kentucky state university system. When founded in 1798, it was the first city-owned public university in the United States and one o ...

. Tcherepnin described the piece as reminiscent of, and in some places actually borrowing from, the works of Tchaikovsky, Scriabin, Schoenberg, Debussy and Stravinsky, among others. The work invokes a ″celestial″ theme, with the violin descending and the cello ascending into a grand convergence and a brief period of reflection. The instruments then turn back toward the extremes and to a soft, peaceful conclusion.

References

External links

* AllMusicGuide: Ivan Tcherepninby James Reel
Art of the States: ''Fêtes (Variations on Happy Birthday''Tcherepnin SocietyRemembering Ivan Tcherepnin
American male composers 1943 births 1998 deaths Harvard University staff Benois family

Ivan Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was Bulgari ...

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